Burning to a DVD disk

[Tosh McCaber]

Just getting into transferring movies from my camcorder to a DVD disc. As a first experiment, I have downloaded a clip from my camcorder via Pinnacle Sudio8, and it is now saved on the computer as a 2.9Gb .avi file.

My question is- if I transfer this file onto a DVD disk via my (new) LG DVD drive, will the resulting (DVD-R) disk play on my domestic (TV) DVD player?

PS I'll be using Nero to burn the DVD

Any answers will be appreciated.

[Romeo Tango Alpha]

I've been burning DVD's with Nero 6 and the Nero Vision plug-in for a while now (with an MSI DVDR/RW). I ALWAYS check the integrity of the copy on my home theatre system, and never had a problem yet.

OCCASIONALLY I will get a buffer caching error, but I can bypass that, on the fly, and it always works out.

Never had a failure yet... ;)

A word of advice for others - FORGET the Roxio / Adaptec software. It\'s JUNK!

Nero is almost foolproof / failsafe.

[Tosh McCaber]

Just answered my own question. I burned the disk- successfuly- so long as it's played back on the computer! However, when slotted into my domestic (Sony) DVD player, hooked to the TV, it reads "Disk Error".

I suspect that its the .avi format- anyone out there able to help? If the problem lies with the file type, what should I do/ have done to get it into a playable format for playing on the domestic DVD player??

[PPRuNeUser0171]

avi is not DVD!!

You need to convert the AVI into the DVD format, there are tools that can do this (http://www.topshareware.com/AVI-to-DVD-download-4954.htm) for example, there are many more pieces of software that can do this.

I've managed to convert a couple of video files to DVD so feel free to PM me for any assitance.

--
Gary.

[Tosh McCaber]

Thanks, williamsg, I'll give it a go.

Tosh

[spannersatcx]

Pinnacle Studio 8 writes to DVD format.

Burning an avi file to a DVD is not the same as a DVD, have a look at an original DVD and you will see the file structure on it.

Not sure that AVI is the best way to capture in the first place, either capture as mpg or DV (better quality). Then render the file to a folder on your pc as a DVD, that way you get all the vob files etc in a VIDEO_TS folder you can then check that the DVD format is correct and plays on your pc before burning the DVD.

I assume that your Sony can play DVD-R's, some are finicky and will play only +r's or -r's?

[cribble]

:O
When going through the learning process I used an R/W disc- it is a bit more expensive but a useful safety net for the (inevitable, in my case) errors that we make when doing stuff for the first time.

[Naples Air Center, Inc.]

Tosh McCaber,

Pinnacle Studio is the best software out there (under $500.00) for editing Video and creating DVDs.

Take Care,

Richard

[criticalmass]

Have recently built a custom machine for video editing and DVD production.

AMD Athlon 2.1Ghz mainboard, 1 Gb RAM, three Ultra-SCSI 1000RPM HDDS, Asus 9950 video card, Canopus ACEDVio capture card. Sony Vegas 4,. for editing, Sony DVD Architect for DVD authoring, Plextor 708A DVD burner, use Nero for burning DVDS.

Works well. Using Windows XP at moment.

After editing with Vegas, render edited production to MPEG file. The import MPEG file into DVD architect, convert into . IFO. BUP and .VOB files in VIDEO_TS directory, then use Nero to burn VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS directories onto DVD...and note the AUDIO_TS directory is always empty.

Now the crunch. Most domestic DVD players have firmware code to stop them playing any video DVD burnt on a computer...to prevent you playing pirated DVDs.

The solution? I bought the cheapest DVD player I could find...and it plays anything that will physically fit into the loading tray.

Currently using Princo DVD-R A-Grade 4X blank DVDs...failure rate about 2%.

Generally pleased with results. I am now archiving a thousand freefall camera jumps on S-VHS compact tape. A long job ahead of me.

[englishal]

Just to re-iterate what has already been said.....

DVDs use MPEG2 format, which AVI is not. You are using Studio 8 so if you drag the avi file into the storyboard (without or with editing), then wither create a DVD directly from Studio, or create the DVD files on your hard disk. These can then be burned with Nero.

www.vcdhelp.com is a good place to start if you're new to burning DVDs.

For DVD backups I use a cool program called DVD Shrink, which will manage to fit a dual layer disc, which typically contains more than 4.7GB of data, onto a standard DVD-+R with little or no loss of quality. Most movie disks are dual layer, and if backed up won't fit onto one standard DVD-R. The solution is to remove all the extras, additional sound tracks, languages etc..... Of course you're not allowed to break any copyrights, so you can only use this procedure for backing up your own discs.......;)

EA

[Tosh McCaber]

Guys, Sorry for the lack of response- my Internet has been down all weekend- server problems, I believe.

Thanks to all for your replies- most helpful. I'm about to give it another go, this time saving as DVD, (although I didn't notice that I could save to DVD first time around).

Thanks again

Tosh