DVD creator?

[idontno]

@ r0lZ.

Yeah, I have all those progs, I just never had the time or patience to learn or understand them. Besides, there's not a lot in the way of guides or tutorials on them. As I understand VirtualDubMod and AviSynth are not really progs, but codecs or something. This is where I get lost.

NeroVision also mux's for you. I don't understand anything about muxing or demuxing so that's why I use Nero for that. Someone here told me (when I asked about guides or tutorials on muxing and demuxing) that there wasn't any cause it's so simple. Well, not for me, cause I'm still missing some of the basics concepts of the inner workings of DVD's.

So I take the easiest way out. I do like the idea of having more control on the output of my movies tho.

EDIT:

Sorry, I just checked. VirtualDubMod is a prog. Here's most of what I have...



But I hardly ever get to try any of them out. Ever since family and friends found out I could do this I've been swamped.

I got into this to have fun and learn, but now it's more like a job. About the only progs I use anymore are R4Me, DVDD, FixVts, PgcEdit, VobBlanker, DVD Shrink and occassionally DVD Remake Pro (which I know very little about).


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[idontno]

Ok I got it upgraded to 7 now! I started burning some .avi and it would stop for a while and start back up, stop and start back to transcoding streams. now it has stopped and it has been stuck at that point for 22 hours!

Did you pick this to begin making your movie (Make your own DVD-Video)?



And after you added all your avi, mpg, etc edited... when you hit the next button you should see this...



I pick write to HD so I can check it out.

All your avi, mpg, etc should be converted into DVD. It took about 3 minutes to do this...




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[r0lZ]

I got into this to have fun and learn, but now it's more like a job.

Just like me!

Anyway, I understand your point of view. Indeed, the Nero process is simple and fast. (Though 3 minutes seems very short, but given the size of the VOBs, you compiled only 2 very short clips.)

Currently, I use a totally different method. I have a KISS DVD-Player able to play mpegs and avis, and a standalone XiRON DVD recorder with hard disc. Since the recorder has a good compression engine, I use it to record the RGB output of the KISS. When I transfer the copy to DVD, the recorder creates its own menu, too. But I like to redo the authoring with PgcEdit, and I have written a private plugin to do that automatically. The method is simple and efficient, and I can watch the clips in real time on my TV during the recording. I'm happy with this method, although I have to burn a RW each time to transfer the DVD to my PC.

[idontno]

Yeah, I just did a quickie to give dewwars an idea of what I was talking about.

Let me get this straight. You burn your avis and mpegs, play them on your KISS Player while recording with your XiRON recorder, copy them to RW (are they still avis and mpegs at this point?), then rip them to puter, edit, possibly convert to DVD then burn them again. If I have this right, isn't that a lot of work? Or is the outcome worth it?

OFF Subject:

Why can avis be converted to DVD in the blink of an eye, but to convert DVD to avi takes hours?

Some of the editing progs I have only load avis. But I'm not going to wait 5 hours for the conversion.


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[idontno]

idontno, do you know what I mean?

Gotcha.


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[r0lZ]

Let me get this straight. You burn your avis and mpegs, play them on your KISS Player while recording with your XiRON recorder, copy them to RW (are they still avis and mpegs at this point?), then rip them to puter, edit, possibly convert to DVD then burn them again.

Not exactly. My recorder converts the AVIs on the fly to VOB files when it records the KISS output. When it burns the RW, it creates the DVD menu. Therefore, the RW is theoretically directly usable in any DVD player, but unfortunately the XiRON recorder has many bugs, and I like to modify the navigation anyway. Hence the steps on my PC, not really needed.

If I have this right, isn't that a lot of work? Or is the outcome worth it?

It's not really a lot of work, at least if you are happy with the DVD created by the recorder.
And I have most of my AVIs on CD anyway, so I don't need to burn them again to aliment the KISS player.
I forgot to say that the KISS has also an handy zoom. Therefore, I don't have to resize the small AVIs.

Why can avis be converted to DVD in the blink of an eye, but to convert DVD to avi takes hours?

It depends of the codec you use to encode. MPEG4 (XviD and DivX are variants of MPEG4) is more complex than the MPEG2 compression, used on the DVDs. Furthermore, there are good hardware MPEG2 encoders (and there is probably a MPEG2 chip in the XiRON) while the main CPU must do all the work when you encode in MPEG4.
Of course, the more time you give to the encoding process, the better the image will be. BTW, this is one of the main reasons why I don't like too much the one-click encoders like Nero: you cannot usually do a multi-pass compression, which offer a better quality.

[dewwars]

Finally decided to just test one. I burned it to my harddrive as a ifo to see if it would work. It decoded it and burned it but it doesnt seem to have any sound?!?!

[dewwars]

Yeah I pretty much clicked on nerovision 4...then clicked on make dvd...dvd-video

And I put about 15 videos on to one session since it was all under 4.7 but it took like 7+ hours

[idontno]

Yeah I pretty much clicked on nerovision 4...then clicked on make dvd...dvd-video

And I put about 15 videos on to one session since it was all under 4.7 but it took like 7+ hours

You are burning avis to DVD right? Do you have the latest upgrade to Nero installed? Go to the bottom right button (Nero Product Setup) and check for updates.

As for the sound, I don't know. Never ran into that prob. Did it do it on only the one movie file?

I think I asked before, but I'll ask again. You are not running any skinning progs are you?


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[idontno]

@r0lZ

So, until I can get some better equipment I'm still stuck with Nero.


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[idontno]

No. ImgBurn v2 can burn directly the DVD-Video files... with very less problems than Ner0.

Going back a ways. I DL'd ImgBurn 2.1 but DVD Shrink only has an option to use Nero. Guess I'll have to uncheck Nero, make the backup then burn with ImgBurn.

Not doubting you, but I am curious to see if ImgBurn makes that much difference in video quality.


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[idontno]

IMHO, Nero is probably easy to use, but it offers certainly not the same quality than a good encoder like CCE. Using, for example, VirtualDubMod with CCE is not so hard, though certainly more complicated than Ner0, but you can also use complex filters (which are very welcome with most of the AVIs downloaded from the net), crop and cut or resize the video if you want, and gives it exactly the encoding quality you want. And if you want real power, you can use AviSynth, even more powerful, but requiring a long learning curve. Of course, you have to mux everything.
As I said, the free tools are more powerful. I haven't said that they are more simple.

CCE Encoder is not free.


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[r0lZ]

There is a patched version of DVD Shrink somewhere to use ImgBurn instead of Nero. Anyway, you can write to hard disc first, and burn the files with ImgBurn.
But the real advantage of ImgBurn over Nero is obvious when you burn DL DVDs. Ner0 has many problems with the layer break, while ImgBurn does an excellent job. And when you burn a DL, DVD Shrink is usually not needed.

The video quality is absolutely not related to the burning engine. ImgBurn burns, it doesn't encode.

[r0lZ]

CCE Encoder is not free.

Right!

[idontno]

So my best bet would probably be VirtualDubMod with CCE.

AviSynth sounds too hard for right now and I still don't know much about muxing.


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