Hi Guys, I am starting to learn how to write an avi file to a DVD playable in a regular DVD player (not PC) and have tried nero vision but finding it is very slow...a 700MB avi took 3-4hrs to convert and burn. I will give winavi a try as I have heard this is quicker but what I wold also like to know is it possible to create chapters because the DVD I burnt requires me to fast forward all the way through the video I have made whereas I would much prefer chapters if possible. How do you guys go about doing this sort of thing? Is it possible in Nerovision or some similar software. Also does anyone recommend a particular way of approach this task (avi2dvd)? I have seen the guides but if people could suggest their preffered way of appraoching this that would be great too.
nero vision has chapter tools, i forget where exactly it is, oh, it's under edit movie > create chapters (or detect scenes), there's a nice auto find chapters option, and the reason it takes 3-4hours is because it's converting from avi to mpg (dvd) is it nerovision express 2?
Thanks for the reply...I have had a play with winavi and that seems to convert to DVD format pretty quickly so I can then burn with Nero Express 7 (The version I have). It only took about 45mins to 1hr and my PC is only 1.4Ghz AMD 512MB RAM. THen burning those files should only take 15-20 mins I think. I will look out for that chapter thing...I was having problems with Nero Vision because after most encodes the burns were failing...not sure why though Any particular settings I should be aware of that have cause u errors in the past? I read elsewhere in the forum someone suggested turning on DMA, should this be in the properties of my DVD drive or something?
Stick with Nero Vision Express to convert your files. Open it up, add video files, import your files, and then create chapters. It may take a little to explore all the possibilities with chapter building, and merging titles, etc, etc., but it will be worth it. I don't know why Nero doesn't use an easier ui like they did in StartSmart for authoring. When you're done, burn it to your hard drive and use Nero ROM or Express to do the actual burning at the lowest speed. Also make sure you encode with 2 passes(Video Options, DVD-Video, Encoding mode). This is what I do, but I favor quality. I have 2 computers, so I'm not inconvenienced by the long transcoding process. WinAvi does convert pretty fast, but it looks like crap. It's quality is just unacceptable to me. I've did my own benchmarks and there's no comparison. Besides, how good do you expect a software program to be when their software developers or test engineers or janitors allow a product to leave their office that is so unprofessional. It doesn't give me any confidence. For example, here is what they say about themselves in their help file. About WinAVI Video Converter Powerful Video Converting software! WinAVI Video Converter is a incredibly powerful and effective converting software.it can convert video files among various formats with great stability.And the possibilities are nearly endless, with AVI, MPEG1/2/4, VCD/SVCD/DVD, DivX, XVid, ASF, WMV and even RM support and etc...It also can support batch video files conversion of different video formats such as DVD,AVI, ASP, MOV, SWF,MPEG1, MPEG2 at the same time. Besides, it also can support to burn VCD/SVCD/DVD. And best of all, it has a powerful video decompress/compress engine that convert whole AVI movie to DVD in 90 minutes. Easy to use WinAVI Video Converter is very easy to use, it has aesthetically pleasing and simple interface. And with this understandable interface you can enjoy working with video files without frequent consulting with reference materials, which makes it is suitable for everyone from beginners to experienced veterans. And you can convert file just by several clicks. Step by Step wizards, no need any special knowledge. Once you get started, you will be surprised how smoothly you go converting your media files from one format to another. This is just a sample. The whole program is filled with this level of language and grammar. Just my opinion.
Thanks for the advice...I have tried to create the chapters in Nero but I can only seem to add one chapter?? Is there a way of simply adding a chapter every 5minutes? I couldn't even add a chapter manually every 5 minutes...also the auto-find chpaters seemed far too slow even when changing the sensitivity to low
yes the auto detect is slow, but i don't think manually is much better. manually you move the slider around and mark your chapter points. pretty hard to get smooth transitions between chapters/scenes this way
I've never had any problems with manually adding chapters. Just drag the slider where ever you want to in the video. There's a time counter on your right. You can even hit the pause button and go foward or backward at 1 second steps and hit the add chapter button to mark it...smooth like butter.
me neither, no probs here creating manual chapters Nero 6)...although i havent really done it to any extent, but I have fiddled with editing the movie, switching some parts around, and then creating chapters after the auto detect feature quickly finds the splices and i just use them..transition is only as smooth as i made the splicing of course... damn nero, not enought help files with their software
Thanks for the suggestions guys...I tried using Nero again and managed to resolve the chapter issue....I had to manually click above the time line and then select add chapter...not ideal but it worked. I ran the process last night and it was still doing it today I think that was because I tried burning the image to disk but the disk was a new hard drive running as a slave...I think I should really remove my 37GB and install the operating system onto the 160GB one...surely the process should not be taking 8 hours? WinAvi appears to be much quicker and the results seem to be fine although I think I will stick with Nero to actually burn the files. What sort of spec do you guys run? I have 1.4Ghz AMD, 512MB RAM and 37GB (Master) and 160GB (Slave) on parallel ATA, I know it's old school but my PC has been good to me
well, for burning from DVD format to DVD disc using Recode, takes average of 13 mins at 8x for full disc. To render takes about an hour to encode and burn, but at least they give you the option of CPU priority so your not sluggish when multitasking during process...ive tried both burning directly to disc as well as burning to hard drive and takes same amount of time. I'm running a new AMD 64 3200+ with 1G OCZ DDR RAM, Maxtor 250GB SATA Serial (Master), Maxtor 120GB ATA IDE (Slave 1), Maxtor 120 GB ATA IDE (Slave 2), BenQ DW1655 DVD+/-RW with lightscribe, nVidia 6600GT i bought at xmas...my old puter was around the same as yours and was good to me for 5 years too!!!
I wouldn't put your OS on the 160G drive. I have a 160G hard drive(D) as well that I use just for DVD authoring and storing large files. My OS is on a 60G hard drive(C) and it works out alright. I've changed all my temp directories to my (D) drive and when I burn to disk I burn to that drive as well. I've also made sure that none of my drives share the same bus cable, they're all masters. My specs: AMD Athlon XP 2800+ with 1G of 3200 DDR RAM, Maxtor 60G (IDE ATA 1) Master, BTC DVD±R/RW (IDE ATA 2) Master, Maxtor 160G (IDE 1) Master and BTC CD-R/RW (IDE 2) Master both on an Ultra IDE controller card, and a Plextor DVD±R/RW Dual Layer(SATA)drive.
Cheers for the advice...my 160gb seems a little slow when copying from one to the other but burning to and from seems ok. Unfortunately I am using a parallel ATA which I guess is slower (and older technology) then SATA. If you haven't yet tried WinAvi I would probably suggest this over Nero...which I found to be a little too slow for me. May have been because I was copying a file between drives at the same time though. Think I need to upgrade my PC anyway If you guys are in the UK do you recommend a particular online shop?
