Burn Speeds and Rendering

[CliveM]

I purchased VideoStudeoPro x2 V12.0 a couple of weeks ago to record some DVD¡¦s of a recent trip to Brazil. Overall I¡¦ve been very pleased with the product and results, but have a couple of questions I hope someone can help with. Our main DVD player is about eight years old and a couple of discs I recorded froze and skipped when played; however, the same discs seemed to be okay on a newer machine we have in a guest bedroom. I found the exchange between Brian Ottawa and Ken Berry to be extremely helpful and which explains my problem exactly I think - it looks like the older DVD player is not properly reading the discs. Like Brian, I¡¦d thought that creating a DVD was as simple as burning an audio CD!

So it look like I need to burn at a slower speed. I¡¦m using a Matshita UJ-842D 1.20 in a two year old Sony Vaio and burning to Philips DVD+R 16x 4.7GB single layer discs. In the Disc Burner screen, under ¡§More Settings for Burning¡¨, there are three options: ¡§Maximum¡¨, ¡§4.0x¡¨ and ¡§2.4x¡¨. Ken suggests a burn rate of 8x when using 16x discs, but this option doesn¡¦t appear to be available - so should I go for 4.0x? Previously I¡¦ve been accepting the default setting of ¡§Maximum¡¨.

Also, in his post of 28 Mar at 07.43, Ken discusses bitrates and suggests a bitrate of around 6000 kbps to yield about 90 minutes of video. I¡¦m obviously missing a trick somewhere, but I can¡¦t find any control in VideoStudeo to specify bitrate.

Finally, I can¡¦t quite get my head around the rendering process. I¡¦ve created DVD discs without going through the ¡§Create Video File¡¨ option, but have also run the process - but apart from it taking several hours and creating a huge file, I can¡¦t quite see what I¡¦ve achieved by going through the rendering process - could someone explain this for me please.

Looking forward to some helpful replies.

Kind Regards,

Clive

[sjj1805]

The recommendation is to burn at 4x or if that is not possible then the lowest speed available (other than of course 1x)
The faster discs that Ken refers to such as 16x will not burn at 4x - here you may find 6x or possibly 8x is the lowest available to use.

[Ken Berry]

The Matshita burners in laptops as far as I am aware have only a maximum burning speed of 8x, which is why you are not having your DVDs maximum speed recognised. So yes, I would choose 4x in that circumstance.

As far as setting a bitrate is concerned, you could choose Share > Create Video File > Custom, and change the settings in the dialogue box which appears, including setting a custom bitrate. You can also use Tools > Make Movie Template Manager to build your own permanent template, including setting a specific bitrate, which will thereafter appear in the dropdown menu when you choose Share > Create Video File.

As for our recommendation to first convert your project into a new video file (Share > Create Video File) before going into the burning module, it arose in the "old days" with earlier versions of VS. A lot of users were having trouble when they edited and then jumped straight to the burning module. Not everyone, but a lot! It was never absolutely clear why this was happening -- only some general glitch between the program and the individual set-up of particular computers.

But we found that if people did their editing, and first produced a new DVD-compatible mpeg-2 video file from the project, then closed that project, and opened the burning module, they could insert that new file in the burning timeline, build a menu and burn without problems. The one thing they had to do, though, was ensure that the little box beside 'Do not convert compliant mpeg files' was ticked. Otherwise the whole thing would be converted once again.

One way or another, though, your project is going to be converted, and take all the time necessary for that conversion which, as you have found, can sometimes be considerable! But the actual conversion time will be the same, regardless of whether it occurs in the Editor or in the burning module. It is just that if you use the recommended staged approach, there is less chance of something going wrong, especially for the more resource-challenged computers!

With the more recent versions of VS, however, it has to be said that the number of people complaining of problems when they jump straight from editing to burning, has dropped considerably. But it still doesn't hurt to follow the staged approach. After all, the overall time for the whole process is about the same, and could be even much less if you don't follow the procedure and then encounter problems in the burning module which cause you to have to start all over again!!

[CliveM]

Thanks very much to Ken and Steve for their response to my questions posted on 15 April. Have only just found time to try out suggestions, with following results¡K
First went to ¡§Share¡¨ and ¡§Create Video File¡¨, choosing ¡§DVD/VCD/SVCD/MGEG¡¨ and from the next sub-menu, chose ¡§PAL MPEG2¡¨. Chose this to help ensure there were no further conversion issues at the burn stage. Then saved the project, which took about three hours.
Next created a new project and inserted the mpg file created in the previous stage as the sole entry on the timeline. In ¡§Share¡¨, went to ¡§Create Disc¡¨, and chose ¡§DVD¡¨. Went through the various screens to set up menus, then on the burn screen, under ¡§More Settings for Burning¡¨, chose a burn speed of 4x. Under ¡§Project Settings¡¨, ¡§Change MPEG Settings¡¨, ¡§Customise¡¨ and under ¡§Compression¡¨ tab, selected 6000 kbps. On the ¡§General¡¨ tab, ¡§Aspect Ratio¡¨ set to 16:9 and ensured the ¡§Do Not Convert Compliant MPEG Files¡¨ box was checked. Then selected ¡§Burn¡¨.
The burn process took about four hours, which was nearly as long as before (ie when going straight from Edit to Burn). To be fair, as explained in my original post, I was previously burning at ¡§Maximum¡¨ speed, whereas this time burning was limited to 4x, so maybe I¡¦m not comparing apples with apples! However, I don¡¦t think this is the whole story - I think I¡¦m still missing a trick somewhere and the burn process is still performing a conversion - I say this as it still takes a very long time and also, the comments against the progress bars for a long time say they are ¡§Converting¡K¡¨ - which rather suggests that the burn process is performing a conversion! Except for the last half hour or so, when it says it¡¦s burning. Unless I completely missed the point of your reply Ken, I thought the whole point of going through the ¡§Create Video File¡¨ process was to get the conversion process done and dusted before burning, so that if one wants to create any additional discs, then with the conversion stage sorted, then it¡¦s a relatively short process to just burn.
Anyway, having created the disc - the good news is that choosing a burn speed of 4x created a disc that doesn¡¦t freeze of skip on our older DVD player - Hooray! Unfortunately, the bad news is that it¡¦s playing back with a small screen size on our TV; that is, whereas previously the film occupied more or less the full size of our TV screen, now it only occupies a smaller rectangle on the screen. I¡¦ve obviously managed to change a setting somewhere - any ideas? I can¡¦t see any obvious controls in the software or anything in the User Manual. Would it be the fact that I¡¦ve pulled bit rate back from 8000 kbps top 6000 kbps.
So nearly there I think and look forward to your further helpful comments.

Regards,

Clive

[Black Lab]

After you create your MPEG-2 file and open a new project, DO NOT insert that MPEG-2 file into the project timeline. Instead, with an empty timeline, go to Share>Create Disc. At this point you click on Insert Media and choose your MPEG-2 file. It will be placed on the burning timeline. If your burning properties are the same as your MPEG-2 file's properties re-rendering will not take place.

[Ken Berry]

First went to ¡§Share¡¨ and ¡§Create Video File¡¨, choosing ¡§DVD/VCD/SVCD/MGEG¡¨ and from the next sub-menu, chose ¡§PAL MPEG2¡¨.

This could also be part of your problem. Yes, you have to produce an mpeg-2. But the problem is that not all mpeg-2's are DVD compliant. So when, in the Editor, you produce a DVD-compliant mpeg-2, you would choose Share > Create Video File > DVD, and accept the default settings. That includes a max. bitrate of 8000 kbps, which will allow an hour of video to be burned to a single layer DVD, or about 10 minutes more if you use Dolby or mpeg-layer 2 audio.

But if your project is longer than that, then you will need to lower the bitrate. 6000 kbps will give you 90 minutes, and 4000 kbps about 2 hours. But to get these, you choose Share > Create Video File > Custom and vary the bitrate and anything else there. Make a note first of the default DVD settings in Share > Create Video File > DVD. That way, when you change the bitrate, you leave everything else the same except, say, for the audio. That way, you will know that your new mpeg-2 is still DVD compliant. And that way, you don't have to adjust anything else when you put it in the burning module, as long as that little 'do not convert compliant mpeg files' is ticked as you know your video is compliant.

[CliveM]

Thanks very much to Jeff and Ken for their very helpful replies to my post of 27th April. Have tried out your suggestions, which I'm pleased to say solved my problems! Having successfully created a video file, I can now burn a DVD disc in a fraction of the time it took before, which doesn't jump or freeze when played on our older DVD player.
The Sony camcorder we recently purchased (upgarding from an old analogue machine) has HD capability; thus far I've been recording in standard definition only. So having now cracked the basic stuff, next job is to record in HD and create discs in AVCHD format. So I'll no doubt have some more questions in the future!
Thanks again.

Regards,

Clive

[Black Lab]

[Ken Berry]

I assume also that you are aware that if you burn AVCHD hybrid discs (on standard DVDs), you need a Blu Ray player which is rated to play such discs. Not all of them do. I use a Sony PlayStation 3 for this.