DVD... Why??

[Thantor]

This is more a pragmatic than technical question. After having figured out how to use the Sonic MyDVD software that came with my Sony Drive, I was shocked to find that I can only put the same number of anime on a DVD than I could on a CD. That is, if I could only put 3 .avi files on a CD, I can only put the same number on a DVD. This makes no sense to me, given the much greater capacity of a DVD.

So, I have two questions. First, why would I choose to burn DVDs in the first place? Resolution isn't really much of an issue, given that all of these .avi files were downloaded from Kaaza. Whether they are burned onto a CD or DVD doesn't appear to make much difference. I was perfectly happy with my CD burning software (Nero), compared to the mess that one has to go through in order to burn DVDs. And CDs are considerably cheaper. The reason I got a DVD drive was because I thought I could get more files per disc and that burning would be faster. Neither is the case. I don't care about capturing video or making movies or anything else besides transfering anime from my hard drive to a disc.

Second, am I missing something? Can the files can be compress somehow so that more fit on a DVD? I mean, I paid a lot of money for this DVD drive and I just feel like I've been hosed...

Thanks.

[mob]

?????????????????????

you fit 700MB of anime on one cd!!

you can fit 4.3 gigs of anime on one dvd!!!


are you sure you are using dvd-r media??

[thayne]

So sell it on ebay

[jolo]

Which Sony model did you get ? I might make an offer, forget ebay.

[housepig]

you may find, if you start capturing and encoding things yourself, instead of grabbing files from p2p, that you can fit quite a bit of high-quality material on a dvdr.

when you are pulling down files off the net that have been compressed for speed in downloading, and not for quality, you aren't going to gain any quality from blowing them up to fit the dvd spec.

when you do your own capture, and can control the encode yourself, and earmark something specifically for dvd instead of hopscotching through different formats, then you will see the difference.

[wulf109]

MyDVD uses PCM audio only,so it's taking roughly 10 times as much space for PCM audio as AC3 or Mpeg audio would take. If your letting MyDVD ecode the avi's to DVD that's probably also wasting space. I would convert the avi's with TMPEG or CCE and convert the audio to mp2. If you can get 3 cartoons on a CDR then you should be able to put at least 18 on a DVD-R.

[housepig]

good point. I wouldn't use MyDVD to line a birdcage with...

the trade off here is if you want the software to do it all for you, you need to accept the limitations the software imposes - like only (bloated) PCM audio in MyDVD.

if you want higher quality and more flexability, you are going to have to stretch and use some other tools, maybe spend a couple bucks here and there. For the price of some of the all-in-one solutions, you can hook up a set of tools that will do you really well, and allow you the flexability you desire.

but you have to learn to use them - most of them aren't wizard-driven, "click the big red button to make your dvd" type programs.

I would suggest getting a copy of TMPGenc and DVD Lab - both are available with 30 day free, full function trials. And BeSweet and the BeSweet GUI - both freeware (will turn your PCM audio into ac3 - just as good, 1/4-1/10 the space).

[LanEvo7]

Thats cause you are using the wrong program. Convert to mpeg2 using one of the valid dvd resolutions and encode the audio in mp2. Then use Ulead dvd movie factory to author your discs. You will find that DVD will fit a large amount more than cds do.

[poopyhead]

@Thantor,

given a good source (i.e. commerical DVD), the quality of the three .avi anime movies on 1 CD vs. the quality of the three DVD complaint MPEG-2 anime movies on 1 DVD are going to be very different.

the anime is obviously going to be much, much better quality (video and audio) on the DVD than CD.

-------

this is, of course, if you start with a good source (i.e. commercial DVD). however, if you downloaded these .avi anime from online or elsewhere, then you can't really improve on the quality because all the video information is already lost in the compression to DIVX.

in this case, if you were to convert the .avi to a similar quality DVD compliant MPEG-2 and burn on DVD, you will definitely be able to fit much, much more anime on a DVD than CD. i.e. (S)VCD can only hold 800 MB vs. 4.38 GB for a DVD.

[Bob W]

Hmm MyDVD came with one of my burners and I could never get it to do anything. I would suggest NeoDVD Plus for a simple program that actually works well and it's also very fast.
http://www.mediostream.com/neodvd/index.html

[Krispy Kritter]

It sounds like you are converting them to a DVD playable format. If you burned them onto a DVD as data (as you probably did on the CDR keeping the .avi extension), you would find you still have a lot of free space.

[nickerous]

You can get MPEG2 audio in MyDVD, but I can't remember how exactly (not on my computer right now). I made 5 dvds with it before switching to Ulead Movie factory. I got 3 files (1 gig apiece) onto it. The default settings for the menu buttons are animated, so you can get more on it if you switch to just still images. I had no trouble with MyDVD, but it wouldn't let me move the menu buttons. Ulead has more options in that department, so I switched. Still cannot get Ulead to burn a dvd tho. I create the .iso and then burn it with DVDdecrypter. I could have gotten 15 files on a dvd if I used my svcd files. I bumped up the quality for dvd.

[Cecilio]

I think hes just burning as DATA as he said i dont care about capturing and making movies. Hes a total newbie, he probably is using a CD-R and think oh let me try out my new drive. and finds himself thinking WTF.

[yg1968]

You can try Ulead VideoStudio 7.0 or Ulead DMF 2.0. They have trial versions. You can use 352x480 (mpeg-1 or mpeg-2) or even 352x240 (mpeg-1 or mpeg-2) with a lower birate to fit more video on a DVD.

Here are the DVD specs:

http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/dvd-video.cfm

[poopyhead]

Hes a total newbie, he probably is using a CD-R and think oh let me try out my new drive. and finds himself thinking WTF.

very mean