How to fit 1 hour 57 min. on 1 DVD

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:01 pm

Hi,
I've got a dance show which is 1 hour 57 minutes long, in DVD Workshop and after checking everything is fine in the Finish Preview window I use the disc template manager to create a disc image file which is in "standard play 120 min per DVD".
When I try to burn a DVD with Nero it reports there is not enough space on the DVD.
Where am I going wrong?
Norman

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 12:07 pm

Do you have looping motion menus and menu background music? They can add to the overall space requirements.

When you burned the DVD Image (or Folders) to your hard drive, what's the resulting size? And are you burning to standard dvd5 discs, or something else?

Check the properties of your project -- make sure it's using AC3 audio (or even mpeg audio for a PAL DVD). LPCM audio will use up too much space...

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:10 pm

Hi George,
No looping menus, but there is background music.

DVD Image file is 4.91gb and I'm using standard discs.

The whole project went through the Adobe mpeg encoder, but the audio file seems to be .wav.

Since I first posted, I've also tried changing the template to 180 minutes which should surely be enough, but still no joy.

Would it make any difference if I set up the template at the beginning of the Workshop process rather than at the finishing stage?

Norman

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 1:30 pm

If yopur source audio is .wav, then use the template you selected (the 2-hour template).

BUT, in the EDIT step, click the AUDIO tab, and select "Convert to disc template" (make sure AC3 audio is the format in your project settings. If you only have the Trial, then AC3 audio will not be valid, but you can try mpeg audio instead -- NOTE: NTSC does not have mpeg audio as a standard, so some NTSC DVD Players will not play mpeg audio).

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:23 pm

Thanks George,

I'll give it a try, but why won't it work with the 180 min. template?

Norman

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:28 pm

If your source files are already compliant for the type of disc you are creating, then any template should work. The key is whether or not you select that option "Convert to disc template"

The option exists in the EDIT Step. There's one under the VIDEO tab, and one under the AUDIO tab. So you can decide whether to convert the video, the audio, or both to your project template.

If you use the 180-minute template, if you do not select that option, the video will be left alone. When you do select that option, the builtin encoder will re-encode your source videos to your project settings -- that will take time (you will know it because it will take alot longer than if the program does not have to re-encode your source videos).

You should try to avoid multiple encoding of your video as the quality will degrade (in general). Like making a copy, then making a copy of that copy, and so on...

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 2:43 pm

The audio does seem to be the LPCM you mentioned - sorry to be a bit dim, but how do I change to AC3?

If I go for the 120 min. template can I just convert the audio to disc template and leave the video alone, or should I convert both?

When you refer to multiple encoding does that mean I shouldn't encode in Premiere but import the project to Workshop as an .avi file?

I'm working in PAL.

Many thanks for your help it is much appreciated.

Norman

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 3:38 pm

The audio does seem to be the LPCM you mentioned - sorry to be a bit dim, but how do I change to AC3?

Check the Template you selected -- EDIT the settings to make sure the compression for the audio is either AC3 or mpeg.

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If I go for the 120 min. template can I just convert the audio to disc template and leave the video alone, or should I convert both?

If you only select the "convert to disc..." option under the AUDIO tab, then just the audio will be re-encoded. When the option cannot be selected (either under the Video or Audio tabs), that means the source is non-compliant, and will need to be encoded to your project settings.

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When you refer to multiple encoding does that mean I shouldn't encode in Premiere but import the project to Workshop as an .avi file?

You can use the Premiere mpeg encode (what you have already done), just try to avoid re-encoding the video within DWS. You can also output dv .avi's (if that's the original format of your source videos), and import the dv .avi's into DWS and let DWS do all the encoding for you.

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Which version of DWS are you running -- Full, Express, Trial, SE, etc...

Since you are PAL, mpeg audio should work fine (it will give you more space for your video). But if you have AC3 as an audio option (in the Full and Express versions), I would use AC3 before using mpeg audio (assuming the same audio bitrates).

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 5:40 pm

Hooooray,

Clicking the 'convert to disc template' under the audio tab and setting the audio to mpeg seems to have done the trick.

I am running the full version but don't appear to have AC3 - but I'll check that more carefully after this post.

Certainly the disc is now ready for viewing and I must say I can't thank you enough George - you have been a great help.

Yours gratefully,

Norman

avpeterjohn · Post by **avpeterjohn** » Thu Aug 18, 2005 9:40 pm

There is an alternative approach if your project turns out to be too big.
Just create the DVD files. That is VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS.
If these exceed DVD size of around 4.4 GB, then import them into DVD Shrink which is Freeware, and burn the new files. Any quality loss is minimal. Please post if you do try this.

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 12:43 pm

Hi Peter John,

I did previously use DVD shrink on this project and it seemed to do the job nicely.

However having given 25 DVD's to the dance teacher ( the project was a dance show) she rang to say that the picture was going 'blocky' while sound continued.

The DVD's all played fine on my Panasonic but I did find that on another machine the picture did stall and stay on a still frame from time to time. As using DVD shrink was the only change I'd made to a well tried procedure I decided to run through the whole process again without DVD shrink.

This appears to have worked as none of the new copies shows problems on the DVD player which previously had problems.

Could something else have caused this problem?

Norman

avpeterjohn · Post by **avpeterjohn** » Fri Aug 19, 2005 2:43 pm

Hi Norman
I have passed on quite a few home made DVDs to friends - mainly weddings, holidays, music performances etc and always ask for feedback. Of the ones passed on, I have only had two discs give problems. Both played fine on my collecton of players, but not on theirs. In both cases their player was an Alba from Argos !! I then did a copy on a different make disc & in both cases it played fine.
The DVD recorder and the discs you use can/do make a difference. I ditched my PC DVD Sony recorder and changed to Pioneer and it has proved to be near perfect.
As for discs, I've used quite a few makes. Of the cheapies I go for Ritek.
I'd be interested to know how this squares with your experience

norman54 · Post by **norman54** » Sat Aug 20, 2005 1:59 pm

Hi Peter,

Well I've done quite a few multiple runs of DVD's - dance shows, football matches, school productions, etc, and until now have not had one single comeback.

I have always used verbatim.

It is this lack of problems prior to trying DVD shrink on this project which led me to suspect it was at the core of the problem. Of course there may have been some other anomally in the process which corrupted a file and caused this problem.

However I have re-done the project and appear to have no problems once again.

Regarding the Sony writer which as I say has been extremely reliable, I may be 'upgrading' before long due to the 16x discs which are available and the dual layer option - beyond that I would be happy to stay with the Sony.

I guess DVD creation is not quite an exact science unfortunately.

Norman

sjj1805 · Post by **sjj1805** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 12:59 am

"Regarding the Sony writer which as I say has been extremely reliable, I may be 'upgrading' before long due to the 16x discs which are available and the dual layer option - beyond that I would be happy to stay with the Sony."

Anyone any thoughts on this before Norman upgrades his DVD writer.
I never had any problems with my old Pioneer106D writing at 4X and like Norman thought it was time to upgrade to one of the faster writers.

I now have a 16x speed writer but have found that when creating a DVD it is better to write at the good old 4X. Anything faster than that and the DVD refuses to play in quite a few players. I have used various brands of disks but think that the faster writing speed results in a weaker laser signal to the disk.

GeorgeW · Post by **GeorgeW** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 1:02 am

I've got an 8x burner, and 8x discs. But when I am burning for distribution, I 've never burned anything over 4x.

As such, I haven't been in a hurry to get a 16x burner -- although now with the cost of DL discs dropping, it might be time to move to Dual Layer functionality...