DVD II

[Mike Hollingshead]

Got another question about burning. I recently bought my 3RD burner(excluding my standalone dvd burner lol), so you can be assured I'm tired of the DVD game. Anyway this seems to have "worked". Problem is it's total crap. I have about 1hr and 45 minutes of full DV quality avi vid files for the highlight dvd video. According to the software I could only burn at the 4mbits/sec quality and get it all on the dvd. Using the showbiz software for burning that came with the HP dual format external burner. If I used the top quality of 7mbits/second it said that would be 150% of the DVD. This really sucks to learn this now and at the same time is thought provoking. My standalone burner can burn a full 2hours that looks 1000 times better then what I just got at 4mbits rate. Also it was saying it'd take up 97% of the 4.7 gig disc at this rate and when I opened the temp folders it created for the video they totalled 3.3 gigs. So before I let my computer waste another 8 hours of encoding time anyone got thoughts on if I should try the 7mbit rate and hope the size is off and it fits? Or would you try 6 or 5 mbits both of which it says won't fit. Or is there another possible solution. I have nero 6 I bought for the other drive I have and never really got to work and that software was causing all sorts of problems. Puter would freeze from time to time and it all went away when I uninstalled that program. Also with that program my internal matshita drive would show the info that the drive had a blank DVD-R in it but everytime I'd go to burn it'd kick the damn drive open telling me there is no disc in it!!! Sent the log file to NERO and my question....got a response like 4 days later telling me I needed to include the log file like the site said!!!!! What an extreme nightmare it's been. Had all sorts of fun with the HP drive I had before the matshita. Players that were supposed to play the +R disc would not and one that wasn't actually did play it...and it was crap too and loved to crash mid-burn over and over. Anyway this setup seems to be working(with an external 120 gig usb 2.0 HD that actually works like a reg hd and plays the clips fine...thanks to the 8mb cache instead of the 2mb on the buslink I have). I'd appreciate any insight. Thanks...

Mike

 

[fplowman]

Its cause your burning AVI.. AVI is a good format but not compatible with all DVD players... Your software your using limits you i imagine by not giving you an MPEG 2 codec.. i use a Main Concept Codec. It is very good.. Then after rendering to MPEG 2 you would re render to DVD format.

hopefully im not telling you anything you already know.. ???

 

[fplowman]

You can use any authoring software with the DVD drive... Some have conflicts due to Hardware propriatary quirks i believe.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I thought I was supposed to capture in FULL DV AVI format and then use those files for what I want...including encoding to MPEG2 format. That is what the software is doing all day right? I'm using the best quality captures possible and letting the software convert them to DVD format.

I guess I wasn't exactly clear with what I was trying to say in the post was I. I'm not trying to burn the AVI files at all. It's encoding them to DVD format at various rates and there lies my problem. I should be able to get 2 hours at decent quality on the dvd but it's saying the top 7mbits/sec rate/quality is 1.5 dvds and only when I settle down to the CRAPPY 4mbits/sec does it say it will fit the whole 1hr 45 minutes on there. Makes no sense.

 

[fplowman]

your not trying to output material to dvd as an AVI file?? thats how i understood your posts...

Fred

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

I'm capturing in DV AVI then using those files to convert to DVD.

 

[fplowman]

Ok then you would capture then edit then render to MPEG2 then re render to DVD file protocols.. Am I not understanding something?? Sorry im trying to help :wink:

I think your leaving out the render edited material to MPEG2 step in the tiresome process... lol

Fred

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Thanks for the help as I surely need it. I guess it's working ok and fine but just not making sense. I capture in dv(avi). I use those clips and edit them how I want each chase and render this project as a brand new AVI file in the DV format so it's as good as it can be(3.5 megs/sec data). So now I have all my LARGE video files ready for goign to the DVD software. The software does all the remaing steps. Transcoding(to mpeg2), authoring, and burning the disc...probably leaving out some other step,but it does them all. Problem is I have just under 2 hours totall video to get on the disc in some fashion of DVD format. YOu can pic 3,4,5,6, or 7 mbits/sec to let it encode to. 4 is the highest/best I can go before it indicates it will take up more then the one dvd disc, but the video absolutely sucks. Maybe I'll just try nero and let it do all the steps and see how it looks on one disc. That or use the 7 mbits/sec and use 2 dvds everytime(which I shouldn't have to as I've seen many chase vids on dvd done at 2 hours a disc that looked just fine). I guess I was wondering what the hell others use to do this and do they all do a fine job at getting 2 hours of the best quality video source you can have to DVD dics. I've yet to accomplish this other then the standalone burner I have and it's been so-so.

 

[fplowman]

Mike I use VEGAS software.. this is up for debate but the consensus is among Vegas users of course that its the best.. The software kinda has a cult following unlike anything I have seen.

It will capture then you take those DV files and render them to an Mpeg 2 . Then you re render again to DVD format.. its a pian in the ass..

I find it difficult to believe that your software does all of that in one final step.. im not familiar with it.. Either way no matter what software your using thats the steps needed raw DV footage .. Edit.. render to MPEG 2 then re render to DVD format...

The confusion comes in where it allows you to capture I believe is what your saying in different quality AVI is that correct??

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Thanks, yeah I'm stuck with what I now own as I've already spent way too much on all this that I only use for chase highlights. I'd have to sell DVD's for $100 a peice to get my money back and get nothing for all the insane amount of time it's taken up.

I think alot of progams out there are setup to do all the steps it takes to make a dvd. I know this one is. I line up my avi edited videos on the page like I want and I can click on options above. One says DVD Qaulity Settings. In there you can select the bit rate. It says if you are using VHS as a source to use 3-5 mbits/sec and if you are using a DV source to use 5-7 mbits/sec. BUT. It then says I can't fit the totall 1 hr 45 min video with anything greater then 4 mbits/sec leaving my final dvd(which does play) looking like garbage. I should just burn some other rates and settle for 1hr on a dvd, but at the same time I know others aren't having to do this and was wondering if others had thoughts at all. Thanks again for taking the time. I think the pre-figured size thing is way off and it will probably let me get 2 hours of DVD video at the 6 or 7 mbits/sec rate on the disc. I just didn't want to waste another disc and 8-10 hours of encoding. Can't wait till I get this figured out, cause then I'll get to figure out how to set it up so I don't have to encode them all over every time. Will have to burn the image to the HD and I'm sure it'll be fun.