Using Files Direct from Camcorder?

abc123 wrote on 12/31/2012, 10:12 AM

My problem is that I created a blu-ray project that is showing only 23GB but when I create the ISO, it is a 32GB ISO. From looking at these forums, I think the problem is that I am using m2ts files directly downloaded from my camcorder to create the blu-ray project. So a few questions:
Why can't I use files directly from my camcorder?
Why does it create an ISO file that is too large while the project says it is just fine?
Are there any workarounds?

I have seen people suggest using Vegas, but I am using DVDA to archive ALL my video footage for the year. I have A LOT of m2ts files and it would take me forever to go through them all in Vegas before using them in DVDA.

Any help is appreciated.

Comments

Steve Grisetti wrote on 12/31/2012, 10:52 AM

Well, you can use files directly from your camcorder -- it's just not an optimal way to work and you may or may not like the results. Movie Studio is designed to import many video formats and then to output many formats, each of which is optimized for a particular use.

DVD Architect is not designed to do that. It might be able to. But it's a little like using a butter knife as a screwdriver. It's just not the best way to use the tool.

The video your camcorder produces is optimized to provide you the highest possible quality with the smallest file space. BluRays have less of an issue with space and can focus more on producing video that looks great on your TV. Even if you add M2T to a DVD Architect project and you get an M2T file out the other side, the video is not "smart rendered." It's not the same file coming in as going out. Each video format has been optimized for the device that is going to record and/or play it.

On the other hand, it doesn't sound like your trying create playable BluRays. You're just archiving your high-def video. If that's the case, you shouldn't be using DVD Architect at all. Just use a program like ImgBurn to copy the video data from your camcorder to your disc. Then, when you're ready to edit it, you can just rip or copy it from the disc and import it into Vegas.

abc123 wrote on 12/31/2012, 11:02 AM

So is there a reason why my project of 23GB turns into 32GB and is there any way to work around it and keep the 23GB project to a 23GB ISO?

I used to use Roxio and it would do this just fine for DVDs but would never work well with Blu-Rays so I thought I would try the Sony products. It sounds like I will be adding 100% more work by having to take every file through Vegas first.

To clarify, by "archiving", I meant that I am trying to make a blu-ray that is playable but I am putting every family video I made during the year onto one disk that I can label "2012". It came to 23GB and I thought I was in good shape until the ISO turned into 32GB.

Thanks for the quick reply.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 12/31/2012, 11:18 AM

Because your 23 gig file is optimized for storage in the camcorder while the 32 gig file is optimized for highest quality playback on your disc player. Also, if your camcorder is an AVCHD cam, then it's using AVC (H264) compression while the BluRay disc is not.

abc123 wrote on 12/31/2012, 12:30 PM

Thanks. I would have assumed that it would have calculated the conversion size of the file when it was added. Like Roxio does. I guess I will have to make projects that are only 16GB in order to account for the extra conversion size. That assumes I like the conversion results after I get done this first one.
Thanks for the help.

Steve Grisetti wrote on 12/31/2012, 12:55 PM

Or you can think in terms of time.

At full quality, a BluRay disc holds about 2 hours worth of BluRay video files.

TOG62 wrote on 12/31/2012, 2:47 PM

Also, if your camcorder is an AVCHD cam, then it's using AVC (H264) compression while the BluRay disc is not.

But you do have an option to use AVC when burning a Blu-ray disc.

PeterDuke wrote on 12/31/2012, 6:45 PM

" Like Roxio does"

Roxio is like Nero and Imgburn. They burn files to optical media.

DVD Architect is an authoring tool for creating playable media in final form. It may also burn your project to optical disc, but it doesn't have to.

If all you want to do is archive video files, then DON'T USE DVDA!

I tried doing what you seem to be doing. I created a single-movie Blu-ray project with matching properties (PAL 1920x1080 50i with 5.1 AC3 audio, in my case). The video file was 6GB in size and 47 minutes length. I then started to create the .ISO file, but stopped it before completon. It looks like it would have taken about 10 minutes. It was recompressing the audio because for some unknown reason, DVDA requires the audio and video to be in separate files even if they are compatible in present form (TMPGEnc Authoring Works for one does not have this requirement.). There would still be the actual burn time on top of that as well. So you are wasting time creating an .ISO file and losing audio quality as well unless you go through the extra step of demutiplexing the source movie into separate audio and video files.

As Steve has said, DVDA is not the right tool to archive movies. Imgburn is free and does an excellent job. I suggest that you use it (or Roxio or other non-free equivalent).

By the way, if DVDA is creating output files much larger than your source then that must be because you are not matching your project properties to the movie properties.

And one final thought. It is probably cheaper and easier to archive your video files by copying them to a large USB drive. Nobody knows the life of optical media, but hard drives are well known technology.

Former user wrote on 12/31/2012, 8:41 PM

A Bluray can be either an MPEG2 file or an AVCHD (h264) file. In fact, I can copy the file structure from my Canon Vixia camera right to a bluray disk. It is stored as a bluray format.

If your file is changing size, it is probably recompressing. Do you have Bluray properties set for MPEG2 or AVC in DVDA?

Dave T2

Chienworks wrote on 1/1/2013, 3:25 AM

It's all about bitrate, which is something i haven't seen mentioned in this thread yet.

File size is determined entirely by the length of the program and the bitrate used when encoding. Since the length isn't changing, DVDA is re-encoding with a higher bitrate than the camera used. Unfortunately DVDA doesn't let you specify a bitrate when re-encoding, while Vegas does.

That being said, wouldn't DVDA's Fit to Disc option handle this problem?

Since the other tools mentioned aren't doing a re-encode step, this issue is avoided.

abc123 wrote on 1/1/2013, 12:50 PM

I tried both formats. The output IOS was similar size in both cases.

abc123 wrote on 1/1/2013, 12:55 PM

As I said in one of my responses earlier, I shouldn't have used the word "archive" what I wanted was to create a Blu-Ray that we could watch that contained all of our 2012 footage. I like tos et them up so that each "event" is a separate button so we can see get to a specific event quickly. So I end up with a DVD menu with somethuing like 15 buttons/titles that can be chosen from.

The Roxio program I was referring to was Roxio MYDVD, not just the straight burning program.

Sorry for the confusion.

PeterDuke wrote on 1/1/2013, 7:16 PM

DVDA will recompress your audio unless you demux first or provide a separate audio file.

If you are unable to make a Blu-ray disc without recompressing the video as well, then it may be that DVDA does not like your camera's output. What camera do you have and what are the video parameters? The Mediainfo results would be helpful.

It may be that DVDA is not the best application for you.

PeterDuke wrote on 1/1/2013, 7:45 PM

Are you aware that with disk or card based cameras, video clips that would be longer than 2GB or 4GB (depending on camera) are chopped into smaller parts?

In order to play such clips seamlessly, the parts need to be concatenated back into a single clip again. Are you doing this explicitly or implicitly via the transfer program?

I have a Sony camera and use the supplied PMB program to do the transfer. It concatenates the .MTS files and renames each clip according to shooting date and time and gives a .m2ts suffix. You mentioned m2ts and not .MTS, so I wondered.

Note that HDV cameras use tape and record in MPEG2. The produced files usually have a .m2t suffix. DVDA insists on unnecessarily recompressing such files.