unhappy with my new dvd Burner (is that all it can do)

[Toker]

I have just got my dual dvd burner, before which i used 99min/900mb cd-r.

So here my Problem. I have burned the same film to a 900mb cd-r and a 4.7Gb dvd-r. The quality and sound are the same - so why dose the dvd use so much more space? most of the films are about 700Mb as video format (mpeg, xvid, divx etc.) and are vgood quality but not proper dvd quality(ie no dolby 5.1 etc) I am using nero 6.

After a long time waiting to get my hands onto a dvd burner, i fill that i am not that much better off than when i used the 900mb cd-r (which are a lot cheeper). And what about the films that are longer that 120.min???? do I have to use 2 disks just for a 15 extra mins. or so?

Would much appreciate any info anyone might have on this.

[powaking]

I don't have a dvd burner myself but let me just state that burning a video file to a DVD rather than a CD will not automatically make it better. Do this, take that CDR and do a properties view on the CD and see how much space you have left. Do the same with the DVDR disc. Notice a difference? You should have about 4gigs left on the DVDR and about 200megs on the CDR.

The real question is, take a 2 hour high quality video that would fill the DVD and try putting that on a CDR. Might want to grab about 6 or 7 CDs because thats about how much space its going to require unless you compress and re-encode the video file (which is probably what you have right now).

[mkelley]

Yes, that's correct. Another way of looking at it is you can fit 6 or 7 or those (to me at least) low quality movies onto a DVD whereas you can only fit one of them on a CD.

But why did you burn a DVD burner in the first place if you were satisfied with what you were doing? There's no point in fixing things which aren't broken.

[bugster]

You also have to take into account the quality of source material. You can't improve on that. So if it is only VCD/SVCD quality to start with (and I don't mean format, but close to the best quality achievable in those formats) simply encoding at a higher bitrate and putting on DVD-r is not going to help.

[Gazorgan]

Now that you have a DVD burner, you won't be making VCD/SVCD/CVD backups, your will be making DVD backups. Quality will range from 'little better' to 'OMFG is that impressive'. No more 4-disk SVCD's....you can stay on the couch the whole time :P

[FT Shark]

Let me get this straight you took a movie that you had that was all ready re-encoded to aprox. 700 mb, burned it to a cd and a dvd, then compared the two? Of course it looks and sounds the same, it the same damn file.

The difference comes when you start with a high quality source and encode it. With a cd you will have to either encode it as a vcd or svcd which usual run at a bit rate of 1150 - 2500 kb/s, where a dvd will allow the same move to be encoded an average bit rate of about 6000 - 7000 kb/s.

Simply put, DVD is better.

[garryheather]

VideoCD also only supports 44.1KHz stereo audio, too - no multi-channel surround sound on them !

[Rich927]

I'm assuming that previously, you were making VCD's which are 320X240 MPG-1 files. I burn MPG-2 720X480 files with my DVD burner which are of better quality than the VCD's I was previously making. I can get 2 hours of MPG-2 files on a DVD disc. I don't add a lot of menus and transitions. I can also back up a lot more files on a DVD disc. Lot of good advice on this board. They can help.

[Toker]

Sorry I don't thing I made my point.

I don't expect to change quality of the video file and don't want to. I want to fit more on the disk, if if just burn as data i can fit 5 or 6 onto on disk.

e.g. If if have 3 films all of which can be burn on to 1 VCD each, why can I not put all 3 onto a dvd and play them on my player. or can I?

If the quality less can you fit more than 120 mins

[TBoneit]

Simply put it is the software that you are using.

Read Baldricks excellent guide available here and it'll let you put 4+ gigs of vcds on one dvd. Or download the 30 day trial of TMPGenc (link in tools section on left) and add compliant VCDs to it. It will re-encode only the audio and author a dvd with multiple vcds on it too. Doing that is easier but teither way takes some time as the audio needs to be converted to 48KHz.

What seems to be happening is that you are just adding the VCD file to your DVD authoring and it is resizing the video & changing the audio to DVD specs. That'll take lots more space on the DVD.
Some I've seen that don't do it very effeciently are Sonic MyDVD & Ulead products. IF the file is ready Ulead shouldn't convert it. Baldricks guide shows the settings for that.

In summary I've put multi 6+ Vcds (usually 60 to 70 minutes per) on one DVD... Several SVCDs but I am now reauthoring them to 352 by 480 by 2400 @ 48Khz audio and that works too. Some quality loss but tatally DVD spec and compatable.

Good Luck
Roger

[Reaper88]

e.g. If if have 3 films all of which can be burn on to 1 VCD each, why can I not put all 3 onto a dvd and play them on my player. or can I?

If the quality less can you fit more than 120 mins

You need top reencode your file to a mepg2 file and then author them to vob and then burn them to dvd. Then will be able to watch them on your dvd player. You wont be able to put 3 films on a dvd without them being of low quilaty. Mpeg2 files are very large so the quilaty is better. I suggest you read some of the guides here, they are very easy to follow and very informative.

[psx_pirate]

toker .. you need to alter some setting in the software that you use to convert the (s)vcd into dvd format so as to keep the same bitrate as the original, this will allow you to fit 2 or 3 movies on one dvd or you could just burn it as (s)vcd on a dvd however only a few standalone dvd players support this format so you may have problems viewing the disk in your standalone player

[ZippyP.]

You need top reencode your file to a mepg2 file and then author them to vob and then burn them to dvd.

If the VCD's are compliant then they DO NOT need to be re-encoded to mpeg2. 350X240/288 in mpeg1 is a valid DVD format and re-encoding will only result in quality loss. As previously noted, the only thing that needs to be changed (maybe) is the audio from 44.1 KHz to 48 KHz to make it DVD compliant.

[willy_annand]

Sorry I don't thing I made my point.

I don't expect to change quality of the video file and don't want to. I want to fit more on the disk, if if just burn as data i can fit 5 or 6 onto on disk.

e.g. If if have 3 films all of which can be burn on to 1 VCD each, why can I not put all 3 onto a dvd and play them on my player. or can I?

If the quality less can you fit more than 120 mins

VCD files are MPEG1 files and the audio is 44KHz.
DVD Standard supports the video, but the audio has to be 48KHz.

SVCD files are MPEG2, and while NOT a "standard" supported video resolution, some standalone players will handle it. Again the audio is only 44KHz.
-----------------------------------------------

To change the audio, you have to "Demultiplex" the (S)VCD file. TMPGEnc will handle this in the "File" - "MPEG Tools" section.

Then you can convert the audio with one of a number of Audio Convertors. Sound Forge, Cool Edit, BeSweet, HeadAC3he, etc.

Some DVD authoring programs can do it as well. I use DVD-Lab and it will handle the transcoding.

-------------------------------------------------

One thing you must remember, you cannot mix video formats on the same DVD. If one movie is VCD, all have to be... same if one movie is SVCD, all have to be...

In theory, you can get about 6 (S)VCDs per DVD.

As suggested, you should check the "Guides" section at left.

[FT Shark]

This guide is way easier than the previous post have mentioned. It only requires 2 programs which are free:

https://www.videohelp.com/vcddvdr.htm

you can fit 400+ minutes of VCD standard movies on one DVD-R. This guide will show you how to create a menu, convert audio to 48kz, and create a DVD vov's DVD Movie Factory (trial available). Theres no guess work involved. I use this method all the time, very simple and fast.

[Toker]

Nice one people, I think i got the jest if it now


Thank to all that chiped it, is really is a good community here.

[FulciLives]

Nice one people, I think i got the jest if it now


Thank to all that chiped it, is really is a good community here.

With a DVD burner you have the ability to create higher quality video than what you could before using the VCD and/or SVCD CD format.

It's simply stupid to get a DVD burner JUST so you can fit VCD files on it. Makes no friggin' sense.

It's like buying an expensive sports car and never driving over 50 miles an hour.

Blah

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Toker]

FulciLives wrote

It's simply stupid to get a DVD burner JUST so you can fit VCD files on it. Makes no friggin' sense.

If the films i have are alrealy in vcd format (i.e. bin) and can sometime be on as many as 3 cds per film, in makes perfect sense to want to put them all onto 1 dvd. I am not talking about ripped original dvds here.