A question on burning dvd's

jank

im transferring some of my old vhs videos to dvd

all is going grand except that i can only fit around maybe 1hr 15 min max onto the dvd. these files are around 2gb in size but the dvd should hold 4.7

so how come i cant fit more onto the dvd i should be able to burn 2 hours of video onto it with some to spare but cant!

is there a way of compressing it further!! oh by the way im using a sony dvd rw dru-510a so i dont think its a hardware thing here
and the dvds are sony too with an option of 240min extended play their 4.7gb in size

cranoo

You must be Leo Kelly fan

jank

Originally posted by cranoo
You must be Leo Kelly fan

eh no im converting old videos to do with history and irish maritime
basically preserving this stuff so that in 20 years time people can still watch it. might not sound important to you but its impotant for alot of other people! :rolleyes:

hussey

how exactly are you burning them and with what software?

What errors do you get if try say a 4Gb file etc?

have you tried to create an image of a 4.7Gb and then burn the image?

jank

Originally posted by hussey
how exactly are you burning them and with what software?

What errors do you get if try say a 4Gb file etc?

have you tried to create an image of a 4.7Gb and then burn the image?

using sonic Mydvd

i dont get any errors but it wont let me burn the cd at all like!!

daveg

When you are capturing the video to your PC what format are you saving the file as? It should be MPEG2 (DVD format). It sounds to me like you could be saving as say an AVI and then your software is encoding the files to MPEG2 - hence the file size jump.

What software are you using to capture?

McGintyMcGoo

Can I ask what hardware (and software) are you using to convert your analogue VHS tape to digital files?

jank

using pinnacle software i got with the video card to convert from vhs to mpeg!

i think im converting to mpeg2 format but ill double check that

the files are smaller than 4.7 gig though when i get the porperties of it but for some reason take up more space than it should!

daveg

Have a look at thr guides on the website below. They are targeted at using ATI all in wonder cards but there is a guide for VHS capturing which may prove usefull.

BTW what card are you using? Pinnicle I presume? Guides here.

digitaldr

"eh no im converting old videos to do with history and irish maritime
basically preserving this stuff so that in 20 years time people can still watch it. might not sound important to you but its impotant for alot of other people"

The lifespan of DVDrs is by no means certain - I think some of the more expensive brands offer some kind of guarantee. If I was you I'd hang on to those tapes!

ZENER

The lifespan of DVDrs is by no means certain - I think some of the more expensive brands offer some kind of guarantee. If I was you I'd hang on to those tapes!

Very true, but it would be better to convert now and test the life of the DVD rather than wait a few years for the technology to improve. Video tapes degrade rapidly if not stored in ideal conditions and suffer magnetic bleed destroying the content. The BBC found this out to their horror in the early days of digital recording when they went to convert 3/4" video tape to digital tape !

I think the suggestion to create the image on the hard drive first and then burn the disc from this image using Nero or the like should work, I've done this on the Mac using Toast and a Pioneer DVD-R 105 and it worked fine.

Tinky

Capt'n Midnight

You are right to convert to a digitial format. If there is a question of DVD lifetimes - you can simply copy them on to a hard drive later on (prob only take 5 minutes by then), hard drives are ~ €1 per GB and that cost should halve every 18 months - so on line storage will be an option in the future.

BTW: DVD is unaffected by magnetic fields.
Whichever format you choose make sure you have more than one copy off site - just in case.

jank

update on the situation here
the card im using is pinnacle
im compressing to mpeg1 avi, the only otehr option I have is to compress to microXL

I tried other DVD+R disks aswell but to no avail at all
to be hones im very disappointed with the capture software i recieved from sony and pinnacle, not up to the job at all!

egan007

Originally posted by digitaldr
"eh no im converting old videos to do with history and irish maritime
basically preserving this stuff so that in 20 years time people can still watch it. might not sound important to you but its impotant for alot of other people"

The lifespan of DVDrs is by no means certain - I think some of the more expensive brands offer some kind of guarantee. If I was you I'd hang on to those tapes!

and video is?

hillarious

ThreadKiller

Which Pinnacle card are you using ?

jank

the card is pinnacle pctv pro bought it from komlpett.ie

more spec can be found here

ThreadKiller

Have you tried the direct record feature ?

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by egan007
and video is?

hillarious

DLT tapes claim to have a 30 year life if stored correctly. And you can get 160GB Native on one SDLT tape.
Then again the chances of finding a working SDLT drive in 30 years time with the right software to restore it.