Flash Drive Format Question

[Jan1954]

I started burning my movies to the USB sticks, but I am wondering if I am doing it right. I like creating chapters for long DVD's and miss that on the USB sticks. Perhaps I'm not burning to the USB stick correctly. When I open the USB stick, I have to look for the video file to play it. Also the file system is cumbersome. I have a 2017 Sony Bravia smart TV.

The VS-2022 manual does not go into detail about burning to the USB stick. I am selecting Burn>SD Card. Are there any instructions that help in creating a USB stick video file that is easy to find and play on the USB? Now I end up with several file folders and some are empty. Also, has anyone found a smart TV application that allows you to open a movie on a USB stick that resembles opening the movie on a DVD by either selecting a chapter or starting the movie at the beginning?

I have decided to continue to create DVD's since I have quite a few and I think I will continue to have a DVD player forever, or as long as we last!

[canuck]

SmartTVs usually have their own software which cannot play movies on a USB that have the DVD structure. Those kind of USBs can only be played on the computer. There are no apps (as yet) that will play a movie on a USB that resembles playing a DVD, the menu and chapter structures are not recognized by the TV.

DVDs and DVD players are disappearing and will be gone in a few years just like the VHS tapes. With most video today in HD or higher format, you lose a lot of quality when burning to a DVD

[Davidk]

As I've noted elsewhere, CD/DVD players are still available from computer stores. The issue I've had is getting the blank disks (BR was the first to suffer this, and DVD's seem to be going in the same direction) available from stores to use in them: when they disappear from normal walk in commercial stores, on-line specialty supply is the way it seems to go. So while it can said they are dinosaurs, killing them off is hard to do and will take some time.

If your intent is to:
- burn to usb and then
- play on a smart TV
Then your share settings (to render a project from source materials to a finished video file) should be for a computer file (mpg or mp4 according to need), and then simply select the usb drive as the target drive for the rendered output. When it's done:
- exit VS and use the free video player VLC to check the result (start VLC, and open that drive/file). If that is Ok,
- remove the usb from the computer, plug it in to the smart Tv in one of the USB sockets it has, and then use the Tv remote to select the auxiliary input from the usb socket you now have the drive with the rendered file on it. That should play your result.

Br aware that many video formats are 'customisable' and vendors of anything imagery (like cameras, software and displays) do do that. So anything other than a very standard format might be supported in the editor but not playable on the TV, or vice versa.

In general, VS has the best menu-based system for DVD's I have come across, and I've used it extensively over many versions for class educational purposes. However, it's good only for a slow, serial access device like a CD/DVD whereby chapters and menu items are the only way to access the content you want quickly. While DVD's are good for distribution, more recent devices good for distribution like usb memory sticks are much faster and if you want to put what would be chapters on a DVD onto the usb, just render each one as a separate file and store each one as individual files on the usb. Rendering as a separate file for each chapter is what you would do for a DVD anyway so it really is no different. I don't know of a way to "menu" items on a random access memory like usb. So, if you are really set on menus, then a DVD approach seems the way to go.

One advantage of a DVD approach is that the VS menu system allows you to include an intro file - a 'play once' item that could be a product logo, copyright notice or something similar, like the movies do - as the first item before the main menu system is displayed.

[canuck]

" Rendering as a separate file for each chapter is what you would do for a DVD anyway so it really is no different."

Why would you render each chapter as a separate file (for a DVD)? The whole point of a chapter menu is to avoid exactly that.

[Davidk]

I've tried using chapter points in a video - successfully, but I found it fussy and awkward overall. Generally, that sort of video is large covering several topics each meriting a menu entry and thus chapter point. My preference for that type of video - a time, a place or event - is to create each item as a separate video file in it's own right, and then use the DVD and menu capabilities of VS to combine them for a presentation where each clip has it's own menu entry point (chapter points not required). The workflow is shorter and each clip is much shorter than a single topic project. I found it's also more flexible that way: the individual clips an be easily, or more easily, re-used for other circumstances. For example, in 2016 I did a holiday to Japan for the cherry blossom festivals. And that included a trip on a bullet train and several outstanding examples of wooden castles. What I made from that included clips on the cherry blossoms - marvelous in the bloomimg period, last 3 weeks of march, and especially in Kyoto; the shinkansen bullet train, and japanese castles esp the white castle at Himeji, and the black castle at Matsumoto (as compared to the stone examples of castles in europe). These clips and others were all part of the holiday DVD, but also these notable clips were separately used in an educational emvironment.

[Jan1954]

Thank you all for the info and tips. Remember Beta?! I decided to continue with the USB sticks and also burn the movies to the DVD’s as long as I have some. I will consider the DVDs as backups since the quality will be less than the sticks.

These movies are for us to look at and also some relatives. That’s it. I wonder when my current DVD player stops working, how hard it will be to buy a DVD player.
Also, I have this thought in the back of my head, “When the 2 of us kick the bucket, this is all going into the landfill anyway.” I know, I am only 68. But the last 20 years sure went by fast.

Thanks again!