owlroost thnx
i figured i would check and save myself a few hours
on the other hand, i really appreciate your advice because after all -- you probably found out about this the hard way and wasted many hours
so i really appreciate it
i am rendering to mpeg 2 as we speak (or read)
:) cheers
sb

"i am going to author and burn my first dvd....and no it isn't sponge bob!!"
LOL!
let us know how it goes.
Actually, cartoons/animation stuff gets used a lot for testing encoders.

you won't beleive this crap
i just spent like 2 1/2 hours trying to figure out why i couldn't burn my inaugural dvd
i bought the dr104 oem pioneer bare drive
anyway, to make a short story long----they sent me the wrong drive!!!!!!
holly fluffernutter batman
so i'm sitting here trying to figure this out 4-ever when i look at the drive etc and it's dvd+rw
anyway, i called esbuy and they are sending me out the dvd drive i'm suppose to have--they were very nice about--mistakes happen--anyway, i'll have to post next week about my virtualdvd experience
thnx all
stay tuned
i'll probably get sent alphapha sprouts this time--my luck
sb

<g> well .. it sounds like you got the right drive in my opinion. But then again, I like the +R and +RW format a lot!

giggles and best of luck,

K

Yeah, might as well burn like crazy with it.......till ya get the right one!

sb,
I have only completed one project with VV3 and successfully created a DVD using DVDit!SE. A simple question if I may ask:

Why do you change the video quality to '31'? I just left everything at the default settings.

I, also, bought my burner from esbuys...my first one was faulty and they were really great to deal with...extremely pleasant. If you plan on burning your first project to a DVD-RW disc, I believe that you MUST do a full (complete) erase first. You only have to do that one time as I was instructed and from then on you can just do a quick erase to the disk to try out your 'burns'. Good luck.

Bob

bob:
i figured 31 would give me the maximium quality? am i wrong?
i am intending to burn a 60 minute dvd
therefore i don't have to worry about space
anyway, i wanted a dvd-rw drive, not dvd+rw
btw, i tried to play a regular dvd in the player and i could NOT--argh
anyway, i am not going out and buying dvd+r discs to practice burning
i have a dvd-r(w) player, so it wouldn't play it anyway

also, i notice that whenever i have movement on my video in the ulead movie factory preview screen it is blury
i figure it will clear up on the final burn--sort of like vv3
i hope i am correct
in other words, i can play my avi or mpeg 2 file in windows media player--and it looks great
when i bring it to movie factory preview screen any movement makes it blury
unfortunately i can't practice burn a dvd to see if i have to make adjustments
thnx in advance to anyone using movie facotry and anyone with any info on setting the quality slider in vv3
:)
sb

That 'blurriness' you see should not show up when you burn to DVD. I tried to play the mpeg2 file that VV3 created in a software player to see how it looked before I created the DVD file in DVDit!SE and it also show some blurry movenments. It has to do with interlaced/deinterlaced video and whether you render it for a computer monitor or a TV. Once I got the file burned (42 minute home movie) it looked great on TV. As far as set-top DVD players being able to read the DVD may be another matter. According to some of the other forums I visit, a lot has to do with the manufacturer of the media disks. Pioneer, Apple, and TDK seem to be the preferred media as far as success on set-top DVD players go. I have used Memorex and it will NOT play in my Sony DVD player but it plays great in a cheap Apex player. I took my burned disk and went to a Circuit City store and tried all of their DVD players until I found one that it worked on.

Bob

I just tried looking at a file that I burned to DVD with MovieFactory using their simulated remote control. I wouldn't say that it looks blurry, but motion looks very jerky. The resulting DVD looks great with a stand alone player and in the computer.
I did not change any of the default DVD NTSC settings in VV3 when I rendered the mpeg-2.

For what it's worth, I've been able to burn -RW DVD's without erasing them first.

bob, playing a dvd disc on a tv dvd player has to do with format----dvd-r, dvd+r etc.
i have (or at least will have in the near future when they send me the correct drive) a dvd-r(w) dvd burner--as a result, i can only play these dvd's i create in a dvd player that supports this format.
this is regardless of the disc i use (name brand or generic)
but many people do agree with you, the name brand blank media discs you mentioned have garned great results.
some have recommended generic brands---once i get myself going--i'm sure i will try them--they are much cheaper, but i won't sacrifice cost for quality
anyway, thnx for getting back to me--and the blurriness i see when i watch the preview monitor in movie factory
btw, when i convert an avi file in vegas and play it in windows media player--it is fine
just when i play amythig in movie factory preview window
****if anyone can shed some light on the quality slider when rendering to mpeg2 i would greatly appreciate it
thnx :)
sb

sonicboom,

I have an old DVD player that doesn't support DVD+R or DVD-R and it plays my +R burns fine.

As far as I know the +R and -R are only different formats for buring the DVDs. The new DVD burners should play back both formats fine I think, while I have read articles that the DVD+Rs played back on older drives that DVD-R burns did not.

The real question is which will become the standard format?

I personally think the DVD+RWs will. You have more flexiblity with the +RW vs. the -RW from articles I have read.

RCW-
I have seen others comment about not needing to 'full' erase a DVD-RW disk before using. As I mentioned in one of my posts above, my first drive (Pioneer 104)was defective. While trying to trouble-shoot the drive, I contacted Pioneer support and they were the ones who told me to always 'erase' a DVD-RW disk first before the first burn. So I took that as 'fact'. Sorry if I passed on any incorrect information.

Bob

sb,
Just a final note: I just did a test burn of a project that I am working on. With the newest version VV3.0c, the MainConcept codec defaults to the #31 on the slider (at least on my setup). Also, if you have never done any burning at all, when you do your first (again, this is according to my setup) burn, it takes a few minutes when it 'initalizes' the disk and again when it 'finalizes' the disk. When I first got the drive, I had a major panic attack because I thought that the burn was 'hung-up' but it was successful.

Bob

bob, thnx
the slide was in the middle on mine...i figured i would slide it to 31 for best quality
i do have vv3.oc version
i will get my burner on tuesday--i hope
then i will get going with the burn
thnx
sb :)