Burning to DL Disc?

dpriest · Post by **dpriest** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:40 am

I know there has been many problems in the past with burning projects to Dual Layer discs. I have VS 11 Plus and was wondering if one, anyone has done it successfully and there hasn't been any problem with the disc jumping layers, where it plays fine on a dvd player. And two, are there any special tricks or techniques I should know about? Do I need to manually set the layer break or does VS do that automatically. Also, I have Imgburn which I use to backup dl discs outside of VS and that does a great job setting the layer break and burning the disc. If VS cannot do this error free, can I integrate the two programs?

Thanks for your help in advance.

Post by **lancecarr** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:03 am

A lot of users on this forum do exactly what you are suggesting. i.e. To use specialist software for particular points of the capture/edit/burn process.

I haven't noticed a great number of problems relating to DL discs from VS reported on this forum but remember most of the people here are doing "home" projects. A fully loaded DL disc of home movies would be a seriously mind numbing event for anyone viewing!

In the "Share" tab of VS there are a few choices for output. Many output to either an iso file or DVD Folder structure and use a burning tool to actually burn the DVD.

You could try VS but if you feel more comfortable with Imgburn then simply get VS to output to whatever Imgburn likes then proceed from there.

2Dogs · Post by **2Dogs** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:12 am

DL discs are more critical as regards burn quality. If you run a write quality scan on one, you will typically see much higher error rates on the second layer. DVD players and DVD drives in pc's can correct these errors up to a point, beyond which you will see glitches in the video, and then lock ups.

The most important factor is to use blank DL discs that work well with your burner. Many people recommend only Verbatim DL discs.

All burning programs, including Ulead's own burning module will automatically set the layer break, so you need not concern yourself with that.

If you've already successfully used IMGBurn to backup DL discs, I would suggest that you output your VS mega project to an ISO file.

The slight downside of that is that it is not quite as easy to play the project from the ISO file, to check that everything is OK. I use CloneCD, which can create a "virtual drive" for that purpose.

In fact I like to use ISO files so much that I even have another program, Magic ISO, which can create ISO files.....which I find are the most convenient format when burning multiple copies of a disc.

dpriest · Post by **dpriest** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 4:13 am

Both of you bring up good points about the home videos. Tell me if I am overthinking this. I just created a dvd project that totaled one hour 27 minutes. I added 10 chapters with some background music for the menu and encoded 2 channel Dolby Digital. With this, I needed to set the video compression at 6100kbs VBR. Is that considered to be average to poor quality when viewing on a tv? I have a great camcorder...Panasonic GS500 3CCD DV. So When I make a home video that is this long or want to make it 2 hours of scenes at the beach with the kids, birthday parties etc, I am wanting to get the best quality I can. What are your thoughts?

DLA · Post by **DLA** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 11:44 am

With this, I needed to set the video compression at 6100kbs VBR.

I use DL for that reason. To me 6100kbps is too low. I have a DVDcam and use the XTRA setting. Bitrate is 8800kbps. At that rate, I cannot fit much on a DVD5. Like the others, I don't burn from VS. I produce the DVD folder from VS and use Nero to burn it.

Devil · Post by **Devil** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 12:10 pm

It was to try and avoid constantly having to say that DV is compressed and high MPEG bitrates won't improve it beyond what it is that I wrote http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic.php?t=26715

Please read this carefully and ask yourself whether you are not trying to be more Catholic than the Pope.

Black Lab · Post by **Black Lab** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 1:03 pm

And, the quality of the video is all in the eye of the beholder. What is crappy quality to you might just be fine for me. You'll have to experiment to find at what bitrate you consider the quality to not meet your standards.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Mar 19, 2008 7:32 pm

I needed to set the video compression at 6100kbs VBR. Is that considered to be average to poor quality when viewing on a tv?

5000 - 6000 kbps seems to be "typical" for commercial DVDs. (Of course, the pros have better MPEG encoders and better source-video.)

I consider 90 minutes on a single-sided DVD (with compressed Dolby audio) "just-right" ! (When I push it beyond 2 hours, I start to notice the loss of quality.)

P.S. Unless, you have one long-continuous move, it's probably better to avoid DL discs and use 2 single-layer DVDs instead. Some DVD players have trouble playing "burned" DL discs. And, if you have trouble with the burning process, or if you need to experiment, or re-do a menu, or something like that, the "coasters" can get expensive.