Roxio 2009 - Copying Several Movies To Single Dvd

[Ram4]

I would like to copy several dvd movies to one dvd.

 

I can use dvd recorder on my television to copy several 2 hours movies to one dvd. In fact I can copy 4 two movies. When I want to play, it provides a menu to select that I want to view.

 

I am trying to do the same with Roxio. However I had no success so far.

 

In short

1) I would like to copy several (3-4) 2 hours movies to a single dvd

2) Shoul create a menu to select for playing

 

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thank you

 

[Lord Roxio]

It might be good to point out that commercial discs that have 2 hour movies on them are also two-layer 8.5GB discs. So, don't feel "cheated" that you only get one hour of highest quality video on a single-layer, 4.7GB disc. That's roughly what the commercial discs give you too. And the encoders they're using can do a better job, but they cost thousands of dollars, so one hour of high quality video on a disc is the "norm".

 

It seems this is a misrepresentation by the disk manufacturers. They say 4.7 gb for data / 2 hours play time. Nothing about quality deterioration.

 

Is the 1 hour per disk for best quality video based on playing time or file type/weight?

 

Example for the same movie:

1. movie file.movie clip = 800 mb
2. movie file.wmv = 300 mb
3. movie file.mpg = 3 gb

Which format is best to start with as a base file - movie clip, wmv, avi or mpeg to obtain the best final result?

 

 

 

[grandpabruce]

It seems this is a misrepresentation by the disk manufacturers. They say 4.7 gb for data / 2 hours play time. Nothing about quality deterioration.

 

Is the 1 hour per disk for best quality video based on playing time or file type/weight?

 

Example for the same movie:

1. movie file.movie clip = 800 mb
2. movie file.wmv = 300 mb
3. movie file.mpg = 3 gb

Which format is best to start with as a base file - movie clip, wmv, avi or mpeg to obtain the best final result?

 

.AVI for standard def video. I don't about hi def video.

[d_deweywright]

It seems this is a misrepresentation by the disk manufacturers. They say 4.7 gb for data / 2 hours play time. Nothing about quality deterioration.

 

Is the 1 hour per disk for best quality video based on playing time or file type/weight?

 

Example for the same movie:

1. movie file.movie clip = 800 mb
2. movie file.wmv = 300 mb
3. movie file.mpg = 3 gb

Which format is best to start with as a base file - movie clip, wmv, avi or mpeg to obtain the best final result?

For what you list there, you'd definitely want to start with the .MPG file, assuming that each of the file types you list there contain the same "content". Obviously, the .WMV file has been compressed a lot compared to the .MPG file, and what quality has gone away because of the compression won't be recovered. Ever.

 

Starting with a .AVI file may be the best, as GrandpaBruce said, but I'll offer the argument that if you have a hardware encoder, like the Roxio capture device, it may do as good a job of encoding to .MPG as the codecs used in VideoWave or MyDVD. So capturing at 9Mb/s (the highest bit rate allowed on a DVD) may do you nearly as good as starting with an AVI file that is much larger. It can also save you time when you're encoding your movie since it's already in a compatible file format/bit-rate.

 

If you want to get more information, read this. That points out that commercial discs average closer to 4-5Mb/s with their professional encoders, but jump to 7-8Mb/s in high action scenes. Again, the multi-pass encoders they use will cost much more, and probably need a Sun Workstation, or computer cluster to run on. But, that's where the 2 hours play time listed by the disc manufacturers probably comes from, and you could capture at that rate and put the same amount of time onto your DVD too... but you'll be sacrificing some quality.

 

Hope that helps!

[Ram4]

Thank you very much for all your suggestions...

 

It appears that I can not add a menu for selection if I put more than 1 movie on a dvd.

 

I tried various ways. Besided I found Roxio is very very slow.

 

Thanks again

[bimicher]

Thank you very much for all your suggestions...

 

It appears that I can not add a menu for selection if I put more than 1 movie on a dvd.

 

I tried various ways. Besided I found Roxio is very very slow.

 

Thanks again

 

 

Of course you can have a menu if you have several movies on a DVD. But trying to put several 2 hour movies on a DVD is ridiculous.

 

How have you tried to create the menu?

Video rendering takes a long time - for 1 hour video expect 1 to 3 hours.

[ggrussell]

Roxio does not advertise or make known that quality will go down as you add more than one video to a disk.

Not sure what you mean by that. Why would Roxio 'advertise' that. It is a simple fact of home video burning and works the same with ANY VIDEO SOFTWARE on the market.

[bimicher]

I would like to copy several dvd movies to one dvd.

 

I can use dvd recorder on my television to copy several 2 hours movies to one dvd. In fact I can copy 4 two movies. When I want to play, it provides a menu to select that I want to view.

 

I am trying to do the same with Roxio. However I had no success so far.

 

In short

1) I would like to copy several (3-4) 2 hours movies to a single dvd

2) Shoul create a menu to select for playing

 

 

Any suggestions?

 

Thank you

 

A standard 4.7GB DVD holds 60 minutes of video at best quality. A video longer then that will require more compression with a loss of quality. I doubt very much that 6 hours of very highly compressed video will be watchable.

[Ram4]

Sorry, You can not put menu on dvd -- There is no option in Roxio... I believe you can add chaters but not a menu.

 

What I mean by meny is.. it is beginning of dvd and one can select which movie to play.

[sknis]

Sorry, You can not put menu on dvd -- There is no option in Roxio... I believe you can add chaters but not a menu.

 

What I mean by meny is.. it is beginning of dvd and one can select which movie to play.

 

You are wrong ! If you have more than one movie, you can have a menu with two or more selections buttons. Each movie can have chapters.

 

If you have only one movie, there is no need for a menu unless you want chapters.

 

What application are you using to create your DVD project?

[bimicher]

Sorry, You can not put menu on dvd -- There is no option in Roxio... I believe you can add chaters but not a menu.

 

What I mean by meny is.. it is beginning of dvd and one can select which movie to play.

 

Of course you can add menus to a video DVD . I and most others that create DVDs do it all the time. Chapters cannot be added unless you have a menu on the DVD I don't think you are creating a video DVD but just a data DVD which of course does not have or need menus.

 

Perhaps you better explain exactly what you are doing. Its obvious you are doing something wrong. Please give a step-by-step explanation

[Jim_Hardin]

To be blunt, Roxio can put 4 hours on a 4.7Gb DVD but it looks and smells like carp!

 

Your Recorder/Player on the other hand may well do a better job because that is the only thing it does and it didn't cost a mere $80.

 

But to be honest I have one and have pushed it to 7+hours. Shows looked like cartoons to me only cartoons are more vivid and have better contrast…

 

But quality is subjective so what stinks for me may be acceptable to someone else.

 

Give both a try and pick the one that suits your needs.

 

[Lord Roxio]

Thanks. I have added DivX to my system and will give this a try. from what I have read on their website, this sounds very impressive. I will give an update after a few trial runs.

[grandpabruce]

They hit it on the dot. Quality will be really bad. Roxio does not advertise or make known that quality will go down as you add more than one video to a disk. (At the time of sale.)

I put 2 60 Min. Tapes onto one DVD and it already lowered the quality. So I went back and re-did them, one 60 minutes tape per DVD. Quality improved.

 

 

That's good. You just learned something about video work.

 

No video software, that I know of, advertises that quality will go down, if you add too many movies to a production. They don't need to. Anyone, who has done any video work, already knows that.

[Phantomdog]

They hit it on the dot. Quality will be really bad. Roxio does not advertise or make known that quality will go down as you add more than one video to a disk. (At the time of sale.)

I put 2 60 Min. Tapes onto one DVD and it already lowered the quality. So I went back and re-did them, one 60 minutes tape per DVD. Quality improved.

 

[Lord Roxio]

Thanks grandpabruce and d_deweywright for your advice. Thanks for the link to that reference material d_dw. That had lot's of good info. My example was for the same movie content in different starting formats. It makes sense to start with as much raw data as possible when you create the original video file for your project. It looks like I will have to burn dual layer disks to get 4 hours of quality video on one disk. Just for the record, my project is recording my favorite 1 hour TV shows and edititng the commercials out. Then I will record them to the disk with MyDVD including menus and chapters.

 

 

[d_deweywright]

That's good. You just learned something about video work.

 

No video software, that I know of, advertises that quality will go down, if you add too many movies to a production. They don't need to. Anyone, who has done any video work, already knows that.

And anyone that hasn't done it will find out in a hurry.

 

It might be good to point out that commercial discs that have 2 hour movies on them are also two-layer 8.5GB discs. So, don't feel "cheated" that you only get one hour of highest quality video on a single-layer, 4.7GB disc. That's roughly what the commercial discs give you too. And the encoders they're using can do a better job, but they cost thousands of dollars, so one hour of high quality video on a disc is the "norm".

[d_deweywright]

Thanks grandpabruce and d_deweywright for your advice. Thanks for the link to that reference material d_dw. That had lot's of good info. My example was for the same movie content in different starting formats. It makes sense to start with as much raw data as possible when you create the original video file for your project. It looks like I will have to burn dual layer disks to get 4 hours of quality video on one disk. Just for the record, my project is recording my favorite 1 hour TV shows and edititng the commercials out. Then I will record them to the disk with MyDVD including menus and chapters.

Yes, that's the point. You can always lose quality and compress more, but you want the quality to be there to start with. If you start with something more compressed than you need, you can't regain the quality that was compressed out of it.

 

Good luck!

[sknis]

Thanks grandpabruce and d_deweywright for your advice. Thanks for the link to that reference material d_dw. That had lot's of good info. My example was for the same movie content in different starting formats. It makes sense to start with as much raw data as possible when you create the original video file for your project. It looks like I will have to burn dual layer disks to get 4 hours of quality video on one disk. Just for the record, my project is recording my favorite 1 hour TV shows and edititng the commercials out. Then I will record them to the disk with MyDVD including menus and chapters.

 

If you have a DVD player that will handle the format, why not consider DivX using Roxio Creator 2009's Video Copy and Convert? The controls/codecs are already in Creator 2009. You should be able to get a lot of episodes on one disc.