My Disc Is Taking AGES to Burn - why?

[gelly]

Hi
my 3.7GB project is taking ages to burn in DVD Workshop. It's only done 13% in 6 hours!!
Any help on why this is happening?
Thanks.

[Terry Stetler]

First you need to fill out your system specs in your user profile.

It's also not helpful that you haven't told us what format your sources are in; frame size & codec and your video system (NTSC, PAL etc.), MPEG export settings etc..

Absent this info we may as well get out the tea leaves & tarot cards.

[gelly]

Sorry about that, but I havent been using the program long, and this is the first ever time I've burned a DVD!
OK, some my files that I am burning are PAL DivXAVI's and others just PAL AVI's, I used DivX Codec to create some of the AVIs, and I'm using a DVD+R disc to burn them.
I'm not sure what you mean by frame size but I think it's 4:3 as opposed to widescreeen. I don't know what my MPEG export settings are, how would I find that out?
Could it be that I am using different AVI file formats and this is why its taking so long?

[Devil]

Your problem is 100% due to DivX or XviD AVIs. Long encoding times are a sine qua non of these, and other lossy, highly compressed, formats. You may find that the quality of the results is poor, into the bargain.

The reason for this is there is minimal information to reconstitute each frame because the compression has lost, so the encoder has to search back and forth on each frame to try and work out what each pixel is meant to be. This is in contrast to, say, DV or MJPEG, where each frame is self-contained and does not need to refer to many other frames. These formats have much lower compression ratios, of course.

My recommendation is to avoid highly compressed formats like the plague. If you shoot in DV, stick with DV right through to the encoding to MPEG-2.

[gelly]

Thanks very much for the reply.

I have a problem now then:

I need to render 3 files together - a movie (AVI 498MB) with its opening/closing credits (AVI 114MB and 105MB). I tried to do this in Stoik and it was such a huge file with an AVI output, which is why I chose DivX AVI for the output instead of normal AVI in the options. What other program could I use to join these AVIs together without the result being so huge? (A freeware one is prefered.)

[Devil]

Can't really help you because you don't tell us what codec is being used for your "normal" AVI. There is no such thing as a "normal" AVI. AVI is a wrapper format and can cover everything from uncompressed, lossless compressed (e.g., HuffYUV), low-loss compressed (e.g., DV, MJPEG) through to lossy compressed (e.g., MPEG-4, DivX). The file size depends on many factors, as well as the codec, such as the frame size, the colour depth, the audio format etc.

The most popular compression technique used today is DV, but I fear your original files are also in DivX as your movie would last only about 2¼ minutes in DV format and your opening/closing credits ~½ min each if compressed with the DV codec. Whereas, the credits may be OK, it's a mighty short movie! You can count roughly 220 Mb/minute for DV Type 1.

The best way of joining up your three files would be to use a NLE such as VideoStudio (entry level) or MediaStudio Pro (prosumer) and rendering from the timeline to your DVD-compliant MPEG-2, which you can bring into WS2. You can download either, free of charge (trial versions), from the Ulead site. But, if any of them are in DivX, you may well be back to square one, as this will require a special plug-in that may not work with the trial version.

[gelly]

How can I find out what codec was used to create the AVI's or what make-up they are? So I need to make sure all the AVI's are of the SAME make-up?

I think the best thing I can do is re-rip the AVI film I have to match the titles/credits AVIs. I used Windows Movie Maker to make the AVI credits but I can't find out which codec was used to make them.
What is the best codec to use out of these on my drop-down list in my ripper program for the AVI film?
- Microsoft Video 1
- Intel Indeo Video 4.5
- Indeo Video 5.10
- DivX 5.2.1
- Microsoft MPEG4 VKI
- Microsoft Windows Medi Video

Sorry if I sound so clueless - its because I AM!

[Devil]

I wouldn't really recommend any of these but, of them, Indeo 5 isn't too bad on condition:
- you set the quality setting high
- you set the full frame size - 720 x 576 (PAL) or 480 (NTSC)
- you set the frame rate at 25 (PAL) or 29.97 (NTSC)
- you set the key frame every 5 frames
- you set upper field first (usually: this may vary according to the source and the method of capturing.)

What would be much better would be to find a good MJPEG codec, such as PICvideo, or a DV Type 1 codec, such as Microsoft. These are both direct compression types.

WARNING: there exists on the web many sites offering codec bundles: do not download them, they can upset your system, causing crashes etc.

[gelly]

Hi - thanks so much for your helpful replies.

I have decided to start again. I love using DVD Workshop, so am determined to get these files to work properly in it! So I'll start from scratch:

I have a DVD of a camcorder film that was transferred onto DVD via a Pansonic DVD recorder. I want to merge this film with AVI titles I made in Windows Movie Maker.

1. What is the best program/codec to use to rip the film off the DVD? (I was previously using DVD2AVI Ripper but this will not work properly using Indeo codecs for some reason, but will work ok with DivX Codecs - so now I'm looking for an alternative program).

2. Once it's ripped, what is the best program/codec to use to combine the it with the titles made seperately with Windows Movie Maker? (I have been using Stoik)

Once this is done I hope to finally build a new DVD in Workshop!

[Devil]

I'd say the obvious answer, albeit not cheap, is Ulead MSP8: it'll handle both questions as it has a DVD capture to MPEG-2, can do the titling, offers an enormous variety of possibilities and can combine everything. It is also great for setting chapter points, compatible with WS2. Try the freebie trial version.

I'm not sure how many of these features are also available in VS10, which is a lot cheaper. Perhaps someone else can answer you. Its learning curve is shorter than MSP8.