I recorded some shows on my hard drive in MPEG2 format. All the guides seem to be about making DVD copies which is not what I am doing.
I purchased Roxio to make a DVD out of a 4.3GB MPEG2 file I have. It bumped the size up to 11 GB? What on earth is the extra 7GB for?
Since I wrote this post I tried Nerovision Express which works great. My only question is which format do you select? DVD-Video or DVD-Video (+VR). I know of the format -r and +r in dvd discs but never heard of dvd video or +vr what are these?
I am not familiar with Nerovision Express but I do have answers to your first question if you are still interested. A program that would work best to make that MPEG2 file go onto a dvd, if that is what you are aiming to do, is a TMPGEnc DVD Author. This program is easy to use and will convert your MPEG2 format right into a VOB sytle DVD format in order to get the best burn possible.
Hope this helps, was a bit unclear of your intentions.
The +VR format has been created for easy video editing. If you want to play your disc in a regular standalone player, use the -R or +R format.
NeroVision Express can be used as an authoring tool, but sometimes it re-encode the MPEG file instead of just turning it into VOB, which can ruin the image quality.
If you don't want to buy an authoring tool, have a look at DVDAuthorGui or DVD Styler (both free).
Thanks for the reply. I am intrigued about Nero Vision Express, you say it can re-encode the video and lower the picture quality? Why would someone use it then, and how can you tell? Thanks.
NVE contains an MPEG2 encoder, so that it can convert any video file to MPEG2. The doc claims NVE does not re-encode an MPEG2 file if it's DVD-video compliant.
I encoded some DV AVI files with CCE Basic. First at 8000 kbps CBR and then at 6000 kbps VBR, and finally I authored them with NVE.
Those files were DVD-video compliant. Indeed NVE didn't re-encode the first one (it processed it very quickly) but obviously it re-encoded the second one (it processed it for more than 20 minutes).
The first file (8000 kbps CBR) looked nice on the DVD but the second one was jerky. NVE had ruined the CCE quality by re-encoding the file. As far as I know, there is no way in NVE to force it not to re-encode an MPEG2 file. It decides on its own, and sometimes it's wrong...
Every single MPEG2 I do using Nero VE takes about 20-25 minutes, does that mean it is re-encoding every single one? Grr. This is the second software package I purchased (Roxio was useless) and now I hear bad things about it as well....
Well, it depends on the file duration. If your MPEG2 file contains 1 hour of video, it might be normal that NVE takes 20 minutes to process it without re-encoding. On my Athlon XP 2000, NVE takes 2.5 times to encode. Otherwise stated, 1 hour of video is encoded in 2 hours and a half.
On the other hand, if your MPEG2 file contains just 15 minutes of video and NVE takes 20 minutes to process it, then it's very likely that NVE re-encodes it...
Anyway, the doc states NVE does not re-encode DVD-video compliant files. If you own a Nero license, contact the support and ask what your MPEG file should look like for NVE not to re-encode it.
Personaly I don't care. I have TMPGEnc DVD Author :-)
