Copying Files from Folder to DVD

twillyumz · Post by **twillyumz** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:25 pm

I am trying to copy a file from my hard drive. The file is only 799MB. When I copy it to the DVD it takes 12hrs or more. I am using Windows XP and I'm using DVD Movie Factory 5. Is this normal? What am I doing wrong? I have unchecked the MPEG file box. I am totally new to this. Can anyone help me with this?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 10:55 pm

So far, you have made every mistake there is to make. Just have a look at your post again but forget all that "YOU" know about what you have done. Just think about it like you read this somewhere and would like to help... Not much to go by, is there.

I could sit here now for an hour or so and list all the possibilities, but I have to work as well.

For starters, have a read at this post http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=8960, act upon the advice given, fill in your system details as explained and give us a bit more background on the type of file you want to burn for what purpose, to watch on a TV with a DVD player, watch on a PC in media player etc.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 1:57 am

The file is only 799MB. When I copy it to the DVD it takes 12hrs or more.

I'm going to guess DivX or Xvid... Long conversion times are normal with these highly compressed formats. If that's the case, there are a couple of things you can do to improve the situation.

I have unchecked the MPEG file box.

The box that says Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG files???? That doesn't do anything unless you feed Movie Factory a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file.

twillyumz · Post by **twillyumz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:07 am

The box that says Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG files???? That doesn't do anything unless you feed Movie Factory a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file.

That I'm not sure about. I know it recommended it in the manual. If I do not check the box I'm not able to fit the file. You know the bar at the bottom that tells you how big and long the file is. It's in read towards the end. When I check that box I'm able to change the speed? It gives me the options of SP,GG etc. Do you know what I'm talking about? This is the only way I can even attempt to BURN. So if the file is an MPEG3 file I don't have to check the box?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:18 am

No, what he is saying is this, unless the file you are adding is a DVD compliant mpeg2 file (which it isn't), the tick in this box is not going to have any effect because the file is not compliant and will be converted (made compliant that is).

And don't fear to offend someone with your "stupid" questions as you called it. There are no stupid questions, only stupid answers. Unless, of course, you intend to ask a stupid question

twillyumz · Post by **twillyumz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 2:36 am

So is it normal to take that long? The last file I tried to burn was 700MB and I was at 27hrs and it was only 80% complete. If I do not check the box (Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG Files) I'm not able to attempt to burn because it's telling me that there is not enough memory on the blank DVD. Is there any to copy these files using Divx?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:34 am

Yes, it's quite normal. You may also find that some of these files cannot be converted at all with any of the ULEAD programs. They are not designed to convert just any format to any other. There are specialised converter programs available though but I don't have any links handy. I'm sure someone in the know is going to reply also.

What you need to understand is this. In order to be able to watch these files on the web, they are heavily compressed and the frame size is made smaller also. Often the frame rate is reduced as well.

What the compression engine is doing is to discard every bit of information that is repeated in subsequent frames and relate the contents of the current frame back to an I frame which maybe 10, 15 or more frames back from this one in order to display the full frame. If you break that relationship by cutting somewhere within such a group of interdependent frames, the file becomes corrupted.

Now, for you to put these files on a DVD, they have to be uncompressed (which is impossible really because the compression has discarded all but the necessary info in order to get such a small file size) and converted to DVD compliant mpeg2.

The PC is working it's butt off, trying to guess what the missing, but now to be reconstructed pixels, fields and frames actually should look like. Having 25 or 30 frames per second, 2 fields each frame of DVD frame size images to construct takes massive amounts of processing power. You may have success after that is done but you have an indisproportionally bigger chance of failure.

twillyumz · Post by **twillyumz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:57 am

Thank You! You have been a huge help. Is it easier to burn dvi files?

Post by **Ron P.** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:26 am

twillyumz wrote:Thank You! You have been a huge help. Is it easier to burn dvi files?

No, you can not burn DV files to DVD. A DV (often referred to as DV/AVI) is a slightly compressed digital video file. To burn a DVD, your video file must meet the DVD standards, one being the format, which is MPEG2. So if you transfer (capture) a DV file, before it can be burned to a DVD, it must be converted to MPEG2.

If you are going to download videos from the internet, and burn those to DVD, then you will find that the conversion times will be very long. You can expect to have problems with lip sync and quality. The quality can be viewed like this...

You have a photo that is 240 x 120 px. You want to print 8" x 10" glossy portraits. However to do so you need a photo that is at least 1024 x 780 px. So you tell your image editor to resize it. Oh no!! What happened? The photo did look nice, but now it is jaggy, pixelated, blurry. It looks like crap!! Well the editor had nothing original to work with to enlarge the dimensions, so it guessed at what it is suppose to look like. Image editors and video editors are real poor at guessing.. So when you have a highly compressed video file, and then want to change that to a format to burn to DVD, the program has alot of guess work.....

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 4:44 am

twillyumz wrote:Thank You! You have been a huge help. Is it easier to burn dvi files?

.. if you print them on paper, maybe.

What exactly do you mean by dvi file?

If you want to view these things on a TV set from a DVD disk, via a standalone DVD player, there is nothing you can do to these files but convert them to DVD compliant mpeg2.

If you ask me, it's like trying to reconstitute Coffee beans from instant coffee

twillyumz · Post by **twillyumz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 9:46 am

That makes sense. Last quetion. How do I convert a file to MPEG2?

heinz-oz · Post by **heinz-oz** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 10:11 am

Do as you did initially but be prepared to wait and don't get upset if you get the odd one that does not convert successfully. MF is going to do the conversion for you. Whether or not you like the quality after the conversion is a different matter also.

Sorry I cannot be of more help but I would never even attempt to do what you are trying to achieve.

It will take a long time to convert these files and some programs may be better suited than others, I just don't know.