Okay, as the title says, I'm new to the wonderful world of DVD burning and authoring. My current confusion is this: I am transferring some VHS movies to DVD and have them on my computer already. They are 45 min each, and obviously fairly low quality. I used DVDStyler to make a simple menu and, despite the 120min limit on a dvd5, I put all 4 movies in and made an image. The resulting ISO is only 4.3 GB, so can I burn this to a dvd5 even though there is an extra hour of video in it, or is data size irrelevant in this situation? I'm sure this is a very newb question, but I am very newb in this area. I never really got all that in-depth with making Audio CDs either so this never came up then and I'm assuming that it's the same kind of deal. I just don't want to coaster a DVD due to foolishness on my part!
Ok, I have ImgBurn, I just wasn't sure about the extra length. I didn't know DVD Flick did menus. I'll have to check that out as DVDStyler's menu options are a bit limited (can't have custom buttons so far as I can tell). Too bad Windows DVD Maker only looks at the length and not size of the videos, it makes some nice looking menus, although you can't customize it as much as I would like. Anyway, thanks for the answer...another quick question, a finished/closed DVD+RW can still be rewritten right?
DVD+RW discs don't need finalizing and that option is not normally available for these discs. And yes, they can be erased and rewritten many times.
As for menus, I like to use TMPGEnc DVD Author 3. This program has a Menu Wizard that includes ready made menu templates or you can customize with your own pics, button placement, action, and sound. You are also able to preview your working menu as you go. The program also enables you to convert all avi. including Divx to DVD, create chapters, shrink to DVD5, and even burn your DVD. It's not free but if you have the need for a true all-in-one authoring program that's easy to use, this is your baby. I've tried all the rest and keep coming back to this one.
I'm definately going to have to check out TMPGEnc DVD Author 3, that sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! Couple more questions, and hopefully I'll be set for a while. I made a couple movies with DVDStyler, on DVD+Rs, gave one to a friend and kept the other. When I tried to play it, it errored on both my DVD players, but works on the computer. My friend said not only did his play, but it played bettter than ANY burnt DVD he's ever tried to play. I checked the manuals for my players, and one said it wouldn't play DVD+R/RW, but the other said it would play anything you put in except a VCD. I made another DVD on the same media, but used Windows DVD Maker (didn't have any other app at the time)and it plays. What could've been different about the first two compared to the third that played on a generic pos DVD player perfectly, but not on my Sony? Does anyone know where I could get ahold of a firmware update for a Panasonic DMR-E55 DVD Recorder to make it not detect VHS copy protection? and/or allow use of DVD+Rs?
As to your recorder, check this out: http://www.fixya.com/tags/dmr_e55 Might be time to invest in an upgrade.
Yeah, I know it's not a very good Recorder, but hey, it was a freebie so I'm not complaining. Anyway, I'm selling it off for $35 to a friend so I can get an HDMI cable to connect the computer to the TV so I don't even need a DVD player in the living room anymore. I just wanted to beef it up if at all possible first. I checked out TMPGEnc DVD Author 3, that's pretty tight, looking forward to using it! Thanks again for the suggestion!! One more question popped into mind a while ago...what does everyone recommend as far as DVDs and bypassing copy protection? Again, I appreciate all the input everyone has been giving me so far! I've seen some forums where questions like this get pretty nasty responses. Glad to not encounter that here!
