File Won't Burn Onto Disc

[GizzaGo]

Hi!

Simple question and probably might have posted in the wrong section here (I couldn't find a dvd / file burning section).

Anyway, I have an 8x 4.7gb DVD-R disc, and an AVI file that is 1, 443, 207 kb, and it won't burn to disc. On NERO 5 and Windows DVD Maker on Windows 7, they both say the file is too big. I used Handbrake to compress the file further to 823, 446kb and still the same. How so? the second compressed file is an MP4 file by the way.

Can anybody help me out is to how I can burn it on a disc that surely has enough space for the file?

Is it that the file once converted is becoming too big for the disc, or do I need something different than 8x disc, or a DVD+ disc instead?

Cheers!

[hech54]

An "AVI" file cannot be a DVD.....unless you are just using the DVD as storage....like a USB stick. A DVD (playable in a DVD player attached to a television) must be MPEG2 video and it must be "authored" to this folder/file structure):
https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#struct

[usually_quiet]

Hi!

Simple question and probably might have posted in the wrong section here (I couldn't find a dvd / file burning section).

Anyway, I have an 8x 4.7gb DVD-R disc, and an AVI file that is 1, 443, 207 kb, and it won't burn to disc. On NERO 5 and Windows DVD Maker on Windows 7, they both say the file is too big. I used Handbrake to compress the file further to 823, 446kb and still the same. How so? the second compressed file is an MP4 file by the way.

Can anybody help me out is to how I can burn it on a disc that surely has enough space for the file?

Is it that the file once converted is becoming too big for the disc, or do I need something different than 8x disc, or a DVD+ disc instead?

Cheers!

H.264 (often found in an MP4), or DivX/XVid (often found in an AVI) are not DVD-compatible. MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 are the only types of video allowed for DVD video discs. (MPEG-2 is more common and offers better compression than MPEG-1.) When H.264 and DivX/XVid are converted to MPEG-2, the resulting file is usually larger (as you suspected) because MPEG-2 is less efficient for compressing video than either H.264 and DivX/XVid.

What is the playing time for this video? With most DVD converters, if the length is more than than 2-2 1/2 hours, you need a DVD+R DL to hold it rather than a DVD+R or DVD-R, especially if you are converting a widescreen (16:9) video.

[Keyser]

This is a common confusion made by newbies (I presume you are a newbie since you only have one post). You have to understand the difference between burning a file (any file, including video files) AS IS to a data disc, and converting and burning a video file to a DVD-Video.

In the first case, you have to burn the file as data with a program that burns data DVD like ImgBurn (not Windows DVD Maker). Since your file is around 1.4 GB, it will fit without a problem.

In the second case you need to use a program capable of generating DVD-Video compatible output (like Windows DVD Maker or AVStoDVD). Like usually_quiet said, depending on your video running time, the software you use may refuse to convert the video because it is too long. Note that this has nothing to do with the file size in bytes, but with the running time of the video.

[GizzaGo]

Yeah the film is an hour and a half long usually_quiet. I will look into what you've said keyser

[DB83]

The other thing if you want to use the programs you tried ie Nero or Windows DVD Maker are the settings and most importatntly the bitrate.

It is quite possible that both of these have a default of 8000+ kbps which equates to 1-hour of video. So that could well be the reason they are complaining. Reduce that to 6000 kbps and you then get 90 minutes.

Mind you most on here would not use either of these programs. As already stated, use avstodvd to do the authoring and imgburn to do the actual burning.

[GizzaGo]

Haven't looked at this in a couple of weeks. Kind of gave up but back on it. Anyway, what I don't get is Nero and Windows DVD Maker convert the file to the right format before burning so don't get why the format matters. That is what the Encoding part is isn't it? Also, I used to burn films to dvd on Nero all the time (AVI files) and it was fine.

[hech54]

Haven't looked at this in a couple of weeks. Kind of gave up but back on it. Anyway, what I don't get is Nero and Windows DVD Maker convert the file to the right format before burning so don't get why the format matters. That is what the Encoding part is isn't it? Also, I used to burn films to dvd on Nero all the time (AVI files) and it was fine.

Again....if there is no VIDEO_TS folder on the end result disc....then it's not a DVD(that is playable on a DVD player attached to a TV).
The End.

[davejavu]

What are you actually trying to do here? Do you just want to burn the file to a disc as an AVI/MP4 video file or do you want to convert it into a properly encoded DVD-Video disc? This isn's clear from what you have posted already.

If you just want to burn the file as it is, then you need to burn as a data disc (don't think Windows DVD Maker will do this but Nero should be able to do it).

If you want a DVD-Video disc the settings you used to convert the file have created something that is too big to fit on a single layer DVD disc and you will have to figure out how to tell the conversion software an appropriate bitrate or destination size. Don't ask me how as I don't use either of the programs you mentioned.

[usually_quiet]

Yeah the film is an hour and a half long usually_quiet. I will look into what you've said keyser

The problem here may be the video content in the AVI file. If there is lots of detail and motion, the converter's video encoder will use a higher bitrate for encoding such scenes. If there is lots of noise/compression artifacts/macroblocking in a video, that is treated the same way as legitimate detail and motion. An encoder can't tell the difference.