DVD Dummy Here, Need Help

This is my first time trying to burn a movie from the computer to DVD. I'm using Nero and it that says I'm using the wrong type of disk. I have DVD-RW, and have even tried CD-RW and CD-R. Someone please give me a dummies step by step on how to burn a DVD using Nero. Thank you very much!

 

Different drives accept different DVDs for burning...some are DVD+RW or +r or -R. If you can tell us the make and model of your drive we might be able to figure it out for you.

 

I have a CD that says;
LG DVD Writer Solution
Cyberlink DVD Solution
PowerDVD
PowerProducer
Nero Express
In CD
Acrobat Reader
Drive Manual

I'm so sorry, this DVD stuff is so new to me.
I believe the computer shop guy told me to use the ones with the " - ".

 

Those are software..we need to know what the hardware is. Does it state a make (I'm guessing LG) and model on the front of the actual drive itself?

 

Looks like there's a face plate covering some of it, for example I can't see the light bulb blinking like I can with the other one below it. (The other one is what came with the computer, just a basic CD). This DVD that I'm talking about was installed for Christmas.

This is what I see;
LG
Super Multi
DVD Multi Recorder
Compact Disk Rewritable Ultra Speed

 

http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/gsa-h10n.jhtml

 

Yes! Yes! Yes!
That looks like mine!
Thank you soooo much!
:clap

 

Oooops, your writer should be able to use either of these types of discs. For use with a home DVD player I would use the DVD-R discs. The choice of type of disc you use is usually based on what your standalone DVD player can read. Before you go to the trouble of burning a movie make sure your standalone DVD player can read DVD-R discs (usually there will be a list of compatible discs in the first couple of pages of the manual) One thought on your error is that in Nero, in one of the windows at the bottom, there is a box for disc type make sure DVD5(single layer) is selected not DVD9(double layer).

What type of movie files on your computer are you trying to write? Are they .avi or do you have a TS_VIDEO folder? If your movie is an .avi file it will have to be converted to TS_VIDEO folder before burning in order for a standalone DVD player to read it. Burning shouldn't be the hard part, getting the file into the right format, however, usually isn't much fun .

 

have you gone to doom9 site? all i ever use is dvd shrink,it is free and brilliant.
get it from there

 

Yes, the home player says it'll accept DVD-R and DVD-RW.

I haven't found the spot yet you mentioned about a box for disc type in Nero (single, double layer stuff).

The movie shows as an .avi file.

I was chatting with a friend, and by the sounds of it, I chose a wrong step. I'm not familiar with Nero, and had clicked on Express, and may have chosen the wrong option. My friend suggested NeroStartSmart instead with a different option than what I used.

 

Thanks, I'll have to check that out. What exactly is it?

 

I don't think DVD Shrink will help you until you have DVD format files for your movie.

It looks to me that DVD Producer software that you have on disk should be able to convert your .avi movie to DVD format. I've never used that program but I would play around with it and have it save the output files to your hard drive. Then burning the converted files to disc with Nero Express should be a snap.

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Oh, and it looks like you only have Nero Express, so Nero Smart Start is not an option as it is part of the whole Nero package. Nero Express will work fine for burning but not for converting/encoding.

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Doom9 has everything you need to know about burning dvd. I just downloaded dvd shrink and used dvd-r discs, the cheapest ones I could buy and have burnt hundreds with very few duds. You put the source disc in cd drive and open dvd shrink. It checks disc and shrinks it so it will fit on your empty disc. then you remove source disc, put in the blank and it burns it for you. Obviously there a few steps to take but that is the overview, dead easy.
Oh, and its free!!

 

Oh my gosh I'm so confuzzled! lol
The DVD Producer, I found on the burner driver disk. There was a Nero Express shortcut on my desktop made by the computer guy, but if I go into my Start menu, I found NeroStartSmart.

When I go into NeroStartSmart, go under the Photo and Video icon, I see "Burn DVD-Video Files" (when I select "DVD" from the dropdown list). Is this the place where I start? I understand that I would go into that and find my movie that I have on the computer, click next adding titles, etc., clicking next then it burns it for me? Then I can play that DVD in my home DVD player? Is that a correct understanding?

The movie that I have is .avi type, so if I do the above, will Nero StartSmart automatically look after this converting thing that I don't understand?

I am so trying to understand all this, I appreciate everyones patience.

 

I've only converted a half dozen .avi's to DVD and each time it was re-inventing the wheel. They don't make it easy and conversion/encoding is time consuming(1-2 hours). Basically, you have to have a program analyze your movie piece by piece and rewrite it into a format your DVD player can read and then take those newly written movie files and burn those to disk.

From your list of software on the LG disk, I think you only have Nero Express which will not be able to convert the .avi to DVD. You need NeroVision to recode, check under your start menu for this program or in NeroSmartStart it should be in the top left under Applications. Even if it is there I find it doesn't work for me(I always get errors somewhere in the middle of the encoding process), so I can't recommend this program. But if it is there you can then begin by adding your file as you have written (in my version it would be under Make Your Own DVD-Video. Perhaps your friend has had success and can give you advice on using Nero for encoding but I think you need a $25 plugin for conversion http://www.nero.com/eng/DVD_Video_Plug_in_InfoPage.html

Otherwise you can try the DVDProducer software. You computer guy may have already installed that as well. If not you can install it from your LG disk. Look at the quote box from my previous post to get a general idea of how to convert using this software.

$19.99 to buy a movie on DVD looks like a bargain sometimes. You can always just write your .avi to a data disc and copy it back to your computer whenever you want to watch your movie. Not as good as being able to see it on your t.v. but simpler if it is something you may not watch very often.

If you try the DVDProducer let me know how it works out.

 

Hi!

Ok, I tried using DVDProducer. I have a lot of new files added to a new folder that the program created. I'm sooo lost.
:cry

 

I'm pretty sure the default.C0# files are temporary files created by the program. Unnecessary for burning a DVD so I'm going to ignore them. However they are large in size so you'll want to delete them along with the others after you get a working DVD.

Using Nero Express: click Video/Pictures icon then DVD Video Files icon then ADD then in new window browse to C:\My works then highlight the My Video folder and click Add. A new window for adding more files will open, close this window. In Nero Express you should see a list of files to be written .vob .bup etc. Click Next and then click burn. That should be it.

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If for some reason the list of files isn't there then cancel and do it again but this time when browsing double click the My Video folder and add the TS_Video folder directly. It shouldn't make a difference to the finished DVD because the TS_Audio file is probably empty anyway.

 

Ahhhh, nuts. Everything was going great until I pressed the Burn button. It said my disk didn't have enough space. I have a 4.7GB size DVD-RW, but Nero said "total space used 4580MB.

Thanks so much for your help and patience,
I think that I'll go back to my little corner, lol.

 

Wait! You can give me some practical advice on DVDShrink. This is where I believe it becomes useful. It should be able to take the 4580mb files and shrink them to fit onto a DVD within the Nero 4500mb threshold with minimal quality loss. You've already put the time in on this project give it one last shot. Hopefully someone with DVDShrink knowledge will advise or I'll search out the necessary steps. I'm very curious how this goes.

Look here: http://forum.digital-digest.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49051 although you're no dummy!

 

If you want to buy software DVDFab Platinum will break up the movie so it can be burned on 2 disks.....OR ....for free you can get DVD shrink which will compress the movie and you can also remove some of the extra sound channels and subtitles with it. This is the link for DVD Shrink
http://majorgeeks.com/download.php?det=4020

This is the home page for DVD shrink with a users guide.
http://download-dvdshrink.com/index.asp?t=COPIES%20ALL%20YOUR%20DVDS&t2=EVEN%20PROTECTED%20DVDS

 

PERFECT! A dummies guide! Now we're talkin' in my language! lmao


I've been messing around with the DVDShrink, of course I got confuzzled, but somehow or other I got to a "burning" step,...... then I got errors. Oy, just my luck! lol
rolleyes

 

Thanks for the links!

 

Ok, second try with DVDShrink.
Wish me luck!
:banghead

 

Seriously, don't delete the My Video folder, yet. You have the movie in a burnable format and it is just a matter of getting it on one disk. It is possible. DVDShrink should do it; I've just never used this program. I'll go through my link and Musksnipe's (Thank You! M-- Musksnipe ) guide and try to come up with a step-by step.

 

Ok, somehow or other, I pressed a bunch of buttons, and now I have the movie on DVD-RW!

BUT, there's green lines going through the video that weren't there before. Seems to play on the computer ok, will have to wait till tomorrow to see if the DVD will play in the standalone home DVD player.

Need sleep!
G'Night
zzz

 

I grabbed this from another site, its a little surprising, but may explain the disc sizing discrepency

 

Wooohooooo! The burned DVD works in the standalone DVD home player!

However, some where in the process the movie on the DVD has taken on a green tinge with green lines going through the picture when I play it on the home DVD player and on the computer.

If I play the movie that's saved on the computer, the colour is average, and the sound is a little muffled.

Oh well, I did it!
Yeeehaaaw!
THANKS SOOOOOO MUCH EVERYONE !!!!!!!!!!!

Had a friend look at my Nero program, he said that it's missing a lot of stuff, so we downloaded all sorts of other programs, but the other programs still wouldn't allow me to burn a DVD. Confused over that. If I had the missing sections of Nero, would it convert and burn for me? Is that right?

Anyways, just to summerize what I think I did, please correct me if I've got this wrong........
1. My Nero is incomplete, so I had to use "PowerProducer" to convert my movie .avi file to a burnable DVD format.
2. Burn the converted files to DVD-RW using Nero Express.
3. If the movie is too large for the DVD-RW disc, use DVDShrink to resize the movie to fit.

Something like that?
confused

 

Hi, Ive never posted before, except to ask for help...I too am just learning as I go (dont always take everything in but get there in end lol)..

OK - Ive done this tried and tested.... If you acquire video in avi or mpg format it needs to be converted to dvd video files which you can then burn onto dvd r or rw and play in normal uk dvd players (through tv, in car etc).

I have been using WinAvi Video Converter (google it - you can get it for free) Just run the program, choose the dvd button, select your avi or mpeg file and click to convert. Make sure you choose the file to send converted video to so you know where to find it...sorry to sound so obvious but default is temp file and can be lost if you dont know what youre doing. Very very easy...You can go into advanced settings and choose size of disc, sound controls etc but if you are a novice like me best to leave defaults.

Once finished converting...find your file...should now be set of vob and nfo etc video files.... and burn with nero or any other burning rom software.

Always worked for me. Hope this helps.

 

Sorry, me again, my last post sounded like I was advocating getting winavi for free but when I downloaded it was a free trial which worked fully functional for a while then had to upgrade and buy licence... wasnt expensive and has always been worth money spent. My aunt in Australia always sends home videos in avi format (must be a down under thing !!!!!) - had to just clear this up...thanks

 

Thank you so much for your post! I'll check out the link you provided. I'm learning so much here, just like you said, "........dont always take everything in but get there in end lol".

 

Hooray for you, feels good to work out a problem doesn't it?

How much was the compression ratio when you saved the movie into your HD with DVD Shrink? They recommend it to be at least 60% but the higher the number the better. The guide shows how to remove the audio for other languages and also subtitles which saves some space and also you can over compress extras so that even more space is saved...I'm thinking the odd effects you're getting is from to much compression

 

Compression ratio? Ooooops, I must've missed that one!

 

Go to the link below and follow the instructions in the user guide. They look complicated but are pretty clear if you follow them step by step.... I have had pretty good luck with anything 65% and better


]This is the home page for DVD shrink with a users guide.
http://download-dvdshrink.com/index....OTECTED%20DVDS

 

Thank you ever so much for telling me about WinAvi! I have tried it and it's the best program! Not complicated at all, even I can use it, lol. Thank you!