Burn authored VIDEO_TS as UDF or CDFS (or RAW) file system format?

[PCat]

I've search for the answer for a few days but have come up with nothing conclusive. I'm sure it's somewhere on this site but can anyone explain, comment or point me in the right direction?

I tested over the weekend using DVDFab (nice!) and Nero:

Registered DVDFab lets you burn directly to DVD; I did the main movie only straight from the DVD and the burnt DVD came out as UDF.

I also burnt the main movie (VIDEO_TS) I had authored onto my HDD using DVDFab "Write Data" and the DVD came out as RAW.

Burning the main movie from the HDD using Nero6 SmartStart "Make Data DVD" came out as CDFS.

And burning the main movie from HDD using Nero6 "Burn DVD-Video files" icon came out as UDF.

I'm not sure what UDF versions any of them were, I read that ver 1.02 is the most compatible but the DVD-Video default format is 1.5 which may cause read problems in other DVD drives/players.

I do know Nero can burn CDFS and UDF and a combo of the 2. I also found where I may be able to change the UDF version in Nero?

Sorry to be so long winded, but wanted to explain where I'm at and hopefully find someone who can shed some light on the best file format to make my backup DVD movies. Thanks in advance.

[jman98]

I've search for the answer for a few days but have come up with nothing conclusive. I'm sure it's somewhere on this site but can anyone explain, comment or point me in the right direction?

I tested over the weekend using DVDFab (nice!) and Nero:

Registered DVDFab lets you burn directly to DVD; I did the main movie only straight from the DVD and the burnt DVD came out as UDF.

I also burnt the main movie (VIDEO_TS) I had authored onto my HDD using DVDFab "Write Data" and the DVD came out as RAW.

This is to be expected. In the first case you told it to burn in DVD format, which is UDF. In the 2nd case, "write data" means write a data disc. I'm guessing it defaulted to to what you call "RAW". This may be ISO 9660, which some operating systems refer to as CDFS, but it's not limited to CD discs.

Burning the main movie from the HDD using Nero6 SmartStart "Make Data DVD" came out as CDFS.

And burning the main movie from HDD using Nero6 "Burn DVD-Video files" icon came out as UDF.

Again, this is all expected. "Make Data DVD" probably defaults to ISO 9660. "Burn DVD-Video files" will use UDF because DVD format requires it.

I haven't seen DVD format use anything except 1.02. I can't say whether 1.5 is even valid or not, but it may cause problems for standalone DVD players. Typically anything above 1.02 is risky because standalones may not understand it.

You really should do yourself a favor and stop using Nero for anything but burning data discs and audio CDs. ImgBurn is free and significantly better for DVD format burning than Nero. It's a long explanation as to why Nero sucks, but just take my word that it does.

[PCat]

Thanks, jman98. I've read a little on ImgBurn - thought it only burns ISO. I assmue I'm wrong and it burns VIDEO_TS files just fine and they come out as UDF which is the preferred DVD format?

So DVDFab5->HDD VIDEO_TS->ImgBurn->DVD (UDF format)?

I just started backing up my wifes movies and appreciate the info. I did 4 using Nero6 Make Data DVD, they came out as CDFS (ISO 9660) and worked fine in my pc and standalone players. Wasn't sure about UDF. Any idea how to check the UDF version? Thanks again!

[jman98]

Old copies of ImgBurn could only burn ISOs, but this isn't true any more? It starts a very easy to use "smart start" type menu and you can burn DVD format from your VIDEO_TS directory with no problem.

Data discs won't work on all standalone players. Consider yourself lucky here. You could very easily have reported that they only worked on PCs if you owned some different models.

ImgBurn defaults DVD format to UDF 1.02. You'll have to poke around the menus to change this if you want to, but I wouldn't recommend it. Nero should also default to UDF 1.02 when burning DVD format video. If you put a burned disc in your PC and use ImgBurn to copy it to your hard disk, prior to clicking on the copy button it should tell you what UDF version you have on the disc.

[PCat]

jman98, thanks for taking the time to post some terrific info! Do you recommend any specific version of ImgBurn? I'll give it a try tonight. Also, if you are familiar with DVDFab I assume using it to burn straight from a DVD to a DVD+R (prodcing a UDF DVD copy) is comparable to authoring a movie to HDD and then use ImgBurn to burn to DVD without the extra steps?

Actually, after getting home and checking further, I did load the latest ImgBurn 2.4.2.0 over the weekend to try but was not familiar with it and did not pursue it. I just burnt my movie VIDEO_TS using it and found that when writing files/folders to disk, under the Options tab, the Image Options default file system is set to ISO9660 + UDF (rev 1.02) so it actually creates a disk with the combination of the 2 files systems (an option found in Nero6 too).