I can't burn a DVD from my home movies

[mixbag65]

I have a MicroAdvantage DVD burner which has so far worked well. I run Pinnacle 9 Studio (on Windows XP) to edit and convert my homemovies to DVD. I've been successful doing it with short films (10 to 15 minutes) but now when I've tried to compile an 86 minute movie out of 6 hours of home videos it's messing up. I spent a lot of time editing it and adding background music. I hate to lose all that work.
I can't figure it out. I put the settings on the lowest quality setting (about 33%), allowing for the maximum amount of minutes. But after the long rendering process and the slow copying to DVD the program seems to shut down and nothing has happened. I've gone through this about 5 times, always getting the same results.
Is there any kind of setting I'm overlooking? Should I reduce the amount of minutes even further?
Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Mick

[Nilfennasion]

A few tips that might get you some more helpful responses:

1) Be more specific about what hardware and software you are using.

2) Be more specific about what hardware and software you are using.

3) Be very specific about what settings you are using.

4) Describe as much as you can of the procedure you are following. It may just be a singular step you are overlooking (I know one guy who thought he could make a VCD by just copying .MPG files to a CD).

[bottle-necked]

I had a similar suitation one time and thought I was going to loose all my editing work but I found a way out. Instead of trying to convert the edited video I simply exported it out of the problem program using the same "FILE-TYPE" it was originally in, in my case AVI. I then encoded that edited AVI file to mpeg2 with a different program, then authored like normal with my dvd authorizing program. It seemed I was overloading the application or one of my clips had a problem, but the dump to AVI created a good file that I could work with. You might try something similar. I also suggest you make your initial burn on a 'RW' disk to test, that has saved me many headaches. After the project suits me I then burn an 'R' disk and rease my RW for use with my next project.

Good luck.

[Vejita-sama]

If it's worked in the past but is not working now then that makes be think that somethig is not set correctly. It sounds like you're trying to edit, encode, author, burn with a one click program direct to DVDR.

The first thing I would try to do is output the HD instead (ie. generate a VIDEO_TS folder). And as the above poster states give us more about the error messages, or how the PC 'timesout/locksup.'

One thing to try is to just edit then output a MPEG2 file. What happens then?

[presto]

Have you updated Studio 9? There is a patch that addresses some burning issues. When I was using Studio 8 what you describe was very common and the above posters have hit on the main work around. Output to avi or mpg and and author/burn with something else.

Pinnacle has an excellent forum for each version of Studio. If your answer is anywhere it is there.

[Redd]

Yes you should be using the latest S9 patch to 9.8.0.9 at this link.
http://www.pinnaclesys.com/docsupport1.asp?division_id=1&langue_id=7&product_id=1501&p...20&page_id=992

Under S9 Make Disk Settings, leave the quality set to auto. If more disk space is needed use mpeg sound, but be advised that there may be some problems on some DVD stand alone players playing mpeg sound in NTSC land. Studio defaults to PCM sound.

You should be burning to /RW to avoid coasters. After a burn if you like the results then copy to /R using what ever software you like i.e. Nero, Record Now or what ever came with your burner.

Again in S9 Make Disk settings you have a option to render disk content but don't burn. If your having trouble burning using S9 then use this option and use Nero to burn to DVD. Here's a guide to burning with Nero.
http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides.php?category=dvdburn&name=nero

Your questions Re: Studio 9 can be best answered here:
http://webboard.pinnaclesys.com/read_forums.asp?WebboardID=1&SectionID=227&lng=1

[mixbag65]

Thanks guys!
I'm going to examine all those possibilities.

Mick