Am I correct in my understanding that before the actual burn process begins the pictures, videos, etc are converted to a format, and that is why it takes so long to complete the whole process?

Depends on which of the 20+ apps you are using and what you are trying to burn.

Maybe if you provide some details someone here can offer some ideas.

I have Easy Media Creator 9 Suite. The burn process is with MyDVD 9 or MyDVD Express. I have burned photo CDs, photo DVDs, movies I put together with my video camera, movies I have burned from my computer to disc, etc. The process is as follows: Once I click "burn" or "create disc," and the process begins, the full movie is displayed in a little window and definitely each picture is displayed before the process is complete. It is slow

How about telling us what your PC specifications are. Look at my signature and us know. Also, how much data are your trying to burn? i.e a full CD or 200 mb How long is slow from your viewpoint?

Everything has to convert (encoded) to an mpg2 format in order for the DVD to be played in a home DVD player. It is that encoding and not the burning that takes the time. As others asked, what do you have for hardware especially your CPU speed (yes it counts) and your video card/chip information.

Encoding with a fast computer can be as much as a 3:1 ratio and as low as a 1:1 ratio. Slower computer can be much higher. AVCHD takes forever (Creator 2009).

Just in case, remember you can get only one hour of best quality video on a disc; a little less than 2 hours at crappy quality. Double that for DL discs.

Ignore the above if you are just creating a data disc; that is at pretty much the speed of your burner.

I have updated my signature. I apologize for the lack of info.

My latest project was a movie I downloaded to my computer from the internet. The movie is 234mb. With MyDVD9 I added a picture background (24kb) and a 1 line menu. Using an Office Depot brand DVD-R, 16X, 4.7GB disc it took about 6-8 hrs for my computer to process the information and burn to disc.

Your PC is not a lightning rod, a Celeron is like sending a boy to do a mans job… They have their uses in the right place but Video is not one of them!!!

File size is a usless measure in Video. Time is what counts, your file could be anything from a 10 minutes to a couple of hours… That is why size is useless.

So with your video card coupled to a Celeron, a few hours for render is not out of line…

Just for info, the PC in my signature takes 12 ½ hours to render a 1 hour AVCHD file. A SD 1 hour project can go as fast as 30 minutes.

Lots of variables

Thanks for the insight Jim. What would us novices do without you?