Can I store [not convert] divx files on a DVD?

[rafa]

[still learning about my new DVD writer]

Burned 4 divx movie files to a DVD-R - under Nero DVD-ROM ISO - to see if they could be stored that way. [Not talking about converting them to play on a DVD player - have done that successfully].

But on my AMD 1800/ Win XP system, although the files on the burned disk show up on Windows Explorer, it seems impossible:

a) to play them in any media player
b) even to copy them back to my H/drive

The disk seems too large for my system to handle. [Of course it plays DVD movies fine].

IS there any way to burn a data DVD disk that my system could handle?

Thx for anyhelp

[BJ_M]

should be no problem - use UDF only as file structure (not ISO or UDF/ISO)

playback may be tough though - not in real time on some dvd-rom/burners (some) ..

[rafa]

thx for help - tried UDF as said -

a) Videolan could now play movie file back - but couldn't navigate movie; that stopped it [WinDVD & MediaOne couldn't play it at all]

b) copying files back to H/drive - it started at least; but after 3 mins and only a tenth of a small 260MB file copied, I gave up!

and Windows Explorer was slowed way down afterwards

[my DVDwriter BTW is a new Liteon 16x DVDRW SOHW-1633S ]

so storing files on DVD doesn't seem like a practical proposition..aarggh!

[yoda313]

Hello,

Why don't you put them on cdr's to watch on the computer??? They're SO cheap now it's not much of an investment. Still put them on dvdr so as to consolidate your backup collection. Just a thought

Kevin

(assuming of course you playback cdr divx smoothly )

[mpack]

b) copying files back to H/drive - it started at least; but after 3 mins and only a tenth of a small 260MB file copied, I gave up!

and Windows Explorer was slowed way down afterwards

Aha... This sounds like a bug that I know exists in WinXP SP1. The symptom is that if you look (with Windows Explorer) at any folder (whether on the hard disk or elsewhere) containing a huge AVI then Windows kicks off a background task to work out the properties of that AVI... except that the background task is buggy and quickly consumes nearly all your memory along with 95-100% of the cpu time! To check that this is happening: use Windows Explorer to look at that folder - you don't need to do anything else except open the folder and view it. Now bring up task manager (Ctrl+Alt+Del) and look for an instance of the explorer task using 100% of cpu - if you see that then you have the bug.

There's a registry hack (I don't have it to hand - but its mentioned several places on the web) which disables the explorer properties handler for AVI files. This stops the buggy task from running, but also means that you can't get properties on AVI files by right clicking on them.

Alternatively, download and install SP2 - that cured the problem completely on my PC.

Interestingly, my home PC (WinXP home, SP1) never exhibited this problem. So MS must have fixed it in home edition.

BTW: In your web searches you may find your way to the MS page which describes the problem. In that page MS claims that the problem only occurs on AVIs with broken indices, and that the background task is trying to reconstruct the index. They lie. Like many people on this site I do a lot of work on AVIs - if they had a broken index I would know about it. The problem (if you have it) occurs on any big AVI file (meaning in the hundreds of megs range or higher - this has nothing to do with AVI file size limits).

[BJ_M]

mpack may be right -- i have heard of this bugand disabled that avi reading feature on some systems --

downside to the fix is that you cant read properties for avi files in explorer ..

[rafa]

hi - thx a lot m pack - u may be right - I have Win XP Pro SP1 - I don't think my CPU is 100% taken up when I look at avi folders -
shows as only around normal 13% or so

but Explorer is very large - at around 80,000 k - as opposed to 20-40,000 normally - and jumped another 10,000k when I opened a folder...

any more clues as to this hack? - I couldn't find anything on Google

it might be worth it - if I could enable and disable the hack easily - the idea is to backup movie files... and since there is almost no difference in price now between a CD and DVD - a DVD w say 6 movies could effectively be 6x cheaper & occupy less space

thx again

[BJ_M]

try turning off indexing

[rafa]

what's indexing? - how do I do that?

[lordsmurf]

UDF is best for PC data, required for large files ... BUT... most DVD players will only see ISO data... which I know is totally backwards because it can read UDF and UDF/ISO for DVD-Video just fine.

Thought I should mention it.

[BJ_M]

if the file size is over 1 gig per file (or is it 2gig i think) , it should be UDF only - only reason i suggested it ... otherwise i sugest ISO/UDF bridge ..

[mpack]

hi - thx a lot m pack - u may be right - I have Win XP Pro SP1 - I don't think my CPU is 100% taken up when I look at avi folders -
shows as only around normal 13% or so

As far as I understand it, explorer is trying to determine AVI properties by loading the entire AVI file into memory (!!) - so exactly how nuts your system goes would depend on the size of the AVI and how much RAM your PC has. I'm pretty sure your description of your problem is the same as the XP bug I had.

any more clues as to this hack? - I couldn't find anything on Google

A google advanced search with terms "avi", "cpu" "100%" turns up loads of hits. This is one :-

http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak841.aspx

which also describes the registry hack needed to fix it.

BTW: If you have this bug, and there are AVI files on your PC then you need this hack - it isn't something you should consider turning on and off. The bug rears its ugly head any time explorer is used, and that isn't just when you deliberately run Windows Explorer! - for example any app with a "file open" dialog is actually using explorer to show you the folder, and this will also trigger the bug, if the folder contains AVIs.

[mpack]

I don't think my CPU is 100% taken up when I look at avi folders - shows as only around normal 13% or so

Had an afterthought about this part - I don't think it is normal for windows explorer to be using 13% of CPU after it has finished listing the files. On my system it goes back to 0% CPU quite quickly (system is 100% idle, assuming nothing else is running). So, either indexing is doing this (I wouldn't know - I turned indexing off as soon as I got my PC), or it is more evidence of the bug.

[rafa]

phew! k..

tried registry tweak [thx] - but no real diff. [& I realised I was happily clicking on movies in Explorer before new dvd writer w them opening easily and fairly fast]

13% CPU usage probably due to P2P prog also running [0 stops P2P]! - & when I stopped that, it went down to 0-4/6% w occasional high flashes

tried burning 3rd UDF/ISO disk - but same results - everything Explorer-related, like locating file to open w media players, or dir. to copy to in Explorer, slowed way down...

[BTW all 3 disks had same 2 x 700MB, 2 x 250 MB files - nothing larger like 1 GB]

& copying halted twice in both UDF and UDF/ISO with "Data error [cyclic redundancy check]"

----

so.. has anyone successfully done what I'm trying to do .. put several 600-700MB files on a DVD? [& copied & played them etc]

my impression is still: the system can't really handle the DVD's size - except for proper DVD movies

but thx guys for all your efforts - I appreciate it

[Josef K]

downside to the fix is that you cant read properties for avi files in explorer ..

That's why we have Gspot. If there's one thing about Windows that pisses me off it's when it wants to do everything. For example, when I go into a directory full of images and Explorer changes the view from list (my preference) to thumbnails. Then if I want to change it to details for a quick check on dates or something, it brings up those stupid columns 'Date Picture Taken On', 'Dimensions' that takes ages when you have thousands of images for it to process... I use ACDSee if I want to see all that info! Arghhh!

[tekkieman]

so.. has anyone successfully done what I'm trying to do .. put several 600-700MB files on a DVD? [& copied & played them etc]

my impression is still: the system can't really handle the DVD's size - except for proper DVD movies

Ok, I just ran this short test. Hopefully it was what you explained.

Selected several video files approx. 550M each - Total size 3.87G
Files were all wmv series 9.
Burned all files to DVD -R as data files using NeroVision Express 2 .
DVD burned sucessfully.
Opened DVD in Explorer. Select file to play via double-click.
File playes in WMP9.
Select file. Drag and drop to c:\test.
File copies. Copy time approx 50 seconds.
C:\test\testfile1.wmv plays in WMP9.
CPU usage never exceeded 7%

Machine spec -

P4 3.0G HT
1024M
Win XP Pro SP1
SATA 80G
BenQ DW 822A DVD +/- R/RW 8x4x12

Does that help?

[BJ_M]

you can turn that all off Josef K ..


as for turning off indexing ..

Windows XP keeps a record of all files on the hard disk so when you do a search on the hard drive it is faster. There is a downside to this and because the computer has to index all files, it will slow down normal file commands like open, close, etc. If you do not do a whole lot of searches on your hard drive then I suggest turnning this feature off:

1. Control Panel

2. Administrative Tools

3. Services

4. Disable Indexing Services

[Josef K]

you can turn that all off Josef K ..

I know. Then it comes back randomly. If you know a more permanent way to stop it (other than reinstalling Win2000) then do tell. I'm an IT tech so I know workarounds and tricks but I've yet to see a simple solution to the unwanted columns. I think I'm too lazy to trawl the registry yet again though so I put up with it.

[BJ_M]

i think somewhere in gpedit.msc

[Josef K]

i think somewhere in gpedit.msc

That one's a catch-22 situation. More info can be found here. It works - or doesn't. It depends on luck. As the saying goes: 'How frustrated do you want to be today?'.

Anyway, enough of this - don't want to hijack the thread.

[BJ_M]

yep - they say the same thing i did --

re: Question about 'How do I fix the ''Details'' view in Explorer?'
Tuesday, July 13, 2004 at 3:57 pm
Posted by mike good (1 messages posted)

None of the solutions here worked for me, explorer continued to use icon view for all folders where I had not explicitly specified another view. Through trial & error I tracked this down to local computer policy (gpedit.msc), "User Configuration", "Administrative Templates", "Windows Components", "Windows Explorer", "Turn on Classic Shell". When this policy option is "not configured" then "apply to all folders" works! If enabled, "apply to all folders" appears to be ignored, causing frustration. I don't have domain admin privileges, so not sure if there's a similar group policy that could frustrate you the same way--probably.

[Reply to this message]
How to fix "Details" as the default in Windows Explorer XP Pro
Wednesday, December 8, 2004 at 11:41 am
Posted by Herb Kelly (1 messages posted)

Thanks for this, however, I would like to add what worked for me - no doubt there
are different versions in solving this annoying time-wasting default setting and
this is what I did to force "Details" as the default view setting in my XP Pro folder
settings.

What Mike did worked for me BUT, when in the "Turn on Classic Shell" section the
option was already selected as "not configured", so I selected the enable tick box
and then applied. Once I had done that I immediately unselected it by reverting back
and ticking the "not configured" option box again. This toggling seemed to kick it
in, where it had not worked before, and FINALLY enabled the "apply to all folders"
button in the way it was most probably designed to work.

This has literally taken me years to figure out. Mike, many thanks, you have saved
me man hours like you can't believe not forgetting the frustration factor. I find
it totally unacceptable that ms allows this type of thing to happen.

Oh ! - one more thing - you should start like this:-
1) Click START - left bottom button
2) Then RUN
3) Then type in the window that opens " gpedit.msc " (without the inverted
commas)

This takes you to the USER CONFIGURATION panel that Mike refers to then follow the
instructions as given

Good luck and I hope this helps - it worked for me

rgds

Herb

[Josef K]

yep - they say the same thing i did

It's never once worked for me. Maybe it's the image I made way back when: Install WinXP, configure how I like it, add a few essential drivers then Ghost it for the next time I need a fresh install. Maybe that's where the problem lies. I should probably make a new one in case it's in that install from back then but the thought of hours of checking off each preference setting that I like as opposed to a few minutes to Ghost my OS partition annoys me somewhat.

[BJ_M]

yea -- true... and in gpedit , sometimes a "yes" means "no" as some of the wording is confusing ..

[Josef K]

sometimes a "yes" means "no" as some of the wording is confusing ..

Haha, yeah. I swear they get a kick out of wasting people's time. I shouldn't have to search the KB to make sure of what I'm doing.

[BJ_M]

'yes i do not want to not do this' sound about right ?

[Josef K]

'yes i do not want to not do this' sound about right ?

This is the point where I have to start drawing graphs and flowcharts to make sure I get the answer right so I can level up. Unfortunately by that time I've already spent all my exp on kb searches, asked the audience and phoned a friend. Here's where the 50/50 comes in.