Is this supposed to take more than 14 hours?

[A Dodgy Dude]

I'm using DVD Flick 1.3.0.7 for the first time so maybe I'm making some basic mistake.

I'm trying to convert a couple AVI files.

If it means anything the ImgBurn Window and the ImgBurn Log opened up over night.

Oh, I forgot to add:
Even though the DVD Flick window says "Finalizing Burning to Disc", the little green light on my DVD burner is not flickering at all as it does whenever it is burning a disc.

[MilesAhead]

I've been using Flick for awhile. I have 1304 1306 and 1307 installed. But I don't think I ever tried having it burn right from conversion. I output to VIDEO_TS folder and then just use Imgburn manually. In fact there's a neat free program you can get from SVCD2DVD.COM that runs Imgburn when you right click on a VIDEO_TS folder if you have a 32 bit OS.

http://software.badgerit.com/Releases/ImgBurnDVDVideo.zip

Before I burn I usually check it out with VLC media player.

[A Dodgy Dude]

Hi, Miles, thanks for answering.

The DVD Flick window has been open for more than 30 hours and it still says Finalizing Burning to Disc so obviously I've done something wrong.

I found the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders that DVD Flick created. The audio folder is empty. The video is not.

I thought converting 2 avi files would give me 2 dvd files that I would just drag and drop to my burner. But the VIDEO_TS folder has 6 .vob files in there.

I also thought DVD Flick sent the converted files to the burner. I didn't know ImageBurn was going to play any part in this.

What am I supposed to do now?

[MilesAhead]

If you use DVD Flick AVStoDVD, FAVC or whatever video converter I think it's a good idea to separate the conversion from the burning. That way you can check for stuff, like empty audio folders before you start the burn. It's always been my preference to do it that way. If you like you can post the MediaInfo info of the .avi files. Maybe someone can then tell if you have bad input.

[UncasMS]

~14hrs seems a very long time to me but then on the other hand i wouldnt know how long (runing time) the avi files were you wanted to convert and of course how fast the computer is which is doing this work

an empty audio_ts folder is absolutely normal and nothing to worry about as the audiostreams itself are stored within the vobfiles - the subfolder "audio_ts" is only created for compatibility reasons

i go with miles in terms of letting programs convert as one task and bruning to disc as another, separate step which i never liked to be done prior to my checking the results

[DrinkOrDie]

I burn with Nero 7 Ultra, and transcode AVI's to DVD using a part of that suite, Nero Vision 4. (yes, still! 3 OS's later!) It too also creates the audio folder, usually empty. In fact, the audio folder is empty on most of my commercially purchased DVD's. I don't even know why it is there. All the audio streams (english, french, spanish, commentary, etc.) are contained in the VOB files which, you already know are in the video folder. The splitting of your AVI's into several VOB's is also normal. Let me guess. The VOB's are at 1,048,574 KB or less. Your AVI's must be split into several VOB files, if the transcoded VOB exceeds that size. That's a DVD standard and is done for compatibility reasons.

I've actually deleted that empty audio folder from the burn list so it never ends up on the burned DVD. Still no problems with playing the DVD's. Can't really hurt anything to leave it there either.

I've tried DVD flick just for ships and giggles to transcode AVI's to a burned DVD. It took friggen forever, (About 4 hours for a 2hr movie). and don't even get me started on the mediocre encoding quality of the DVD. Nero does it in about an hour on the same computer, and better quality.

Yes, I paid an outrageous amount of money for Nero 7 Ultra, but geez, I've got YEARS of use out of it across 3 windows versions, no updates required, and I'm still using it. Worked with 98SE, ME, XP(2000, NT), Vista32 bit. Need Nero 9 for Windows 7 though.

I don't think the transcoding part is your problem. It's obvious that the data has been converted and burned. For some other reason, the burner (or DVD flick) couldn't close the session (finalize the disk). Perhaps DVD flick does not lock the drive(?) and an antivirus scan, or other process interrupted the burn. But drag-N-drop VOB files to burn? I don't think so. That sounds like it would just create a DATA dvd with VOB files on it. Not the same as creating a Video DVD.

[MilesAhead]

@DrinkOrDie for some reason I read audio folder is empty but my mind saw no audio. The audio folder is there for audio(music only) DVDs.

A good diagnostic is try to set "lock drive exclusive access" in Imgburn. If it won't let you start a burn because another software has the drive, that's a problem. Also whenever you see Nero you have to look for InCD. Nero works vastly better if InCD is not installed.

I have to tell you though, I don't have money to spend $500 for a video converter so I haven't sampled the professional suites, but the best looking video I've seen so far is AVStoDVD using the latest HC encode beta(Oct. 20 2009) Set it to 2 pass HC in the video options and lock it with the Lock Button. If the input is good the output is like glass on my HDTV.

Another cool thing about AVStoDVD I put an .mkv file with subtitles as input and got DVD output with the subs burned in. I totally forgot to take any account of the subs. I didn't extract the subs to do anything. AVStoDVD took care of it. I just dropped the .mkv file on the program.

The last consideration would be if there's new firmware for the burner. On one of my old PCs if I used any version of Imgburn newer than 1.0 it would hang at finalization, until I updated the firmware. Of course firmware update always has some risk.. so I only do it if it's really a stumbling block.

[A Dodgy Dude]

Thanks. everybody, for your input.

I'm sorry I haven't replied sooner but things have gotten a little hectic here in my little corner of the world for the past few days. And probably will be for the next couple days.

I still haven't unraveled the mysteries of DVD Flick but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

DrinkOrDie writes:

Let me guess. The VOB's are at 1,048,574 KB or less.

You're right. I have four VOB files that are exactly the same size: 1,048,544 KB

Also one that is 297,476 KB and one that is 60,032 KB.

Seems like you guys know what you're talking about which puts you a couple steps ahead of me.

I'll be back in a day or two with some specific details of how my battle with DVD Flick is going.

[PurpleDemon]

Looking at your attachment it says priority is below normal.
This will account for some of your time.

Also just for fun double check your hard drive and make sure it hasn't slipped into PIO mode. I have run into that before on some machines.

[cynthia]

Need Nero 9 for Windows 7 though.

Nero 8 works nice with Win7. I guess 7 should work also. The only thing I noticed that they made special in 8 for Vista was the hour glass you see when the program is "thinking".

[doctorhardware]

Nero 8 works nice with Win7. I guess 7 should work also. The only thing I noticed that they made special in 8 for Vista was the hour glass you see when the program is "thinking".

So that is what the higher price was for.

[DrinkOrDie]

@DrinkOrDie for some reason I read audio folder is empty but my mind saw no audio. The audio folder is there for audio(music only) DVDs..

Really? I'm not doubting you at all. I've seen NO commercial video DVD's that had that folder on them. I do know that in the early days of DVD's, (afterall, it stands for Digital Versatile Disk) the idea was that DVD's would be used for music/soundtracks AND movies. Of course, they got away from the idea of music on DVD's and gravitated towards more options for the movie audio track, special features such as camera angle choices, stereo or surround, etc. and had no problem filling up a DVD with that stuff. In fact, many DVD's now take two layers, even for just a 2.5 hour movie. I really don't think it was there for "audio only" DVD's. I think it's there so you can have the best of both worlds on one disk. Nero even gives me that option. Something about a "mixed mode" where a DVD can contain your typical MPEG2 video (VOB) but also can contain an audio-only portion (much like a CD) AND computer data. I think this is why they called it a "versitile" disk in the beginning. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. everybody, for your input.
I still haven't unraveled the mysteries of DVD Flick but I'm not ready to throw in the towel just yet.

You're right. I have four VOB files that are exactly the same size: 1,048,544 KB

Also one that is 297,476 KB and one that is 60,032 KB.

Seems like you guys know what you're talking about which puts you a couple steps ahead of me...

@ Doggy Dude. Ahhhww shucks, I only know what I have learned from the fine people here at Digital Digest < Digital Video Forums. Thanks to these guys, I am viewed as "god like" by most of my friends, due to my knowledge of digital video and DVD backup. I'm like scotty on star trek. I am seen as a technological miracle worker. I give all the credit to these fine folks here, that were more than patient with me, and were willing to teach me over the years. Stick around. There's much to learn if you're into that sort of thing. Learning I mean. "Throwing in the towel" was never an option for me. I'd throw the rotten towel into this forum and see what happens. They would throw it right back at me, and help me find a solution. However, don't get stuck on one program. Try others. It will increase your understanding. And by all means, come back with more questions!

[MilesAhead]

http://club.myce.com/f62/audio_ts-folder-always-needed-110287/

Posted: 30-06-2005

*
* #5

Only DVD Ive *ever* seen that had a file in Audio_TS was a DVD Audio disc. I have not seen any movies (retail) that had data in this folder

[A Dodgy Dude]

@ Doggy Dude. Ahhhww shucks, I only know what I have learned from the fine people here at Digital Digest < Digital Video Forums. Thanks to these guys, I am viewed as "god like" by most of my friends, due to my knowledge of digital video and DVD backup. I'm like scotty on star trek. I am seen as a technological miracle worker. I give all the credit to these fine folks here, that were more than patient with me, and were willing to teach me over the years. Stick around. There's much to learn if you're into that sort of thing. Learning I mean. "Throwing in the towel" was never an option for me. I'd throw the rotten towel into this forum and see what happens. They would throw it right back at me, and help me find a solution. However, don't get stuck on one program. Try others. It will increase your understanding. And by all means, come back with more questions!

Look at my little thread with 13 posts in it! I'm so proud.

I'll take your advice DorD and make this place a regular stop in my cyber-wanderings. Maybe I, too, can learn the secrets of DVD Flick and dilithium crystals.

Well, the good news is I've done something right (always a pleasant surprise) and now I can get files burned to the discs.

But now there's another problem - isn't there always? The audio and video tracks are slightly out of synch. The audio track is about 1 second ahead of the video track. It's not distracting enough to make me add to the collection of bodies behind the second-tallest oak tree at the back of the property, but I would like to correct it anyway.

So: any suggestions, thoughts, or theories on how to synchronize what I'm seeing and what I'm hearing?

[A Dodgy Dude]

I saw on another board something about using the "J" and "K" key on your keyboard while watching a file on VLC will let you synch up the audio and video.