Need Help making DVDs!

[BigGator]

Now that I have a DVD burner - my first experiment was to try to get some stuff that I recorded in Sage burned to a DVD.

I had a 2-hour show, recorded at high quality (file size ~6.2G) that I wanted to use as my test. After editing out commercials - it's about 1:35 - should be easy to fit that on a DVD, right?

So can anyone tell me what the heck I need to do here? WinDVD Creator only gave me the option of leaving it in HQ or lowering it significantly (to an unwatchable compression level)... TMPGEnc won't open a file already encoded as Mpeg2, apparently - I need to re-encode this to DVD standard, I guess... but what to use?

I've also tried VirtualDubMod - which had some nice filtering to improve the picture quality - but when I went to save it, it was going to take something like 16 hours to encode (on a P4 3.2 with 1G of ram!)

Thanks in advance.
"-)

[eruji]

first, check what quality you have it set to in sage? hopefully you chose one of the DVD settings because your recording will already come out in native dvd resolution. If sage is setup to record vcd or svcd quality then resolution of the file will not be dvd standard, which will require a reencode. Which can take some considerable time.

if your recording was done with sage set to one of the dvd settings, then it should just be a matter of getting the filesize down to fit on a dvd-r and using any dvd authoring software to burn it. Im only familiar with Ulead dvd movie factory. With that you just add it, create menus and such and burn, very quick.

it's about 1:35 - should be easy to fit that on a DVD, right?

Doesnt matter, is it under 4.7 GB? if its not then you will have to go through a reencoding process, which can be very time consuming.

[nielm]

I use VideoRedo to cut (it also tidies up the stream, and can resync audio), and then TMPGEnc DVDAuthor to create the DVD filesystem on disk (including creating menus, chapters)

Both of these work on the original stream without the need to decode and re-encode, which makes them quite fast. I can go from raw MPG file, to a reasonably professional looking DVD in about an hour (of which about 45 mins is waiting time!)
Both have trial versions available...

I then test it using a software DVD player (PowerDVD, WinDVD) before burning.

DVDShrink may also be an option to lower the MPG filesize without a very slow decode/re-encode, but I have not yet used it...

TMPGEnc DVD Author can do cutting, but I have seen it put some corruption on frames, and sometimes lose audo sync... VideoRedo is just brilliant and fast!

Some other DVD authoring programs don't seem to realize that the file is already DVD-compliant MPEG2, and feel the need to decode/re-encode (dumb, and slow)

Websites that helped me when I was starting:
www.doom9.org
www.dvdrhelp.com

[fidget]

I have started using DVDShrink and I highly recommend it. I have been able to generate a 5.6 GB DVD using Ulead movie maker and then ran the result throgh DVD Shring to shrink it down to 4.4 GB and then burn it to disk (it integrates with Nero).

[Ralphjb]

Nielm's advice is excellent and I second it.

A while back I was using TMPGEnc DVDAuthor quite a bit and found it easy to use and quick. Video Redo came out since and I have read a number of positive posts about it. I did run in to issues once in a while with TMPGEnc DVDAuthor and I understand that use of Video Redo first will avoid these annoyances. DVDRHelp.com is an excellent place for help and info.

[BigGator]

I'm using DVD Standard (3.25G/hr) - so it should work fine...
but apparently WinDVD Creator only seemed to give me options for Standard and Extra Long Play - not Long Play (2.5G/hr), which would have fit my 1:35 onto a 4.7G Dvd.

I tried the demo of Video Redo - which would be great, but the demo limits you to a 30-min file... so I may have to buy it to see if it really fits my needs.

I've been told that Nero/Dvdshrink works very well...

What a pain in the butt.
"-)

[m1ketuck]

i use DVD author to create the dvd/menus and dont worry about the size, then load it up in dvdshrink to make it the correct size and burn it

ive found this to be the most hastle free way of doing things

[BigGator]

Is that TMPGEnc DVD Author?

[m1ketuck]

yes its a great program an worth every penny, can create motion video menus aswell, i think they do a 14 day trial

[BigGator]

OK
I just set up the trial of Tmpgenc DVD Author - created a 'DVD" on the hard drive - and used DVD Shrink to create an ISO of the proper size...

The video looks GREAT in my DVD player - but I get no sound. Does a typical set-top DVD player need to see LPCM audio? or can most of them deal with MPEG audio?

LPCM is HUGE comparitively, so the video will have to be a lot more compressed to make it fit... but currently, I can't get sound to work (so far).

Thanks!!
"-)

PS - my DVD player is a Pioneer DV-C505

[fidget]

Originally posted by BigGator
OK
I just set up the trial of Tmpgenc DVD Author - created a 'DVD" on the hard drive - and used DVD Shrink to create an ISO of the proper size...

The video looks GREAT in my DVD player - but I get no sound. Does a typical set-top DVD player need to see LPCM audio? or can most of them deal with MPEG audio?

LPCM is HUGE comparitively, so the video will have to be a lot more compressed to make it fit... but currently, I can't get sound to work (so far).

Thanks!!
"-)

PS - my DVD player is a Pioneer DV-C505

The Hauppauge PVR cards generate multiplexed audio/video files so there isn't anything that you need to do. I use MPEG2VCR to edit the files, but that shouldn't make any difference. Could it be the trial of DVD Author? ULEAD DVD MovieFactory came free with my DVD recorder, so that's what I use to author DVDs.

[BigGator]

The sound is definitely there - if I plug the burned DVD into a computer, it works just fine using any old DVD player software - I just seem to get no sound from the set-top box.

Let me dig into the set-top DVD player and see if there is some setting to allow for MPEG audio playback..
"-)

[stanger89]

My Pio Elite has an option for MPEG->PCM or MPEG->MPEG audio so that could be your problem.

[BigGator]

WOOHOO!!

That was it - there was a setting in my DVD player to do either direct output of MPEG streams or MPEG->PCM..

Switching that worked like a CHAMP!!

Thanks for the help guys!
"-)

[Crowdx42]

A note on DVD long play, in DVD apps this is Half D1 resolution, i.e 320x240 and so is a not very good quality for a decent tv to play back.
Ulead does some nice apps, though they get expensive, also another app is DVD Lab which like TMPGEnc allows a user to put SVCD resolution onto a dvd. Some players will paly this xdvd format and it is great for tv episodes, great picture quality and normally at least 4 hours upwards per dvd, I used this format last year for the Showtime series Dead like me, got the whole season onto 3 dvds.
Try the format on a rewritable first and see if it works.
Patrick

[BigGator]

Thanks for all the tips!!

I've been working with digital audio for years (since the Windows 3.1 days, actually) - and this is my first real foray into messing with video..

Give me audio any day.

I guess it's a matter of finding the tools that work for you. I tried NeroVision Express before trying DVD Author... it filled my free space on my C drive with temp files.. which doesn't sound that hard except that I have almost 100G free!!

The tools I tried last night - DVD Author and DVD Shrink seemed to work great. I guess I could also use something like VirtualDubMod to do some sharpening, etc - though it seems to take a LONG time to process.
"-)

[Crowdx42]

Well Virtual Dub was really made to work with video files not mpeg2, there is a version which does mpeg2 but it is not really as good as TMPGEnc, TMPGEnc has filters in it that can sharpen and do color adjustments. If you are re-encoding something, the best way is to use multipass variable bit rate, this means that the app scans several times through the footage, looking at the frames which are slow moving against fast moving frames and assigning compression appropriately against this, i.e. slow moving high compression, fast moving low compression, this way you get the best picture vs compression compromise.
And finally yes, video editing takes FOREVER and is very cpu intensive, every filter you add in TMPGEnc adds a lot more time to the final render. Personally I think the best way is to make as high a quality file as possible via Sage and then shrink with DVD Shrink or DVD One2One. Another good tool for getting files to this stage if you have a straight stream and just need it converted to dvd compliant format is IfoEdit. Two good resource sites are Doom9 and VCD Help , both of which give great guides to all one needs to know about encoding etc.
Patrick

[BigGator]

I couldn't get TMPGEnc (the free version) to open an MPEG2 file at all..

Did I miss something?

Does TMPGEnc DVD Author also have filters? if so I guess I missed that part.
"-)

[Crowdx42]

Yes it gets a little messy, my recollection is that you need an app called dvd2avi and then this streams to TMPGEnc, this way TMPGEnc is streamed an avi file on the fly and so no big decompressed file on the drive. TMPGEnc is the best "cheap" encoder out there, if you have $2500 to drop down, then CinemaCraft Encoder is the business, VERY fast and great quality, it has to do the same as TMPGEnc though, i.e. stream through dvd2avi when reencoding mpeg files, both these apps are great quality though, after that the quality goes down and re-encoding an already encoded mpeg file starts to show in the finished dvd.
Check out the links I posted, lots of more experienced users there and plenty of help.
Patrick

[BigGator]

I've been trying to read up on videohelp.com - but they need help. That is one of the most user-unfriendly sites I've ever seen... very difficult to find what I'm looking for. Once you find the article you need - it's great.. but the navigation and search over there just stinks.

I'll try the dvd2avi trick with TMPGenc.
Thanks!!
"-)