i'm not sure if i'm in the right section but this could be to do with dvd flick or my dvd disks or both ... if my query needs to be moved, please tell me which section to go to.
i download a few films every month and subsequently burn them to a dvd so that i can eventually delete them off my hard drive.
a couple of weeks ago, i did this using dvd flick (which i've used for years without any problems) which continued its sequence but before it started the burn sequence using imgburn (again, used for years), a message came up on-screen saying that the film was too big for the dvd. i then tested the disk and it showed 'used'.
very strange!
the film size was 721.75mb and was in avi format.
i tested other blank dvds's i had and they all showed up as full/used and because i'd had them stacked up next to a computer loudspeaker, i assumed, perhaps wrongly, that they were beyond saving.
my blank cd's all show as empty/unused ... the dvd's should also show as the same.
anyway, i bought some more dvd's and tested them and they too showed as being full/unused but because they were new, i entered the data for the same film into flick using one of the new disks and let it run. same result/same message as before just prior to burning. i tried this a number of times using different disks and noticed that the the yellow capacity bar at the left of the flick window showed 98% whereas on all previous occasions, it's always been around 70 to 80% and anyway, on the odd occasion when i've tried to put too many one-hour videos in (such as part of a tv series), a warning has flashed up at the data-entering stage which allowed me to adjust accordingly.
i ran more tests with other films that i'd already burnt to disk but these too showed 98% and were stopped just before the burn stage.
so i'm extremely puzzled by this ... flick or disks?
what i'd also like to find out is ... do brand new blank dvds's indicate used/full when tested unlike brand new blank cds's?
the way i test them is in xp windows explorer with a new disk in the dvd drive and right click and scroll to properties, they come up blue (full) instead of pink (empty).
i'm really sorry this is so long-winded but i would really appreciate any thoughts or ideas that any of you might have on this.
A blank DVD will show as 'Status:Empty' in ImgBurn.
Optical disks are not affected by the magnetic field of a speaker (perhaps you're thinking of floppy disks).
many thanks for that ...
at least i now know to test a dvd in imgburn rather than windows explorer so i've learnt something today ... and all my dvd's are empty.
but i'm still left with why all my films are too big to be burnt to a 4.7gb dvd when the biggest i did in the past was no more than 2.2 gigs and that's the problem ... why now all of a sudden?
thanks again.
As long as the running time of the source files does not exceed the target size of the disk set in 'Project Settings' (for example, it's set for a DVD and not mistakenly set as a CD), DVD Flick should not have a problem.
In this example, six source files total just over three hours and the bar is 94% full.
yes ... you're right ... quite agree.
the running time for all my films, apart from the odd exception, is no more that 150 mimutes and the size ranges from 700 megs to 1.9 gigs but mostly around 700 to 1100 megs.
the indicator on the left always stays in the yellow in the 70's and 80's and when it has gone into the red, the programme won't even let me start let alone get to the burn stage.
the flick version i've been using for quite a while now is 1.3.0.6 but today, i uninstalled it and installed 1.3.0.7 ... same result.
the target size in project settings/general have always been and are still set to dvd4.3 gigs so i just don't know.
as an exercise, i entered data for films that i've perviously burnt to disk without a problem as well as a few others that are yet to be done and the indicator bar went up to 98% on all of them ... in theory, within limits.
i'm just wondering if some corruption has occured somewhere but both versions 1.3.0.6 and 1.3.0.7 have given the same result.
i also have the avi2dvd programme but haven't yet tried to see if that will give me the same bad result.
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have just re-installed avi2dvd and started the process for it to do whatever it does and burn to disk and as soon as clicked 'go', a window came up on screen saying that the total capacity of the job was 9.7gigs so no wonder flick was coming to a sudden stop.
in windows explorer, the size of the particular avi file is 721,750 KB.
I've tried a number of different dvd's on which to burn but without any improvement.
At each attempt, a message comes up on-screen telling me the the new blank 120gb dvd-r disk is too small on which to burn a 1.200gb film so I have no idea what to do now.
Locate and run ImgBurn (it was installed with DVD flick).
Click 'Write files/folders to disc'.
Insert a blank DVD-R disk.
Browse to the folder where DVD Flick saved the output files (VIDEO_TS) and drag it into ImgBurn.
Check the box that says 'Test burn' and start the burn process.
The 'Test Burn' merely verifies that the software is communicating with the firmware on the burner - no actual burning takes place, so you won't waste a disk.
i ran the test but didn't expect it to work because the only dvd's i have at the moment are dvd-r and not dvd+r and sure enough, the test never got past "go" ...
the message that came up was "wrong media .. should be dvd+r" ... or words to that effect but i have saved the details of this test for the future and once i get dvd+r's, i'll run it and see what happens.
however, this whole thing has been bugging me so i went over all the flick settings quite a few times just in case i'd missed something. remember, this problem had only started a little while ago using the same settings that i'd put in place a couple of years ago or whenever it was but during that time, i'd de-activated the need for flick to generate an iso file, mainly because it was such a large file and that it increased the burn part of the job. also, i read in a number of different articles the iso file wasn't really necessary. dvd flick had still continued to behave and my completed dvd's performed just fine.
because i'd de-activated it, i decided to re-activate it and set flick in motion to see what happened. i expected to get the same result ... that is, that the 4.7gig dvd was too small to burn the 700 meg film ... but it worked perfectly.
why ... i have absolutely no idea ... nor do i still have any idea why the problem arose in the first place a couple or three weeks back.
i've now put through about 8 other films and they also have worked perfectly.
so thank you for all your help and suggestions ... this headache appears to have gone away at last.
