DVD pre-copy encoding

[Diji]

I have only tried burning a single video to DVD so far (I'm definitely a newbie at this), same video in different formats: .dv and .avi. All burn perfectly and play in my home dvd player, but...

 

Each time I add the file and hit "burn" or "copy" or whatever it is, there is an encoding process that takes literally HOURS, sometimes most of the day!! Then the "copy" phase begins, which is relatively quick. If try to burn another copy, the same exact thing happens. If I burn multiple copies in the first place, then of course it does not. It goes through the ridiculously lengthy encoding process once, then spits out disc after disc asking for a new blank when the previous one is done, as I'd expect.

 

Is this normal? Is it because of the format I'm burning having to be converted each time? If so, to what format (and using what app to do it) should the video be saved?

 

Thanks!

 

-D

[tsantee]

The encoding can take several hours depending on the speed of the Mac. The fastest Mac's can do it in real time but slower ones can many hours per hour of DVD. If you have a slow Mac and want to do much DVD encoding I suggest getting the LaCie FastCoder which will do the MPEG encoding using a Firewire hardware device. Toast would only need to multiplex those MPEGs so that is much faster.

 

When Toast does the encoding it writes the encoded files to the Roxio Converted Items folder that's in your Documents folder. If you don't quit Toast you should be able to do a second burn without going through the encoding stage again. If you quit Toast the default preference is to automatically empty that folder. You can change this in Toast preferences so that the files remain until you choose to delete them. In that case, saving a Toast project and not having the temporary files get deleted will let you burn them again without re-encoding.

 

You also can make duplicates of DVDs you've burned using the Toast Copy window.

[MacAddict]

The encoding can take several hours depending on the speed of the Mac. The fastest Mac's can do it in real time but slower ones can many hours per hour of DVD. If you have a slow Mac and want to do much DVD encoding I suggest getting the LaCie FastCoder which will do the MPEG encoding using a Firewire hardware device. Toast would only need to multiplex those MPEGs so that is much faster.

 

 

I am running an Intel iMac 2.0Ghz with 1.5GB RAM., so I wouldn't imagine that my iMac could be classed as slow, in fact this is the fastest Mac I have ever owned. However, the one aspect of the entire EyeTV2 + Toast 7 experience that absolutely ruins it for me is the fact that with every DVD I have so far burned since obtaining the Toast 7 program on Sunday, Sept 3rd., is the encoding sequence. Literally HOURS spent in this process alone. I'm sorry but I can't agree with a process in this day and age that takes so long especially when used in conjunction with computers that are continually in pursuit of faster and faster processing. I have been advised by another user that such encoding is unnecessary considering this single application, but whenever I have approached Toast about this encoding, no response ( in their questionnaire,) indicates that such is their view. I would really appreciate a solution to this problem of interminable encoding and would seek an alternative, but it would seem that Elgato and Roxio have devised this proprietary approach to prevent such a choice, otherwise Toast 6 would have sufficed.

[Diji]

Thanks for the (possible) help...

I too am on a 2-week-old mac bookpro with 2G pricessor and 2G RAM.

I will try your suggestion to save the encoded format,; that's more or less what I ws looking for. However, are you also saying this encoding must take place to copy ANY dvd, that is, that it has nothing to do with the format of the original file not being in "dvd format" BTW what IS "dvd format" ie "cd format" would be .cda, as opposed to .wav, .mp3, .aiff, etc.

What is the file type on a playabel dvd?

[tsantee]

Thanks for the (possible) help...

I too am on a 2-week-old mac bookpro with 2G pricessor and 2G RAM.

I will try your suggestion to save the encoded format,; that's more or less what I ws looking for. However, are you also saying this encoding must take place to copy ANY dvd, that is, that it has nothing to do with the format of the original file not being in "dvd format" BTW what IS "dvd format" ie "cd format" would be .cda, as opposed to .wav, .mp3, .aiff, etc.

What is the file type on a playabel dvd?

Toast will encode any video source that does not meet the video DVD specs, which you can see Here.

 

If your source video is already MPEG 2 encoded (such as from EyeTV) and within the other specifications then Toast will multiplex rather than encode the file before burning the disc. Multiplexing goes quickly. Sometimes Toast wants to re-encode an existing compliant MPEG 2 video, in which case this can be prevented by choosing Never re-encode in the Custom Encoder settings window.

 

I don't know why you are experiencing slow encoding. I would expect your Mac to encode a 1-hour DV video to MPEG 2 in close to real time, but I don't have any personal experience with the Intel Macs. My Mac's are G5's and G4's so they take 2-3 hours per hour of DV video. I'm guessing you're encountering the problem that others have posted about Toast working very slow. Maybe there is a solution to this issue posted in one of those threads.