DVD MofiveFactory 6 + large file

[Martinigue]

Hello all,
I have a couple of large avi's which I want to burn onto dvd disks for use in a standalone dvd player. By large I mean size which, when the corresponding avi is loaded into Movie Factory, exceedes the capacity of an ordinary dvd ( 4.7G). What options do I have?
1. Can I set up the project so that it would span multiple disks? If so - how? Was looking in th eproject options but to no avail ...
2. If I burn it as plain avi, how can I make sure the dvd player will recognize the codec? Did this a couple of times and everytime the player went 'disc unsupported', while all I kow about the player is that it can play avi files but more detailed info like what codecs are supported is unobtainable ( it is Philips Diga DMR-ES10). It does not support double layer discs, though...

Any help is appreciated!
Mac

[DVDDoug]

What's the total playing time?

Here is a handy online bitrate calculator to help you fit your video onto a DVD.

Since the DVD format (MPEG-2) is different than "AVI", it's more about playing time than the size of your AVI file. You can fit 90 minutes of very good quality video and Dolby audio onto a single-layer DVD. You can sqeeze more than that onto a DVD by using a lower bitrate, but if the bitrate goes too low, you start to notice quality loss.

1. Can I set up the project so that it would span multiple disks? If so - how? Was looking in th eproject options but to no avail ...

Two different "projects"?

2. If I burn it as plain avi, how can I make sure the dvd player will recognize the codec?

For playing on a DVD player, its best to tell Movie Factory to make a Video DVD. Movie Factory will then convert the video to MPEG-2 (VOB files) and format that video to the standard DVD format with a VIDEO_TS folder, etc.

NOTES - AVI is not a single format. It's a "wrapper" of "container" format and it can contain video in any format. Some formats are more compressed than others. AVI/DV is less compressed than DVD (MPEG-2) and AVI/DivX is more compressed than DVD. It's also possible to have an AVI file with MPEG-2 video.

If you know the bitrate (combined audio & video) you can estimate the file size in any format:
File Size in MB = (Bitrate in kbps x Playing Time in minutes) / 140

[Martinigue]

Thank you for the info, it definitely will be helpful during my next try.

One more point: I did play with the bitrate number already but the result was - the size of the output was ok, but during playback the audio came out slooooowed down; what was my mistake, then?

[DVDDoug]

...but during playback the audio came out slooooowed down; what was my mistake, then?

I don't know... That shouldn't happen... But, a lot of things "shouldn't happen".

Have you confirmed that your file is DV/AVI? If you're in Movie Factory with your file(s) showing on the time-line, and you right-click on the file, I believe it will show you the "properties". You can usually make a DVD from DV without any strange things happening... With more-compressed formats, problems are more common...

If the audio has slowed-down but the video has not, your audio & video are completely out-of-sync, right?

Audio speed is more-related to sample-rate (kHz), than bit-rate (kbps). But, this is almost never a problem since the file header is supposed to tell the software the sample rate. For video, speed is related to frame-rate (FPS = frames per second).

As a work-around, you can try converting your AVI file to MPEG-2 with SUPER (FREE!!!) before bringing it into Movie Factory. To make sure it's DVD-compatible MPEG-2, choose the same settings (resolution, framerate, etc.) as Movie Factory is using, and choose AC3 audio. Then in Movie Factory, click the box that says "Do Not Convert Compliant MPEGs".