Why does it take so long to encode a video file? Almost doesn’t seem worth burning stuff to DVD if it takes this long… a lot easier to just watch on the computer. It’s almost been an hour and the movie I downloaded this afternoon is only at 60%.
I have a brand new macbook and am using Toast Titanium. Is it supposed to take this long? I don’t even know if this DVD will even play on my DVD player…
Video encoding is super cpu intensive. If you are encoding an avi file to a dvd (vob extension) yah its going to take a bit of time. If your running other applications in the background it will take longer (and more chance for errors of course). Usually I will start a project if it is simple (straight avi to vob) I would jump in the shower or do some cleaning whatever. If my project also involves something that I have edited with transitions (3d or 2d) and then the dvd it self has buttons and menus added, well I just let the computer run all night and do its thing.
At least its not like back in the day when we had 2x cd burners and had to wait 50 min to burn 650mb. That sucked.
My friends that use laptops simply plug the laptop into the TV. Depending on the newness of the TV, you may need to buy some kind of adapter. This will also probably result in a higher quality picture, as changing formats (DiVX -> DVD) can sometimes degrade picture quality.
not that cheap! 2ghz 1gb ram and 120 GB hard drive… thing cost me a pretty penny.
the dvd never worked on my dvd player. maybe my dvd player is too old?
Even an expensive mac will take some time. Encoding is very processor dependent. The newer PC multi proc make it easier but even then it takes a long time. If you really want to see something funny try to encode an avi file to HD video say 720p or higher…watch your computer chew on that for a long long while.
[quote] not that cheap! 2ghz 1gb ram and 120 GB hard drive… thing cost me a pretty penny.
the dvd never worked on my dvd player. maybe my dvd player is too old?[/quote]
your specs are decent enough (more ram never hurts ) but there are alot of variables here. Your hard drive is big enough but how fast is it? obviously the faster it spins the faster the data with encode. Laptop hard drives usually spin at 5400rpm and that is very slow compared to a scsi system or someone that has 2 hard drives that are in a raid configuration (2 drives seen as one by the computer).
When it comes to dvd burns for set top players there is alot of room for error here. So many dvd burners and so few actually had a 100% burn rate for the set tops (let alone for other computer dvd units). When I built my last system I picked a NEC burner because it had a 99% success ratio and a Pioneer it’s ratio was lower but Pioneer makes a solid burner.
What I am trying to say is when it comes to encoding and then burning a dvd it will take a long time because of all the little bottle necks in the processes. So many things can go wrong or just slow you down.
Jianadaren2006 makes a good suggestion and it still looks decent on the TV (just interlaced usually).
Oh and in case your wondering. My system is a PC built by me for encoding 2 years ago.
Althon XP 3200+(2.21ghz)
2gb ddr400 ram
1TB(yah terra byte 1000gb) on a raid 0 config and they are sata1 drives spinning at 7200rpm (but not constant)
This setup is BASIC for encoding. Burning a 700mb avi movie from the web to a 4gb dvd will take me just over an hour to encode it(using procoder from edius) then burn it(using sony dvd architect 3.0).
If you want to cut time check if your dvd player can read AVI files…then dont encode the internet file just burn it and watch. If it doesnt go to Guang Hua and spend 1500nt on a region free player that plays everything (AVI,JPEG,MP3 and so on).
I know this has been a wordy post, but I hope it helps you…there is nothing wrong with your laptop…nothing wrong with your dvd player…your just using a kitchen knife to chop down a redwood.
[quote=“bushibanned”]not that cheap! 2ghz 1gb ram and 120 GB hard drive… thing cost me a pretty penny.
the dvd never worked on my dvd player. maybe my dvd player is too old?[/quote]
Not cheap but still the cheapest Mac you can get. It has pretty much the same architecture than the Mini. Sell it and get a real one, and spend some more money on ram.
Try different DVD media. Older DVD players are often very picky about playing recorded DVDs, but using a high quality brand of media often works. Try Verbatim, Mitsubishi or Maxell media. I would also recommend using 8X media instead of 16X, or if using 16X media lower your burn speed to 8X. The 16X burns tend to have more problems in my experience, even when using a good brand. Also always turn on the ‘Verify’ option when burning to make sure the burn matches what you started with.
Before you do that though, make sure your laptop recognizes the disk as a Video DVD (e.g. you can watch it using the DVD viewer on your computer) to ensure the encoding worked correctly.
Aren’t there cheap stand-alone dvd players that can decode DivX? I thought I had seen some with the DiVX logo on the front. If so, that would be super easy, just burn the file directly to a blank cd/dvd, and pop it in the player. No decoding required.
If your Macbook is new, I assume it is using an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Despite contrary comments, these processors are very strong. When released, the benchmarks blew everyone away. The 2.4 GHz E6600 beat AMD’s FX series in almost every comparison, and cost about $600US less. Your processor is fine.
Hard drive speeds shouldn’t matter too much either. Encoding is very CPU intensive. As long as you aren’t doing anything else that demands a lot of attention from your HDD 5400 rpm should be ok.
Or just get a membership at your local DVD rental place.
what GOOD, FREE progarms can I use to encode WMV and AVI to DVD?
does file size stay the same - can I burn 4G of AVI as a 4G DVD?[/quote]
If your using a PC Canopus Procoder2.0 is a must. It will encode almost any file extension (excluding .wma) to any file extension (excluding .wma). Yes WMV to VOB(dvd) or avi, or mov, mp4 or yadda yadda yadda.
I have seen stand alone dvd players in Guang hua with the ability to play divx and avi for around 1500- 2000nt.
I mention it as part of the little bottle necks that occur, while the hard drive works less during the encoding session it does come to life during the burning session and a 7200 sata drive will perform faster than an 5400 ata133 drive during that stage.
I too had to deal with the “ultimate” question…what to do with all that TV I have been downloading. So much and burning it all to dvd as a dvd is not feasible(even storing it as a avi files would mean ALOT of dvd’s). So I opted for huge hard drive’s and a kick ass 22" wide screen (still cheaper than HD drives or Bluray at this point…and who knows when that war will be over). Family Guy, Star Trek, Heroes, Entourage and any HD video I download now has crystal clarity that I never saw on the TV. Haven’t even turned the TV on in months.
Big hard drives and big monitors are cheap now. So here’s another alternative to encoding to DVD. Buy a nice 22" monitor for about 9000nt, and watch your downloads on that. Your Apple already has a remote. For about $4000 you can buy an external 320 GB external hard drive or two to save your library on. Also a very good idea to keep a separate copy of irreplaceable data such as photos.
Stupid newbee question here, I imagine. If one’s GF burns a video and it works fine on the computer but won’t play in the DVD player which is connected to the TV, what has gone wrong? Wrong format? Wrong choices made when using the software? Wrong disk type? Wrong burn speed? Sorry if this has been asked before or if it’s too vaguely worded – I’m brand new to this area of technology and would like to learn. Please be gentle. I think she’s using Nero something or other (free version), burning on default settings and using disks that they seller said were for DVDs. Do you need more info?
When you say “works fine on the computer” what are you playing it with ? It needs to be able to play in a DVD player like PowerDVD. Playing it in Media Player proves nothing.
A DVD has 2 directories (I forget the exact names) “Video” which contains .VOB and .IFO files, and an “Audio” directory which is empty. If you have a .WMV or .AVI file, you’ve got it completely wrong.