An AVStoDVD non-starter (file-system limitation)

[Seeker47]

O.K., so I have a substantial issue with ConvertXtoDVD, which is basically the major issue raised by Poppa_Meth in his Tools Section review. ( VSO is making a huge mistake if they decline to deal with this.) I wanted to make a best-possible-quality disc from material that runs almost 3 hours. The source has a pretty decent resolution. That should mean a DL disc. I set everything up for DL, but not to burn the disc, because I wanted to do that separately with ImgBurn. The end result from CX2D was 4.7G. WTF ! That's not going to cut it. In fact, I'm struggling to recall any case where I could get CX2D to output anything that exceeded about 6.5G in size. [VSO: this in itself is enough of a reason for me not to renew my license that recently expired, which you asked me to do in an email. You need to address this, and some other long unresolved issues !]

So I installed AVStoDVD. Had a minor fiasco with it several versions ago, on a different computer, but what the hell, time to give it another go. However, it is throwing up some error that max. possible DVD size with my file system is 4G. Well, the XP boot partition is NTFS, but I don't at the moment have enough room there. (A long story I won't go into here). Any adequate workspace that I have readily to hand is FAT-32, and I like it that way. That setup has served me quite well. ImgBurn has no problem working with a full DL DVD structure on FAT-32 space; CX2D also seems willing to do it, but for the output issue mentioned above. Again, WTF ?! Why can't AVStoDVD work with FAT-32 storage the way the other programs can ? Your biggest discrete file chunk is still going to be a 1G VOB file ! Maybe I'm missing something here, but this program looks like it's going to be DOA as an option for me.

[Bonie81]

if i were you, and source video bears an excellent quality and resolution. i might prefer to use some professional DVD Authoring Tools.
ConvertX2DVD and AVStoDVD are nice starter.

[guns1inger]

AVStoDVD (and any decent encoder/authoring tool) encodes the video and audio to elementary streams. To maximise the quality, it uses the highest bitrate it can, producing files that will fill the disc (or capacity specified). The video stream, in your case, is larger than 4GB. Once it has the streams, it will author them into the requisite DVD structure, including 1000MB VOB files.

The fiasco here is your insistence on using inadequate equipment for the task.

I have no sympathy.

[davexnet]

Why maintain FAT32 ? Unless your dual booting with Windows 98 ?

[guns1inger]

Buy a cheap portable drive and format it to NTFS to get space.

[Seeker47]

AVStoDVD (and any decent encoder/authoring tool) encodes the video and audio to elementary streams. To maximise the quality, it uses the highest bitrate it can, producing files that will fill the disc (or capacity specified). The video stream, in your case, is larger than 4GB. Once it has the streams, it will author them into the requisite DVD structure, including 1000MB VOB files.

The fiasco here is your insistence on using inadequate equipment for the task.

I have no sympathy.

I never sought your sympathy, nor am I interested in that from anyone else; I was just hoping to gain some insight into what has been going on here. Both your reply and Bonie81's did not seem directly responsive to my questions.

If I parse what you said at all correctly, I take it that some intermediate processing done by AVStoDVD unavoidably generates larger files that can only exist under a file system like NTFS, even though in the end result no file exceeds approx. 1G ? This leaves open the question of why CX2D -- a program apparently occupying the same niche as AVStoDVD, and also apparently relying heavily on the FFMPEG libraries -- does not suffer from this limitation ?

I must now update what I wrote previously, because in the interim I have made an 8.2G DL disc with CX2D, using another source file of similar size and resolution to the one that prompted this thread. My CX2D settings were much as they always have been in this scenario. But, this is a first for me, and I have strong doubts that it would be repeatable, with other source files. In other words, a fluke. But, again, I'd like to understand why it did work, in that particular instance. [Note: no NTFS was needed.]

Buy a cheap portable drive and format it to NTFS to get space.

Coincidentally, that is what I wound up doing -- as a stopgap solution, and to give AVStoDVD a trial run. I put a spare SATA drive into a spare E-SATA enclosure. This allowed me to go ahead and process the original file. The result was an 8.3G DL DVD structure . . . but in the end IMGBURN threw up its hands and said, "Sorry, but there is no place to put a layer break in this."
So, I guess this one was just not to be. Ah, screw it. I divided the result into 2 SL discs with FAB, and that will have to suffice. It was more of a test than something important, in any case.

But I always like to learn something along the way, if possible. Your description of "inadequate tools" is highly subjective. The tools I employ are perfectly adequate for 90 % of the stuff I presently do, and if / when it turns out they are not, I will make adjustments.

[Seeker47]

Why maintain FAT32 ? Unless your dual booting with Windows 98 ?

I run multiple OSes, and FAT-32 is the lingua franca, the common denominator for storage, and access to it. I also roundly despise NTFS. I've watched a few NTFS partitions just go 'POOF', into thin air, and be totally unrecoverable. This, despite NTFS supposedly being a more robust, more failsafe FS. Never had that experience with FAT-32, over the use of many storage drives or partitions in the 200 - 500G range. (I haven't felt a need to use anything larger than that, even though 1TB and 2TB has become commonplace.)

[guns1inger]

ConvertXtoDVD is notorious for undersizing it's output, whereas AVStoDVD will fill the available space where possible. ConvertXtoDVD is most likely creating files smaller than 4GB, but giving you less quality. So your choice is simple;

1. Stick with ConvertXtoDVD and accept the lower quality.
2. Use AVStoDVD but set a lower size limit. You will still get higher quality than ConvertXtoDVD is you use the HCEnc encoder, but potentially not the best you you could get.
3. Keep an NTFS drive for conversions so you don't have the space limitations.

FWIW, your bad experiences with NTFS do not constitute a definitive study on the subject. I have seen as many FAT-32 and Mac drives corrupt themselves as I have NTFS. NTFS is no more unstable than any other format, and the benefits over over FAT-32 when working with video make it a must. I do have FAT-32 discs at home, primarily for the PS3, but I don't use them for video processing.

[ron spencer]

FAT32?? WOW!!! Haven't seen that in ages.....

[Seeker47]

FAT32?? WOW!!! Haven't seen that in ages.....

Plug an NTFS-formatted stick into most standalone (non-PC) devices that accept USB thumb-drives and see what happens. The manual for my current model Samsung Blu-Ray player says FAT only (8.3 filenames), not even FAT-32. I'm hoping that is out of date info or a typo. For sure, my Oppo player does not support NTFS. (And NTFS has been around since NT, years before XP debuted in 2001.) The WD Live I bought may have been the model that transitioned to support for NTFS on its attached HDD (?), but I think the box said it was compatible with FAT-32 FS only. I'll find out when I get around to setting it up.