Movie Factory 5- I get an error trying to burn AVI's

Tacosid · Post by **Tacosid** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:18 pm

Ok...I can burn a DVD using MPEG files, but when they play on a DVD player they are a little grainy. For whatever reason, every time I try to burn a disk using AVI files, I get a generic windows error during the first steps. (while the program is converting the files to the title)

I have done everything in my power to fix this and I can not figure it out.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:18 am

You cannot burn AVI files to DVD, they need to be converted to mpeg2 first.

Tacosid · Post by **Tacosid** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:23 am

When I convert them to MPeg2's the quality suffers big time.

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:39 am

What settings are you using? When I convert, the same goes for almost all the others here, the quality does not suffer too much.

The fact of the matter is this: If it is DVD you want, it's mpeg2 you need, no if's no but's.

What do your AVI's contain to start with? DV from a digital camcorder (not likely) DivX, mpeg4, Xvid, what? If you are not working with DV-AVI but with highly compressed video files captured from broadcasts, downloaded from the web etc., you may need to live with the quality reduction or only watch the original files on the PC. After all, in the case of highly compressed downloaded video files and such, that's all they were meant to be used for.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:18 am

AVI Files - AVI is not a single format... It's a "container format", and it can contain DV, DivX, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, etc.

MPEG-2 files - MPEG-2 is much more compressed than DV, but with a high-enough bitrate, the quality can be quite good. DVDs use MPEG-2, and a bitrate of 6000kbps can give you 90 minutes of "commercial DVD quality" video and Dolby AC3 audio on a single-sided DVD.

If your files are AVI/DV from a digital comcorder you shouldn't have any trouble converting them to high-quality MPEG-2 for a DVD. If you are converting from AVI/DivX to MPEG-2, you are going to get some quality loss.

In fact, all common video compression methods are lossy. Some are more lossy than others. The video is degraded to some extent with each encode or re-code. A high MPEG-2 bitrate will minimize the quality loss.

Higher bitrate = higher quality = more disc space = lower compression = less playing time.

Lower bitrate = lower quality = less disc space = higher compression = more playing time.

Once you have an MPEG-2 file, you can prevent Movie Factory from re-coding it (and further degrading it) by checking the box under Project Settings that says: Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG files.

Tacosid · Post by **Tacosid** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 2:26 am

Thanks for all of the input guys....ok here is what i am doing.

I have been working on a DVD for the karate school I run...I have been stringing files together using windows movie maker and then converting those files using AVS Video converter. If I convert to AVI (one of the options) The DVD looks great.....the one in one thousand times I get it to burn without an error. If I convert to MPEG2....I can burn without a problem, but I end up with a lower quality.

Is this any help?

Thanks again!

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:18 am

Sorry, I do not know your AVS Video converter and can't comment on this.

Where do your source files come from? What are the file properties of the "AVI" files generated by your device?