Burning multiple DVD's

[bkersh1]

Ken - if i have to do it this way is the burning process any slower or faster then with the other programs?

[Ken Berry]

A significant proportion of the time in the burning process is taken up by creating a video of the menu, and then multiplexing the video and audio. This is assuming you have inserted DVD compliant mpeg-2 in the burning timeline, rather than a project file or files. Doing the latter will add very significantly to the overall burning time since those project files must first be converted into mpeg-2 before they can be multiplexed and burned.

If you are intending to burn lots of discs as part of a single burning process, then the multiplexing only occurs once. It is only the actual burning to disc which repeatedly takes time.

But I have found that, regardless of the burning program, the actual burning of a disc takes much the same time, regardless of the speed and other resources of a computer, all other factors being equal. Thus I find that burning a full 4.3 GB project to a single layer DVD, after multiplexing etc is complete, will take just under 14 minutes on my Quad computer (see System button) but will only take at most a minute longer on my ancient Dell P3 1 GHz laptop. And that is also regardless of the brand and rated speeds of the DVD burner (I have 9 of them! )

[2Dogs]

Whereas I take a lot of time and trouble to find media that matches my burners, so that I can burn at the rated 16x. (even though one of my burners can burn to some discs at 18x, and there are now 20x burners available.)

In any case, my LG burner seems to be the fastest, saving a significant amount of time when writing the lead-in and lead-out sections of the disc, and it will write a full 4.35GB in not much over 5 minutes with good quality.

I generally prefer to use my Pioneer burner, however, which gives slightly better quality burns, and it's compatible with a wider range of media, albeit taking about 6 minutes to burn a disc at 16x.

Often, you'll find that choosing to write to a disc at 12x will only slightly affect the burn time - it will typically be around 7 minutes.

I can only assume that Ken is limiting himself to 8x burn times. That's fine, horses for courses and all that, but when you're churning out a lot of discs it really helps to get the burn time down.

[bkersh1]

do you know if dual layer dvd's are capable of writing times faster than 8x

[bkersh1]

vidoman, Ken & 2Dogs - Thank you VERY MUCH for your help. I did use Roxio improperly and burned a dvd with the data disc command. I just tried it again using the image burn command and it worked. As 2Dogs points out with regard to speed, since i am burning approx 50 dual layer DVD's needless to say the faster the better. The dvd burner in my dell optiplex says 16x but the memorex dvd+rw DL say 8x. I assume the fastest burning speed will be 8?

[Ken Berry]

Yes, it is limited to that. Don't try to push the speed any higher than that, even if the burner will let you. In the "olden days", not so very long ago, people actually had CDs and DVDs shatter if they were burned at speeds much higher than their rated speeds...

And 2Dogs, yes, a matter of personal choice that I keep my burn speeds low for *video* DVDs though not other types of disc. All I would say to bkersh1 is to first play one of the DVDs he burns at a higher speed in at least two different stand-alone DVD players to make sure the discs are recognised and can be played. Probably will be, but you can't be too sure, especially you are burning that many discs of the same project.

And are you planning to burn them all to rewritable DL discs? That could get rather expensive, I would have thought...

[2Dogs]

vidoman, Ken & 2Dogs - Thank you VERY MUCH for your help. I did use Roxio improperly and burned a dvd with the data disc command. I just tried it again using the image burn command and it worked. As 2Dogs points out with regard to speed, since i am burning approx 50 dual layer DVD's needless to say the faster the better. The dvd burner in my dell optiplex says 16x but the memorex dvd+rw DL say 8x. I assume the fastest burning speed will be 8?

Yikes! My hackles rise when I hear the word "Memorex" associated with DVD's! I've not had good experiences with them to date!

For DL discs, the usual recommendation is to only use Verbatim, so good luck with the Memorex!

DL discs do have a lower maximum burn speed than single layer, but your burner will be limited to an 8x writing strategy for them anyway - so even if you tried to burn faster, it wouldn't.

My burning times were for single layer discs - obviously a full DL disc would take a lot longer!

Glad to hear you've had success!

[bkersh1]

I will be sure to get the verbatim on the next go round! And as far as RW discs, no. I think the 50 memorex casts about $60+/-. I didn't bother looking for the RW.

Thanks again guys, i appreciate your help. Enjoy your evening or day wherever you may be!

bruce

[Ken Berry]

It's just that you said they were RW:

... but the memorex dvd+rw DL say 8x.

Must have been a typo...

[2Dogs]

It's just that you said they were RW:

... but the memorex dvd+rw DL say 8x.

Must have been a typo...

I believe the highest write speed to DL discs is currently only 8x, and less to RW discs - so I assumed that bkersh1 had inadvertently reported them as being DVD+RW simply because all DVD media has the "RW" logo on it, usually featured more prominently than the +R etc. In fact on some cheap Nexxtech discs I bought recently (not recommended!) you have to look very hard indeed, and with "old" eyes, get your reading glasses on to see the tiny DVD+R symbol underneath the large "RW" logo. So it's an easy mistake to make, and one I've made in the past!

[bkersh1]

It was a typo.