Source For Estimated Time?

[Bunkster]

Using a G4, 1.42 ghz PPC G4, MacOS 10.4.11, 512 RAM. (I know, it's "old" -- but it's what I have, and I know that it's stable and does what I need).

 

I just started using Toast 8, mostly to archive things and to create DVD-videos from EyeTV, but also CDs. I was wondering if there was any source listing estimated times to complete various tasks? I made a DVD video from an EyeTV recording and it took all night. I erased a DVD -RW and it took 30 minutes. Is there some source where I can find estimated times to do things like burn a DVD video, CD, etc? If not, I'll just learn as I go along.

 

Appreciate any thoughts from those who have used the product as I'm clearly a "newbie" on Toast.

 

-B

[tsantee]

I don't know of any place with that info but I think I can help you with both problems.

 

First, the EyeTV-to-DVD issue. EyeTV either captures existing MPEG 2 videos or it encodes video to MPEG 2. In either case you already have a video that is compliant for video DVD so it doesn't need to be re-encoded by Toast. In Toast's Video window click the More button and then click Encoding and then click Custom. In this custom encoder window select Never next to Re-encoding. Click Okay to close the window. Now when you have Toast make a video DVD from the EyeTV files Toast should report it is "multiplexing" rather than "encoding" and that goes very quickly.

 

Second, when erasing a DVD-RW choose Quick Erase rather than the full erase. This should take less than a minute and will make the disc available for rewriting.

[Bunkster]

I don't know of any place with that info but I think I can help you with both problems.

 

First, the EyeTV-to-DVD issue. EyeTV either captures existing MPEG 2 videos or it encodes video to MPEG 2. In either case you already have a video that is compliant for video DVD so it doesn't need to be re-encoded by Toast. In Toast's Video window click the More button and then click Encoding and then click Custom. In this custom encoder window select Never next to Re-encoding. Click Okay to close the window. Now when you have Toast make a video DVD from the EyeTV files Toast should report it is "multiplexing" rather than "encoding" and that goes very quickly.

 

Second, when erasing a DVD-RW choose Quick Erase rather than the full erase. This should take less than a minute and will make the disc available for rewriting.

 

 

Thank you for the info. I suspect my Mac is just not powerful enough. I took two EyeTV files, totaling about 3.4 GB, "burned" it to a disc image. Toast indeed reported "multiplexing" rather than encoding, but the process took....17 hours. I tried it again with another two Eye TV files, again about 3.5 GBs in total, and it took 14 hours. I ran Toast alone -- with no other programs. I suspect what happened is that the RAM is too small, and maybe virtual memory writes to the disk are the culprit.

 

The final product worked...after the disc image was created I could copy it to the actual DVD (that took about 4 hours). But there is a really annoying strip of white noise that flashes constantly at the top of the screen.

 

Well, guess I'll just need to get a more powerful Mac one of these days.

 

Thanks again for the advice!

 

-B

[tsantee]

Thank you for the info. I suspect my Mac is just not powerful enough. I took two EyeTV files, totaling about 3.4 GB, "burned" it to a disc image. Toast indeed reported "multiplexing" rather than encoding, but the process took....17 hours. I tried it again with another two Eye TV files, again about 3.5 GBs in total, and it took 14 hours. I ran Toast alone -- with no other programs. I suspect what happened is that the RAM is too small, and maybe virtual memory writes to the disk are the culprit.

 

The final product worked...after the disc image was created I could copy it to the actual DVD (that took about 4 hours). But there is a really annoying strip of white noise that flashes constantly at the top of the screen.

 

Well, guess I'll just need to get a more powerful Mac one of these days.

 

Thanks again for the advice!

 

-B

Something is wrong. Multiplexing should take minutes, not hours, even on your Mac. Disc burning should take minutes, not hours. You may be right that it is the very limited amount of RAM. RAM is cheap. Go to Macsales.com and get more RAM.