Toast "An error has occurred recompressing the video"

[trevytrev]

I created a dvd from misc video files. some divx, some .wmv (I have flip4mac).
It's 7.5 hours long so, i know i have to do it in two steps, right? So, I then saved it as a disc image and created a file movie.toast
Seemed to work fine, I can mount it and watch it in dvd player, etc...

When I tried to burn it to dvd using 'fit to dvd..' it said the compression was low @ 36%
But when i hit record, it said 'compressing and extracting and when it was almost complete, i got this error:
"An error has occurred recompressing the video"

Tried a bunch more times and always the same thing.

aren't I supposed to be able to fit that much video on a disc if it is compressed? I read somewhere that this was how it was supposed to be done?

Any thing I can do?

[pixel zombie]

7.5 hours?...i can only fit 2 hours on a 4.4 gig disc but that is dvd quality, i only use toast to burn the disc and MAYBE make simple menus..mpeg2works is my preferred application for converting video...

[Frobozz]

There is too much content to fit a single-layer DVD. You should be able to get about 3 hours on a single-layer disc using Toast's Automatic setting and doing to two steps of creating a disc image and then using the fit-to-DVD process for burning the single-layer disc.

[KeepItSimple]

There is too much content to fit a single-layer DVD. You should be able to get about 3 hours on a single-layer disc using Toast's Automatic setting and doing to two steps of creating a disc image and then using the fit-to-DVD process for burning the single-layer disc.

I use the DVD DL setting in Toast to create a disc image that's larger than allowed with single layer. I then use DVD2OneX to squeeze it down, including the toast menus, to 4.3gb. I've used Toast for the heavy compression before but found DTOX does it better and faster.

I used that method to backup my store purchased The Godfather Part II DVD (3hrs.25min. from 2 commercial discs) and it came out very watchable. DVD2OneX gave a message that the picture quality would be substandard if I compressed that much but it was fine.
I don't know about 7.5 hours though.

[tomlee59]

7.5 hours of DVD MPEG2 will not fit on a single-layer disc unless you truly don't give a hang about quality. However, you can fit 7.5 hours of (X)VCD-like video on a single-layer DVD disc. Naturally, you shouldn't expect (and you won't get) DVD quality. However, if VHS movies were acceptable to you, then XVCD might also be ok, as they are roughly comparable in quality. Clearly, if you're trying to store that much video on a disc, you are willing to compromise a lot on quality. XVCD is a practical way to do just that.

[terryj]

Another opinion:

If you use Visual Hub, you can recompress the video and author a simple
Video_TS that will autoplay all items in sequential order,
and the quality is comparable to that of authoring the DVD
to DL media and then shrinking it to DVD-5 as KeepItSimple
suggests, albeit not as fast as his method.

There are also other ways to "adjust" your output before hand
to achieve great results, and less errors through toast.
For instance, if your wmv files are 720 x 480, you could bounce
through Flip4Mac these files
and re-save them as Quicktime Movies, at 360 x 240, cutting them
down and at the same time making them more Quicktime friendly,
which will make them easier for Toast to process.
This is where I believe you are getting your hangs in Toast...
DIVX should be no problem, Perian or not, for Toast.
But wmv even with Flip4Mac I have seen to be problematic
to encode.

[surfmonkee]

i would ask here:
they are genius with toast
http://forums.support.roxio.com/index.php?showforum=46

[Frobozz]

Just to make myself clear: Toast's fit-to-DVD compression cannot fit 7-1/2 hours of video onto a single-layer disc when Toast did the original MPEG encoding because it only requantizes the video and does not re-encode it. To get that much video on a disc the resolution would need to be something like 360x240 if MPEG 2 (maybe it can be a little more - I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong). Toast encodes at full resolution so it obviously is not the choice for fitting that much video on a disc.

If something else is used to MPEG 2 encode the video at a low enough resolution and bit rate then Toast can burn that to a DVD. But I've never tried using Toast's fit-to-DVD feature to requantize a low-resolution DVD and don't know if it will accept that. One thing to note is 7-1/2 hours of audio takes up a fair amount of disc space itself so there isn't much room left for requantizing the video.

[trevytrev]

yeah, i'm not worried about the quality of this video. I used to use dvd2one so, i guess, i'll grab that.
I just thought I read that you can fit about that much video using toast...
thanks, btw, all

[tomlee59]

I am highly doubtful that DVD2One will succeed, but I'm looking forward to hearing about your actual results. AFAIK, DVD2One depends on requantization, not reencoding. There's a limit to how much compression can be achieved with requantization alone, and I'm pretty certain that 7.5hrs is beyond that limit. Maybe DVD2One is more sophisticated than I've assumed, and can use a combination of requantization and re-encoding, but I remain pessimistic.

Re-encoding to something more like VCD specs is a better choice. Since quality is clearly not your primary concern, it makes more sense to focus on a solution that is already tuned to lower bitrates. Dialing DVD down to VCD-like bitrates leads to results that are significantly worse than VCD.

[terryj]

I am highly doubtful that DVD2One will succeed, but I'm looking forward to hearing about your actual results. AFAIK, DVD2One depends on requantization, not reencoding. There's a limit to how much compression can be achieved with requantization alone, and I'm pretty certain that 7.5hrs is beyond that limit.

From my own test on this, I ripped all three Spider-Man movies, a total of roughly 6+ hrs,
Main Feature only, and ran this through DTOX, stitching all together to
make one sequential playing DVD, set at a target of 4240MB (4.2GB).

The resulting outputted DVD was a total size of 5.48 GB.

So DTOX will handle more than 5 hrs of video, but it's engine would not
shrink it down to fit on a DVD-5, it targets a ( low end) DVD-9 ( Dual Layer)DVD.

The quality was akin to SVCD quality, blacks were a bit blocky, but it was still watchable.

So to the OP, give it a try and give us your results.

[pixel zombie]

yeah, i'm not worried about the quality of this video. I used to use dvd2one so, i guess, i'll grab that.
I just thought I read that you can fit about that much video using toast...
thanks, btw, all

i read that as well, but the roxio doesn't provide much more information and who's to say your dvd player will even recognize the disc...

[crissrudd4554]

I'm having a similar issue. I burned a DVD using Nero Vision on my Dad's old Hewlett-Packard computer but the disc is skipping. I'm trying to make a duplicate DVD on Toast with my Mac but I keep getting the message 'An error has occurred recompressing the video' while its copying the original disc. I've tried different writing speeds and the same thing happens. I tried unselecting the Fit-to-disc video compression option and the program froze midway. Any other suggestions?? Should I try it another way again or is there something else I should do????????????????