VSU2018 - still can't burn long AVCHD files

[Murray007]

This is the same issue I had with VSUX8 and VSUX10. I take a small project containing a few jpg photos, a video clip in .MOV format and one in .mp4 format. Total less than 150MB. I render it as AVCHD on a 4.7GB DVD-R disc. The result is a very short video with great resolution and sound. I then take more of the same 3 file types and go up to about 3.6GB. When I produce the AVCHD disc, then menu plays and then a black screen. If I produce a regular DVD format video, it is successful but the resolution is not great. Is there a limit to the length of the file (other than the obvious size of the DVD disc)? Any suggestions would be appreciated. On a side note, when I drag a jpg file in portrait orientation onto the timeline, it rotates it 90 degrees clockwise. I then have to go to the options panel to correct the orientation. Don't remember having to do this with any previous version of VS.

[canuck]

An AVCHD burned on a DVD disc cannot be longer than 20 min in time. File sizes are basically meaningless since the time length of the video is the important factor
A AVCHD disc on DVD can only be played on a BlueRay player.

[Murray007]

Thanks for the suggestion;however, I cut the project back to 17 minutes (as shown in the project timeline) and then 13 minutes. The resulting videos will still not play past the menu. (I assume 'minutes' is the time unit for the '20' in your reply.)

[Ken Berry]

Can you please confirm that you are trying to burn this hybrid AVCHD disc using the selection shown in my attached screenshot -- first choosing the disc icon (green arrow) then choosing AVCHD (red arrow).

Can you also tell us if your project still has .mov clips in it, or do you convert these to AVCHD before trying to burn the disc? And if converting beforehand, what bitrate are you using -- VS cannot handle above 18 - 20 Mbps for AVCHD discs.

[Murray007]

Yes, your screen shot shows what I am doing.
And yes, the clips are both .mov and .mp4. No conversions before burning (since my short test project had both and burned and played fine).

[Davidk]

Regarding the menu play, then black screen, I think you've run into a DVD space limit during burn.
You say the original activity was 150Mb (source) and it burned/played fine. Then added same types of files to get a total source size of about 3.6Gb. Bear in mind that a menu adds considerably to the space required, in addition to the size of the source files. For a DVD/mpgeg2, often more than 200Mb. Typically, HD files like mp4 are 2+, often 4 times the size of equivalent DVD files, simply because of the extra resolution/pixel counts per frame (1920x1080 compared to 720x576) that are generic to HD formats. I think that for an HD disk like AVCHD, the size of the menu will be much larger than 200Mb.

Several options:
1. burn the composition to an .iso file, then check the size of that file. Anything larger than 4.5Gb (to be safe) is the cause of your black screen issue.
2. If 1, then either reduce the size of the composition by removing content (or reducing the resolution, but with a desired HD output that seems to be counter-productive) and burn another iso format file. When the size is below 4.5Gb, then you could burn to the actual disk.
3. change the output disk type from DVD to Blu Ray (4.7Gb limit to 25Gb limit). A larger file will fit onto a BR disk easily, and everything else you already have - a player (an AVCHD disk can only be read on a BR player) and display system.

[Murray007]

Thanks for the quick response. I was trying to avoid the buying of a blu-ray burner and discs though!
I may play with the project to see what the maximum file size is that works. I will also try your step 1.
I notice that there is an on/off for "create menu". I will give this a try as well to see what happens.
Thanks again!

[Murray007]

Burned a DVD with "create menu" set to off. Still wouldn't play.
Set it up to create the .iso file. Says it needs 6.71GB on the hard drive. For the DVD it says it needs 1.83GB. Quite a difference!
When I set the "create menu" to on, the same sizes appear which seems strange since you would think there would be some increase in size for the menu.
Btw, while doing some button pushing on the remote, I have discovered that if I do a fast forward (the screen is blank) followed by a double or triple fast rewind, there are some pictures there and it is going through them in reverse order (obviously) at high speed. So there is definitely something on the DVD disc.

[canuck]

Without a BlueRay Burner/Player you cannot play an AVCHD DVD, so you are just wasting your time if you aren't going to buy such a player.

If you are getting different file sizes (for the same project) for the iso then obviously you are using completely different settings.

[Murray007]

I said I was trying to avoid buying a blu-ray burner and blu-ray discs - I have 2 blu-ray players.
If you read the post more closely, you will see that I said the required hard disc space was the same regardless of whether or not I chose to include a menu, which seemed strange.

[lata]

Hi Murray

Can you try creating an AVCHD Folder rather than burning the disc.
Then you can view the folder to play the video
Your folder \AVCHD\BDMV\STREAM m2ts files

I have to say that creating a AVCHD does seem to render / convert title prior to burning the disc
We have to control the properties of that conversion, if not correct will impact on quality.
I would suggest you render the project to Share - Avchd which creates a m2t file, you then Start a new project, Now add the m2t to the timeline to see the Show Messages, yes to that, your project settings match the video properties.
Now remove the clip, nothing on the timelines Share Disc Avchd
Add the M2T file from the options top left.
The burner module will now use the project Settings/ video properties for its conversion / Convert Title, hopefully improve the quality.
As I say try Create AVCHD Folder to check quality before burning the disc.

You can now play the files from your hard drive.

By the way what type of discs are you using, i had problems when using DVD RW, although it was a long time ago
I never looked back after buying a Bluray Burner.

[Davidk]

And yet another trap for disk burners that I did not mention (apologies) (since my class tutored this yesterday). When you get to the last step in the burn module - under any settings - make sure your selected burn rate is not larger than the disk is capable of.

Most blank DVD disks on sale now have a 'rate' of 16x - usually on the barrel they came in, and certainly on the disk itself around the spindle hole. BUT the burn module defaults to MAX (under the info button on that last module page). Select the list arrow, observe the options presented, and choose the rate which is the same as or next lower than the rating of the disk. For a 16x disk, if 16x is offered - OK. But if 16x isn't on the list but (say) 12x is the next lower than 16x in the list, choose 12x. It will burn slower but you won't get data overload to the disk.

Having said that, my experience is that with data being fed to the CD burner faster than the disk can burn it, what you get is data corruption on the disk, and when played it looks jumpy and pixelated, rather than black.

[Murray007]

I was using 16X DVD-R's to reply to a couple of comments. Also, the m2t file played fine on the computer when I created it.
My conclusion is that if I want a high def AVCHD dvd, I need to keep it to a few minutes in length. Even splitting a project onto 2 AVCHD dvd's would be okay but I have a 60 minute project - too many AVCHD discs. So I spit it into 32 and 28 minute projects, bought a $99 CDN (on sale) blu-ray burner, some BD-R discs and burned 2 discs which play beautifully. In hindsight, it would appear the entire project would have gone on a single BD-R.
Thanks to all of you who contributed. I learned a lot, which I guess what these forums are all about!