Spanning more that 2 DVD with a VIDEO_TS folder

[Kernos]

I have a set of VHS tapes which I'm converting to DVD. My work flow is to capture and editing them in iMovie creating a menu in iDVD and burning as a Disk Image with iDVD. I then burn the disk image with Toast 8.0.1. Such DVDs are compatible with all my DVD players, whereas DVDs burned with iDVD will not play on my main player.

 

All has worked well, with the DVDs playing on all 6 of my players until I had to use a dual layer DVD on one 144 min movie. It would not play on our main DVD player, skipping, stuttering, etc, but would on cheaper and computer DVD players.

 

I would like to try burning it on 2 SL DVDs, but all I have left is the disk image with the VIDEO_TS folder.

 

It is possible to use Toast to burn this over 2 SL DVDs (as movies not data) or am I going to have re-capture and encode it in 2 parts?

 

TIA,

 

Bill

[tsantee]

You have two options.

 

One option is to use Toast's Fit-to-DVD feature to burn the contents of the DL-sized disc image to a single-layer disc. There are times when this doesn't work with iDVD projects because iDVD doesn't use compressed audio. The uncompressed audio can take up so much space on the disc that there isn't enough room left for the video on a single-layer disc. However, with a 144-minute project I think it will fit. Just use the Image File setting in the Toast Copy window, insert a single-layer disc and click the burn button. This will retain your iDVD menu.

 

You may not want to do this because it will reduce picture quality. Alternatively you could use Toast instead of iDVD to encode, author and burn your iMovie Project. Toast can fit 144 minutes of video to a single-layer disc because it uses compressed audio (Dolby Digital AC-3). I'd go into Toast's custom encoder window and set the Dolby Digital bit rate to 192 kbps or less to make maximum space for the video. You will get a Toast-created menu instead of an iDVD menu.

 

Otherwise your best option is split your movie into two parts in iMovie and create two separate iDVD projects. It is the only way you can put the movie across two discs and have iDVD menus.

 

One other option: If you didn't use Verbatim DVD+R DL media then try it again with that media. It is the most compatible and it is common for other brands to fail.