DVD Burning Problems?

hey all...I recieved a data DVD in the mail a bit ago, and the DVD inside it is actually .mpg files. I want to burn it onto a DVD as soon as I can (my old man went to the show and I'd like to give it to him for father's day), but can't figure out how. I'm on a mac...I tried converting the .mpg files to a .mov files using ffmpegx, and then tried to import to imovie, but it won't accept clips longer than 9 minutes, so I'm stuck...any solutions?



thanks, calvin

Nero can convert many formats for you when you tell if to convert, and mpg is very common; so I expect if you use Nero, it'll convert it for you before burning.

Originally Posted by PyRo UK

Nero can convert many formats for you when you tell if to convert, and mpg is very common; so I expect if you use Nero, it'll convert it for you before burning.

C'mon, Nero is for Windows. Did you read his post?

Since the files are mpg, they should already be in the appropriate codec for DVD. Any DVD authoriing program should be able to take them and convert them to a video DVD. What do you use to burn DVDs now? It should also have the functionality to burn raw mpg files as a video DVD.

Sorry, I read it but I didn't notice the Mac part

[sjoseph]

newbie here, sorry. Tryin' to burn dvd from shows downloaded from here, but keep gettin' "unable to transcode" error. I'm using Nero. What am i doin' wrong??

[jackbutler]

You shouldn't be transcoding. When you open nero a window should pop up. You need to select dvd video over in the left side column. Once you have done that select new down at the bottom. Once you do that an Explorer window will pop up with your files on the right and an empty window second from the left. You need to locate your video_ts folder that you downloaded in the right window. Once you have done that you need to drag the files that are inside your video_ts folder over to the empty window that is second from the left (in the far left window you should see an audio_ts & video_ts folder). Once you have done that you are ready to burn

[sjoseph]

I did all that; but I got a "reallocation problem" and then a "compliance error"...uggghhh..i've used Nero for audio burning for years, but this dvd stuff is gettin' to me!

[TheMamba]

http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/...light=nero+dvd

[ffooky]

If you have Toast then you can use that but as you already have ffmpegX up and running you can achieve equally satisfactory results.

Unfortunately, MPG covers a multitude of sins and it's necessary to determine the exact nature of the files that you have. You need to know whether they are MPEG 1 or MPEG 2, what resolution & standard (i.e.PAL or NTSC), what codec has been used for the audio and what bitrate/sample rate it is.

You can glean this info from ffmpegX but I'd recommend MPEG Streamclip. Open each of the files in turn and go File->Show Stream Info (cmd-I).

Copy/paste the info box for all your files, see if the audio & video properties are the same for all and report the data back here.

alright ffooky, thanks for the help, here's what I've gathered:

Stream: JGB 11-12-91 d1.mpg
Type: MPEG program stream

Duration: 0:53:26
Data Size: 532.95 MB
Bit Rate: 1.39 Mbps

Video Tracks:
224 MPEG-1, 352 × 240, 29.97 fps, 1.15 Mbps

Audio Tracks:
192 MP2 stereo, 44.1 kHz, 224 kbps

Stream Files:
JGB 11-12-91 d1.mpg (532.95 MB)




thanks, calvin

[ffooky]

Righto,
What you have are VCD standard MPEG files. Less than stellar quality obviously but the good news is you don't have to re-encode the video track in order to burn them to DVD. The audio will need to be upsampled to 48 kHz...in my experience this can lead to sync issues, at least using Toast but you may well get better results with ffmpegX.

Unfortunately, no one step method of passing the video through/upsampling the audio with ffmpegX would work other than the svcdvd option from the Tools tab, for which you need to register ($15). Small beer for supporting a great developer but free would be nicer.

You can mimic the process by demuxing your MPG files (Tools tab->demux) and then dropping the resultant MP2 file on the main window and selecting Audio file to MP2 in the target format.

Back at the Tools tab, select mux, navigate to the M1V file created earlier when you demuxed as the video and your upsampled MP2 for the audio 1 (ignore audio 2). Select DVD as your multiplexing option and let her rip.

It would probably be a good idea to test whether there are any nasty synhing issues on a smaller MPEG1 file first.

HTH

[ffooky]

One more thing™, are you sure your old man's DVD player can't play unauthored MPEG's ?

hmmm possibly not, how do I author?

other than that, ffmpegx is registered, so I can do that with the tools thingy

btw---nice sig

[ffooky]

Authoring is just a posh word for knocking a raw MPEG file into a VCD, SVCD or DVD.

If you're registered then the tools thingy route is definitely the most painless method. I'd be interested to know how things go with the synching.

Regarding the sig...I've had no complaints yet, but then again I'm a compulsive liar

hmm seems that I actually dont have a reg. for ffmpegx, i was thingking of a different app...will toast do it? here are the other apps that *might* do the job, they're somewhat video-related, will any work?

avid free DV
flip4mac
imovie, imovie HD
idvd
ivcd
toast 7


cheers, calvin