Lead-Out Problem ?

[pgdunne]

I'm somewhat new to video.
I'm using PowerDirector 3 (by Cyberlink) to burn a DVD (DVD-R) consisting of a short title page, followed by a 45 second mpg (mpeg-2) video, about 50 seconds in all. There is a screen with a "Burning Progress" bar that progresses from left to right. There is also a status message on this screen. The status message says "Writing Content" for about 1 minute. Then it says "Writing Lead-Out" for about 10 minutes, which seems much too long. During the "Writing Lead-Out" phase, I notice that the indicator light on the DVD is blinking, so I think that something is actually being recorded during this time. Also, after removing the DVD, when I look closely at the recorded side of the DVD, it looks like about one-third of the DVD has been burned, ie, over 1GB for just 50 seconds of video. However, happily, the DVD is successfully created and plays correctly in my DVD player. BTW, I'm on a WinXP laptop.

Questions -
1. What is "Lead-Out" ?
2. Why does "Lead-Out" take so much
longer than "Writing Content" (10
minutes vs 1 minute) ?
3. Why does a 50 second video require over 1GB on a DVD ?

I posed this problem to Cyberlink support and received an unsatisfactory answer.

[rkr1958]

I may be totally off base here but I remember seeing a thread recently that made mention of a minimum DVD size of 1-GB per DVD spec. I can't remember the specific thread. Anyway, if your content is only 50-seconds, which is far less than 1-GB, then the "lead-out" might include the "filler" required to make it 1-GB. That might explain 2 & 3. Also, wrt 1, don't know ... but I'm sure lots of people at this site do.

Also, what program are you using to write your DVD?

[SLK001]

The LEADOUT has to located in a certain area on the physical disc. It can be no closer that a certain distance from the center (don't remember the exact distance, but it is substantial). If you only author a small video, then "filler" is added until the LEADOUT can be added. The times you experienced are correct.

[pgdunne]

rkr1958 & SLK001 -
Thanks much for the explanation. Adding 'filler' to the DVD during the burning process is consistent with what occurred, ie, a long time burning, but the DVD plays fine.

rkr1958 --
I'm using PowerDirector 3 (by Cyberlink) for video editing. This product comes with EZProducer, which is used for setting chapters and burning the DVD (or VCD if you choose). EZProducer can be run from within PowerDirector or as a standalone.