NEED HELP FAST! nothing on disc I burned!

cowmumble wrote on 12/21/2004, 9:11 PM
I’m heading home for the holidays tomorrow and hope to have a DVD burned for a gift.

Here’s the thing…I'm a complete newbie.

I’ve never used DVDA before until last night and don’t have time to really learn all of the features before i leave tomorrow, but just want to do 1 simple burn. (1 big rendered file to DVD) I was hoping this would be a simple task.

I finished this project in Vegas, rendered both audio and video tracks as 1 big AVI file. It’s just under 2 hours about 7 gigs, put it in DVDA and used the optimized feature.

It said the burn completed successfully but there seems to be nothing on the Disc. I'm using Fuji DVD+R media. !

Can anyone tell me what to do? the final mix is 24.5gb. Obviously in order to fit on a DVD it5 has to be 4.7gb. Can i convert the media to a smaller file in the DVDA program, do i do it in Vegas?

anything will help.

Comments

bStro wrote on 12/21/2004, 9:31 PM
And I thought I was cutting it close with my holiday shopping... ;-)

To be honest, I find your figures a little confusing -- a two hour AVI should be a lot more than 7gigs, and I don't see how this could end up as a 24.5GB DVD when MPEG (what DVDs are made of) are much smaller than AVIs. But since you're in a rush, we can save that for later.

The good news is that if DVDA said the burn "completed successfully," then I'm guessing that size is not the issue. It's probably an issue with the media or your burner -- this is often the case with DVDA through not fault of the user...or eventhe media or burner. Simply put, this might be DVDA's fault.

The quick solution is to use another burning app (such as Nero or CopyToDVD) to burn the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders (created by DVDA) onto a DVD.

Rob
cowmumble wrote on 12/21/2004, 10:03 PM
thanks for the fast response. Again ,forgive my newbie ignorance.

Sorry, I also meant to say the 2 hour AVI was actually 24.5 gigs, not 7gb.

after my burning attempt i now I have these AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders on my drive. There's nothing in the Audio folder. (I rendered the video and audio in Vegas as 1 big file), but the Video folder has 4.14gb of vob files, etc... in it.

in the MAKE DVD window I get 2 messages that say both audio and video will be compressed.

then it asks me to select the folder where i want the dvd to be prepared to. I click next and it says "the select path already contains a prepared DVD that will be deleted. Do you want to continue?" do i have to select a certain folder here?

I'm optimistic i can do this, don't think it's a disc/media problem, maybe something i'm overlooking?
PeterWright wrote on 12/22/2004, 12:41 AM
Those 2 folders, including the empty one, are all you need for a video DVD.

Are they on the DVD you already burned- if so, it may simply be a playback issue - try playing on different machines - PCs or set top players.

You could either:

Use Nero or another burning program to simply copy the two folders as data onto a DVD

or

Do what you're already doing - DVD will delete your previous attempt and compress all over again, then burn, which may yield the same result.

I'd try the other way first.
cowmumble wrote on 12/22/2004, 10:41 AM
I guess I'll go get Nero. I see a lot of people on this forum are using it. However why would we need it? Isn't DVDA the answer to all of our burning needs? (except mine it seems :)

Some other things I tried last night:

updated the latest firmware for my Pioneer DVR-107D.
update the latest version of DVDA
trying the burn again this morning. When i went to put in a blank Fuji DVD-R it told me it was "read only". I'm pretty sure there was nothing on the disc so I'm a little confused about that.

Here's how my latest attempt is going:

I rendered my 2 hour AVI file in Sound Forge (2 separate renders - ac3 & mpg2.

opened up DVDA and used Single movie option, added the media, got yellow error signs telling me my project was too big and will be compressed, clicked optimize, fit to disc, continued with NEXT, started the burn, now I'm waiting for a few hours. thing is when I play it back it says "this disc can not play" in several different players including my computer. Absolutly nothing shows up on the DVD, no folders, no files, nothing. The DVD is then "read only" so i toss it and start this long process again.

Anyone else have this kind of trouble for a simple MAKE SINGLE MOVIVE task? am I missing a step here? Is there anything else I need to to with a creating a table of contents, etc,,,anything?
Chienworks wrote on 12/22/2004, 12:39 PM
You shouldn't have to go through that hours-long process just to try burning another disc. If the AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS folders are still on your drive you can choose the "Burn only" option from DVD Architect and it will use the already prepared folder instead of doing all the preparation again.

Hop on over to your local Wal*Mart or OfficeMax and pick up a few different DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs. Often DVD RWs are more compatible than R only discs. Also, if the burn doesn't work, you can erase the disc and reuse it.

I highly recommend Nero as well. It's great for burning audio & video discs as well as data backups. You should be able to use it to burn the AUDIO_TS & VIDEO_TS folders to a data DVD and it should play in most DVD players.

One other thing to check with the discs you've already burned: put the disc in your computer's DVD drive and try to open it under My Computer and look that the directory listing. I know you've said it won't play the video, but i'm curious to know if you've successfully burned the AUDIO_TS & VIDEO_TS folders to the disc or not. I suspect you have and you're getting a finished disc, but are seeing media compatability problems with the playback devices. I've found that both my DVD players like Fuji, Maxell, and Imation DVD-Rs best but will also play +Rs from all three companies. However, they choke on Ritek even though that brand works better for most people.
cowmumble wrote on 12/22/2004, 1:51 PM
yes, I've put the disc in my computer's DVD drive and tried to open it under My Computer and look that the directory listing.

Nothing, no files, no folders...

one other thing to mention, When i built my computer, I had a pioneer DVR-107 put in it, but without any software at all. it was bare bones... In fact the first time I tried to play back a DVD I had to go to the Windows site to buy and download a decoder so i could play back a DVD in Windows media player. Could there be something missing that i need to install? DVDA recognizes my player. I would think that all I need to make a DVD burn is have DVDA and my burner itself. any thoughts?

also If I burn it on DVD-RW will it play back in other DVD players?
Chienworks wrote on 12/23/2004, 4:30 AM
All you should need is DVD Architect, your burner, and Windows of course. In many cases RW discs are more compatable with various players than R discs are.