So, I'm not exactly a pro at DVD burning, though I've had a burning for quite awhile I've used it mostly just to backup files. Recently however I've tried copying a few of my DVDs. My backup DVDs work fine in all three players in the house and they are all on Sony DVD-R 4.7 gig 16x. The trouble comes now with converting a DivX encoded AVI to DVD.
I use WinAVI to convert the DVD. My initial conversion found the movie to have changed it's aspect ratio incorrectly and stretched the image out vertically, so in WinAvi I changed the settings from AUTO to 4:3 aspect ratio. I also changed the setting from AUTO to NTSC. The stretched image was seen on the one DVD that seems to be able to play these converted DivX dvds.
After WinAvi converts the file to DVD format I burn it to DVD using DVDFab Gold. I also change one setting in DVDFab from a 4300 meg DVD to a 4700 meg DVD.
Now the really odd part is that it plays in one of the four DVD players just fine, but in the other two it says things like No Disk or can't play disk. It's also plays on both my computers. All these players play the copied DVDs with no problem.
I imagine experimenting with different software other than WinAvi will likely fix the problem, but I'm curious as to why this is happening.
Also since I'm new to the forums if anyone could recommend me some better conversion and burning software. I have done research and thats where I came upon WinAVI, which does an ok job and seems to be much faster than Nero. (I haven't yet tried Nero since it says it will take some incredible 3+ hours to complete while my combo of WinAvi and DvdFab takes an hour and a half or so.
I did notice that WinAvi converts my 700 meg DivX to a 1.8 gig DVD, which is pretty small for DVD, but I assume thats just lost space from the data lost in the compression and de-compression process.
So is this a common problem with WinAvi? Do you think changing to NTSC or forcing the 4:3 aspect ratio is stopping playback in some players but not all? Is DvdFab a good burning software choice (it's also my DVD copy program coupled with DVD Decrypter)?
I'm downloading AVI2DVD as another possible solution, but I'd really like to have a better idea why it's not working if only to expand my knowledge of DVD burning. I've done searches on this board but only found a suggestion to use an alternative software, not really a reason why it's not working (or explicity why it works in some DVD players).
>> ... I also change one setting in DVDFab from a 4300 meg DVD to a 4700 meg DVD.
Wrong move, DVDShrink for example defaults to 4464 and many here will lower that to less than 4400 hoping to avoid problems that usually occur at the end of a burn.
>> ... I haven't yet tried Nero since it says it will take some incredible 3+ hours to complete
Try it, that will help determine if it's a software problem, nothing incredible about 3 hours, especially with 2 pass encoding.
>>> ... I did notice that WinAvi converts my 700 meg DivX to a 1.8 gig DVD
The size of the AVI file is unimportant, it's the running time of the movie and the bitrate that is used to convert. If it's 90 min. long that size means WinAVI is using a bitrate of about 2500. To fill the disc the bitrate would have to be about 6000. Higher bitrates usually means better quality.
On other forums WinAVI is not held in very high regard. I use NeroVison Express (but sometimes with VBR MP3 audio sync problems occur) and VSO CopyXToDVD. With CopyXToDVD the encoding/quality speed changes the bitrate, in high quality/slow mode it tends to fill the DVD (a larger file size), while the fast/medium modes produce smaller (like yours) files.
I tried Nero 7, which made a playable CD, but the audio quality was low (it wavered) and it added extra thick black bars for the widescreen.
I tried Avi2DVD which I couldn't get to work properly (though I didn't try especially hard).
Finally I found cucusoft AVI to DVD 7.07 to work great for me. It's not quite as fast as WinAVI but it seems to make DVDs that work on all the players and without the occasional skip that I got from WinAVI. I also like the fact that it converts and burns without an extra step.
I'm still curious as to why the WinAVI converted file played on two of the 4 DVD player but was not recognized on the other two. I will experiment with some more settings to see if I can get it to work, but in any case Cucusoft is the better solution for me at least when it comes to AVIDivX conversion.
A Small program called VSO DivXtoDVD IS TO ME THE best of all programs for converting AVI's [Divx,XviD,etc.]to dvd.Best of all its free.This program has never let me down,I just set it to Aspect to 4.3,& Standard Force NTSC 29.97fPS & LET HER RIP.It will convert in real time,Depending on your computer [mine 1.8Mghrz]if the movie is 2hrs then it takes 2hrs to convert.I've had no out of sync Audio problems,if the AVI is good quality,then the DVD will be the same
