First-timer, burning my .avi with ac3 to DVD

[absinthecarolinas]

Hi. My name is Aaron and I'll be your newbie today :P

So I've spent an abundance of time reading on this wonderful site, and all that before I even realized that there was a forum.

Specifically, I have a DivX file that's 683 MB in size. It's just shy of an hour long, 512 x 408, 65% video quality. Sound is 2-channel ac3. This is a musical performance film, so I wanted to keep the high-quality ac3 soundtrack. I tried using this ->https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/186739.php<- tutorial to make m'self a DVD. Well, the resulting DVD wouldn't play, even on my computer. I'll tell you the only places where I swerved from the tutorial.

1. I did notice that in the tutorial, the example film had a 6-channel ac3 soundtrack. Mine only had 2 channels, so I'm not sure if this made much difference. I was able to extract the audio track just fine.

2. The other difference was in calculating the bitrate. When I plugged the film's info into the DVD Bitrate Calculator, the resulting bitrate was somewhere in the neighborhood of 9300 or 9500 (wasn't an exact number, though). So, I tried plugging that number into TMPGEnc, but it seems that TMPGEnc wouldn't accept any value over 8000. Every time I entered the 9xxx value, it reset to 8000.

Also, I noted that the audio_ts folder created by TMPGEnc was empty. But it seems like I read in a FAQ around here somewhere that audio is also stored in the VOB files, so that's normal right?

So, I'm wondering if there's some magic value to bitrates, or forbidden bitrates, etc. I'm going to be trying some other tools, but I'd appreciate a heads-up if anyone out there sees anything I've done blatantly wrong. Ultimately, I want to burn this film to DVD with my own custom chapters.

Thanks!

-abs

[johns0]

There`s a bunch of guides to the left in the how to section that explain all the questions you asked about converting and authoring and also doing a search for related questions will bring up lots of previous posts about what you asked.

[mats.hogberg]

I can find nothing wrong with your process as described.
Stereo (2 chan) AC3 i valid, a video bit rate of 8000 kbps should be more than enough, and AUDIO_TS should be empty (but the folder has t be there anyway).
So, you extract the AC3, encode video to 8000 kbps m2v, author with those (AC3+m2v) to DVD, make DVD image of VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS with imgtools classic, burn image with DVDDecrypter - It should be as simple as that.

/Mats

[absinthecarolinas]

Thanks, Mats.

I must've gone wrong somewhere in the authoring process. I'll try again using some different tools. I have Nero image drive, so I guess I could use the tool you suggest (imgtools) to make a .bin, mount it, and see if I can play it before I burn it. That at least would save the cost of a coaster.

-abs

[ching0]

try dvd2svcd it has options to output to vcd, svcd and dvd, and you can input from avi.

it does all the conversions and everything for you. except when going to dvd, i've always just had to take the bbmpeg_muxed.mpeg and drop it into tmpgenc dvd author and author/burn that way.

i've converted some avis this way that i couldnt get to work any other way.

[absinthecarolinas]

Well, now this is interesting.

I still had the folders of the DVD I had burned, so I used imgtools to create an image, mounted it, and it played fine on my PC in VideoLAN Client. So, I burned it again, this time to different media.

My previous burn (the one I had reported didn't work at all) had been on Imation -R media. This time I tried Memorex +R media.

This second burn (on the +R) worked in the computer and has worked on 2 of the DVD players in my house! Curious, I took my original burn (the -R Imation), and it also worked in VideoLAN Client and on the same 2 DVD players.

Sumbich.

So, I'm supposing that at least this second disc will play where the first one did not . . . in my bedroom DVD player (it's an RCA TV with built-in DVD player). I'm going to be disappointed if that bedroom TV has trouble playing burned DVDs (I can't try it out right at this moment as my wife's asleep in there).

So maybe it's a media thing, or maybe a player thing. Either way, I'm reassured. I've got several DivX movies that need burning, and I must say I'm most impressed with the quality on a 32" TV. All the reading I had done had seemed to indicate that the -R media had been around longer and was more stable, the +R media newer. So I started with the -R from my local OfficeMax. But maybe the +R will work out better for me (wanted to find this out while buying 3 to 5 discs at a time before ordering bulk online).

So, I'm off to try to design some menus for this flick. If anyone wants to offer any further tool recommendations, I'm all ears.

Thanks all!!

-abs

[dafreak]

it's quite possible that the rca dvd player has difficulty reading burned disks.

[absinthecarolinas]

Me again.

This is sorta cool, and yet sorta sucks.

I've now discovered that BOTH of the the 2 discs I mentioned above as having burned (same content on each, from a DivX file, one on -R media and one on +R) will work in my computer as well as on 2 of my home DVD players.

However, neither will play on my RCA flatscreen TV with built-in DVD player. Bummer, as that's my bedroom TV where'd I'd probably like to watch things.

Now, I know you're thinking that it's a matter of that particular player having trouble reading burned DVDs. That would make sense. Except, it WILL play a DVD I burned using CloneDVD to copy an original commercial DVD. In fact, it plays it like a dream! Also note that I burned this particular disc on the same media from the same pack that I used for the DivX-converted movie that will NOT play (the +R media).

One is tempted to conclude that the original source is causing some sort of problem (DivX source vs. copied from an original). Does that happen? I'm don't know what else to try except to use some other tools to extract the DivX audio and video and recode for DVD (I used TMPGEnc DVD Author for the 2 above-mentioned).

If stranger things have happened to you, let me know.

Thanks for listening, everyone.

=abs

[dafreak]

here's some things you can try.
make sure that you're using dvd compliant mpg files. make sure that your bitrate does not go above ~8000 kb/s, or below 2000 kb/s.
make sure your audio is at least 192 kb/s.

this might also be caused by the burning software you're using. try creating an image file of the video_ts and audio_ts folders that you authored, using imgtools. Then burn the image using dvddecrypter.

just for good measure, instead of burning at 4x+, try slowing down your burn speed to 2x. This might not make a difference but it doesn't hurt.

[reboot]

Try DVDLab for authoring. It will compile a definite set of dvd compliant files. You can even use it to burn, although I prefer to have more control, and burn with Nero.
Good suggestion burning at 2x, especially on any suspect media.
Do your first couple on a dvdrw so you don't waste disks.