9 replies to this topic

[Dr Fever]

I am going out of my mind here.  The sole reason that I purchased this product (EMC9) was to transfer .tivo file to my PC then burn them to DVD to be played on a standard DVD player.  I have tried it using both disc copier and MyDVD.  When I use Disc Copier and do a video compilation, the DVD burns ok.  When I pop it in my dvd player, the video is stretched vertically with large black lines on either side of the screen.  If I use MyDVD to create the DVD, it stretches horizontally making the video much wider than it was originally.  Both distort the image so bad, the DVDs are not usable.

Please help me to resolve this.  As it stands, I paid $100 to turn DVD-Rs into coasters for my coffee cup.

[grandpabruce]

Dr Fever, on Oct 17 2006, 04:42 PM, said:

I am going out of my mind here.  The sole reason that I purchased this product (EMC9) was to transfer .tivo file to my PC then burn them to DVD to be played on a standard DVD player.  I have tried it using both disc copier and MyDVD.  When I use Disc Copier and do a video compilation, the DVD burns ok.  When I pop it in my dvd player, the video is stretched vertically with large black lines on either side of the screen.  If I use MyDVD to create the DVD, it stretches horizontally making the video much wider than it was originally.  Both distort the image so bad, the DVDs are not usable.

Please help me to resolve this.  As it stands, I paid $100 to turn DVD-Rs into coasters for my coffee cup.

You need to do a little searching of the forums.  You should find a multidude of hits, if you type TIVO into the search box, above right.

Edited by grandpabruce, 18 October 2006 - 08:53 AM.

[dlflannery]

Dr Fever, on Oct 17 2006, 01:42 PM, said:

I am going out of my mind here.  The sole reason that I purchased this product (EMC9) was to transfer .tivo file to my PC then burn them to DVD to be played on a standard DVD player.  I have tried it using both disc copier and MyDVD.  When I use Disc Copier and do a video compilation, the DVD burns ok.  When I pop it in my dvd player, the video is stretched vertically with large black lines on either side of the screen.  If I use MyDVD to create the DVD, it stretches horizontally making the video much wider than it was originally.  Both distort the image so bad, the DVDs are not usable.

Please help me to resolve this.  As it stands, I paid $100 to turn DVD-Rs into coasters for my coffee cup.

Please provide some more details.  What TiVo Quality are the files?  What settings have you tried in the "Project Settings" page of MyDVD?

Meanwhile here is a ***Post*** you may find informative.

Many folks recommend not burning directly to disc, but to .iso file.  Then burn the .iso file to disc.   You can test the .iso by mounting it with disk image loader then playing it with Cineplayer.  Unfortunately I've found that the EMC9 Cineplayer does not give an accurate test of whether the video will be shrunk or expanded in a particular standalone player.  But at least you can check that your buttons work the way you intend them to and other navigation aspects.

If you are generating a 352x480 (called "half-D1") DVD (depends on project settings) this format sometimes isn't handled by standalone players, especially older ones.  Standalones always like 720x480 ("full-D1").   Standalone responses I've seen to half-D1 include a skinny picture or two skinny replicas side by side.

[Dr Fever]

I have searched many forums including this one without much success.  I have posted trouble tickets with Roxio's support and searched their KB.  I have sat on hold and will try that again tomorrow.

My .tivo files are all recorded at high quality.  I have tried saving them as an image then burning the image with the same results.  I will try using the LP setting mentioned in the linked post.  It has not mattered what resolution I encode them as.  Disc Copy always stretches vertically and MyDVD always stretches horizontally.
I am willing to except some degradation in quality, but these DVDs are pretty bad.  It is not my player.   I preview them on the desktop, 2 laptops, and my standard DVD player and they are all the same.

[dlflannery]

Dr Fever, on Oct 17 2006, 07:47 PM, said:

I have searched many forums including this one without much success.  I have posted trouble tickets with Roxio's support and searched their KB.  I have sat on hold and will try that again tomorrow.

My .tivo files are all recorded at high quality.  I have tried saving them as an image then burning the image with the same results.  I will try using the LP setting mentioned in the linked post.  It has not mattered what resolution I encode them as.  Disc Copy always stretches vertically and MyDVD always stretches horizontally.
I am willing to except some degradation in quality, but these DVDs are pretty bad.  It is not my player.   I preview them on the desktop, 2 laptops, and my standard DVD player and they are all the same.

The LP setting in the linked post was used for TiVo Medium.   TiVo High and Best are 480x480, which is greater than LP resolution.  I assume it will process it but you are actually deliberately giving up quality, which seems a shame.  As an experiment how about processing some TiVo Medium content to see if that makes the difference?   I am puzzled by the problems you're having.  

[Dr Fever]

Ok, I have narrowed it down slightly.  When I open a .tivo file in Wnidows Media Player, it looks perfect.  When I open the same file in MyDVD and preview it, it is strectched horizontally.  This occurs before the encode and burn takes place.  Is it possible that WMP is using a better codec than the one that MyDVD is using?  If so, any ideas how to fix that?

[Dr Fever]

Another update...
I have determined that it is not related to the .tivo files.  Every file type that I have tried gets stretched horizontally in MyDVD, but looks fine in WMP.  
I hope this gives you guys (and gals) a little more to go on.

[dlflannery]

Dr Fever, on Oct 18 2006, 10:11 AM, said:

Another update...
I have determined that it is not related to the .tivo files.  Every file type that I have tried gets stretched horizontally in MyDVD, but looks fine in WMP.  
I hope this gives you guys (and gals) a little more to go on.

What happens if you load a .tivo into VideoWave?  There is this mysterious third party codec that is automatically "activated" over the internet and this sometimes doesn't happen until weeks after EMC9 installation.  (See the Activation SubForum here.)  Anyway they tell me the way to tell if this codec has been activated is to attempt to load a mpeg (or tivo I assume) file into VideoWave.  I haven't been able to get any explanation of what this is all about or what effects occur if you don't have it activated (other than not being able to load a video into VideoWave).  I think there may be a way to force activation (see the subforum again).  This could have something to do with your problem.

I never had these problems even before my mystery codec was activated, but I never tried to load TiVo high quality, always medium.   I would be curious to see what happens when you use medium quality TiVo files.

I think there are experts on this forum who could help you more than I can.  Hope they take an interest.

[dlebryk]

Is there a setting in MyDVD for letterbox, 16:9, or 4:3? I think that might be the problem.

[ggrussell]

There is no 'setting' as such. MyDVD 9 creates true anamorphic 16:9 so 'letterboxing' would be a function of your DVD player. Not the software.

Doesn't matter if the menu is 16:9 or 4:3.  The video would still play correctly as 16:9.

Edited by ggrussell, 26 October 2006 - 05:42 PM.