Multiple copies from DVDA

rollysons wrote on 12/6/2007, 7:56 AM
If I have a finished DVD project in DVDA(3.0). What's the easiest way to make multiple copies? Should I save the rendered file on the hard drive and just burn however many copies I need? or should I use the method where after rendering and burning a disc the little window comes up and prompts you if you want to burn another disc? or Is this the same thing?

Also my finished project was 4.9GB according to the disk space used reading in the bottom right corner, but when I rendered and burned it, just to see what would happen, it all fitted on one disc(I did not tell it to "fit to disc"). First, is that an accurate reading of 4.9G or is that a ballpark estmate? Second, how did it know to do that if I didn't tell it too? I am using avi files that came from VMS6.0. As this was the prototype the video quality seemed ok except for the top menu, but did DVDA reduce the quality to fit it onto one 4.7G dvd? If I cut 200MB and rerender the project and burn it will it be better quality?

Shannon

Comments

Chienworks wrote on 12/6/2007, 8:32 AM
Either way is fine. Normally i don't even burn the first copy with DVDA. I do the prepare step, then use Nero to burn the VIDEO_TS folder that DVDA creates.

The disk space estimate is traditionally way off. If it fits on a disc then it's probably less than 4.3GB. DVDA did whatever was necessary to make it fit, but if your video was short enough, say under 75 minutes, it probably just used the default encoding bitrate.

Since you gave DVDA AVI files, it had to compress them into MPEG to make valid DVD files out of them anyway. And yes, presumably making a shorter video would allow less compression and therefore better quality, but removing 200MB from a 4.5+GB project isn't going to make a noticeable difference.
Terry Esslinger wrote on 12/6/2007, 11:25 AM
Quick question:
What is your advantage in using Nero to burn instead of DVDA.
Chienworks wrote on 12/6/2007, 2:57 PM
Nero has a validation check that reads the whole disc back after writing it to make sure there are no errors.

On the other hand, if you don't want to bother with the validation then the burn step is faster than DVDA by a couple minutes.

I also like the ability to include an EXTRAS directory in Nero better than DVDA's function. In DVDA you have to prepare the EXTRAS directory first, containing all the files you want and nothing else. In Nero you can pull any files you want from anywhere without arranging them on your hard drive first.

Also, while i haven't tried this myself yet, Nero has the ability to set the 'book type' of the DVD for improved compatability.

So there's 4 for ya.