Burning DVD's

I downloaded a few videos off of Youtube, and I'm trying to burn them onto a DVD, but I can't find a reliable program to do it with. Windows Media Player doesn't support DVD burning on Windows XP, I tried Sonic and it just froze on me like it always does, I tried something called FinalBurner and it set up the process to burn for nearly an hour and a half, and then as soon as it was finished, I pressed "Burn" and it crashed..... Winamp only burns CD's as well. So yeah, if anyone knows any good programs that are free (no trial crap please, they always screw you over by only letting you burn like 90 seconds of the video and waste your entire disc), please let me know. Thanks.

By the way, I've already got the videos converted into .wmv files, if that's any help.

This might help. I haven't tried burning DVDs with it, but I know it's supported, and the software is free.

I haven't used Windows in a while, but does Windows Movie Maker burn DVDs?

Nero 7 is probably the best i have used, check it out, it may cost you but i'm sure you can find it for *free* somewhere ;)

Thanks for the help guys. I'll try Nero out later when I get a chance to... ahem, "buy" it.

Give Ulead's Video Studio a look, they have a free demo download. Also, you might check out videohelp.com, I used to hang out there a lot, there is a lot of legitimate free software to help in all aspects of video and dvd burning

I just tried out the Ulead's Video Studio, but for some reason, everytime after it's just started getting ready to burn, it gives me a Microsoft Runtime Error or something, and then it says that the program has been terminated unusually or something. Also, the videohelp.com site confused the crap out of me. I couldn't find anything about DVD burning on there. I'm having a really hard time trying to find something that works.... I didn't think it'd be this damn hard just to make a 30 minute video....

You've got 2 issues here

1. converting the videos to DVD format (vob)
2. actually burning the vob's to a disk

what format are the videos in at the moment?

The videos are currently in .wmv format. I put them in that format when I expected to be able to burn them using Windows Media Player, but that didn't work out.

any chance of using straight mpeg2
wmv is a pig to transcode

I have a file converter, called Replay Converter, but it doesn't have mpeg2 as an option, only Mpeg4 Video or something. I have the files currently in both .flv and .wmv format, so is there anything I can do with either? Or it would it be easier to convert it to Mpeg4, or should I get something else to put it into mpeg2...?

Ok,

I'd recommend SUPER

Download page is here (mirrors at the bottom)
http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html

it's never let me down

supports all kinds of video inputs and outputs (including flash flv, mpeg2 and dvd VOB)

dvd is basically (save a few minor bits 'n bobs) the same as mpeg2

if you just want the thing to start playing, you can get SUPER to output the FLV's straight to VOB

If you want to properly author a DVD (design menus, add subtitles or additional audio tracks, whatever)
then output to mpeg2, and I'll link you to a proper DVD authoring program

but if you just want the thing to play without any fancy stuff, output straight to vob

Intersting looking piece of software, I'll download and give it a go. I've been using VirtualDub to read in a lot of funky formats and then fileserving them out to TMPGEnc, this might save me a step :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ynot

Ok,

I'd recommend SUPER

Download page is here (mirrors at the bottom)
http://www.erightsoft.com/S6Kg1.html

it's never let me down

supports all kinds of video inputs and outputs (including flash flv, mpeg2 and dvd VOB)

dvd is basically (save a few minor bits 'n bobs) the same as mpeg2

if you just want the thing to start playing, you can get SUPER to output the FLV's straight to VOB

If you want to properly author a DVD (design menus, add subtitles or additional audio tracks, whatever)
then output to mpeg2, and I'll link you to a proper DVD authoring program

but if you just want the thing to play without any fancy stuff, output straight to vob

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Well, I wouldn't mind putting in a menu, but that depends on how much crap I'm going to have to go through to do it. I'm trying to just get this done as quickly as possible, but I would still love to know how to do it, even if only for future reference. I bought 25 DVD's, and I'm intent on using them.

So now the files in VOB format. How do I burn them now?

Thanks so much for the help.

In VOB format....Does that mean you have all of your IFO files and stuff ready to go as well? If so, you can use DVDShrink to create and ISO image and DVDDecryptor to bur the image.

Umm, lol. I don't even have a clue what an IFO file is. I'm assuming that DVDDecryptor is like a free alternative to Nero?

Last night, I gave it a quick try, I got Nero 7 trial version, and I burned off what I needed to, made a menu and everything really simply. The only problem is, is that I don't know if the video worked or not, because my PS2 won't play it, which is like my main DVD player. I know the audio works, because I used an actual DVD player to try and play it, but the DVD player I used doesn't have it's video component hooked up, so I don't know if that worked....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bayside

Umm, lol. I don't even have a clue what an IFO file is.

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Vob is a video container format (just like avi, mov, and flv)
it's normally found split into 1Gb chunks (this is for technical reasons)
but you can think of any vob chain just like a single "file" of any other container

an ifo is an information file

in our vob chain "file", just like any other container, you can have multiple streams
multiple audio streams, multiple subtitle streams, and even multiple video streams (in the form of viewing angles)

when you press play, which streams are meant to be output?
this is what the ifo file tells the dvd player

it's just a collection of information about what streams to play

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bayside

I'm assuming that DVDDecryptor is like a free alternative to Nero?

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DVD Decrypter (as it's name indicates) decrypts encrypted dvd's, allowing you to rip the disk to your hard disk (and then compress if you wish)
it had a built in burner

DVD Decrypter is now defucnt
but the burner lives on, in an even more improved package, called ImgBurn - http://imgburn.com/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bayside

Last night, I gave it a quick try, I got Nero 7 trial version, and I burned off what I needed to, made a menu and everything really simply. The only problem is, is that I don't know if the video worked or not, because my PS2 won't play it, which is like my main DVD player. I know the audio works, because I used an actual DVD player to try and play it, but the DVD player I used doesn't have it's video component hooked up, so I don't know if that worked....

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This might be the "(save a few minor bits 'n bobs) the same as mpeg2" coming in, but test it on a known working system and let me know, first

Ok, I tested it out, but unfortunately, it didn't work. The audio is fine, but the video comes in black and white, and the picture is like it's constantly scrolling down, if you know what I mean. Like the screen keeps moving down and then coming from the top.

probably using a wrong resolution or refresh rate

cut 'n paste from wikipedia

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The DVD standard uses MPEG-2 video, but imposes some restrictions:

• Allowed Resolutions
  • 720 × 480, 704 × 480, 352 × 480, 352 × 240 pixel (NTSC)
  • 720 × 576, 704 × 576, 352 × 576, 352 × 288 pixel (PAL)
• Allowed Aspect ratio (image) (Display AR)
  • 4:3
  • 16:9
  • (1.85:1 and 2.35:1, among others, are often listed as valid DVD aspect ratios, but are actually just a 16:9 image with the top and bottom of the frame masked in black)
• Allowed Frame rates
  • 29.97 frame/s (NTSC)
  • 25 frame/s (PAL)

Note: By using a pattern of REPEAT_FIRST_FIELD flags on the headers of encoded pictures, pictures can be displayed for either two or three fields and almost any picture display rate (minimum ⅔ of the frame rate) can be achieved. This is most often used to display 23.976 (approximately film rate) video on NTSC.

• Audio+video bitrate
  • Video peak 9.8 Mbit/s
  • Total peak 10.08 Mbit/s
  • Minimum 300 kbit/s
• YUV 4:2:0
• Additional subtitles possible
• Closed captioning (NTSC only)
• Audio
  • Linear Pulse Code Modulation (LPCM): 48 kHz or 96 kHz; 16- or 24-bit; up to six channels (not all combinations possible due to bitrate constraints)
  • MPEG Layer 2 (MP2): 48 kHz, up to 5.1 channels (required in PAL players only)
  • Dolby Digital (DD, also known as AC-3): 48 kHz, 32–448 kbit/s, up to 5.1 channels
  • Digital Theater Systems (DTS): 754 kbit/s or 1510 kbit/s (not required for DVD player compliance)
  • NTSC DVDs must contain at least one LPCM or Dolby Digital audio track.
  • PAL DVDs must contain at least one MPEG Layer 2, LPCM, or Dolby Digital audio track.
  • Players are not required to playback audio with more than two channels, but must be able to downmix multichannel audio to two channels.
• GOP structure
  • Sequence header must be present at the beginning of every GOP
  • Maximum frames per GOP: 18 (NTSC) / 15 (PAL), i.e. 0.6 seconds both
  • Closed GOP required for multiple-angle DVDs

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Ps.
how big is the flv?

if it's managable, dump it on the net somewhere, and I'll post step by step instructions on converting it to dvd

Well, it's four different flv's, ranging from 15mb's to 23mb's. I'm uploading them to FileFactory.com right now, so I'll post a link here when it's done.

EDIT: Alright, here's the links to all the files.

http://www.filefactory.com/file/5669f8
http://www.filefactory.com/file/255429
http://www.filefactory.com/file/f9ce9d
http://www.filefactory.com/file/285269

I ain't forgotten you ;)

uploading a dvd image now (it's 1.5Gb, so taking a while)

Ah, thank you so much dude. I can't thank you enough. I'm pretty sure that it works now, it works on my computer at least, I haven't gotten the chance to try it on a DVD player yet though, but I'm pretty sure it works fine.

Sorry to put you through so much trouble.

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Originally Posted by Bayside

Sorry to put you through so much trouble.

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no trouble, mate
my setup's pretty much all automated :D