Novice: After using TMPGEnc Express, what next?

[terrypin]

I'm slowly working my way through various methods of making a DVD. One approach I just tried, fresh after buying TMPGEnc Express, was to use it to convert (encode?) an AVI file, using the DVD PAL output option. The resulting file is a single MPG. Same result using a WMV file as input.

I vaguely expected to get a set of files, type VOB and others, in a folder with subfolders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. And then I aimed to use a program like Nero Express or DeepBurner Pro to simpy burn them to a DVD.

Could someone straighten me out on this please. What steps are now necessary to get the MPG to a DVD? And if I want to add a menu?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[BrainStorm69]

I'm slowly working my way through various methods of making a DVD. One approach I just tried, fresh after buying TMPGEnc Express, was to use it to convert (encode?) an AVI file, using the DVD PAL output option. The resulting file is a single MPG. Same result using a WMV file as input.

I vaguely expected to get a set of files, type VOB and others, in a folder with subfolders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. And then I aimed to use a program like Nero Express or DeepBurner Pro to simpy burn them to a DVD.

Could someone straighten me out on this please. What steps are now necessary to get the MPG to a DVD? And if I want to add a menu?

--
Terry, West Sussex, UK

TMPGEnc Express will encode the video to MPEG-2, but you need an authoring program (such as TMPG DVD Author) to create the vob files, menus, etc. for a DVD.

[terrypin]

Thanks. Just to make sure I've undertood this properly, would such a program take a single MPG as input and deliver the two folders VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS as output, on my HD, or would it write the DVD, or both please?

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[trhouse]

Both. It creates the two folders on the hard drive first, then a new window pops up asking if you want to open the dvd writing tool.

[BrainStorm69]

Both. It creates the two folders on the hard drive first, then a new window pops up asking if you want to open the dvd writing tool.

Or you can burn the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders it creates to DVD with another burning tool like Nero Express or DeepBurner Pro as you mentioned.

[terrypin]

Thanks both.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[KBeee]

I'm slowly working my way through various methods of making a DVD. One approach I just tried, fresh after buying TMPGEnc Express, was to use it to convert (encode?) an AVI file, using the DVD PAL output option. The resulting file is a single MPG. Same result using a WMV file as input.
<snip>

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

Actually, you should have 2 files from TMPGEnc.
A *.m2v (video) file, and a *.wav (audio) file if you're converting to MPEG2 for DVD.
A single *.mpg implies MPEG1 conversion.
The *.wav file can be re-encoded to AC3 to save space.

[trhouse]

Here is the screen from TDA for creating the two files,



The burning software included with TDA is from Sonic.

Regarding the output of Xpress,

You have choice of output. "ES" in the image below is for elementary stream. Audio can be mp2, wav, or ac3 with the Dolby plug-in. If you choose "system", it outputs one mpg.

[jimmalenko]

Actually, you should have 2 files from TMPGEnc.
A *.m2v (video) file, and a *.wav (audio) file if you're converting to MPEG2 for DVD.
A single *.mpg implies MPEG1 conversion.
The *.wav file can be re-encoded to AC3 to save space.

If you've got the AC3 plugin and/or you're in PAL land and outputting MP2, it's quite feasible to just output a single mpg (MPEG-2) file.

[terrypin]

Thanks for all that follow-up advice, for which I'm very grateful. But I'm going to have to take this slowly, as I'm now getting a bit confused.

One problem I'm facing is that this 'Express' program seems very different from the one it seems most people use, TMPGEnc 2.5. I do have that also, never properly used, but for some weeks it has been telling me that the MPEG2 licence had expired. So I decided to pay up for a new version, and chose TMPGEnc 3.0 Express. But presumably another (better?) alternative might have been to just get the MPEG2 license added to my 2.5 version, yes?

Next point is that I'm positive I specified MP2, not MP1 when I had a choice, and I definitely got only a single file. Could someone clarify that issue for me please: should I have 1 (mpg) or 2 (.m2v + wav) files?

"If you've got the AC3 plugin and/or you're in PAL land and outputting MP2". I think I follow the last two parts of that (I use a PAL wide screen TV and I want best quality so use MP2, for which I have to use non-free versions of some programs). But what is this AC3 plug-in? How do I know if I have it and why should I need it?

Finally (!) , as a rule of thumb for those Output options, should I always choose System?

All this practical help is much appreciated, although please bear with me on the terminology

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Terry, West Sussex, UK

[jimmalenko]

TMPGEnc XPress should be fine.

If you're in PAL land then MP2 will be fine (and is DVD-compliant) - no real need to worry about AC3 IMHO.

The AC3 plugin is a seperate item to purchase so I'd say that you'd know if you've bought it.

System (Video + Audio) is fine for TMPGEnc DVD Author. So is ES (Video + Audio). It doesn't matter one way or another IMHO.

[terrypin]

Thanks, jimmalenko, appreciate the clarification.

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Terry, West Sussex, UK