Hi, To fill in some background, I have and NEC2500A 8x burner and the Nero6 OEM software that came with it. I have purchased the mpeg2 encoder for $25 that I suppose you need—and in fact did need it in order to view a DVD. So, on to the questions. There’s basically two disc burning applications that came with Nero6 OEM they are: 1) NeroExpress: Which wants either a .IFO, .VOB, .BUP, or VIDEO_TS file. And 2) NeroVisionSE: Which will take any old video file. Now, my understanding of NeroExpress is that you need to have the video file in the appropriate format (.IFO, etc) and this application is just a one-step method of burning a DVD. This is done by placing the appropriate files into the red VIDEO_TS folder My understanding of NeroVisionSE is this is where you do your transcoding and create chapters and titles. BTW: I’m still not sure what transcoding means. Let’s start with a some quick questions: 1) What if I DON’T want to use Nero as my avi to mpeg encoder? I have MainConcept plugin for Premiere. Should I encode to m2v or mpg? My MainConcept encoder can do either (I’m not sure what the differences are). 2) NeroExpress does not want to work with my mpeg2 file. Do I need to take the mpeg2 file that I encoded with MainConcept and copy it into a folder (that I create) named VIDEO_TS, and then add it to the VIDEO_TS folder in NeroExpress? A folder within a folder? Or, are you just changing the file extension .mpg to .IFO, or .VOB (that doesn’t seem right, though). BTW, I know that VIDEO_TS is a folder inside the application, I’m talking about some kind of system spoof to get Nero to accept an mpeg2. Here’s what I’ve done so far. 1) I created an MPEG2 of my movie from MainConcept. 2) I started up NeroVisionSE and created chapters and titles for that movie. 3) I went through the rest of the set up and it asked me what bitrate to encode the video. But hold on a minute! Didn’t I just encode it already in step 1? It seems as though NeroVisionSE takes all files no matter what format and re-encodes them. Bad ju ju—it takes away your ability to do VBR, and all that other razzamatazz. 4) I got to the end of the process and hit burn and the program just kept running and running. Certainly, if the program was trying to encode the whole video, AGAIN, it would reasonably take 8 hours on my system. (Meaning—it took me 8hours for my system to take the avi file from the Premiere timeline and create the mpeg2 file). So…here’s the meat of the question. I want titles and chapters. NeroExpress doesn’t seem to be able to give them to me, ie, there’s no option in the application to put them in. In contrast, NeroVision seems to be ‘re-doing’ my encoding work. What will NeroExress burn if I copy my mppeg2 file into a folder that I create and name VIDEO_TS and drag it into NeroExpress? Where do chapters and titles get added in? Is there a way to stop NeroVisionSE from trying to re-encode my video? Is the solution to put the file into a VIDEO_TS folder and use NeroVisionSE? So, bottomline, I’d like to do my own encoding AND put chapters/titles in. Whew! Lot’s of questions, but I think I’ve been pretty thorough. PLEASE correct my assumptions above if they’re wrong. I shooting in the dark here. Thanks a million! Matt
You need to convert the mpeg2 into VOBs and make some IFOs to go with them (and this is what goes in the VIDEO_TS folder) There are a range of apps that can do this (read the guides, tab at top of page) You can create the mpeg2s with any encoder you like.
Thanks for your reply. So to clarify: 1)I need to create these IFO's and VOB's in a SEPARATE application--which I will read about in the guides. 2)I need to NOT use NeroVision, and only use NeroExpress to burn the DVD once it's properly VOB'd and IFO'd in a separate application. #2 is because NeroVision cannot separate the process of VOBing and IFOing from mpeg2 encoding? Is there a quick answer for this question: What's a .BUP file?
1) You can do it in one app if the one you choose can do it. DVD Architect will do it all DVD lab will take DVD compliant mpegs and you can make a menu and chapters and create VOBs. IFOedit will create IFOs for VOBs or will author basic DVDs from m2vs and AC3s 2) correct a BUP is a backup of an IFO I have no idea why the DVD structure requires them but it does
One last tiny clarification. DVDLab wants mpeg2 files to have which extension? mpg or m2v? And, DVDLab will create everything, right? VOB, IFO, and BUP? The reason I ask is your mention of IFOEdit, and its ability to create IFO's made me think: "Hey, do I need both DVDlab AND IFOEdit to get the authoring job done?"
DVDlab will take either but it will demux the mpeg first into m2v and mpa (or whatever the audio is) they must be DVD compliant though or it won't work. IFOedit will simply create VOBs and IFOs from m2v and mpa (or whatever the audio is, not DTS though) files. You cannot create a menu though. It will also recreate IFOs from a set of VOBs if you don't have the IFOs or they are not correct. It's primary function is editing IFOs, stripping out extras and splitting films to two discs though and as such it is a limited authoring tool. It's freeware and you will need it at some point so you may as well have it. There are other authoring tools out there but I use DVD lab so I don't know how good or bad they are.
