Putting Digital Downloads onto DVDs VideoStudio Pro X4

[pedro26]

Hi,

This is probably easy, for the likes of Trevor, Brian and Ken, etc. Normally I work from mini DV footage and just follow the procedures I have printed off from the forum for creating DVDs.

I have just bought a digital download, but now I would like to watch the guitar tutorial on my TV & DVD player (BTW when you buy the hard copy DVDs the menu gives you the option to play all, or the lesson individually. Sometimes they come as two DVDs).

Anyway the total download was just over 2 Gb (2.02),
This is the description of the download :-
Introduction
+First Jam
-Track One - Basic Jam
-Track One - Intermediate Jam
-Track One - Advanced Jam
+Second Jam
-Track Two - Basic Jam
-Track Two - Intermediate Jam
-Track Two - Advanced Jam
+Third Jam
-Track Three - Basic Jam
-Track Three - Intermediate Jam
-Track Three - Advanced Jam
Outro
+Performances
-Track One - Basic Jam
-Track One - Intermediate Jam
-Track One - Advanced Jam
-Track Two - Basic Jam
-Track Two - Intermediate Jam
-Track Two - Advanced Jam
-Track Three - Basic Jam
-Track Three - Intermediate Jam
-Track Three - Advanced Jam

If I look at the properties of the individual video files I find the following info:-
they are *.mp4 files
Video
frame width 1920
frame height 1080
data rate 1497 kbps
total bitrate 1624 kbps
frame rate 25 fps
Audio
bit rate 126kbps
channels 2 stereo
audio sample rate 48 kHz

(word doc indiactes they are H.264 mp4 files.)

My question is:- As apart from adding a navigation menu to the DVD I guess I don't want to re-encode or alter the original atributes of these video files, what is the best way to burn a DVD from these files ?

Thanks

ps I don't seem to get the prompting question 'do you want the properties of the project to be the same as those of the first video clip ?" And I can not seem to find this option like I could in Version 10 of my videostudio.

[BrianCee]

to get the prompting question when you insert a file to the timeline you need to put a tick in the box against "show message when inserting first video clip into timeline " in 'Preferences'.

Unfortunately you are going to have to do some re-encoding if you want to burn a DVD with a navigation menu - no DVD formats use mp4 files.

What you convert them to depends on what sort of a DVD you are intending to make - a 'standard' DVD to play on almost any DVD player - a 'Hybrid' DVD which is high def files burnt to a standard DVD which requires a Blu-ray player - or a full blu-ray which requires a blu-ray burner as well as a blu-ray player.

but basically the procedure is the same where ever the originals came from - put them in the timeline and proceed from there.

[pedro26]

Thanks Brian,

I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing a trick somewhere in doing this, 'well you had no need to do x y z, you just do a.'

Cheers,

Pedro

ps Is there a thread on the hybrid DVD settings ? I have a blu ray player, but not a blu ray burner.

[Ken Berry]

I note that you are using VS X4, so I rather doubt that 'Show message' being active will work with your AVCHD files. Unfortunately, with older versions Show Message only seemed to work with standard definition video, though it is still worth trying.

I am also surprised at how low the bitrate of your AVCHD is, given that they appear to be high definition at 1920 x 1080... But the properties you give for them appear to come from Windows, and not from Video Studio. So could you please right click on one of the clips either in the VS timeline or its library window and copy ALL its Properties here, or else take a screen grab of the Properties box and upload it here as an attachment. Then I will feel more confident about what we are dealing with here.

As for AVCHD hybrid discs, the downside is that, while giving you Blu-Ray quality, if you use the default bitrate used by VS, which is 18000 kbps, you will only fit at most 25 minutes of video onto a single layer DVD. That is one of the main reasons I was interested in the bitrate you gave. If it is accurate and you used the same bitrate to burn a hybrid disc, then you would fit an awful lot more than 25 minutes onto a DVD. But again, as I say, I thought the bitrate you state to be far too low...