video to dvd

[Lotus49]

Hi im new to burning dvd's.. Ive tried Ulead's dvd studio.. Im impressed with it so far.. but its very limited. Is there a way i can take my mpeg's or videos and put them onto a dvd to play in any dvd burner without using 15 different programs to convert and sync?... Like uleads but... other programs.... I dont like ulead becasue i keep getting illegal operations, i cant make sub directories... What i want to do with the video's... I have a large about of Formula one races.. I want to have a directory for each year/track you can select from...
thanks
Kris

[daamon]

Hi Lotus49,

Welcome to the forum...

Before anyone can fully answer, it'll be useful to know a few things:

1. How are you getting the "video" on to your PC? Capture card, analog-digital converter etc.
2. In what format? (AVI, MPEG2 etc.)
3. What's more important to you? Quick, easy and possibly not the best quality vs more tools to learn, initially trickier, but probably yielding better results.
4. Describe the "illegal operations" - Someone may be able to help...
5. Can you elaborate on what you mean by "sub directories"?


Knowing Formula One races can take up to 2 hours, and assuming your source is VHS video, you can only realistically expect to get 2 races per single layer disk - unless you're gonna do edited highlights...

[Lotus49]

sure... thanks for the quick responce..
1. Im getting the video from all over the place, web sites, DC++, bittorrents. You name it.. I do not have a tv capture card atm though..

2. the video format is in an array of formats, including avi,mpeg,wmv, and so on.

3. Quickness is good for previewing the files.. but i dont mind setting the comp overnight for the best quality.

4. the illegal operations occur while converting using ulead.. at random too. i try 3 4 or 5 times untill it can finally complete its actions.

5 the sub directiories ... i mean like... different pages.. One main page ... which will have different sections... F1, Rally, Nascar, Indy.... linked to each one of thoes sections lies another section F1> Full Races, Crashes, History... and then from there F1>full Races>Year and so on and so forth...

hope that explains it

[Lotus49]

oh ps... Im trying to the the BMW films on disc too.. but same thing happens... Illegal operation...
Im on a 2.4GHZ amd 2800... 512 ram. 120 gig HD win xp

[daamon]

The first thing I'd say is that if your sources are from anything that's not under your control (i.e. you're not doing the capturing / file creation) then you're at the mercy of the person who's captured the footage and created the file - whatever the format.

You will encounter problems with picture resolution, encoding bitrates, audio formats, bad frames etc.

All of these may not be obvious to you when you're watching them on your PC. However, when you come to creating DVDs from them the buried menaces will rear their ugly heads... Expect this a lot with downloaded footage. This is because DVD has specifications which dictate what's acceptable (see "What Is... DVD", top left of the page) - and your files will need to be converted to MPEG2 within those specifications to be acceptable to become DVDs.

You can use GSpot to see your source files details. If they don't match, even slightly, then some manipulation and work will be required.


Also, your desire to have all sorts of races arranged as you describe in 5 might be over ambitious. You need to realise that a single layer DVD (called a DVD5) has a finite limit of 4.35Gb. Footage at full DVD resolution (720 x 480/576 NTSC/PAL) needs around a minimum of 4,000kbps - possibly more for fast footage such as motorsports. This bitrate will mean that you can only get around 1.5 hours of video, and that's with compressed audio.

If you go for a lower resolution (called half-D1) of 352 x 480/576 (nearer to TV resolution and quality), you might be able to get up to 4 hours footage. Again, with compressed audio.

Of course, menus (which you want) etc. all take up space too. And there's only so much a disc can hold...

[Lotus49]

so about thoes menu systems.. and actually creating a dvd.. what do u suggest?

[daamon]

OK, assuming you've managed to get all your source footage to DVD compliant MPEG2 - either through a dedicated encoder or an "all-in-one" (like Ulead), you'll then need to do what's called "authoring". Ulead does this too - it's possibly stalling at the encoding stage (I can't tell, you didn't really clarify what the error was and how long into your process it occurred).

Look in the "DVD Authoring" category of the "Tools" section for different applications - some of which are "all-in-ones", some require you ro provide the MPEG2 or elementary streams (audio and video in separate files).

Seriously though - I suggest you find out what's causing your illegal operations and when in the process. My suspicion is either dodgy source files or a knackered install of Ulead.

[Lotus49]

ok.. adobe premiere seems to have a very good M2v encoder....which seems to work very well with uleads video dvd.... it takes like 5 seconds for the ulead to render and start to burn on the dvd... Now, all i need to do is have a program that alows me to create a good title selection screen any idea's

[daamon]

If Premiere is spitting out m2v's, and you're importing to Ulead for authoring and burning, I believe you can make menus ("title selections") in Ulead. Whether they're good or not is only something you can judge, and I can't comment on - having not used it...

A good place to start (which I use) is TMPGEnc DVD Author (commonly called "TDA"). If you're looking for something more versatile, then check out DVDLab and the pro version.

There's others in the "DVD Author" category in the "Tools" section... They are rated and have feedback.