dbminter

Yeah, I get the impression the original poster is thinking this software converts container files to DVD. Or is trying to burn something like an MP4 to DVD without using Build mode, loading the MP4 as an image file to burn.

You shouldn't be getting that many Miscompares and I'd be reluctant to believe that disc would play properly in a player. If I had to hazard a guess, it may be the drive you're using. I looked up the BDR-UD03 and noticed it's a slim model. Your log said your drive is connected by USB, so I'm guessing you put this BDR-UD03 in an external enclosure? Or it's a BDR-UD03 already contained in its own enclosure. Anyway, it's not the USB part I'm worried about it's the fact that you're using a slim model drive. Slim model drives are notorious for being junk. Returning bad burns and verify failures an awful lot. My first experience with a slim drive was the middle of last year and it only backed up what I've seen on this forum. It won't write CD sized image files to 8x Ritek DVD+RW without failing the Verify stage. And while you won't like this, my next step would be to drop the BDR-UD03 drive all together. Get another Pioneer but try the 209 series half height BD drive. Particularly the 2209 if you can find it because it supports XL and TL BD media. They make an UltraHD BD 4k version but if you don't play on using that type of media/movie, there's no need to get it if you can't find the 2209, although those have been discontinued to force you into the more expensive model. And then get an external enclosure for half height drives. Something like Other World Computing's enclosure or the VanTech. You already appear to be using USB anyway, so it won't be too difficult to do. It just will mean investing more money into hardware and taking a bath on the cost of the BDR-UD03.

I can't think of a case where the container file is the same size as the source video. I don't think there's a container format where it creates 1:1 video size. A BD-25 doesn't necessarily have to be 25 GB. My Alpocalypse HD Blu-Ray is like only half that size on its disc.

You may need to install madFLAC to get FLAC supported. I had to to get FLAC's to work with ImgBurn. Others report they didn't need to install madFLAC, but it's something you can look into. Check this guide: In the second post, there's a link to the madFLAC package. Just run the .BAT file to get it configured.

You could also try converting the MP3's to FLAC's and see if you can import the FLAC's properly.

I generally never have to worry about different resolutions because I don't download movie files. Mine are generally rips from DVD's I own. Generally, it's a case where a DVD is only available in PAL and needs to be converted to NTSC for me. So, ConvertXToDVD can make these PAL discs playable for my NTSC TV. And then there are things like some of my Blu-Rays where I make DVD versions because I find navigating them is easier than using Blu-Ray navigation on the PS3. So, Handbrake will make the MP4's/MKV's necessary for me to put into ConvertXToDVD. And since the 1080 doesn't matter as DVD is only 740, I always choose 740x480 for the output. Now, when converting audio CD's to DVD's, I will always use 740x480 DVD resolution. A standard 80 minute CD is generally about 200 to 400 MB when converted and can be converted smaller when using AVIDeMux to recompress to a different codec than Filmora uses. However, using 1080/widescreen says the resulting MP4 is like 10 GB! I never actually tested this, though, because I know Filmora is incorrectly guessing the output sizes. It defaults to Best quality and on 740 it says the output is about 1 GB. However, if I choose Better Quality and then back to Best quality, the file size becomes the more manageable 200 to 400 MB range. So, I do choose 740 for audio CD's converted to DVD. I don't care if the video is in widescreen or not or if the video is in higher quality because the video is just a still image. I only care about the audio, since I'm converting audio CD's to DVD's.

What I meant by commenting on Blu-Ray players is Sony dictated in their operational behavior that they check the media type that is inserted to determine how they should be played. For instance, if a CD-R is inserted, the player checks that a CD-R is inserted and automatically tries to play it as an audio CD. So, the biggest drawback is you can't write a VIDEO_TS to a BD-R and expect a Blu-Ray player to play it as a DVD even though it has a VIDEO_TS on it. Because the players don't look for content type but media type. EXCEPT in the most absolutely useless way possible: you CAN write a BD Video folder to a DVD and it WILL play! However, very few BD Video will actually fit on a DVD disc. So, what's the point? Utterly useless! More often than not, most of my ConvertXToDVD VIDEO_TS folders will fit on a DVD-5 but NOT with its source container included, necessitating a DVD+R DL. However, it does, on occasion, fit to a DVD-5 with both the VIDEO_TS and source file. Depends on the length of the source files and how compressed or not they already were. Actually, when you make DVD's, I think the entire resolution is 740x480. So, 720 versus 1080 only matters when you're making BD video, where different resolutions can apply. I believe on DVD, there is only the one resolution. I don't know that for sure, but I think it does. I got my ConvertXToDVD license back before there was such a thing as ConvertXToVideo. Otherwise, I'd probably go for that program instead since it can apparently make DVD Video VIDEO_TS from containers. I believe it's output menu generation is the same functionally as ConvertXToDVD, just making things for Blu-Ray.

I doubt HD DVD is supported by ImgBurn. I think, as a format, HD DVD had died by the time Blu-Ray support was added to ImgBurn. Plus, did HD DVD even get writable disc support before it died as a format? Even if it did, you probably couldn't find any media to write to anymore, anyway. Or writers to write with.

I ran it through Google translate, but I couldn't tell if there was a problem or exactly what it was.

I'm not aware of any other software that Wondershare makes, actually. I mean, I know that they do make other software packages. I just haven't looked into anything else they do. If it's free, why not at least try it, after all, right? Although I don't know if they will save subtitles in their output. I've never tried editing a container with subtitles in Filmora to see if it saves them. I know AVIDeMux doesn't. However, "free" often times means that: it's not free. It's either time or function limited or the video output has a watermark added to it to get you to buy it. For instance, VSO claims their video downloader software is free. But, after 5 days, it claims its "trial" is over. So, in other words, it ain't free! As far as Blu-Ray burners go, there are really only 2 options: an LG or a Pioneer. Each have their own problems, though. And they make 2 different kinds: old BD burners that don't support 4K and 4K drives. If you don't plan on playing 4K, there's no need to pay extra for one, unless you're going with the LG model. Then, I do recommend the 4K model over the cheaper non 4K model because the previous non 4K model had a LOT of write issues with BD DL media. Pioneer are generally okay, except it seems with every other firmware revision, they bork writing to Ritek Ricoh 8x DVD+RW

Oh, yeah, that. I just leave it as Undefined or whatever it defaults to because I know what language it's in. Most of my conversions only have 1 audio track to begin with and they're usually always English. And for those that aren't English, I generally don't know what language they're in to begin with unless the source is DVD. So, I just generally leave it as Undefined because I won't be changing the audio track to begin with when there's only one track. As I said, I rarely, if I've ever, worked with SRT files or adding subtitles to a video stream from an external source file. If I have more than 1 subtitle track, it's from a DVD I'm importing, like when I'm converting PAL DVD's to NTSC. Doctor Who PAL DVD's generally have 2 subtitles tracks: the English main feature audio and a production notes informative subtitle track. As for what converters I use, I don't employ too many. Generally, Handbrake for converting DVD and Blu-Ray Video to container files. AVIDeMux for converting from one format to another, but it doesn't support a wide range of types. Plus, if you use its edit function, which I primarily employ AVIDeMux for, and the container has subtitles, you'll lose the subtitles as it doesn't edit or save those. For a wide range of conversions, I use Wondershare Filmora, but generally just to MP4 format. I got the program primarily for its ability to convert audio containers to video containers, which, as I said before, I do to convert CD's to DVD's. I got the added benefit of file format conversion as well as being able to edit video, but AVIDeMux is easier to use. Well, to be honest, I never actually explored Filmora's editing tools to see how they work, so they may actually work better than AVIDeMux. But, the way I see it, if you've found something that works, why bother with trying to learn something new on the off chance it may be easier or better to work with?

Actually, the way you describe it has never happened to me. I've never been prompted to enter a description for audio tracks or subtitles. When I import video, it will just say English most of the time. And I have manually changed them before in the settings so they're more descriptive on the DVD menus. What I'll do is load the video in MPC HC, check the descriptions in the context menus that come up for audio tracks and subtitles, and alter them as necessary in a ConvertXToDVD job. I don't know if they're half the size of 5.25" bays but I'd guess they are. The weird thing is the "full height" bays are actually called half height bays because back in the old days of computers, the full height bays were double the size of the 5.25" bays. You can always tell a half height drive by using the Eject and Load commands in ImgBurn. Eject will eject a half height drive door but Load will return an error message because there is no motor assembly to load a tray in them.

I'm afraid I don't know what you mean by switching the language identifier, so I don't know what you're asking. It's not a case of SATA versus USB being better than one another. SATA is faster than USB, but with USB, at least 3.0, it can power some devices and it allows for external devices. Well, there is eSATA but it never caught on and never will. What you're probably encountering is simply one drive is better than the other. For instance, my SATA LG is not as fast at reading or writing as my LG I put in a USB enclosure. But, the SATA is a slim model drive, and they're generally inferior to half height models in just about every comparable factor. I've many times had to convert between file formats for different container types, both audio and video, for various programs. For whatever reason, a file is somehow screwed up by its author in its original format. Converting it to another format and sometimes even the SAME format just using a different converter will get the file to import properly into ConvertXToDVD. The really pissy part is when you're taking half an hour or longer to convert something only for ConvertXToDVD to simply leave memory right at the very end because it fails to properly process the file.

Not only is it hard sometimes to hear what's going on, making subtitles necessary, DVD production companies feel a need to make the audio levels in the audio tracks so low that even turning your TV's volume to 100% is not enough. And TV manufacturers don't make TV's with high enough maximum volume levels because they want you to buy sound bars to do this separately to make more money! I've never tried playing subtitles as a separate file before. As I said, I always either include the subtitles in the container or ConvertXToDVD will merge the SRT file into the VIDEO_TS. And I rarely have SRT files anymore.

I doubt there's a guide precisely for autoloaders. The copying guide will give you the basics, but you'll only do one copy at a time.

What was going on was I was converting Blu-Ray Video content to DVD Video and needed the source files to do with it first. So, I was using Handbrake to do the extraction and conversion to container files. The subtitles in the source were apparently something called PGS subtitles. I couldn't get anything except hardcoded subtitles with MP4, so I sought help from the Handbrake forum because I'd tried everything I could think of, like setting the default language to English, like you mentioned. Nothing was working; I was always getting hardcoded, burned in subtitles. The forum support for Handbrake told me MP4 does not support something called PGS subtitles except as hardcoded, burned in subtitles, which I didn't want. I wanted selectable subtitles. I had Handbrake configured to always use MP4, since I prefer it over MKV. I didn't know MKV was "necessary" for some things. I was told, exactly: "Use a container that supports PGS subtitles, like MKV. MP4 doesn't, so they must be burned in." Without knowing what you're doing, I couldn't comment on the subtitles. I've had a few cases where I had external subtitles added by ConvertXToDVD, but that was about it. All my subtitle experience has been using Handbrake to add subtitles that existed in DVD's to MP4. I had never tried it with Blu-Ray before and this was my first attempt where I was told that MKV had to be used. I don't use VLC anymore as I find Media Player Classic Home Cinema to be better for my wants and needs. It lets you turn subtitles on and off and choose which subtitles track you want turned on within its right click context menu options on playback.

Personally, I've never found the speed to be a deciding factor. I use quality media and hardware so my biggest concern has always been how fast I can get the burn completed. I've never had a case where burning at the fastest available speed was ever an issue. However, some people find that when writes fail at higher speeds, they try lower speeds and get better results. Slower speeds are generally "better" so you may want to try these Ritek discs at a slower speed and see if you have better results. I didn't think about that when I initially posted because speed, as I said, was never a deciding factor for me. Slower speeds can reduce the possibility of write errors. The only real test you could determine is to get a known good quality BD-R DL and try burning it. If you get repeated failures (I generally go by the rule of 3. After 3 failures, I generally start trying to pin down if the hardware is at fault.) then you can start questioning if your hardware is at fault. However, the vast majority of problems we see on this board are caused by cheaper media. And Ritek is a cheaper kind of media. Verbatim BD-R is quality BD-R that they make themselves. However, even Verbatim will make cheap CMC CD-R, DVD+/-R, DVD+R DL, and BR-RE SL. Verbatim used to make its own quality BD-RE SL but now they farm those out to cheap CMC And any of Verbatim's Life Series media (NOT DataLife Plus Series.) you find in a physical store will be CMC junk.

Oops, I should have said get BD-R DL instead of BD-R, since you'll need double layer BD for this project. Now, I've never used Verbatim BD-R DL before. I'm only going on my experience with Verbatim BD-RE DL and DVD+R DL. So, I don't know for sure if their DL BD media is actually any good. Just going on past experience. I only use Verbatim's BD-R and BD-RE DL. Although some Verbatim BD-RE DL was made by TDK, which was also good. And given that Verbatim's MKM DataLife Plus DVD+R DL is the only quality DVD+R DL out there other than TDK's, I'd think Verbatim's BD-R DL should be of better quality. However, I don't KNOW that for sure from experience.

All the guides are located under the Guides section of the forum. http://forum.imgburn.com/index.php?/forum/4-guides/ You'll want the one about how to copy a disc using ImgBurn. You said either data or video discs. Be aware if it's a DVD/BD Video disc and it's copy protected, ImgBurn can't copy it directly. And some CD's were also copy protected, but those were rarer and mostly only for games CD's. Did you specifically want a guide for using an autoloader to copy discs? I don't think there's a specific one for using one of those, but the general actions are still the same.

I've done a few outside the box hacks. Like how I used to, believe it or not, video tape radio! I still have that old setup, so I could do it again. Or I could video tape audio cassettes or CD's like I've done in the past, too. Handbrake is more complicated than it needs to be. In fact, the first time I tried to convert DVD Video to an MP4, the audio was out of sync with the video! It only seems to work properly if you use Legacy for the output mode. I only use MKV when converting Blu-Ray Video to container files that I want to keep subtitles for. MP4 doesn't always work in that instance, but MKV does. Data is data. You can't change how much space it takes up. The only way you can change the size for DVD Video is to use something like DVDShrink, but you will lose video quality when you compress video. Although on upscaling DVD players, I've not noticed the compression like it was on old DVD players that didn't upscale.

Try something other than Smart Buy BD. They're made by Ritek. The Disc ID is RITEK-DR3-000. Ritek can be iffy media for some burners. I know my PS3 won't properly playback Ritek BD-R. Try getting Verbatim BD-R and see if your experience improves. Particularly, DL media is generally only of any quality if it's made by Verbatim. At least in the realm of DVD+R DL, Verbatim is the only manufacturer of any quality media out there.

Here's something that you might find a little thinking outside of the box. You know what else I use ConverXToDVD for? Converting CD's to DVD's! Using another program called Wondershare Filmora, I can convert audio containers like MP3, FLAC, and M4A to video container files like MP4. I can use low resolution images of the cover art or some other JPG or similar picture file format to serve as the video for the MP4. Every single frame of the MP4 is the still image, with the audio coming from the MP3/FLAC/M4A. Then, these MP4's are converted to VIDEO_TS with ConvertXToDVD. I don't use this for things like music CD's because it's really difficult to preserve the audio track listings this way. But, it's great for multiple disc audio CD's like books on CD or audio plays that span multiple discs. I can take like a 10 disc book on CD and put it in one one DVD+R DL. It makes handling such sets much easier to do without having to swap out multiple discs. The downside is you can't play it on a CD player, of course, but many DVD players are your CD player, too. Plus, DVD's are easier to navigate than CD's. If you don't skip from track to track on CD's, forwarding through a CD can be a really slow process since there's generally only 1 speed for navigating them. With DVD video, there's generally multiple speed options available for navigating forward and backwards through that.

As long as you put nothing but VOB, IFO, and BUP files in VIDEO_TS, you can add anything you like to a DVD Video disc and have a DVD player play it. Again, as long as you don't put any of those files in VIDEO_TS or AUDIO_TS, data is just data to a DVD player. In fact, many DVD's have what are generally referred to as DVD-ROM extras in the root directory of a DVD. You put them in a PC DVD drive and access things like web site links, PDF's of scripts, wallpapers, installable programs, etc. Many DVD's used to have useless additional software on them called Interactual Player. So, what I do is in addition to the VIDEO_TS folder, I'll put some kind of directory structure in the root directory of the DVD that gives me an idea of the contents on the DVD. Then, I put the source files in that directory structure. ImgBurn will do no conversion of anything as far as I know. Many times, LUK has told other posters that ImgBurn just burns what you feed into it.

As for why you couldn't delete your post, I think the board may be acting up. I had some errors trying to post just now and emoticons weren't appearing if I manually typed them in. Only if I used the menu button to select them.

I supposedly used to have the ability to delete posts, but I never found out how to do it. Sorry. As for the hardware acceleration, I don't know if it works on my ConvertXToDVD or not. I just know I have it enabled, but I don't know if it actually does anything or not. Yeah, the VIDEO_TS that ConvertXToDVD creates is pretty well optimized. I don't know how they do it either. For instance, you can take a DVD-9 VIDEO_TS as a source and many times get ConvertXToDVD to generate a VIDEO_TS that fits on a DVD-5. I generally keep 1 container per ConvertXToDVD DVD disc because I also add the container file source to the DVD Video disc I create with ImgBurn and the resulting VIDEO_TS folder. For things that are smaller but related in some way, like say episodes of a TV series, I'll put a few per disc. 8 half hour episodes per disc and 4 hour episodes per disc, which is what most pressed DVD-9's will do unless they compress the Hell out of them to fit more episodes to a disc. I've seen some ridiculous ones like 12 half hour episodes to a DVD-9!