10 replies to this topic

[xrcjp]

I can burn some avi movies/concerts to data without much problem.  They can be played on MacG4 using VLC Player or MPlayer OX for the most part.  There is no problem burning a DVD-from VIDEO-TS_file...they work in a home DVD player.

I can also burn a DVD using DivX but they do NOT play on a home DVD player (only on the Mac).

I've tried to burn avi (music, movies, concerts, etc.-downloaded from the net & NOT copy protected) once I drag the files into Toast, it starts OK. shows encoding and then freezes or causes my Mac to freeze.  THis has happen many times in a row today...

Q) Why does it take so much more space when making a DVD Video?  

Q) What is your average success burning? I've had to shut-down the last ten or so times. Only to start up and drag the avi's into Toast again...and within a few seconds it crashes?

I did set it to the highest quality.    

Sometimes I got a sign saying that I have a mixed PAL-NTSC batch of stuff and that the DVD might not work on all home DVD players.   Can anyone help me out!!!

thanks

[John at Roxio]

DVD video is a very specific video format.  The other formats you use probably have higher compression.

I would say about 98%

Get Toast 7.1.2 for starters.

[stephekay]

xrcjp, on Dec 13 2006, 05:51 AM, said:

I can burn some avi movies/concerts to data without much problem.  They can be played on MacG4 using VLC Player or MPlayer OX for the most part.  There is no problem burning a DVD-from VIDEO-TS_file...they work in a home DVD player.


I've tried to burn avi (music, movies, concerts, etc.-downloaded from the net & NOT copy protected) once I drag the files into Toast, it starts OK. shows encoding and then freezes or causes my Mac to freeze.  THis has happen many times in a row today...

thanks

Hi,

I've upgraded to Toast 7.1.2 and since doing this have been having the same problem as you.  I've tried everything "Roxanne" suggested, including updating my firmware, deteling my preferences and reinstalling the Toast updater.  None the less, whenever I try to encode an .avi file to DVD, about three quarters through, Toast simply closes on it's own, with no indication in the crash report.  What can I do?

[tsantee]

stephekay, on Dec 23 2006, 06:32 PM, said:

Hi,

I've upgraded to Toast 7.1.2 and since doing this have been having the same problem as you.  I've tried everything "Roxanne" suggested, including updating my firmware, deteling my preferences and reinstalling the Toast updater.  None the less, whenever I try to encode an .avi file to DVD, about three quarters through, Toast simply closes on it's own, with no indication in the crash report.  What can I do?

Does this happen with any AVI? Would you say it happens at a comparable amount of time during encoding with different AVI?

If so, you might want to do the extended hardware test using your Hardware Test disc that came with your Mac. It may be that you have defective RAM. I don't know if that is the case here, but it is easy to eliminate as a possibility by running the extended hardware test.

[stephekay]

tsantee, on Dec 23 2006, 10:34 PM, said:

Does this happen with any AVI? Would you say it happens at a comparable amount of time during encoding with different AVI?

If so, you might want to do the extended hardware test using your Hardware Test disc that came with your Mac. It may be that you have defective RAM. I don't know if that is the case here, but it is easy to eliminate as a possibility by running the extended hardware test.

Hi,

This happens with any .avi and always happens. I've tried everything to resolve it, from saving it as a disk image to doing it avi by avi.  I ran the extended hardware test last night and just as I suspected, everything passed.  This sucks.

Edited by stephekay, 24 December 2006 - 07:44 AM.

[tsantee]

stephekay, on Dec 24 2006, 07:07 AM, said:

Hi,

This happens with any .avi and always happens. I've tried everything to resolve it, from saving it as a disk image to doing it avi by avi.  I ran the extended hardware test last night and just as I suspected, everything passed.  This sucks.

I'm having to just guess at possible reasons for this happening on your Mac. Try creating a new user's account and running Toast from that account. If you have an external hard drive, install the OS to that drive and start up your Mac from it so you are using an entirely different System. Run Disk Warrior if you have it. Clean System caches using Onyx, MacJanitor, Macaroni or similar application.

I'm presuming you have plenty of hard drive space available. The Roxio Converted Items folder needs to be on a drive that has ample space for the re-encoding (set this in Toast preferences)

In Toast select an AVI (maybe one of the shorter ones) and choose export. Export to DV. Does this get completed?

You say this happened after updating to 7.1.2. What happens when you try it with your previous version of Toast 7? It's okay to have multiple versions of Toast 7 so you don't need to delete 7.1.2 to run an earlier version.

Edited by tsantee, 24 December 2006 - 08:07 AM.

[stephekay]

tsantee, on Dec 24 2006, 08:05 AM, said:

I'm having to just guess at possible reasons for this happening on your Mac. Try creating a new user's account and running Toast from that account. If you have an external hard drive, install the OS to that drive and start up your Mac from it so you are using an entirely different System. Run Disk Warrior if you have it. Clean System caches using Onyx, MacJanitor, Macaroni or similar application.

I'm presuming you have plenty of hard drive space available. The Roxio Converted Items folder needs to be on a drive that has ample space for the re-encoding (set this in Toast preferences)

In Toast select an AVI (maybe one of the shorter ones) and choose export. Export to DV. Does this get completed?

You say this happened after updating to 7.1.2. What happens when you try it with your previous version of Toast 7? It's okay to have multiple versions of Toast 7 so you don't need to delete 7.1.2 to run an earlier version.

So I tried clearing my caches, installing OS to my external HD, exporting to DV and downgrading my toast to 7.0.  Nothing's worked.  Actually that's not true, it worked once, and then never again.  Weird.

[tsantee]

stephekay, on Dec 28 2006, 07:49 AM, said:

So I tried clearing my caches, installing OS to my external HD, exporting to DV and downgrading my toast to 7.0.  Nothing's worked.  Actually that's not true, it worked once, and then never again.  Weird.

I'm totally stumped. A crash that repeatedly occurs after a certain time in an extended process regardless of the file used suggests a RAM problem, but the extended hardware test is really good at finding those. You could try removing the added RAM from your Mac and see if this makes any difference, but I could be totally off base with my diagnosis.

You've eliminated the AVI as the problem by using different ones.
You've eliminated the OS as a problem by using different ones.
Toast 7 could be the problem except that other people don't experience this issue (at least not commonly).
What's left is the hardware, but it passed the hardware test.

I'm stumped.

[stephekay]

stephekay, on Dec 28 2006, 07:49 AM, said:

So I tried clearing my caches, installing OS to my external HD, exporting to DV and downgrading my toast to 7.0.  Nothing's worked.  Actually that's not true, it worked once, and then never again.  Weird.

I never added any RAM to my mac.  I'm not skilled enough to open it up myself, so I think I'm stuck.  Crap.  Oh well, I appriciate your help.

[richard_briscoe]

Just how much RAM do you have installed? OS X likes RAM, 512 MB is probably the least amount that will run a machine well...and 1 GB is better if you tend to have a number of applications open at the same time.

I have no idea whether your problem is related to a problem with RAM or not, but since the issue has been raised you may want to try Rember which is a free utility for testing RAM in OS X without having to go into Terminal.

As far as your .avi files not playing in your DVD player goes, you would have to have one which specifically is made to play .avi and/or DivX files. Most DVD players will not play .avi files. My experience with some of the ones that claim to play them has been mixed. If you wind up shopping for one I would recommend purchasing from a place with a good return policy and take a disc in with you so that you can try it on their demo if possible.

There are many opinions at to how much free space you need on a hard drive, but the majority opinion seems to suggest that 10% to 15% is the minimum which will leave plenty of space for the operating system and applications. It is possible to simply run out of space and, if that is the case, the application generally will not be able to function properly.

The fact that you are able to successfully complete burns from Video_TS files makes me suspicious that there is something else involved. Just what is a good question though.

Edited by richard_briscoe, 30 December 2006 - 09:28 AM.

[stephekay]

richard_briscoe, on Dec 30 2006, 09:26 AM, said:

Just how much RAM do you have installed? OS X likes RAM, 512 MB is probably the least amount that will run a machine well...and 1 GB is better if you tend to have a number of applications open at the same time.

I have no idea whether your problem is related to a problem with RAM or not, but since the issue has been raised you may want to try Rember which is a free utility for testing RAM in OS X without having to go into Terminal.

As far as your .avi files not playing in your DVD player goes, you would have to have one which specifically is made to play .avi and/or DivX files. Most DVD players will not play .avi files. My experience with some of the ones that claim to play them has been mixed. If you wind up shopping for one I would recommend purchasing from a place with a good return policy and take a disc in with you so that you can try it on their demo if possible.

There are many opinions at to how much free space you need on a hard drive, but the majority opinion seems to suggest that 10% to 15% is the minimum which will leave plenty of space for the operating system and applications. It is possible to simply run out of space and, if that is the case, the application generally will not be able to function properly.

The fact that you are able to successfully complete burns from Video_TS files makes me suspicious that there is something else involved. Just what is a good question though.

Hi,

Thanks for your reponce.  I have 512MB of RAM but generally leave Toast alone to "do it's thing" when burning.  After being a PC user for many years with Nero, I've grown accustomed to this practice.

Thank you for recomending Rember.  I just finished running it and my RAM is in perfect working order, so it's not a RAM problem.  

As for the comments regarding .avi and DVD players, I believe that comment was made by the first user and not myself.  I have had no such problems with my player.

I try to have as much free space and memory availible but nothing has helped.  Meanwhile, I can burn Video_TS files while doing lots of work on my computer,so I too, think something else is up.