thanks so much for the info. you've talked me into ulead. I have their videofactory, but the dvd prog sound useful.
thanks

Download the trial (free) first and try it. Its the full version and you can burn with it, so you can give it a real test.

thanks a bunch, that did the trick for me. whew. I was so excited that it wked, but then while watching it several places stuttered and one spot even got skipped altogether. I'm wondering what went wrong, burner? player? software? (I used Sony MyDVD). any thoughts?
D

If the movie looked fine on your computer as MPEG before it was placed & burnt in authoring software, the media you were using is a good place to start. It is false economy to use generic cheap DVD discs. Use good brands as they have a higher success rate. (Apple & Maxell DVD-R do well for me)

Does it play back fine from your DVD drive with software player ?

You can also check reports & compatability of your stand alone player at www.vcdhelp.com

Dara - Think you meant you used Sonic MyDVD, not "sony mydvd"..?
Sonic MyDVD is the app i started using (came bundled with my Hp 200i DVD+r burner)
and still ::blush:: am using mostly(till my budget allows for an upgrade)

First of course, sonic myDVD blows. It is insultingly easy to use though.

You didn't mention if you fed myDVD a .avi file, or a .mpeg2 file?
If you feed it an .avi, check ur quality settings in myDVD - cuz myDVD will encode it to mpeg2 before burning to DVD. I have never used myDVD to convert .avi to mpeg so i'm not sure how it works. I would suggest creating your mpegs right from the timeline in vegas via the "render as" - main concept mpeg2. Then using the "get movies" button in MyDVD to grab the converted mpeg file. - search the forum for
more info on adjusting different settings to improve qaulity.

why i am not an EXPERT on subject is of course because DVD discs are expensive and take a lot of time to burn! ($$ to run multiple tests!)

on that note -
[vonhosen]
"It is false economy to use generic cheap DVD discs. Use good brands as they have a higher success rate. (Apple & Maxell DVD-R do well for me)"

I just finally got around to ordering bulk qtys of no-name brand DVD+R discs.
Haven't had any problems yet (well, not any more then i have had with the $7 more HP branded discs -coaster wise - but that of course could be the drive)

Does disc qaulity really matter in the sense of playable qaulity?
Meaning - if the disc is sucessfully burnt (as in dara's case) why wouldn't
it play back right? '1's and '0's are '1's and '0's .. right?

I'm always the skeptic of marketing folks cuz i know how they gratiously use "NEW/IMPROVED!" or "SUPER HIGH QAULITY" to justify their higher prices.
(eg BOTTLED WATER! lol)

Please let me know if you have had any qaulity probs with playback of non-branded DVD discs before i go buy another 100 discs...dough!

I only used branded discs & have no coasters. I "sometimes" use Sonic's DVDit & if you visit their forum you will see the amount of posts regards playback problems & how many of these are solved by a change in disc. If you can find cheap discs that work for you then congratulations & stick with them. If you are suffering dara's symptoms it is something I would look at & consider.

It isn't just about "1"s & "0"s a very large part of the problem is the reflectivity of the disc confusing the player & making sure that the discs are produced in a "clean" enviroment so that you don't get dust contamination etc.

Also with MyDVD if it didn't like your MPEG file it would re-encode it using the built in encoder which doesn't give great results. With DVDit it would reject the MPEG & tell you to go away & try again.

If you want to see (a slightly dated) article that illustrates that not all discs are the same look at www.dv.com , there is the sort of comparison you are talking about & they have paid for the discs to save you the money !

Couldn't find that article but i'm sure you're correct.

Things that i would watch out for though are discs being produced by the exact same original manufacturer but sold to different companies and branded (or not branded) accordingly. I just took a good look at my generic blank DVD-Rs and the HP branded discs (which costs about $5-7 more each) and they look to be the EXACT same discs.
(markings & number systems appear to be identical)

Of course - the OEM could possiblely sell batches of discs that fell a little short of qual standards to no-name distributors?

My recommendation (for the DVD+R market) is to go generic & save money - i haven't yet seen any qual probs plus i like having a blank disc top (no markings)

yes, Sonic, not sony. oops.
I used Memorex dvd, not generic.
it played fine on my comp, no skips or anything, skipped on my dvd player. wouldn't play at all on my friend's dvd player. bummer.
can anyone recommend a good reference on burning/rendering/dvds etc? there seem to be a lot of variables that keep getting in my way. so frustrating to finish a project only to find that you're NOT finished!
thanks
D

As I said www.vcdhelp.com is a place to start where they have an extensive list & user reports with various formats of discs on a wide variety of players.

Although it's not for MianConcept encoder you can check out Rui's guide for advice on encoder settings (using TMPGEnc) but as I say it's not for MainConcept but it does give you a good idea about what the settings you are looking at do.

http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/TMPGEnc_Template.html

Another tip is don't go to limits on bitrate. The maximum combined bitrate for DVD is 9.8Mbs
If you are using PCM audio this would mean that you could encode video at about 8.2Mbs but I wouldn't. The difference to your eye with a reasonable encoder wouldn't be a great deal between say 7.0Mbs & 8.2Mbs but this can take the load off of your stand alone player. As it reads your disc this is a certain amount of error correction going on to provide smooth playback. If the player is having to read at the 9.8Mbs & there are errors on the disc it will soon get swamped & stutter. If you tone down the birate a bit it will give the player room to error correct. I'm not saying this would be the case with yours but it is another thing that can help.

With regards to discs I tried a number at various prices and sometime ago found Apple to have the best blend of reliability & cost for me. Kind of stuck with them now as they've never given me a coaster.

Great link on TMPGEnc!!!
Thanks!!!
Lots of good advice here(and other threads)on MPEG-2 and DVD........I might just be ready to take the DVD plunge now.

Dara,I am EXACTLY where you are right now.I initially rendered as an avi.file.Then I had (myDVD) translate and burn it into dvd.That worked well in my computer.(A Sony Vaio)But, it jumped and froze about 40 minutes in on a GE and Sharp dvd players.Was it the disc type(dvd-r,dvd+r)?the render?the player,dust?the brand?(I used verbatim and Memorex)the computer?...AAAARgh!!!I rendered again as a mpeg2 file.This only played in a Sony machine.The Sony machine wouldn't play the avi converted dvd at all.I borrowed my friend's dvdcam deck and connected firewire out.The audio would drop out in wierd unexplainable places.I bought the new dvd stand alone burner for $1,000.Same thing.Wierd audio drops.Video was fine though.The other wierd thing is when you finally get it successfully burned to dvd you will have problems making a vhs copy because of the copy protection scheme built into both machines.circuit City sells a copy protection elimatitor thingy thats supposed to knock that out.Anyway,I'm REALLY frustrated right about now.I can't even make a vhs copy of this thing.Please keep me posted on what works for you and I'll let you know too.I'm gonna try those Apple dvds today and see what happens.hang in there,Bill

40 minutes is a bit of a magic number & it is to do with limitations of FAT file systems.

Do you use Matrox RT capture cards ?

If I remember correctly it happens when you are using NTFS formatted drives (as with Windows 2000 or XP) combined with having the "Infinite Capture Mode" enabled which you would only have to use with FAT32 drives. At the 2 or 4GB boundary the video then stops, while the audio (which is in a separate and much smaller file) keeps playing.

The card came with the computer.It says NVIDIA Ge Force2 MX AGP 4x Graphics acceleration.(I'm really an audio guy,not a video guy.) Someone told me that if I got a Dazzle card I'd be able to go straight to vhs right from the timeline.Is that true?

Capture of DV through firewire to your computer is the easy way of doing things.

The Matrox RT series that I was talking about is a dedicated capture card
http://www.matrox.com/video/products/rtx100/home.cfm

The card you have illustrated is your graphics card which I take it you use for video in/out.

Capture of analog source acn be a bit tricky particularly video/audio sync.

If I was looking at getting equipment for capturing analog video reliably I would be considering the Canopus ADVC-100 , http://www.canopus.com/US/products/advc-100/pm_advc-100.asp which will let you export back to VHS etc or I would get myself a nice new DV camera that has not only DV in/out but analog to digital pass through converter built in . With this you could plug VHS into digital camera which in turn is plugged into firewire on your computer and as the signal passes through the camera it is converted to digital for capture as .avi (the format of choice for editing). from there you can send it back the way it came after editing or encode as MPEG-2 for your DVD burning.

Not all DV cameras have analog to digital pass through or DV in, so check the specs.

Memorex DVD-R is no good for video. I mistakenly slandered Maxell earlier, but my bad experiences have been with Memorex and cheap DVD-R media. The stuttering you're talking about is exactly what I got with Memorex. It's not certified for 2X DVD-R burning. Pioneer has info on certified media on their web site (look for info on DVR-104. I have used Sony and Pioneer DVD-R and had no problems. Someone else says here they've had good luck with Maxell. The bad DVDs I burned on Memorex I reburned on Sony and now they play perfectly.