I need some help in deciding what program to use for burning video files (avi., mpeg, mpeg-2, etc.) from my computer to a a DVD. So I can watch them on my stand-alone DVD player. I would prefer a program that is DEPENDABLE! I've tried versions of Nero 6 and 7. They worked great...for a couple of months. Then the discs were skipping and mostly unwatchable. I'm through with Nero. It's failed too many times. Roxio is just awful. The movies just come out dark and glitchy. Ashampoo works great...except for some unknown reason, I try to burn a movie and it tells me "you don't have enough memory in temporary files". But, I DO have more than the 4.78G required to burn a DVD! Sometimes, I'll have 6G and it still gives me that message. DVD Flick skips as well. Someone, please give me the name of a program that consistently burns movie files to play on a stand-alone DVD player!
With respect, I would venture that the problem is less in the burning and more in the quality of the media. For example, DVD Flick uses 'IMGBurn' for burning the disk - and I doubt there is a better burning program out there than that. A successful burn, made at moderate speed on consistently good quality disks (e.g. 'Verbatim' brand) should last for years.
6 gigs isn't necessarily enough temp space.. consider.. You need intermediate steps between the avi and the resulting burn.. So look at it like this.. usually all this is invisible to the user hidden behind some nice box with a progress bar or other timer.. The program starts by making a large mpeg2 temp file. 4.3 gigs, then it authors that file.. a collection of vobs and other stuff somewhere, again 4.3 ish gigs.. maybe it deletes the large temp mpeg file, maybe not.. Then to burn it will make an iso.. another 4.3 gigs.. again sometimes it will then delete the vobs, or give the option to keep them. eventually it gets to actually burning the iso to a disk. As you can see from that you can need over 12 gigs free temp space for some programs to complete a successful convert and burn from what may seem like an insignificantly small 700mb avi. Free up at least 14 gigs so you have some elbow room for the programs to work. Now for conversion software... the commercial suites are bloated and these days they are poor.. try the free alternatives like dvd flick and dvd styler. If you need to convert strange formats or edit content try avidemux.. they are free so why not give them a go? the skipping with flick is either down to poor disks.. tdk/maxell/memorex et al. I use samsung or ridata for normal films and stuff.. mid quality are good enough IMHO as the majority of things I burn are for standalone players. Avoid the 16x disks if possible.. lots of older players have major problems with them. Burn at half rated media speed. dvd flick is flawless.. It works perfectly but you need to have enough ram and contiguous free space for it to do it's job properly. Burn the result with imgburn for excellent results, even with fista!
Thanks for the feedback, guys. I do use Verbatim, but they are 16x. You know, that could be it. I just switched over from 8x to 16x and every one of the 16x have been coasters! Thanx, varnull. I wouldn't have learned this without you. My DVD player just happens to be six years old. Damnit, I just bought 100 DVDs, too! Now I know to buy 8x. I've heard that DL-DVD's can be unstable. That true? I usually burn a DVD on the slowest possible speed (4x, usually. 1x if I can.) I was told that the slower, the better chance of a good burn. Is that true? I've mostly used Nero in the past. Nero only requires that you have 4.7G to burn. Besides burning great video, I loved that it tooks minimal memory to burn a DVD. It's just funny that it worked flawlessly for a couple of months and then it started skipping. Very frustrating. Why does Nero take such minimal memory to burn a DVD? So, it's better to have separate programs that transcode and burn DVD's? If that's not necessarily true, I may have to go back on my word and use Nero 6. If that doesn't do it, I'll try DVD Flick again. Oh yeah, I only have 33.8G on my PC. About 11.5G free. That's why I'm fussing about memory. I also have 1.256G of RAM. Is that sufficient RAM to burn DVD's? Appreciate the help.
whatever media you use, make sure you set the burn to 2x speed (or the lowest it allows you..I use HP discs and Nero burning Rom and the lowest speed it lets me burn is 4x or 6x, i cant remember.) You want it to burn at the slowest possible speed for best results.. Regardless of media... Now if you combine slow burn speed with excellent media, you cant go wrong So your right, on Verbatims and 4-1x speed... you also have enough memory and hd space... Also close all programs when you convert and burn.. You dont want the processor stuttering around with other programs So, when you use Nero Burning Rom,(even if you use nero vision, burn with nero burning rom) after you click burn disc at the top, a msgbox should come up with final settings before you click burn at the bottom. Click all the tabs until you find the one where you can manually select burn speed. Select the lowest spd once again, then click burn at the bottom.
check that.. you said you have 11.5gb of hd space available.. Heres what i usually do with about 12 gigs available on a 30 gig drive.. Note: If you dont use DvdShrink you can skip steps 2 and 3 Note: You need like 7-8 GB's of hd space to begin the process... 1. I convert the files, and i always uncheck burn, i never do that at this step. I save it to a folder or the desktop. 2. I delete the original files i converted... dont need em anymore.. this frees up a little over 2 gigs for me. (the 7 original .AVI files at 350 mb's each) 3. I usually use DvdShrink on the newly converted video_ts folder to shrink the file size is 4380 mb's, because i make a folder that usually is just a little over the regular size of a dvd. This creates a new video_ts folder, and now i dont need the first one i made. (Info on this... On step 1, I convert to a dvd9 format) 4. I free up 4 gigs or so by deleting the first video_ts folder i converted. I will end up burning the new one that i just made with DvdShrink 5. Burn the new video_ts folder with whatever burner software you use. Nero Burning Rom or ImgBurn or whatever. 6. After a burn, delete the video_ts folder.. (you have it archived on disc now )
Oops, if you dont use dvdshrink, and can fit all your file on a standard dvd, skip steps 2,3, AND 4 on the directions above. my bad
