Very slow DVD burning

[vadek]

I'm largely successful in authoring mpegs to DVD (for use on regular DVD players) via CyberLink PowerProducer Gold that came with my Acer laptop. But sometimes it zooms happily through the writing process, and other times (mostly) it takes forever (about as long as the feature film I'm writing) and uses 100% CPU throughout.

Using a known difficult file, I tried specifying a max bit rate of 10 and max GOP length of 15 when saving, but to no avail. I've also tried using Quickstream Fix. Any ideas what might be causing the problem would be most appreciated. My video source is an AverMedia terrestrial digital TV receiver.

Strangely, I recorded a couple of films recently which took up far more space than usual (approx 50% more). After editing with VRD they wrote to DVD quite rapidly!

This is the Ctrl-L of a problem input file:

File Name: D:\TVREC\infilm.mpg
File Size: 1959759876 ( 1.83 GB )
Program Duration: 01:44:13.14
File Type: PS - MPEG2
Encoding: MPEG 2
Video stream Id: xE0
Encoding Dimensions: 704 x 576
Display Size: 704 x 576
Aspect Ratio: 16/9
Frame Rate: 25.00 FPS
Bit Rate: 10.000 Mbps
VBV_Buffer: 224 KB
Profile: Main/Main
Progressive: Prog or Int
Chroma: 4:2:0
Audio Format: Layer 2
Audio Stream Id: xC0
Audio Bit Rate: 192 Kbps
Audio Sampling Rate: 48000 Hz

and the VRD log for the output file:

2006-12-27 20:44:27 Using display driver: DX-YUV
2006-12-27 20:44:27 Display open status: Using YUV with overlays.
2006-12-27 20:46:58 Starting new Frame Accurate Output Segment: start:0.000 (00:00:00.00), end:9853560.022 (02:44:13.14)
2006-12-27 20:51:38 Output complete. Input file: D:\TVREC\infilm.mpg
Output file: D:\TVREC\outfilm.mpg
Mode: Frame Accurate
-Video output packets: 882611
-Audio output packets: 74301
-Padding output packets: 0
-Longest GOP Found: 12
-DVD Compliant GOPS: 13044
-DVD Non-compliant GOPS: 0
-# of GOPS shortened: 0
Video output frames: 156340
Audio output frames: 260566
Processing time (secs): 280
Processed frames/sec: 557.89
Actual Video Bitrate: 2.27 Mbps
- PTS underflows: 1

[phd]

You might try an authoring program that does not reencode such as DVD Styler, dvdauthor or GUI for dvdauthor.

There are others as well.
http://www.videoredo.com/FAQs/SupportFAQDVDEdiitingAuthoring.htm#DVDAuthoringPro grams
http://www.videoredo.com/FAQs/SupportFAQDVDEdiitingAuthoring.htm#PlayFilesOnDVDP layer

[vadek]

I downloaded DVD Styler to try it out, but it doesn't write DVD's so I'm not sure how it helps. I'll check it out in more detail later.

Many thanks for the links, Pat. I did search the forums but couldn't find anything as useful at the time. I see on the FAQ page it says that there are "no known problems" with CyberLink PowerProducer. Well I certainly have problems with it!

David

[vadek]

After using DVD Styler, I now have a file called dvd.iso and have no idea what to do with it. CyberLink wants an RDF file to burn an image, so that's no good. NTI DVD Maker 7 wants a VIDEO_TS directory. What do I do with an ISO file? Clean suggestions welcome.

EDIT - RESOLVED! I found something called ISO-burner at ntfs.com. So the whole process is now:
1. Record film from digital telly
2. Top & tail and remove ad breaks as necessary with VRD.
3. Use DVD Styler to create an ISO disc image.
4. Write the ISO file to a DVD with ISO-burner.

As we say in the UK: "What a palaver!".

However, it works better than my previous technique as WMP now recognises the screen ratio of the DVD movie whereas it never used to.

RESULT!

[zaphod7501]

ImgBurn is another burning engine that is quite good. It was the spin off development from DVDDecrypter when it was legislated out of the market. You might even have other engines on your PC. Right-click on the iso and see if "Burn Using xxxx" pops up as an option.

Personally, I would find a copy of DVDDecrypter on a non-USA server. (It's not illegal everywhere) I find it to be a great disk recovery utility. With mpeg files, even hundreds or thousands of errors only amounts to a hiccup in the video stream, but straight file transfer may fail completely without a utility that can read through errors.

Creating a DVD is a multi-step process and usually requires different software for each step. All-in-one packages (and most OEM and bundled software) usually fail remarkably at at least one stage. Power Producer Gold fails in that it will always re-encode (and encodes poorly). It and Nero Express came with my drive and I almost took it back as defective because it would not finish a single disk. I discovered by accident that Ulead (bundled with Hauppauge cards) worked OK, just slower than needed. Some replacement freeware and I have hundreds of successfull disks with my "defective" drive.

[vadek]

Thanks, Zaphod. Looks like I still have to get to grips with my new-found freeware. When I open my second DVD with WMP it just sits there. Eventually, I tried pressing the button to skip to the next chapter and it started playing from the beginning. I guess I need to tweak DVD Styler somehow to avoid that first pause.

.iso files are associated with NTI CD/DVD Maker on my PC. There's no other burn options and NTI is unable to do anything with them!

Still - I now feel that I'm getting somewhere. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, however.

[zaphod7501]

Lots of little details in DVDStyler. In "DVD Options" and "Configuration" you will want to select the option for the country you are in. It defaults to the UK (720x576 PAL) instead of 720x480 NTSC for the USA. It only affects the menus but that could give you a start up problem with some players.

edit: Oops, I see by the stats on your mpeg (and the identifier) that you are in the UK. Nevermind.