odd message from Toast while burning DIVX/XVID

[muttonhead]

So I just got a PS3, and wanted to test out the DIVX/XVID capabilities. I burned an avi using Toast 7 on the DIVX setting to a CDR. Burned fine, played like a charm.

Then I thought .. 'why can't I put multiple files on a DVDR'? In some cases the files I'm burning come in two parts, and what a great thing to have both on the same disc... if not more. So I open Toast, start loading DIVX/AVI files until I have about 5, totalling less than 4.7G. I hit burn, and Toast says this:

'there is not enough free space on the disc. 4.4G needed. 466MB available'.

Ummmmm... wha? I did a 'disc info' in toast... there it is... DVDR. Capacity, 4.6G.

I start deleting files one at a time and trying again. No luck.

I finally get to ONE file at 700MB. I GET THE SAME ERROR. 700MB needed. 466MB available.

I got so confused, I tried another DVDR of a different make. Same error.

I then loaded all the files into the data portion under DVDROM... voila. Burned.

Haven't gone to see if my player will read it (doubtful), but my question is... what the heck is going on with Toast when it says there is only 466MB available on an empty DVDR? Is this a glitch? Can you not burn multiple AVI files under the DIVX setting? Any help would be appreciated... and I'll update if the disc worked under the DVDROM setting.

[muttonhead]

update: the DVDROM option worked, but the PS3 wouldn't recognize the name I gave the disc and just renamed it 'DATA DISC' but the avi's showed up as MPG4s and played with no issues.

I'd still like to know what the heck is going on with that Toast option though.

[muttonhead]

Just burned another disc of a few titles, and the PS3 didn't read a single one. I loaded it, and the previous dvd onto the computer to see if there was a difference, and noticed the first disc had extensions (.avi) and the second didn't. I'm manually adding extensions and reburning to see if it makes a difference.

[terryj]

By the numbers:

1. A DVD-5 ( standard blank DVD-R or DVD+R) is actually 4.37gb,
not 4.7GB. Toast was right in telling you that you exceeded the limit
for a DVD-5 capacity in data mode.

2. When you have the selection as DVD from Video Files in Toast,
and not as DVD ROM (UDF), Toast correctly assumes you want to
first author, then burn a Watchable DVD just like what you buy at Walmart, Best Buy, etc. off the shelf.

In the authoring stage, Toast will transcode the DIVX/XVID to MPEG-2
files, and in doing so, will convert them to fit not based on the actual
data size they are NOW, but what data size they will be once transcoded
to Mpeg-2 files. This is based soley off ofthe TOTAL RUNTIME of the
original files.

so for instance, if you have 5 avi files, and they all total up to
say 4GBs in total file size, but each averages a runtime of 90 minutes,
then you can only author 1 avi file, as a DVD-5's standard capacity
is 2 hours max.

Now you can do some things to such as adjust the quality and bitrate
of the final authored DVD to squeeze more avis onto a DVD-5 disc,
but the trade off is that the quality will be less than stellar
(it will look like "watchable" VHS footage ) and you may be more about
quality over quantity.

Take into account that authoring takes much longer to make a disc than
say burning it in DATA MODE. roughly 1:1 on most new computers;
ie. 1 hour of footage takes 1 hour to author.

What I would do to avoid this since the PS3 will read a data disc,
is to just put the files with proper extensions into a folder, and then
drag and drop that folder into Toast's DVD ROM (UDF) tab,
and burn that to disc.
The PS3 will then play the files in the order they are in the folder.

[muttonhead]

Hey Terry,

I think I got it figured out. Toast was actually not telling me the "DVD" didn't have enough space, but rather my 'hard disc'. I tried it again, and got the same message:

'there is not enough free space on the disc. 4.4G needed. 466MB available'.

So I thought... "I wonder if Toast needs some sort of storage capacity on my DRIVE that is equal to that of the DVD/CD being burned?" So I checked my HD, and sure enough - only 466MB available. After a thorough trashing, I managed to free up 75Gigs, and the disc burned fine.

In the UDF format, I burned 6 flicks. The PS3 read the disc no problems, but only 4 of the 6 would play. After some more net research, it seems that not all XVIDs will play on the PS3. Since I'm on a mac, I don't know any down and dirty way to 'fix' this issue before burning, but I did get a program that examined the avi files and realized the ones that were working were coded with 'virtuadub' while the other two were coded with a different name (can't remember as I'm at work now).

Is there a quick 'Mac' way to fix these non-playable Xvids? (I also tried copying from the disc directly to the PS3's drive to see if it made a difference, and although the file name showed up again, it again said 'unsupported data' when I tried to play it, and changed once again back to a question mark icon.)

[tomlee59]

Is there a quick 'Mac' way to fix these non-playable Xvids?

Well, it depends on what the problem is, doesn't it? In some cases, you might have to do an entire re-encode. In other cases, you only have to fix up the audio. In still other cases, it might be the "packed bitstream" issue, which can be fixed without re-encoding. You haven't given us information to say which of these, if any, is the problem, so there's no way to offer you other than a general set of possibilities. You might want to search this forum for "PS3 XviD" problems; it's come up quite a bit. As one of many examples, see https://forum.videohelp.com/topic343335.html

Although that particular thread mainly discusses Windows-based solutions, the general info they're talking about remains relevant.

[Frobozz]

When Toast says there isn't enough free space on "disk" it is referring to the hard drive where Toast needs to write files for conversion. If there isn't enough free space on "disc" it is referring to the optical disc you are trying to burn to.

I don't know what formats a PS3 unit can play. XVID and DivX are not the same. It may play one and not the other. If so, you need to convert the XVID videos to DivX. You can do this with the DivX setting in Toast. I believe you can insert a DVD instead of a CD when burning using the DivX setting, but I may be mistaken.