DVD burning noobie needs help

[Quasimodo]

So after reading all the reviews here and abroad I purchased an NEC 3520A DVD burner. I had an AVI file that is about 700mb (i think its a divx copy of a dvd).
I used Roxio DVD builder to make a menu and selected the file and started burn process. Something like 100 hrs later (well it seemed that long, more likely at least 6hrs) it said it was done.
I selected NTSC file format and best quality settings which is MPEG2 720x480 w dolby AC-3

After the 1/2 day file burn process I walked over to my settop dvd player and of course it doesn't play. Won't even recognize that there is a dvd in the player.

So now I do what I should have done before. Ask here what is the best program for building DVD's and/or what did I do wrong that it wont play in DVD player.

Thanks in advance for the help,
Q

 

[sswingle]

A long encoding time is normal. It SOUNDS like you did everything ok, although I have never used Roxio. Have you tried using other burned DVDs in your player? It's possible it doesn't like burned DVDs, or it only likes DVD+ or DVD- and you are using the wrong media.

 

[Quasimodo]

I haven't tried other burned DVD's, can see if any of my friends have one. I am using TDK DVD-R for project. Might it be the media thats the problem?

 

[Nothinman]

Transcoding from whatever compression was used in the AVI to MPEG2 for the DVD will take a long time, there's no way around it.

 

[Quasimodo]

so more than likely im looking at a media issue with my DVD player then. Any suggestions on not so expensive media to use?

 

[Albis]

it's not about how expensive your media is. it really depends on what your player will read. i'm lucky that my dvd player likes +R and -R

you should try a +R and see if it works

check out hot deals for hot deals

 

[modedepe]

Originally posted by: Quasimodo
so more than likely im looking at a media issue with my DVD player then. Any suggestions on not so expensive media to use?

Text

You might try those. That's what I'm using right now, and they've worked in the three or four DVD players I've tried so far.

 

[imported_fatal]

Its not the media, It takes a long time to convert an .avi to DVD format(mpeg)

As far as programs, try Nero...I never liked Roxio too much

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
Transcoding from whatever compression was used in the AVI to MPEG2 for the DVD will take a long time, there's no way around it.

Yes, big difference there. If I transcode a heavily compressed XviD file to MPEG2, it can slog along at less than 5 frames per second. If I'm working with a huge Huffyuv file, then it goes much faster, close to 20 frames per second.

I use Ulead Videostudio to make MPEG2's, and Virtualdub to do the AVI file work.


Huffyuv is a lossless video compression format. It'll make a file 50GB or more for like an hour and a half of video. But the compression method itself is also very fast, both in encoding and decoding.

And yes, try different media. My DVD player only likes the - media, no + whatsoever. It'll read DVD-R just fine, so long as it's good quality and burned at a slow speed. The only DVD-RW's I've gotten it to read are Maxell brand, and are labeled Version 1.1. Anything else, and it just says "no disc".

 

[Quasimodo]

Thanks for all the advice. Last question. I tried the upgraded firmware from Liggy & Dee, the last part of the upgrade has a setting for book type. What is a booktype?