Problems using AVStoDVD - conversion will not fit on one dvd

[Jer01]

Hi,

I used AVStoDvd for the 1st time today. I have some movies [avi, mp4, mkv format] I want to burn to dvd's. I want to put 2 movie titles on each 4.7 gb DVD. I dl & installed the latest AVStoDVD. I am pretty much a newbie with this, so please keep the answers/comments simple and detailed.

I changed the format preference from PAL to NTSC. Other than that, I kept the default settings of this program. I added 2 movie titles with their .srt subs and put in my Output file location. The output size was 5829/4450. I assumed this would work out ok, with a reduction in quality to fit the output on 1 dvd. The conversion completed with no reported errors. It took ~ 4 hrs.

Here are the problems. I expected the output file to automatically be burnt to a dvd which I had placed in my dvd recorder. This did not happen. I opened ImgBurn and started to burn it by hand. It told me the size of the folder bas bigger than the room on the disc and asked me if I wanted to continue. I said no.

Questions:

[1] Why did the dvd file generated not automatically get burnt to dvd? How can I get it to do that next time?

[2] Why was the output conversion file not reduced in size and quality to fit on 1 dvd? How do I get the program to do that next time? I read some old posts from this site [Jun 2010] that led me to believe it would automatically do that.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jer01

[hech54]

"2 movies" is a LOT to ask for as far as fitting on one single-layer DVD.....under any circumstances.

[_MrC_]

hech54 is 100% right.

AVStoDVD tries to compute the video bitrate to fit the DVD size, up to a reasonable value: the default minimum bitrate is 2500 kbps. If you want to lower this value and have all your movies fit in one single layer DVD, then go to 'Preferences'/'Video' and set 500 kbps as 'Lower avg bitrate'. But then do not complain about quality...

To auto burn DVD, just select 'Burn DVD' as 'Output Setup'.



Bye

[Jer01]

Thanks MrC.,

On your first item, I assume if I lower the minimum bitrate to 500, your program will still try to fit the content to fill the dvd, using the highest min bit rate that will accomplish that? Is there some way of knowing ahead of time whether it can do that -- or do I have to wait until after the conversion to find that out? Are there any other settings I should tweak to give me the best video possible, given the difficult constraints I imposed of 2 movies on 1 disc?

On your 2nd Item, If I leave the Output Setup on 'DVD Folder Structure', so that I am sure the conversion will fit on one dvd, -- Does your program have a setting/button that will allow me to burn the folder after the conversion is complete? Or do I have to open ImgBurn and burn it that way?

Thanks again ,

Jer01

[Jer01]

OK,

I think I just answered a couple of my questions. I saved the project where the output size was 5829/4450. I set the min bitrate to 500 and reopened that same project -- and the output size dropped to 4449/4450. It fits on one dvd. I played with the min bitrate setting a while and found that with a min bitrate setting of 1500, I will still get an output size of 4449/4450. Will a min bitrate of 1500 still give me a poor video quality ?

Jer01

[_MrC_]

@Jer01

min bitrate is MIN bitrate not average bitrate. If your project has an average bitrate of, for example, 1800 kbps, then the min bitrate can be 500, 1000, 1500, whatever below 1800 will be the same for output size purpose.

BTW an average bitrate of 1800-2000 kbps will mean very poor quality for motion footage, poor quality for "quiet" footage, acceptable quality for "almost" static footage (i.e. slideshow). That's MPEG2.



Bye

[Jer01]

Hi _ MrC_,


Well I ran your program on the project I was talking about, using the following settings: [1] 1500 kbps for 'min bitrate'; [2] 'Burn DVD' under 'Output Setup'. It took a little under 4 hours. The quality was great and the DVD burned automatically. I was looking for a button to push to burn a 2nd copy of this project, but I could not find a way to do it within AVStoDVD - so I opened ImgBurn and burned the folder your program created.

Thank you so much for your help and for allowing us to use this WONDERFUL program.

You guys really had me worried about the quality of the DVD video. But I am real happy with it -- even with my 47" 1080 p tv. Of course it is not that good of a quality - but it is great. Now I have 5 more projects like this to do for Christmas presents for my 2 sisters. I don't know much about this stuff, but here is what your log said after 'End Video Encoding Operation' for Title 1:

>>>OUTPUT VIDEO INFO: MPEG-2 Video - 1861 kbps - 720x480 - DAR 1.778 - 23.976 fps (CFR) - Progressive (2:3 Pulldown) - 2:41:28 hours - 232295 frames<<<

Looks like the Average Bitrate was 1861 kbps.


In case you are interested, I was using FAVC to make my sister's DVD's prior to now. FAVC could not handle this project. Kept getting an error, 'Could not write to the standard output'. Your program had the same problem ['aften.eve has stopped working'], but you were smart enough to have a backup plan for this event. Your backup plan worked. Congrats!

Thanks again. I will be using AVStoDVD for 5 more projects like this one this week.

Jer01

[Jer01]

Hi Again,

Project 2

My 2nd project turned out great with AVStoDVD. Both the titles in this project were around 1.5 hours and did not go over the 4450 mb output file size with the default min bitrate setting of 2500 kbps. Note: All these projects have 2 titles in them.

FAVC could not handle this project either. I got the ERR mssg from ImgBurn: 'Could not find Video_TS.Bup file.' Tried it twice. FAVC used to be very reliable for me -- not since I got my new PC with Windows 7. I had to update to a later 64 bit vrs of FAVC. From what I read on the web, FAVC is not the old reliable it used to be - and the author no longer supports it. I found that out with 2 problems out of three projects the last couple days. That is why I started looking for a new video converter and why I am now using AVStoDVD. AVSto DVD is now my 'old reliable'.

Project 3

I am having a couple problems with this project. One of the two titles has dual audio - English and Japanese - and dual subtitles. It is an .mkv file -- 1384 Mb. When I play the file in its .mkv form, I am able to turn on & off the audio and subs as I wish. But with the converted DVD file, I get only Japanese audio and [hard I think] subs. I have not been able to turn off the Japanese subs or turn on the English language. The Audio says it is in English [when I press the 'Audio button' on my DVD player], but it is playing in Japanese. Pressing the 'Audio' button again does not switch anything. I kinda thought I might have problems converting this one. Got any ideas on how to get the English language?? I don't care about the english subs too much - but would like to get rid of the Japanese subs. I checked the Audio Settings in AVStoDVD and both the audio and subs are set to English for both options.

The Menu did not show up in my conversion. Both titles are there, but no easy way to find the beginning of the second title. It looks like I may have forgot to set up my menu before I ran the first conversion. Does it set a menu up by default, or do I have to set it up to get a menu? Gotta have some sort of menu with a DVD with more than 1 title - don't you? I have since set up a menu and am rerunning the conversion to see if it shows up. It did not show up with the preview.

That's it for now - way past my bedtime.

Jer01

Edit - Just wanted to let you know that the menus showed up in the second conversion. But language and subtitle probs still there.

[Jer01]

..

[_MrC_]

If you want to get rid of unused audio and subs tracks you can remux your mkv using MkvToolNix. It is included in AVStoDVD package. Just run the mmg.exe executable and select only the tracks you need. Then add the new mkv to AVStoDVD.

About DVD menu, you have to setup it before starting the project. See the 'DVD Menu' button on the toolbar.



Bye

[Jer01]

_MrC_


Thanks for all the help on this. I used your program on 16 projects - burnt 32 dvd's - and only made 1 coaster - which was my fault. Great program - Thanks for letting us use it and thanks for all the help you provide.

I have one more question. Occassionally, I start a project with an .avi/.mp4/.mkv file that has low volume. Is there a setting in your program, that I can use to increase the volume a little on the output file?

Jer01

[manono]

Will a min bitrate of 1500 still give me a poor video quality ?

Very poor, given your average bitrate for that project was 1861. The higher you set your minimum bitrate and the closer it is to the average bitrate, the closer to Constant Bitrate encoding you get and the poorer the overall quality. Not to contradict anything _MrC_ says here or does in his program, but I set my minimums to 250, and that's with my averages at roughly 4000. For very low bitrate encodes such as yours (like the others I think fitting 2 full movies on a DVD5 is absurd), it's especially important to use a very low minimum bitrate.

[_MrC_]

@Jer01

see 'Edit Title'/'AviSynth'/'Amplify Audio'. Put +1 or +2 dB.

@manono

the '1500' kbps the OP is referring to is the 'mininum average bitrate', allowed by AVStoDVD for the whole project. The absolute minimun bitrate is not specified, so HCenc can go down to 100 kbps and lower.



Bye

[manono]

OK, I see. Thanks for the explanation and the correction.