Computer Nerds, need help!!!! lol DVD?'s

[sick 96 250]

Ok i have a DVD burner on my comp and I can burn them, however the quality isnt all that great most of the time. I'm not sure if its the file size or what.

Example: I downloaded Scary Movie 4 that was ripped from a DVD from someone else. The total file size was 701mb. Now the DVD disks says 4.8GB of data possible but this is what comfuses me. If I try to burn it in its high quality stage to DVD it says I am over the limit by like a 1000mb or something crazy like that, maybe even more. However I can burn it using regular format but thats when you can really tell the DVD is kinda choppy, almost to digitalized and you can see the pixels showing.

Maybe it is just my program or something or I am not doing something I need to be. I have Sonic Record Now with MYDVD. It says MYDVD plus in the file but I dont think it is for some reason. I can get access to any other program that would be better than SONIC but I dont know what I need. I believe my write speed is also around 8x for burning DVD's and 52x for CD's.

It also takes forever to burn friggin DVD's, almost makes it to much of a hassle to do it but thought I would see what I can do to get it better quality and even speed things up.

 

[IndyMX]

Ok i have a DVD burner on my comp and I can burn them, however the quality isnt all that great most of the time. I'm not sure if its the file size or what.

Example: I downloaded Scary Movie 4 that was ripped from a DVD from someone else. The total file size was 701mb. Now the DVD disks says 4.8GB of data possible but this is what comfuses me. If I try to burn it in its high quality stage to DVD it says I am over the limit by like a 1000mb or something crazy like that, maybe even more. However I can burn it using regular format but thats when you can really tell the DVD is kinda choppy, almost to digitalized and you can see the pixels showing.

Maybe it is just my program or something or I am not doing something I need to be. I have Sonic Record Now with MYDVD. It says MYDVD plus in the file but I dont think it is for some reason. I can get access to any other program that would be better than SONIC but I dont know what I need. I believe my write speed is also around 8x for burning DVD's and 52x for CD's.

It also takes forever to burn friggin DVD's, almost makes it to much of a hassle to do it but thought I would see what I can do to get it better quality and even speed things up.

Quality theivery isn't cheap or quick...

 

[sick 96 250]

ok then, lets say i have a video that is 700mb and want to burn it to a DVD, how do I do that without losing the quality of it? Since you gave me some great input already i would assume you have an answer for this? I was using Scary Movie 4 as an example, doesnt matter what type of DVD I burn, if the file is close to 600-700mb in mpreg or AVI form I cant get it to burn and still look good, no matter if its a video off the net or one I tried to put together from a camcorder

 

[IndyMX]

ok then, lets say i have a video that is 700mb and want to burn it to a DVD, how do I do that without losing the quality of it? Since you gave me some great input already i would assume you have an answer for this? I was using Scary Movie 4 as an example, doesnt matter what type of DVD I burn, if the file is close to 600-700mb in mpreg or AVI form I cant get it to burn and still look good, no matter if its a video off the net or one I tried to put together from a camcorder

Well, since DVD is digital, you can copy 1st quality (uncompressed) as many times as you like with out losing quality.

You only lose quality burning video to DVD by compressing that video.

Let's go back to your Scary Movie 4 title for example. The original DVD was most likely a 8.5 GB DVD. In order to make that DVD useful for most pirates, it has been compressed to 4.7 GB mainly by reducing quality. When you burn it, it will not be the same quality as the original. It may also have lost some of the added features like extra languages, DVD extras and that sort of thing in order to make the actual movie the best quality possible.

If you have a 700mb MPEG or AVI and want to burn it to DVD, it will be a matter of the setting that you use in your software that will determine the final quality.

I do not use Sonic to produce DVD's so I can't really comment on how to set it up properly for a quality DVD.

If I am building a DVD that I produced, shot video and all, is Adobe Premier Pro. There are very fine settings that determine quality.

For the most part, if you are trying to make a DVD from your videos, don't really concern yourself as much with the file size of the video file as much as the total running length in Minutes of the video. If the running length is over 120 minutes, the software will start to compress the crap out of your video in order to fit it on the media. So, you will lose quality. If this is the case with your video, you may have to find a way to edit your video to cut it down in length to fit it on the DVD.

Hope this helps.

 

[sick 96 250]

yeah that helps somewhat, i will see what I can figure out. I think it may also have to do with my burning software since its the basic version of Sonic but who knows.

 

[TxCr250]

it's the compression, not that I condone burning pirated/downloaded movies, I don't, but if you wanted to back up a movie that you've purchased I would suggest using "dvdshink". Works for me and plays on my dvd player (non computer).

 

[Okiewan]

dvdshrink is the PC way to go.

DON'T Steal, it makes the movie suck!

 

[ellandoh]

DON'T Steal, it makes the movie suck!

especially since previewed videos at block buster are five bucks a copy, and its DVD quality with all the extras . no tying up the computer or any of the other hassles that come with copying either

 

[sick 96 250]

I actually have DVD shrink on my comp but I cant seem to really understand it. I have a bunch of video from my truck meet we had with a bunch of guys plus other footage of racing and such. That sits around 624mb in AVI form i guess. So would DVD shrink be able to work with this to compress it cause that does the same thing or is that only for loaded DVD's in the drive? I am trying something now with my DVD burner so maybe it will take care of the problem. There was a spot that said fit file to DVD but when I clicked on it I always got must puchase the Deluxe kit, I ended up right clicking on the VID and clicked on the same thing through that and it seemed to fit it properly but its not done burning yet. Take forever to burn I guess since I'm on a 8x speed at most i'm assuming. It just doesnt seem like SONIC has to many prefs to change around to make work quicker or anything.

 

[IndyMX]

I actually have DVD shrink on my comp but I cant seem to really understand it. I have a bunch of video from my truck meet we had with a bunch of guys plus other footage of racing and such. That sits around 624mb in AVI form i guess. So would DVD shrink be able to work with this to compress it cause that does the same thing or is that only for loaded DVD's in the drive? I am trying something now with my DVD burner so maybe it will take care of the problem. There was a spot that said fit file to DVD but when I clicked on it I always got must puchase the Deluxe kit, I ended up right clicking on the VID and clicked on the same thing through that and it seemed to fit it properly but its not done burning yet. Take forever to burn I guess since I'm on a 8x speed at most i'm assuming. It just doesnt seem like SONIC has to many prefs to change around to make work quicker or anything.

DVDshrink is for making copies of commercial DVD's that will fit on a standard 4.7 gb DVD.

I have make DVD's from AVI's that were in the 12 to 20 Gb range before. It's all in the compression.

Drop that POS Sonic. I suggest NERO for someone like you. It's easy to use and has some suprizingly advanced features.

 

[FruDaddy]

If you are trying to burn avi to dvd you need to render it as mpg2 at the proper resolution first (don't recall the specifics right now). There is a piece of software called tmpeng that might be able to help you out, but you'll have to find it yourself. I use Movie Studio for my video editing needs. Then I burn with Nero. I get pretty good quality out of SVCD's this way, but have yet to bother with burning actual DVD's, as the stuff I put together is usually less than 30 minutes.

 

[IndyMX]

If you are trying to burn avi to dvd you need to render it as mpg2 at the proper resolution first (don't recall the specifics right now). There is a piece of software called tmpeng that might be able to help you out, but you'll have to find it yourself. I use Movie Studio for my video editing needs. Then I burn with Nero. I get pretty good quality out of SVCD's this way, but have yet to bother with burning actual DVD's, as the stuff I put together is usually less than 30 minutes.

Nero 7 will do the conversion just fine. You don't need to encode it with Tmpeng or any other encoder first. It's a waste of time.

Actually, if you try that and do it wrong, nero will not be able to burn the file to DVD.

Just let NERO do the transcoding and all will be swell. I've done it many times on quick jobs.

 

[sick 96 250]

ok cool, NERO 7 it is, I will give it a shot tonight and see what happens. I had a feeling this SONIC program wasnt all that great, its burns CD's pretty quick but DVD's are just slow, my one buddy has the same speed burner and his completes in a 1/4 of the time. Right now its been an 1.5hrs and the DVD isnt done yet so hopefully Nero will take care of it a little better.

 

[IndyMX]

ok cool, NERO 7 it is, I will give it a shot tonight and see what happens. I had a feeling this SONIC program wasnt all that great, its burns CD's pretty quick but DVD's are just slow, my one buddy has the same speed burner and his completes in a 1/4 of the time. Right now its been an 1.5hrs and the DVD isnt done yet so hopefully Nero will take care of it a little better.

Also, I suggest a buttload of RAM if you are going to be burning DVD's on a regular basis. It doesn't seem obvious, but it will really help the process. 512mb minimum.

 

[sick 96 250]

I dont plan on burning all that much, but its just nice to be able to do it in a timely manner and not get crappy quality for the most part. I have seen my buddies burn a lot of movies they downloaded off the net with no ill effects compared to what i got going on. I just installed Nero 7 Ultra so I will give it a test tomorrow, got work in 6hrs so I am going to get some sleep now. Thanks for all the help so far guys

 

[IndyMX]

I dont plan on burning all that much, but its just nice to be able to do it in a timely manner and not get crappy quality for the most part. I have seen my buddies burn a lot of movies they downloaded off the net with no ill effects compared to what i got going on. I just installed Nero 7 Ultra so I will give it a test tomorrow, got work in 6hrs so I am going to get some sleep now. Thanks for all the help so far guys

More memory will just make the whole DVD burning experience much better. Anything under 512mb in my opinion is just painful. But, my machine is sportin 2 gb...

 

[sick 96 250]

More memory will just make the whole DVD burning experience much better. Anything under 512mb in my opinion is just painful. But, my machine is sportin 2 gb...

yeah i kinda figured that, I have only 512mb of memory but it shows only 488 in the profile for the comp when I pull it up. I thought I had more but that with my old computer that took a dump. How do I figure out what kind of memory I need? I completely forget how to do that?

I'm running an AMD sempron 3400+ processor if that helps any. I have a few sticks from my old comp but I doubt they will work.

 

[FruDaddy]

It depends on the motherboard. You can probably go through crucial.com to find out. This will require either the Manufatcurer and model number of the computer or the board. Also, you can usually get the type of RAM directly from the manufacturers web site. But do not buy it from the manufacturer unless you know it is cheaper there. Typically, you can purchase RAM from Crucial for significantly less than you would pay for the extra when having a machine built. I know this is true with Dell, and they use the exact same RAM that Crucial sells.
Also, if your machine is a laptop, you are probably using shared memory, which means that part of the 512 is being used by the video card.
Lastly, before ordering more RAM, you should take a quick look inside to make sure that there is an available slot. If there is no room, you will have to buy an even larger stick, and replace what is already there.