for some reason, clicking "burn to dvd" causes movie studio to create an avi which is then passed to mydvd, which re-renders it into mpeg-2. i don't understand why it works this way because it doesn't make any sense to me, that's just the way it works.

what you want is "save to hard drive" and then choose "mainconcept mpeg-2" from the rendering format dropdown. when that is completed, start mydvd yourself and import that file. this works far better and faster than the so-called "integrated" way.

i really wish someone from sony would let us know why "burn to dvd" works this way.

I have tried this method. After I import to MyDVD the "Burn" button grays out so I can not click "Burn"

sounds like a problem with mydvd. perhaps mydvd doesn't recognize your dvd drive? can you burn anything with mydvd, like slide shows?

I just attempted to add a slide show along with my MPEG file and it still showed the "Burn" button grayed out so I opened a new project and created a slide show which did allow me to click the "Burn" button. It started through the burn process, add menu etc but ended up giving me an OS error 224 message.

I have done all the things that Sony suggest to correct OS Error 224 problems.

Does anyone ever have any luck calling Sony Support on the phone? I held for about 30 min today and never got anyone.

After a few new coasters I got the slide show to burn but tried adding the MPEG file to the project and the burn button grayed out again.

... presumably the mpeg file was rendered using the DVD profile?

If the mpeg file is not compatible with what DVDs should contain (resolution, soundtrack, bitrate, etc.) then it wouldn't surprise me if mydvd didn't want to burn it...

Of course, I don't have a DVD burner myself, so this is all conjecture :)

john..

When using MS3 and mainconcept to render to hard drive it creates an MPEG file and also an SFL file. Should the SFL file also be burned to the DVD. I have been able to the MPEG file to burn to my DVD but the DVD will not play on my set top DVD player even though the set top says it will play MPEG burned on DVD-R (the media I am using). Set top says "can not play this type of DVD" though I have been able to create a couple DVDs that will play.

Aparently you're not authoring the DVD. If you burn the MPEG2 file to a data DVD, you'll have a disc with an MPEG2 file on it. This is not ad video DVD. Some players will see the MPEG file and offer to play it. Many will not. You need to use some sort of software like the MyDVD that comes with Movie Studio 3 to go through an authoring process that creates menus and prepares AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS directories containing .VOB files. After this is done then the DVD can be burned with these directories and files.

I am using MS 3 then mainconcepts to render to MPEG2, then open MPEG file with MyDVD 4.5. When I open the file with MyDVD the burn button is grayed out. I see from the MyDVD knowledge base that of the things that can cause this is an MPEG file that is too large. I trimmed my video back and rendered with mainconcepts to a smaller file now 3,833,000KM. Burn button still gray. The file plays with the preview button on MyDVD but will not burn.

Hi... It's not just the size of the file, it's its running time. You could have a Mpeg2 file encoded at a low bit rate that is only 2 G in size but is 2 hours in real playing time.