Newbie...Sorry if sound stupid...MP4 video file to DVD disc

[MattKelly]

I have zero knowledge of video files etc. I have MP4 video files that I recorded on my android phone. I want to put them on a dvd+R disc toplay on DVD player.

What I have tried so far...

1. Uploaded MP4 video files to PC, used Windows Media to burn onto DVD+R disc. DVD player says disc unknown
2. Researched and found DVD video files are MPEG. So used various online software to convert MP4 video files to MPEG (2) video files and then using windows media burned them to DVD+R disc several times but still getting 'Unknown Disc' message on dvd player.

Is it possible? Is it possible for someone with zero ability to do? If so and you are prepared to share your wisdom I would be very grateful. Thankyou

Apologies if this thread not where its supposed to be.

[davexnet]

AVStoDVD and DVDFlick, pretty simple, basic menus. DVDStyler slightly more complicated, advanced menus

[DB83]

Not forgetting imgburn for the avstoDVD option to actually burn the files on to the blank disk.

Trying to avoid the technical issues for a newbie, it is a common mistake that you can take 4 gb (for single-sided disk) of mp4 data and attempt to create one disk. You forget the size of the data and just concentrate on the run-length of the mp4 file(s). Limit that to 2 hours and you are good to go.

[johns0]

Just to be clear that any files to be played on a regular dvd player have to be authored and that requires the program that the other members suggested you use.

[MattKelly]

Hello, many thanks for the replies and for the suggestions. So I tried the AVStoDVD & imgburn despite you saying its pretty simple unfortunately I must be simpler because after 3 attempts dvd player still saying 'Unknown Disc'. I have since tried the DVDFlick and amazingly the dvd plays with video & audio - excellent.

However, the video is sideways, something I noticed with both file converter programs when I imported the video files over they showed the files sideways. I have tried the video editor in Windows to save the video files already sideays, but they still appear sideways when I import them to the programs.

Would any of you be able to offer any advice on this?

I'm doing this for my brother who has learning disabilities and he grew up with VHS and cassette tapes. He doesn't understand digital media and loves the physical aspect of tapes/discs. Not everyone can keep up with the pace of tech advancement sadly. Thanks for your help so far.

[Bwaak]

Three options:

1. Author a proper DVD-video disc. This will involve re-encoding of your MP4 file into MPEG-2 Part 2/H.262 stored in PS container, accompanied with other files needed by DVD-Video spec.
2. Drop your MP4 file onto a DVD recordable disc as data. It seems that you've done this, but your DVD player either cannot play files off DVD data discs, or it cannot recognize the format.
3. Forget making a shiny disc, copy the file onto a thumbdrive and play it in a device that accepts USB drives. Then again, the device must be able to recognize the format, so the problem is similar to #2, but I think this approach is more promising, because devices that can play files off USB drives generally accept a wider range of formats.

What do you mean, sideways? Is it a vertical video shot with a smartphone? How do you expect it to look?

[MattKelly]

Hello Bwaak, thanks for replying

I took the video on a smartphone and shot it vertically. The video files on my pc play on windows media vertically, but when I transfer files to the DVD creating prorams mentioned, the video files are horizontal and video footage is horizontal.

Option 3 I have considered if a dvd option is not available.
Option 2 I have tried this and 3 Dvd players including a recenting purchased one cannot play.
Option 1 I will research what you mean and see how I can go about trying that, what does PS container mean?

Thankyou

[Sharc]

DVDStyler can keep the video upright in portrait view.

[Bwaak]

Option 1 I will research what you mean and see how I can go about trying that, what does PS container mean?

Please, excuse the tech blubber. I was talking about a DVD authoring software, it should do whatever is needed to make a compliant DVD-disc.

I am surprised your video is turned 90 degrees instead of being put into a normal wide frame with black pillars on the sides. If the authoring software is doing this, then indeed another tool like what Sharc suggests is needed.

[DB83]

Well, for the 'hell' of it I created a bog-standard dvd using avstodvd and with a 'vertical' mp4.

No special settings on my part and the dvd is shown correctly.


Could it be that your mp4 has some auto-rotate feature that is fooling these softwares ?


As for still having an 'unknown disk' error you are either not creating proper dvd files, maybe an NTSC disk instead of PAL or vice-versa, or not using imgburn properly.

[multitech]

Maybe your DVD player does not suport DVD+R discs. Try to use DVD-R discs. If you still want to use DVD+R discs, you must change booktype from DVD+R to DVD-R.

[Sharc]

Could it be that your mp4 has some auto-rotate feature that is fooling these softwares ?

Portrait videos in .mp4 container are typically flagged as 90° rotation (Android phones). Depending on the DVD authoring app this may require some manual resizing or settings adjustments to get it right.

The procedure for a 90 degrees rotated 16:9 portrait video is roughly as follows:
1. Turn the picture by 90° into upright (portrait) position => 9:16 aspect ratio (portrait).
2. For a NTSC 4:3 DVD resize it to 304x480 (anamorph, PAR=8/9) and pad it left and right with 208 wide borders -> 720x480 overall
3. Author it as 4:3 NTSC DVD
(the numbers for PAL DVD or 4:3 sources would have to be adjusted accordingly)

- or use a tool which does this automatically for you...

Edit:
- or try this ffmpeg commandline (for NTSC format):

ffmpeg.exe -i "your.mp4" -c:a ac3 -c:v mpeg2video -b:v 7000k -maxrate 8000k -bf 2 -b_strategy 2 -mpeg_quant 1 -mbd rd -trellis 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -mpv_flags qp_rd -filter:v "scale=304:480:flags=bilinear, pad=720:480:(ow-iw)/2:(oh-ih)/2, setdar=4/3" "mpeg2.vob"

The output files can then be imported in any of the DVD authoring apps which have been suggested before (DVDStyler, AVStoDVD, DVDFlick ....) and the orientation (portrait) will be correct.

[Sharc]

However, the video is sideways, something I noticed with both file converter programs when I imported the video files over they showed the files sideways. I have tried the video editor in Windows to save the video files already sideays, but they still appear sideways when I import them to the programs.

Would any of you be able to offer any advice on this?

Tilt your monitor or TV by 90 degrees