I have been trying to burn dvds for use in normal players for a friend that doesnt have a computer. The software i have is WinDVD Creator 2, which doesnt have the option as far as i can see, you can only do, 1 hour, 2 hour or various vcd. Also i have dvd santa, but it doesnt specifically say 120 min, 240 minute etc, it says high quality, medium and low quality. Also i don't think dvdSanta burns the disc either, i have nero. I read somewhere that standard dvd players can play the first three sizes of possible dvd video encoding which are 60 minute 120 minute and 240 minute, but not the bigger 360 or 480 minute options, only they can play on computer. So i have been trying to get the 240 minute way going, if anyone can help me please reply or e-mail, thanks!!! LDee
Oh Yeah I almost forgot, The whole thing I'm trying to do is burn various forms of video files I have downloaded, divx, xvid, mpg, wmv etc, onto dvd video disc in the 240 minute format that can be used in normal players, as stated above. WinDVD Creator 2 allows you to mix them up and put for instance a divx movie, followed by and mpg, followed by a wmv onto the one dvd video disc that plays in normal players but it just won't put it on 240 minute, and takes very long. All help much appreciated, thanks!! L D
You can author any dvd, up to about 12 gig, and then shrink it to fit on a dvdr. Running time is irellevant. At a low enough bitrate, you can put 16 hours onto one dvdr.
YO JIM, are you also saying that the hypothetical 16 hour, 10 hour, 7 hour or whatever, dvd, will play in an ordinary cheapo dvd player? (Aslong as it reads the discs you are using obviously, dvdr+, -, etc)
Providing the mpg's are mpeg-2, dvd spec, they should play in almost every newer player. Some older Toshiba and Sony's are fussy though. You can encode your files, to mpeg-2, at 352x240 aspect (known as 1/4 D1, totally DVD compliant) and because of the small frame size, use less bitrate, which makes them smaller. You can even use non-standard GOP's and other things, to reduce file sizes, while retaining acceptable quality. It all depends on how the files are encoded to mpeg-2. If they're spec, the'll work, regardless of how long they are, thus you can fit a bunch onto one dvdr, or simply author a BIG project, and then use DVDShrink. If it won't fit after shrinking it once, shrink it again. You will lose some quality, so it's better to encode the files properly to begin with, but there's NO reason that a downloaded 320x240 avi movie should take up a whole DVD. It's a waste.
Thanks for the post jim, Ive encoded a few files now using mainconcept into mpeg2. Now the thing im puzzled with is what i use to author the dvd? If im correct dvdSanta did the encoding and authoring (and burning if you want). Mainconcept just encodes and outputs to a mpeg file, what shall i use to encode into a finished, ready to burn, dvd disk? I'll try a few of the programs i have myself and see if i get any luck, im just thinking that they all encode into the dvd format themselves, so would i be wasting time by encoding twice. The disks i have encoded and used with DvdCreator 2 have not worked, one of the files on the disk was squashed into the middle of the screen (big top and bottom boarders). The others just didnt come out at all. Thanks !
There's a multitude of authoring programs. Some will re-encode your video, no matter what, and this is specifically what you DON'T want. Try Tmpgenc DVD Author, or DVDLab. Do not use Nervision Express. If you want free, there's a couple of those too, GUIforDVDAuthor and DVDAuthorGUI, both in the Tools section at www.videohelp.com
Ok i downloaded a fully working trial of TMPGEnc, I couldnt see anywhere how i could take my already encoded .mpg video's and just author, i could only see how to re-encode first. So becuase i didnt use that i took my four mpg videos and tried to burn them just using nero, i set the type to dvd-video and then dragged the four video files over to the compilation section, however the burn button never highlighted for use, nor could i access burn from the file menu. When i changed the dvd type to iso it then let me burn my compilation. Also nero would not let me burn another one of the freshly encoded mpg's becuase it said it was over 2gb and could only be udf format, would that work in a normal player? Anyway, the disc i did burn sort of worked, 3 of the 4 played but on all the sound was out of sync. I checked back on the freshly encoded mpg files and they played out of sync on the computer too, however the originals do not. Is this a problem with the way i used mainconcept to encode? In mainconcept i set the mpeg type of all of them to mpeg 2, should i have set it to dvd? I did it to mpeg 2 because you said this was standard and easy to read for dvd players. Also why did one not play at all? If i manage to fully author the (hopefully synced) mpeg's to a proper dvd file or folder (not sure what that is even, iso image?) will i be able to play it first on the computer and see if all the files will work on a normal player before wasting a disc? Thanks so much for your help so far RebootJim, L D
PS: i installed the codec pack you recommended (after unistalling the others) and i have GSpot if i need to check anything.
To break it down gently, video encoders suck at audio. If the original audio is not 48khz, or is vbr mp3, then anything can, and usually does, go wrong. Extract audio using virtualdub(mod), to .wav, full processing. Use that .wav as the audio source when encoding. If that fails, extract the .wav, then encode only the video to m2v/mpv in mainconcept. Transcode audio to 48khz AC3 in ffmpeggui. Join during authoring. What you downloaded is the tmpgenc plus encoder, which does the same thing as mainconcept, but much slower. You should have downloaded Tmpgenc DVD Author...aka Tsunami DVD author. You got lucky that anything you burned, worked. Nero can't figure out how to author an mpg. It's for burning. Nervision Express is for authoring, but it sucks, and I don't recommend using it.
Ok, so basically, are you saying i'm not going to be able to convert files to dvd with the sound synced unless i encode the video and audio seperatly? I think i might just give up and wait untill cheap dvd players can play all types of file instead of wasting so many discs. Thanks for your help anyway Jim!
It's up to you. If you want mediocre dvd's, then wait. If you want some quality, and are willing to learn, there are free programs that will do everything you need. Didn't anyone ever tell you to test your compilations on a DVDRW?
I always assumed dvd rw would not work in most players, i think i tried it once and it didn't. Sorry in a rush, will post again later!
Don't assume, unless you've read the manual for YOUR player. Most will play DVDRW. If you can't find the manual/not sure, check for your model number, in the DVD Players section at http://www.videohelp.com and it will tell you all the format's it will play.
rebootjim, I've attempted to create a 10 hour DVD. I noticed that you said encode the files as MPEG 2 at 352 X 240. I used Mainconcept to encode the Mpeg 2 files and recieved tyhe following error: MPEG muxing V122:Invalid video progressive sequence(0)/vertical size(240) combination for DVD, progressive sequence should be 1 Error in converting: The parameter is incorrect I used the DVD as the "MPEG type" and changed the size from 720 X 480 to 352 X 240 using the "Details" option. When I used MPEG 2 as the "Mpeg Type" it converted but was not a compliant file when I used DVDAuthorGUI. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Don't use progressive, use interlaced. DVDAuthorGUI only accepts full D1 video, so you get the error. It's a fault of the program. Most other authoring programs will also choke on half and quarter D1 aspects, yet they are fully DVD compliant. Try authoring with DVDLab, which will show you a warning, but it will still author them and they'll play fine.
