Should I just burn mpgs as data files on my DVDs?

[Batchman]

I just got a DVD burner, and I've got one of those cool DVD players that will play all kinds of files. I was going to start burning some VCD-style mpg files to DVD, but then I found you can't do VCDs on DVD as easily as you can on CDs.

I've kind of glanced at the guides, but things get a little complicated, and since my player -will- play mpg files when they are just burned as normal data, I am wondering if maybe I should just burn them that way, and save myself some trouble.

I suppose the big question is, do you save space burning as video on a DVD, the same way you do on a CD? I mean, a CD can hold 700MB of data, or 800MB of video, due to different data verification methods ... does the same sort of thing go for DVDs? Can you put about 1/7 more as video than data, or does this not carry over?

Anybody have any advice for a newbie to DVD burning?

[johns0]

Dvds burn files in data mode so if you burn a 800 mpg file it uses 800 mb of space,You can author vcds with a program such as tmpgenc dvd author,this way your dvds can play on other dvd players and be more compatible.Vcds are already dvd compliant so they dont have to be re-encoded.

[jesus_verga]

just convert to *.avi and then backup to dvd

[Nokiaman1978]

Yes you can put vcd's onto dvd, but you have to rencode the audio to 48hz.

[sacajaweeda]

Vcds are already dvd compliant so they dont have to be re-encoded.

VCD audio has to have the sample rate converted from 44.1k to 48k to be DVD compliant.

[Batchman]

Thank you all for your suggestions and information ... for the immediate moment, I'll just burn the mpg files as data files, for speed purposes. And over the next week or so, I'll learn the ncessary programs and steps to burn them as true DVDs that can be used in the average stand-alone players.

Meanwhile, I have to admit, this is about the first forum I have ever seen where in less than a day, a topic can gain several posts, and still fall more than a page down in the lists! This place is busy!

[sacajaweeda]

This site does in fact kick ass, yes.

[Batchman]

So next question ... what is best (simplest with good quality) program for changing audio frequency for use as regular DVD video from .mpg files (not VCD disks and .dat files), and what is a simple guide for this kind of thing?

(Went looking through the guides, but there are a huge number of them, and though I found various ones for changing VCDs that have already been burned to DVD, I didn't see any for changing mpg files that haven't been burned.)

Starting with my next one, I'd like to have these viewable on -other- DVD players, and not just on my KISS. (Have burnt about 6 as straight data files, just to clear space from my hard drive. You know, now that I have a DVD burner as well, an 80 gig hard drive just isn't cutting it any more. Think next payday I am going to have to add on a new 160 or 200 gig drive for file storage!)

[ZippyP.]

So next question ... what is best (simplest with good quality) program for changing audio frequency for use as regular DVD video from .mpg files (not VCD disks and .dat files), and what is a simple guide for this kind of thing?

TMPGEnc DVD Author will resample the audio and author and burn to disk, here's a guide.

PS, if you have the mpegs then skip the isobuster steps.

[Batchman]

Thank you ... that doesn't look too bad at all ... think I should be able to do this soon.

Two questions ... how much working space does this require, and how long does the audio reencoding take? (And how often does the audio reencoding throw things out of sync, or does it somehow completely avoid that?)

[ZippyP.]

Resampling audio shouldn't take more than a few minutes. As far as disk space...it depends how much you put on a DVD which is up to 4.7 GB.