Help burning my video to a DVD! (first time)

Laci wrote on 4/18/2007, 8:44 PM
I recently purchased Sony Movie Studio + DVD which came with DVD Architect 3.0. Vegas worked fabulously -- no complaints there. My problem is as follows:
I have an almost 3 hour long movie that I edited and rendered with Vegas. I can open it in DVD Architect, but when I go to burn to a DVD, I get this error message: "There is not enough space in the prepare folder for the DVD." This makes no sense because it says on that page that the folder has 12,351.6 MB of free space! (The file supposedly takes up 10.2 GB, or 10,200 MB)
Help, anybody?!

Comments

bStro wrote on 4/18/2007, 8:55 PM
You should have enough extra room on your drive for DVDA to work with in addition to the space needed to hold the prepared files themselves. Also keep in mind that your DVD has more than just the video itself -- there are also menus and instruction files. Although all of these are smaller than your main movie, they still must be considered.

At any rate, you're not going to get over 10GB on a DVD, anyhow. Even if you're using dual-layer discs, those only hold 8.5GB. (I'm not even sure that DVDA Studio 3.0 supports dual layer, for that matter.) If you're using single layer discs, those are 4.7GB.

Rob
MPM wrote on 4/19/2007, 12:51 PM
Don't have DVDA 3 installed so can't try any of this out, but FWIW...

DVDA might use a bit of temp space in rendering, and this requirement plus the DVD might go over your available space? In that case you'd have to free some up. Might try different project settings - not SL disc anyway. Might check if DVDA wants to re-render your video by looking at the Optimize window (under file menu).

While something there *might* help get your current project rendered, bStro's right in that you might want to re-encode your project. Even retail video DVDs rarely exceed 7 - 8 gig [& check the file itself rather than rely on DVDA's guesstimate]. If you have any problems with DL in DVDA 3, render to your hdd anyway and use PgcEdit &/or ImgBurn to set the LB, ImgBurn to burn.
Laci wrote on 4/19/2007, 4:23 PM
Okay, update.
I cut down the file to under two hours, making it approx 7 GB. This WILL fit on a DL disc. So, I prepare the file and burn the file. I get a message saying that the burn completed successfully. I go to play it in my TV and guess what? "This disc. has an error, cannot playback." Auuurrgh! I put it in my computer with basically the same result, only my computer didn't even recognize that there was a disc in the drive. Now I'm afraid to try again because that disc is no longer usable and DL discs are not cheap! I am pulling my hair out now. Somebody please help me!!!
MPM wrote on 4/19/2007, 5:52 PM
This is kind of a shotgun approach -- hope it helps...

There have been some reports of discs appearing to burn with DVDA, but no data is written. If you burned using DVDA you might want to burn a short test, preferably to RW media to make sure that it works.

If you used something like Nero, I haven't tried the latest version but I think 6 didn't work. You'll find more info online re: DL burning at sites like videohelp, doom9.org, and the site for ImgBurn, which includes a support forum if ImgBurn is what you used to make the coaster.

You didn't mention if you rendered your DVD to your hard drive, tested & then burned, and if so, with what software, or if you rendered & burned your project in DVDA.

If you render to hdd with chapters, and everything tests OK using something like VLC or Power DVD, then the next step would have been to use either PgcEdit &/or ImgBurn to set the point [chapter marker] for the layer break, then use ImgBurn to burn the disc. This almost never fails without telling you why in the log, unless there's a problem with the burner or media, and then I'd think your PC would at least recognize it.

The layer break happens at the beginning of a cell, and you would be asked to select it in either PgcEdit or ImgBurn in order to proceed with the burn. DVDA doesn't let you specify just cells -- you have to insert a chapter marker, which creates a new cell. Ideally the cell chosen is very close physically to the middle of the data to burn. If you choose the layer break in DVDA 4 it gives you a range of where to put it, so you get close to the middle.

Laci wrote on 4/19/2007, 6:20 PM
So, going along with the last thing you said, MPM... If I put my layer break in the wrong spot, would that effectively mess up my burn? (In case you hadn't guessed it by now, I am veeery new at this whole process.) Before I started my burn process, I was asked to choose a place for the layer break. I did, but had no idea which one was correct, so I guessed.
By the way, thank you for taking the time to help me. I appreciate it!
MPM wrote on 4/20/2007, 9:30 AM
"If I put my layer break in the wrong spot, would that effectively mess up my burn?"
"I was asked to choose a place for the layer break. I did, but had no idea which one was correct, so I guessed. "

I think as long as you're given a range to choose from, and you select a point within that range, choosing a bad spot for the layer break will show up when you play the DVD, but you should still be able to play it. What you look for is a place in your video where a brief pause will be least noticeable.

I'm far from great at troubleshooting, but I think I'd start by checking out the burn process, what software you used etc...
Laci wrote on 4/21/2007, 11:39 AM
Thank you guys again for helping me. Problem resolved. Solution? Don't use DVD Architect!
I found that by using Sony Vegas to render the video, DVDA to prepare the video, and burning the video with another program to work flawlessly. DVDA works fine up until the actual burning stage. There, it becomes useless. So, I use DVDA for everything except that.
In the process of trying to figure DVDA out though, unfortunately I completely fried four DL discs. That hurt!
MPM wrote on 4/24/2007, 3:43 PM
"That hurt!"

I hear ya ;?{
dfred wrote on 5/27/2007, 7:27 PM
Hi,

I'm sort of a newbie to posting here and have been reading a lot over the past several days. Your post caught my eye because you use Vegas to render, DVDA to prepare and burn the video with another program. What is that other program you use to burn?

The reason I ask is that my computer has the DL disk capability and I have never used it. No, DL disks are not cheap, so any info about this would be appreciated.

Thanks.
Laci wrote on 7/23/2007, 7:54 PM
I use a program called CloneDVD. It works flawlessly. Runs a little slow, but gets the job done. If I had money to blow, I'd try something that runs a little faster but...money doesn't grow on trees, and CloneDVD is already payed for.
Hope I helped.