Advice on burning DVDs

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No cutting commercials. I did cheat and added the same 1/2 hour show 8 times...

 

After experimenting with different files I've managed to track down the source of my frustration - transcoding and burning a large file with animated menus.

As it turns out what seemed like nero crashing with the CPU locked at (100% usage was just a painfully slow transcoding time (transcoding animated menus) in nerovision.

Using the same file I had been trying to use - high quality recording of "tombstone" length 2:15 - i then split the size in half, added 5 chapters (instead of 13) plus the animated menu (a 15 sec. movie clip). After letting it run for several minutes it finally started to progress 1%, and continued to run until the "time remaining" could be estimated at 3 1/2 hours. That's at least an hour more than usual - for me - using a file this size, and a full hour just to transcode the menu! I did have a similar problem last week using "aviator" another very large file.

Could it be that nero, when they re-wrote the code for menu animation that wasn't working at the time, the result was a function that will work, but at a painfully slow pace? who knows but i guess time will tell.

I just made a coaster using a tivo file recorded at medium quality, @ half D1 and these look like the errors

[22:01:35] NeroVision 10:01:23 PM #25 SPTI -1106 File SCSIPassThrough.cpp, Line 290
[22:01:35] NeroVision E: CdRom1: SCSIStatus(x02) WinError(0) NeroError(-1106)
[22:01:35] NeroVision Sense Key: 0x03 (KEY_MEDIUM_ERROR)
[22:01:35] NeroVision Sense Code: 0x73
[22:01:35] NeroVision Sense Qual: 0x03
[22:01:35] NeroVision CDB Data: 0x2A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00 00 00
[22:01:35] NeroVision Sense Area: 0x70 00 03 00 00 00 00 0A 00 00 00 00 73 03
[22:01:35] NeroVision Buffer x08880000: Len x10000
[22:01:35] NeroVision 0x00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[22:01:35] NeroVision 0x00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[22:01:35] NeroVision 0x00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
[22:01:35] NeroVision
[22:01:35] NeroVision 10:01:23 PM #26 CDR -1106 File Writer.cpp, Line 302
[22:01:35] NeroVision Power calibration error
[22:01:35] NeroVision E: SONY DVD RW DRU-720A

I wasn't entirely happy with the way my drive looked - fragmented - before I did my last install of N7, so I'm thinking of doing doing yet another re-install of nero7. Does anyone know of a good aftermarket disk utility (defragmenter)? i'm not thrilled about the one that came with xp.

I haven't had much time to fiddle with this stuff today or tomorrow... busy with work. thanks for any help in advance

 

I just got spammed again today for PerfectDisk Live that I demoed last year. It is neat because you don't even need to install it. It runs as an activeX control or something.

 

Nice screen shot, Greg.

You really are burning 4 full hours (actually 4:00:04 !) (~4.8GB source) with a menu to slightly less than the full DVD. The conclusion is that the bit rate is being transcoded - like DVD Shrink does with DVDs. So it looks like a (modest?) bit rate transcode is pretty quick with Nero.

 

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I found a nice freeware defragmenting tool called http://www.softwarevault.com/Backup-Utilities/Diskeeper-Lite.xml

It takes the place of MS defag in the startup menu, and IMO DKL does a much better job.

So, after reinstalling N7, and updating my DVD-burner firmware I did a successful burn of a medium quality tivo file - Beautiful Girls 1 hr 50 min - using default resolution half D1, with no menus or effects. It took about 8 minutes to transcode the stream, and 5 minutes to do the actual burn, which is about 5 times faster than setting resolution at Standard D1, or recording in high quality, and reducing burn quality.

If I look closely in the backround (s), and shadows, i see a little pixilation, but overall I'm surprized at how good it looks. Just as good as a high quality recording that's been automatically reduced to fit a standard DVD-R. The speed increase IMO is worth any decrease in quality, and I think these are the standard settings i'll be using for most future recordings.

Way to go Greg