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royalbox
Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 39
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Posted: Wed 14 May 2003, 13:13 Post subject: Which authoring software? |
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I'd like to ask which cheap DVD authoring program -- with a demo available -- produces reliable discs that play well on set-top players? |
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RMN Site Admin
Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 587 Location: Lisboa, Portugal
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Posted: Wed 14 May 2003, 15:56 Post subject: |
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Most authoring programs should be able to produce standards-compliant DVD files. The problem is that not all set-top players can read recordable DVDs correctly. You can increase your chances of success by doing the follwoing:
1. If you use one program to author the DVD and a different program to record, create a disc image, instead of recording the TS folders.
2. Use -R (or +R) media, not RW.
3. Use good quality media. Brand-name discs are usually good; generic discs sometimes are good, sometimes are not. Maxell, Pioneer and Sony are three brands with good compatibility.
4. Record the disc at the lowest speed your recorder supports. Discs recorded at 1x usually have better compatibility than discs recorded at 2x or 4x. Usually, a 4x disc recorded at 2x will have better quality than a 2x disc recorded at 2x.
5. Always run a full check on the disc after recording (i.e., select "Record and Verify" in your program). Even good quality discs sometimes have manufacturing defects; better find them right after recording than when you try to play the disc for your friends, or sell it to a client.
This still won't make your discs compatible with all players (some older models don't play recordable DVDs at all), but it should make them compatible with most modern units.
RMN
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royalbox
Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 39
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Posted: Wed 14 May 2003, 20:27 Post subject: |
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Quote: | 1. If you use one program to author the DVD and a different program to record, create a disc image, instead of recording the TS folders. |
This is something I'm not too sure about. If you author a DVD with, say Studio 8 (If you're feeling brave) or the new TMPGEnc DVD Author, then it will create the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folders. Are you saying you should convert those to an image with another program like Nero, and then burn the image to DVD? It seems like adding an unnecessary step. Have I misunderstood what you meant?
Many thanks once again RMM (how long can you keep this up for!) |
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Josse
Joined: 29 Apr 2003 Posts: 9
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Posted: Wed 14 May 2003, 21:40 Post subject: |
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Rui's advice was that it is better to let your authoring application create a disc image if you are using an external burning app for the actual burning. This is a more reliable method than feeding a Video_TS folder to your burning app. In that case you would have to rely on the burning app to be "DVD-Video aware": i.e. it has to know where each file has to go on the DVD.
Especially Nero is a bad example of DVD-Video awareness. For my taste Ahead has announced a couple of times too often that they had solved Nero's problem with set top player compatibility. By using the disc image method (disc image file created by your authoring app) you are avoiding such problems and you could even use Nero for the burning. |
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RMN Site Admin
Joined: 04 Feb 2003 Posts: 587 Location: Lisboa, Portugal
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Posted: Wed 14 May 2003, 21:45 Post subject: |
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Rephrasing the point above:
1. If you author the DVD with one program (ex., DVD Maestro, MyDVD, etc.) and record with another pgoram (ex., PrimoDVD, Nero, etc.), you should tell your authoring program to create a disc image (and then use it in your recording program), instead of telling it to create a TS (title set) folder (and recording those files to the DVD with your recording program as if they were normal data files).
RMN
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royalbox
Joined: 12 May 2003 Posts: 39
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Posted: Thu 15 May 2003, 0:45 Post subject: |
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Thanks both I understand now. I've only tried my studio 8 and the TMPGEnc DVD so far, neither of which have an option to create an image as far as I can tell. I'll have to try a few more demos I think. I've only just got into this and only got my burner a couple of days ago and want to get things right from the begining.
Thanks again. |
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