Burning .avi files with Toast 7

[richard_briscoe]

I have a number of .avi files that I want to burn to a DVD Disc to archive.

 

As .avi files the ones I am attempting to burn come out at a bit over 4 GB which will fit on a Disc, but if I use the Video tab in toast and drag them to it I get a message that the files I am attempting to burn are something over 10 GB which, of course, won't fit.

 

What are my options here?

 

If I want to burn them as the (native) .avi files do I need to burn them as data files or just what? If I do this is the display just the file name rather than the picture and so on that is shown in the video tab?

 

If I allow Toast to apparently convert the .avi files to MPEG2 files (I am assuming that this is the reason for the change in the file sizes) what sort of image quality loss should I expect?

 

The last thing that comes to mind is to save the 10 GB files as a disc image and then burn it to an (8 GB) dual layer DVD disc with Toast/Popcorn. I have done this before with an MPEG2 file that was just a little too big to fit on a single layer DVD disc, but is there a way to accomplish the same result without the intermediate steps? I do not know whether the roughly 20% compression involved in burning the disc this way would result in even poorer image quality. Any thoughts about this?

 

I guess the very last option is to just reduce the number of files that I try to burn to the disc (there are four files per event which limits the options somewhat).

 

Thanks for your assistance,

Richard

[Guest Preet at Roxio]

I have a number of .avi files that I want to burn to a DVD Disc to archive.

 

As .avi files the ones I am attempting to burn come out at a bit over 4 GB which will fit on a Disc, but if I use the Video tab in toast and drag them to it I get a message that the files I am attempting to burn are something over 10 GB which, of course, won't fit.

 

What are my options here?

 

If I want to burn them as the (native) .avi files do I need to burn them as data files or just what? If I do this is the display just the file name rather than the picture and so on that is shown in the video tab?

 

If I allow Toast to apparently convert the .avi files to MPEG2 files (I am assuming that this is the reason for the change in the file sizes) what sort of image quality loss should I expect?

 

The last thing that comes to mind is to save the 10 GB files as a disc image and then burn it to an (8 GB) dual layer DVD disc with Toast/Popcorn. I have done this before with an MPEG2 file that was just a little too big to fit on a single layer DVD disc, but is there a way to accomplish the same result without the intermediate steps? I do not know whether the roughly 20% compression involved in burning the disc this way would result in even poorer image quality. Any thoughts about this?

 

I guess the very last option is to just reduce the number of files that I try to burn to the disc (there are four files per event which limits the options somewhat).

 

Thanks for your assistance,

Richard

 

If you want to keep the avi files in the native form then you need to burn it as a Data disc. When you add the files to "Video" the software will encode them to a Video_TS folder (VOB/IFO) format so that it can be played on a DVD Player. For archiving purpose it is best to use Data. If you want to be able to view the videos on a DVD Player then you would go ahead and create the project under "Video", but then you need to split the files to fit on to the DVD disc, or create the disc image and then compress it to fit a DL disc.

[tsantee]

If you want to keep the avi files in the native form then you need to burn it as a Data disc. When you add the files to "Video" the software will encode them to a Video_TS folder (VOB/IFO) format so that it can be played on a DVD Player. For archiving purpose it is best to use Data. If you want to be able to view the videos on a DVD Player then you would go ahead and create the project under "Video", but then you need to split the files to fit on to the DVD disc, or create the disc image and then compress it to fit a DL disc.

Preet, I'm not sure that Toast will compress to fit DL discs. I think it only compresses DL-sized sources to fit single-layer discs.

 

This AVI must have more than 6 hours of video to require that much space as MPEG 2. If it could be split in half then it would fit on two DL discs or the two DL-sized disc images could be additionally compressed to fit single-layer DVDs.

 

Richard, have you considered making a Divx DVD from the AVI? That is done in the video window. There aren't many standalone devices that play Divx DVDs, though. Some require Divx to be on CD and many standalone players don't support Divx discs at all.

 

If you are going to be regularly using AVIs that you want to play on your TV with a standalone player you might start shopping for a hard drive-based device that plays DivX so you don't need discs at all. I recently bought a LaCie Silverscreen for this purpose, but there are other products such as the MediaGate.