Does mac have a file size limit? Easier way to burn a DVD?

[mkirk]

I have been capturing DVD quality MPEG2 streams on my PC and moved them over to my mac to burn using my superdrive. To acheive this, (according to this forum), I need to re-encode through Quicktime (with the MPEG plug-in). This will allow me to import the .mov in iDVD or iMovie.

Every time I export the file using MPEG–A compression I get an error just before it finishes. "quicktime couldn't export FILENAME because and error -2215 occurred" My source files are over 3GB so I wonder if it's a file size limit.

First- does anyone know what this means?

Second - is there an easier way to get these encoded streams into iDVD?

[tgpo]

There is no file size limit.

What do you mean by MPEG-A compression?

[jchansen]

Hang on there. If your video files are already MPEG2, and are DVD-compliant, then you can just drop them onto DVD studio pro. You only need to decode and reencode if you need to lower the bitrate or somehow reauthor them.

If you don't have DVD studio pro, or any other way of authoring the DVD, then yes you need to export to some other format that can be dropped onto iDVD.

Come to think of it, does anyone know how one would author MPEGs into a DVD, without DVDSP? MMT won't do that, will it?

[bilestyle]

nope the only other way to author mpegs to dvd is usine astarte dvdelight which is no longer available commercially cuz apple bought astarte out... so that program only made it to os 9 and never got to X.... otherwise your out of luck (if you want to use somethin other than dvd sp that is)

[House de Kris]

There is no file size limit.

What do you mean by MPEG-A compression?

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought HFS had a 2G limit and HFS+ had a 1000G limit.

[JHebert]

Every time I export the file using MPEG-A compression I get an error just before it finishes. "quicktime couldn't export FILENAME because and error -2215 occurred" My source files are over 3GB so I wonder if it's a file size limit.

I think you meant MJPEG-A (Motion JPEG-A) not MPEG-A compression.
I wonder if it could be a filesize problem, even though HFS+ and QuickTime don't have a 2GB limit as far as I know. Maybe the QuickTime MPEG-2 decoder plugin has a problem with files over 2GB. You could try capturing a new MPEG-2 on your PC of less than 2GB and try converting it to see if you still get the error.
The whole process sounds like a real pain. Although iDVD is a great program, it would be a lot better if it was more flexible about importing different video formats. Especially when you have DVD compliant MPEG-2 already. Its stupid to have to transcode back to MOV, then import into iDVD, just to re-encode it back to MPEG-2. The quality must degrade somewhat in addition to all the wasted time and effort. As others said you could just get DVDSP but that's an expensive and complicated solution.
Maybe instead you could do the DVD authoring on the PC using Ulead or whatever and just bring the VOB files or a DVD image file into the Mac and burn using Toast Titanium.

[tgpo]

I was thinking he meant Motion JPEG A as well. I use DVD Studio everyday at work and we use MPEG2 Files over 4 GB all the time.

[JHebert]

Even though DVDSP can handle those >4GB MPEG-2 files, I don't think that rules out a possible filesize issue.
DVDSP is just authoring the existing MPEG-2 into a DVD, but maybe there is a problem specific to using QuickTime 6 Pro with the MPEG-2 decoder plugin to do a transcode to MOV with another codec like MJPEG-A.
A test using a <2GB MPEG-2 capture should prove interesting.

[mkirk]

ok- thanks for all the responses, helpful...

I DO have DVDSP but have not been able to simply drop these into DVDSP and go... it won't recognize my files. I successfully de-muxed them then imported the .m2v stream and audio file but this is silly...

I THOUGHT my streams were DVD compliant but they may not be. What's the spec? I thought it was MPEG-2 video at a bit-rate at or below 9800 variable or constant. Am I delusional?

mk

[jchansen]

Wait a second, what's silly? It's just that DVDSP needs elementary streams (demuxed, audio and video separate) instead of program streams. That's all. If those have worked, then it's working for you as well as it could.

DVDSP doesn't want audio inextricably bound to a single video track, because you might need to have a second language track, for example. Hence, drop your video track in first, and add the audio. If you're trying to do it with program streams, then it will never work.

Jeremy

[mkirk]

Ok- that's what I thought but previous posts sounded like you could work directly with MPEG files in DVDSP.

So if I need to de-mux, what's the simplest workflow? I'm recording directly to MPEG2 on the PC platform and simply want to offload these files to DVD with the least amount of steps or least complication.

I need to go from MPEG2 on the PC > DVD on the Mac. What's the easiest way?

mk

[jchansen]

1. Capture your MPEG2 files on the PC
2. Transfer to the Mac (if you hae a burner, you could always put them on a DVD-RW just for transporting)
3. Run bbdemux, or Mediapipe [file browser, mpeg decoder, mpeg demuxer] to split the file into audio and video
4. Drop them into DVDSP, and author.

Really, the only extra steps you have beyond what everyone else would do is transporting from the PC, and demuxing.

Easy.

To clarify, what others may have implied is that with the Quicktime MPEG component, quicktime can play muxed mpeg2 files. You can work with these then and export them and such, but DVDSP still needs elementary streams.