DVD won't play

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For some reason Windows DVD Maker was giving me trouble last night, and I prefer it to VP's setup because with DVD Maker you can have menus. But anyway, decided to try burning a dvd with VP. Result: DVD wouldn't play on my dvd machine. What the heck???

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If you have playable video files on your PC (.avi .wmv etc.) my advide is to use DVDStyler (Freeware) to create your DVD. You have full control of how the finished product appears. Caters for menus, background music, background images, etc. and etc. and gives you the option of actually trying out what you create direct from your PC before writing it to disc.

On my system VP (3.02) won't stop the "Writing to disc" operation and aborting is the only way to stop it. Even though a subsequent message says it was unable to write to the DVD it does in fact complete a workable disc. However for me the big drawback is the lack of menus. DVDStyler is the complete package and works well. If you are not sure how things might come out, use a RW disc first.

http://www.dvdstyler.org/fr/

Nat

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I'll give that a try, Nat. Thanks for the suggestion!

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Nat, today I tried DVDStyler, and yes it's a great setup--except that apparently you can't add music to the menu, but that's no biggie. Anyway, Styler refused to encode my movie reedit to DVD--and this was the same .avi file that DVD Maker also refused to encode. This means the common denominator was the .avi file itself--which was on VP's "Widescreen TV" (1024x576) setting. What in the world is going on? I'm about ready to just give up on VP; I'm getting fed up with the problems it gives me. Any suggestions would be highly welcome. (At this very moment I'm re-rendering the move in the "Widescreen TV" setting, just to see if it works this time around. Can't say as I'm very hopeful, though.)

Thanks,

Andy

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VP (previous version 2.41 at least) IS very good.But leaving this aside...

With DVDStyler you can add a soundfile to the menu screen if you right click the menu screen and then select "Properties" . Under Video object there is a box marked audio. Browse to your sound file/music clip and select it. This will play whilst the particular menu screen is being displayed.You can loop if also if you wish. As you have probably noticed, all the "objects" (frames, outlines etc.) have their individual properties which you can alter. You can add your own background images to the menu background file as well..

I can't say why your movie doesn't burn however. It is 16:9 AR. which is standard. I can only suggest that you could try to convert it to another format type using Any Video Converter

http://www.any-video...for_video_free/

Your original file remains intact as this program makes a copy in the requested format. Try MPEG2 for a start. (I convert all my raw MPEG4 this way files before I edit them.) On clicking the orange Burn button, Styler lets you create a preview so you can see if it all plays OK before prompting you to actually use (or waste <_< ) a disc.

Nat

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Thanks for the further info, Nat. I've now tried a couple burns with Styler, and am dissatisfied. Perhaps the fault is mine; if so, you can advise me. I've noticed that, as I mentioned elsewhere, there's some pixellation going on--more than I typically see when burning with W. DVD Maker. Secondly, apparently you can't alter the size of the resulting picture: the aspect ratio is 720x480, which yields the proper visual proportions--but it doesn't fill my TV screen! There are black bars not just top and bottom, but on the ends as well. Why can't I have a larger picture...?

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I can't comment re the pixellation as I use DVDStyler and haven't had any major problems. Your earlier post said you rendered your avi with 1024 x 576 pixels and this is quite correctly 16:9. However if the original video had a smaller resolution and AR, (you don't say what the original was) then this will have been expanded to fit the best way possible into this larger frame, this may possible be the reason why the image shows some pixellation.

Also if the original format was not 16:9 then there would a border put around the image to take up that empty area. In effect the frame would be 16:9 at 1024 x 576 but the image in that frame might be 720 x 480. VP won't deform the image to fit the frame.

With regards your screen display... You say the image format is 720 x 480 pixels. This ia an aspect ratio of 1:1.5 which is OK for the old standard TV screen but not for the more modern widescreen which has an AR of 1:1.7 (16:9) If you are using a wide screen TV then your format will not be wide enough to fill the screen from side to side and there will be bars to each side. However you say you saved it from VP using 16:9. That's OK for the modern screen but, as mentioned above, if your image is 1:1.5 then you will see the borders as they will be present within the 16:9 frame you haev rendered.

Nat

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Thanks, Nat. However, movie DVDs, like the kind from which I'm creating a fan-edit, are standardized to 720x480, and of course play fine on the current crop of TVs. (I can't speak to Bluray; I haven't got into that yet.) What this means is that your dvd player then expands the picture to fit your TV screen--and, I'm sure your own experience will attest--there isn't a black border around the whole thing. It either completely fills your screen, or, if it was shot wider than 16:9, then you'll have the customary black bars on top and bottom. So I can't understand why either I create a 720x480 copy and get a full border, or else create a larger-sized copy and get pixellation. This doesn't seem to happen when I edit simpler projects--some even using DVD movie footage--on Windows Live Movie Maker. It only seems to happen using VP. This is why I've posted recently that I'm on the verge of abandoning VP; it's just non-stop frustration. Which would be really too bad, cuz using VP is actually quite pleasant.