Just trying to burn MPG file to DVD

[eurok75s]

I got MF4 with a new Pioneer DVR R100 burner. Both installed just fine but when I try to select a MPG file, a 1 hour program copied from TIVO and converted to MPG using DirectShow Dump utility, it takes several minutes for it to select the file and sometimes I get a Program Not Responding. I'm using the DVD Copy function, DVD Video format, Add video files, selecting a file on my hard drive. I'm using DVD-R and DVD-RW discs and get the same from both.

When it does select the file it lets me go through the set up to burn it but gives me a message that it will take a long time to render this request. After about a minute or two, it freezes. I got a DVD Burner so I could put more on one disc than I could on my old CD burner but I also thought it would burn quickly. How long should it take MF4 to burn 1 hour to a DVD-R or DVD-RW 4x disc?

Help! I'm new to DVD burning and just want to copy files to DVD to play at my girlfriends house. What am I missing? Thanks.

[Ron P.]

Hi Eurok75s, welcome to the forums..

It could take anywhere from about 30 min to an eternity, depending on several variables.

1. You say that you try to select a MPEG file. What type of MPEG file is it? If you can get it into MF4, right click on it, and select properties, Post them here...

2. Recording a movie from a TIVO, the files could be MPEG1, MPEG2 (which could be a DVD Compliant file, and that's very important), or some other compressed format. What was the format before you converted it to MPEG?

3 I'm not familiar with the Direshow Dump Utility, I suspect it is a conversion program.

4. So how did you get the file into your computer?

5. When you see the message "This will take some time..." then what happens is, the video file is not DVD Compliant and it needs to re-encode it. When you are using a MPEG file, which is a lossy format, and it needs to be re-encoded, then you are going to suffer loss of quality, and may experience Out of Sync issues (audio lags behind video). If the format is a highly compressed format like, DivX, Xvid, MPEG4, then it will take forever to render the file.

6. Generally if your project, files match, and you are using DVD-Compliant MPEG2, the burn process should take less then 1 hr.

Hope that helps..

Ron P.

[rdsatkaycee]

vido, you say"When you are using a MPEG file, which is a lossy format, and it needs to be re-encoded, then you are going to suffer loss of quality, and may experience Out of Sync issues (audio lags behind video)."
Is there any way around this? I'm using MF 4 and when it converts vhs, it converts to Mpeg and yes seems like loss of quality and sync problems if any editing at all.
Thanks,

[Ron P.]

DVDMF 4, is primarily a DVD authoring program, and it offers very little editing capability. So to what extent do you want to edit? You should be alright if you are just wanting to add menus, titles, chapters to make your DVD.

1. Since you are recording movies/shows from your TIVO, and you are going to burn those to a DVD, and you are converting those to MPEG format, make sure that the MPEG files are DVD compliant. By DVD Compliant I mean if you are located in North America where NTSC is the standard then you MPEG file should be:

MPEG2, 720 x 480 NTSC, LPCM audio or Dolby Digital 2.0 Frame rate 29.97 fps.

For PAL it would be:
MPEG2, 720 x 576, PAL, MPEG Layer 2 audio, or Dolby Digital, Frame rate: 25 fps.

Those are the basic settings for DVD-Compliant MPEG files. If you maintain the same properties, for your files, from capture to edit to burn then you should not have a great deal of problems, and burning your DVD should not take very long.

When you are ready to burn your video you can burn to your hard drive by deselecting the Burn to Disc, and selecting the Create DVD Folders or Create ISO image file. This way you can view your final video to check for problems. Also when doing so make sure to have the Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG files and the Treat MPEG audio as non-DVD compliant checked. This way it should not re-encode it.

There is a wealth of information that SJJ1805 has assembled in the Tutorials section. Please visit it and see everything that has been compiled to make creating DVDs easier and more fun...

Hope that helps ya'

Ron P.

[rdsatkaycee]

The problems are typically when cutting and splicing other bits and pieces to movies that have been converted from vhs, thanks

[eurok75s]

Vidoman, thanks for your help. Here's the details on the converted TIVO file:

File format MPEG-2, file size 1,775,426 KB, Duration 3898.966 seconds, Video type MPEG-2 Video, total frames 116.852, attributes 24 Bits 480x480 4:3, frame rate 29.970 frames/sec, data rate 3500 kbps. I hope you can help.

DirectShow Dump is a conversion utility that unwraps the video file from the TIVO format. The format before conversion is .TIVO.

I hope you can help me. Thanks.

[Ron P.]

Everything looks good Except the size. NTSC DVD compliant MPEG2 size is 720 x 480. When you transcode the video from TIVO to MPEG does DirectShow Dump allow you to set the resolution/frame size to 720 x 480?

The only other thing is maybe your data rate could be higher, around 4500, however that is not mandatory.

What is real important, in DVDMF is that your settings are identical from start to finish.

Ron P.

[eurok75s]

DirectShow Dump does not allow me to change the frame size at all.

Do you know how I can do that?

Thanks.