Burning MPG to DVD?

[William Clark]

Hi. I have a MPG VIDEO which is 1.6 GB and love to burn this video to DVD using TOAST 8. However, I've burnt two DVD's and other than the menu and audio, the video doesn't burn?

 

I select DVD-VIDEO, select a menu style (and insert a custom menu background), add the MPG and edit the title and press burn. But it only burns the audio. The video did not burn because both DVD's only show 55 mb as used spaced on the DVD.

 

What am I doing wrong? How can I burn the MPG to the DVD, so it can play on a stand alone DVD's.

[tsantee]

I've never encountered anything like this with MPG videos. So when you put the burned DVD into a DVD player the menu shows. When you select the thumbnail to play the screen is black (?) but you hear the audio.

 

Something to test: Go to the Custom Encoder window and choose never next to re-encode. Then choose Save as Disc Image from the File menu. When it is done mount the saved disc image. Does the mounted disc image play okay using DVD Player? If so burn it to DVD using the Image File setting in the Copy window.

 

Post again if it doesn't work. How does Toast describe the specs of the MPEG file? (Select it in the video window and click the Edit button. The video and audio specs appear in that window).

[William Clark]

First, when I play the two DVD's I did burn, the menu shows up... nothing goes black. The audio starts automatically while the menu still displays. When I tried what you suggested by making a disc image and then mounting it, it does the same. I even deselected to automatically play, so when I click on the menu to play the video, the audio just starts up, but not the video. The menu remains up.

 

I know this makes no difference, but the video file is actually saved as MPG not MPEG. But I believe that makes no difference since when I right click to "Get Info" it says MPEG next to "KIND:". What I do know is that the MPG plays fine in my VLC player.

 

When I open up the folders in the mounted images and DVD's, there are folders called VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS. Nothing is in the AUDIO one, but there are several in the VIDEO... There is a VIDEO_TS.IFO, VIDEO_TS.BUP and VIDEO_TS.VOB. Then there are VTS_01_0.IFO, VTS_01_0.BUP and VTS_01_1.VOB. The only one that plays is the VTS_01_1.VOB which again shows the menu and only plays audio.

 

Specs of the MPG?? I'm not sure what you mean by this??

[theoldarchiver]

What I do know is that the MPG plays fine in my VLC player.

Specs of the MPG?? I'm not sure what you mean by this??

VLC can give you some (limited) specification of the MPG. Goto Window > Information, then Advanced Information. It should list streams there. The triangles can be toggled to show more, like the codec and type of stream. Let us know what it says there for your file.

Toast can give you some specs too, when using the Edit button. The new window shows video properties of the source file.

Edit: Oops, that is for Toast 7. Not sure if they changed that in v8.

[William Clark]

VLC can give you some (limited) specification of the MPG. Goto Window > Information, then Advanced Information. It should list streams there. The triangles can be toggled to show more, like the codec and type of stream. Let us know what it says there for your file.

Toast can give you some specs too, when using the Edit button. The new window shows video properties of the source file.

Edit: Oops, that is for Toast 7. Not sure if they changed that in v8.

 

According to the VLC "advance information":

Stream 0

Codec.... mpgv

Type.... Video

 

Stream 1

Codec.... a52

Type.... Audio

 

 

Anyway, how can I burn this video to DVD rather than just the audio??

[tsantee]

According to the VLC "advance information":

Stream 0

Codec.... mpgv

Type.... Video

 

Stream 1

Codec.... a52

Type.... Audio

Anyway, how can I burn this video to DVD rather than just the audio??

That's not the info I was wanting to know. You say you have an .mpg file that you've added to the Toast video window with DVD Video selected as the format. Once you've done that click on the title to select it and a button appears that says Edit. Click that button. In the window that appears you'll see a description of the video and audio. What is that description? How long (in time) does Toast say the video is when you added it to the Video window?

 

What you happening is very odd. Toast does not have audio with its menus and there isn't any way for it to make its menu into a video. So I don't know how it possibly could be playing the Toast menu with the audio.

 

My best guess is there is something wrong with the .mpg file's header or the file itself. If you have MPEG Streamclip then I recommend opening the .mpg in Streamclip, choosing Fix Timecode breaks from Streamclip's Edit menu and then choose Convert to MPEG from Streamclip's File menu. Then add that saved MPEG file to Toast instead of your .mpg file.

[William Clark]

That's not the info I was wanting to know. You say you have an .mpg file that you've added to the Toast video window with DVD Video selected as the format. Once you've done that click on the title to select it and a button appears that says Edit. Click that button. In the window that appears you'll see a description of the video and audio. What is that description? How long (in time) does Toast say the video is when you added it to the Video window?

 

Well for some reason when I click on "edit", nothing happens. However, when I add the MPG to the "DVD-VIDEO" window for TOAST 8 there is a description which gives the title of the MPG along with the time of 25:10. Under that it says;

 

Video: PNG, 320 X 240 1fps

Audio: Dolby Digital, 2/0 48000HZ

 

I hope this is what you're referring to.

 

 

What you happening is very odd. Toast does not have audio with its menus and there isn't any way for it to make its menu into a video. So I don't know how it possibly could be playing the Toast menu with the audio.

 

Well, I will agree that it's odd, but I assure you this is happening since I have two DVD's I made which only the audio plays with the background menu I selected. I even tried the "save as Disc Image" and mounting it as mentioned by you and when playing the mounted DVD from the disc image, it plays only the audio.

 

My best guess is there is something wrong with the .mpg file's header or the file itself. If you have MPEG Streamclip then I recommend opening the .mpg in Streamclip, choosing Fix Timecode breaks from Streamclip's Edit menu and then choose Convert to MPEG from Streamclip's File menu. Then add that saved MPEG file to Toast instead of your .mpg file.

 

I'm assuming mpeg streamclip is a program I need??

 

Sorry, but I'm new to burning DVD's. Other than burning two DVD's simply for my mp3's and copying a DVD that's the extent of my experience. For some reason, this time around it's only recording the audio.

[tsantee]

Ahh, this is very enlightening. It describes the video as a PNG file. That stands for Portable Network Graphics which is a common type of file for pictures or graphics used on Web sites. It isn't a motion video. So somehow Toast isn't seeing the actual content of the MPG video itself but just a still image frame.

 

One situation where you'd encounter this is with a Toast Music DVD. Toast creates a still image that describes the song being played while the song plays. The single image stays on screen until the DVD advances to the next still frame and song, or until the chapter skip key is pressed. Toast Music DVDs have no motion video; just still frames. iDVD can do something similar with its DVD slide shows that include still images with an audio track.

 

But you say this MPG file contains motion video. That brings us to MPEG Streamclip.

 

MPEG Streamclip is a freeware application and is extremely useful. However, it requires Apple's QuickTime MPEG 2 Playback Component which you can purchase and download from the Apple site for $20. What needs to happen is to have this MPG file re-saved so that Toast can properly recognize it. I believe the steps I mentioned in my previous post will do this presuming that Streamclip opens the MPG as a movie an not as a PNG file.

 

The video spec in Toast should be something like "NTSC 720x480 30 fps."

[William Clark]

Ahh, this is very enlightening. It describes the video as a PNG file. That stands for Portable Network Graphics which is a common type of file for pictures or graphics used on Web sites. It isn't a motion video. So somehow Toast isn't seeing the actual content of the MPG video itself but just a still image frame.

 

One situation where you'd encounter this is with a Toast Music DVD. Toast creates a still image that describes the song being played while the song plays. The single image stays on screen until the DVD advances to the next still frame and song, or until the chapter skip key is pressed. Toast Music DVDs have no motion video; just still frames. iDVD can do something similar with its DVD slide shows that include still images with an audio track.

 

But you say this MPG file contains motion video. That brings us to MPEG Streamclip.

 

MPEG Streamclip is a freeware application and is extremely useful. However, it requires Apple's QuickTime MPEG 2 Playback Component which you can purchase and download from the Apple site for $20. What needs to happen is to have this MPG file re-saved so that Toast can properly recognize it. I believe the steps I mentioned in my previous post will do this presuming that Streamclip opens the MPG as a movie an not as a PNG file.

 

The video spec in Toast should be something like "NTSC 720x480 30 fps."

 

It appears this is the case. And I downloaded the STREAMCLIP you suggested and did a test. I saved it as a image disc and mounted it. It plays the videos.

 

The question I have is... do I need MPEG 2 playback component? Isn't this "component" just to play it back on QUICK TIME?

 

Sorry for all the questions, but I appreciate you being patient and helping me work this out.

[tsantee]

This is a very odd MPEG file because it is behaving much more like a VIDEO_TS folder's contents. You say there is a menu. I don't know of MPEG files that have menus. It also contains several different segments. It is possible for an MPEG file to have chapter markers but those are all sequential. What you describe is more like separate titles rather than separate chapters. So once again you've presented me with a problem that is beyond anything I've experienced. This means that I'm doing a lot of guessing about how to resolve it.

 

As for the need for the QuickTime MPEG2 Playback Component, I've never tried using MPEG Streamclip without it. It may only be needed if you want to view the MPEG video in the Streamclip window. It may be possible for Streamclip to do many of its features without you actually seeing the video. I believe there's an explanation on the squared5.com site as to why the component is needed.

 

One advantage of being able to see the video in Streamclip is you could place markers at the in and out points of each of the songs, make cuts and save as separate MPEG files. That way you can reorder them the way you want in Toast. With each song as its own MPEG file you can describe them in the menu created by Toast.

[William Clark]

This is a very odd MPEG file because it is behaving much more like a VIDEO_TS folder's contents. You say there is a menu. I don't know of MPEG files that have menus. It also contains several different segments. It is possible for an MPEG file to have chapter markers but those are all sequential. What you describe is more like separate titles rather than separate chapters. So once again you've presented me with a problem that is beyond anything I've experienced. This means that I'm doing a lot of guessing about how to resolve it.

 

As for the need for the QuickTime MPEG2 Playback Component, I've never tried using MPEG Streamclip without it. It may only be needed if you want to view the MPEG video in the Streamclip window. It may be possible for Streamclip to do many of its features without you actually seeing the video. I believe there's an explanation on the squared5.com site as to why the component is needed.

 

One advantage of being able to see the video in Streamclip is you could place markers at the in and out points of each of the songs, make cuts and save as separate MPEG files. That way you can reorder them the way you want in Toast. With each song as its own MPEG file you can describe them in the menu created by Toast.

 

Well, I resolved the issue by encoding it through STREAMclip. So thanks!! And you're right about the additional mpeg2 playback component. I am unable to view or hear the video in STREAMclip. However, I can still set the markers to "in and out points" of my choice, and that is what I did. I just used VLC to get the exact timing for when to set the markers. I divided the mpeg into four different mpegs. Then, I added them to toast. So I am not going to spend $20 if I can just do it this way and quite possibly, I'll never do it again. I don't know??

 

Thanks again. You've been quite helpful.