LIGHTNING UK! Posted August 14, 2007 Posted August 14, 2007 Hello and welcome to another of my legendary guides *cough* In this one I'll be explaining how to burn a set of DVD Video (IFO/BUP/VOB) files to a double layer disc. (Once you've done it a couple of times it becomes second nature and you'll whizz through it in about 10 seconds!) Let me just start by saying that if you're going to burn to double layer discs, do yourself a favour and buy Verbatim DVD+R DL ones! The alternatives might look better value but they're no way near as good as the Verbatim discs and you could quite easily end up throwing half of them away due to failed burns. As with most things in this world, you get what you pay for. You should also stick to burning double layer discs at 2.4x speed. It's better to burn it slower and know you'll have a disc that works perfectly rather than one that skips and jumps all over the place when you try and play it. =========================================================================== Right, so obviously the first thing we need to do is load ImgBurn. I'm going to assume you at least know how to do that! Once it's loaded, switch to 'Build' mode. You do that by clicking on the 'Mode' button in the menu at the top and then selecting 'Build', as shown in the picture below. Next you need to tell ImgBurn you want to write to a disc rather than creating an image file. You do that by clicking on the 'Output' button in the menu at the top and then selecting 'Device', as shown in the picture below. When you've done that, your screen should hopefully look something like this: Top Tip: When storing DVD Video files on your hard disk, follow this 'tried and tested' method - it makes things simpler later on! 1. Decide on a drive / folder where you'll store all your movies - let's refer to this as 'DVD_ROOT'. 2. Create a folder within 'DVD_ROOT' and give it a name that's appropriate for your movie - let's refer to this as 'MOVIE_ROOT'. 3. Create a folder within 'MOVIE_ROOT' and call it 'VIDEO_TS'. 4. Store the DVD Video (IFO/BUP/VOB) files in the 'VIDEO_TS' folder. Example: 'Z:\SUMMER_HOLIDAY_2007\VIDEO_TS' Now we need to tell ImgBurn where the DVD Video (IFO/BUP/VOB) files are that we want to burn. Assuming the files are already in their own folder (see the 'Top Tip' above!), we just need to add that folder to the 'Source' box. To do that, click on the 'Browse for folder...' button as shown in the picture below. You'll then be presented with the standard Windows 'Browse For Folder' dialog box. Just select where your files are and then click on the 'OK' button. You'll notice the full path of that folder has now appeared in the 'Source' box. Let's just do a quick check to make sure ImgBurn is configured correctly for burning a DVD Video disc. (This isn't vital because it'll tell you if something major is wrong!) Select the 'Options' tab as shown in the picture below and correct any settings you have that differ from mine. Top Tip: You can actually just click the 'Reset Settings' text if you're worried you might have messed something up - ImgBurn's default settings are perfect for burning DVD Video discs! Now that's done, insert your new double layer disc into the drive (if you haven't already done so) and switch to the 'Device' tab. Adjust the write speed as required. (2.4x speed is recommended!) Top Tip: You could have skipped that step if you'd already configured ImgBurn's 'Automatic Write Speed' feature for the media you're using as per this guide here. Right, now you're ready to start burning... well, almost Click on the big 'Write' button as shown below. OK, so now here's the clever bit - and the reason why I mentioned (in an earlier 'Top Tip') that it's a good idea to put your DVD Video files in a folder with an appropriate name! Although you could have specified a volume label for the disc on the 'Labels' tab, it's better / easier / faster / cheaper to do it here! (The 'volume label' is what you'd see in 'My Computer' / 'Explorer' when the disc is in the drive - i.e. it's name) The program will automatically generate a name for the disc based on one of the following (and in this order): 1. The disc name as taken from the 'DVD-TEXT' table in the IFO files. (I don't expect everyone to know what that is, don't worry!) 2. The name of the folder the files are stored under. (This is the one being used here) 3. The volume label of the drive the files are stored on. Whilst you're very welcome to change the volume label to anything you want at this point, the default value should be fine unless you've totally ignored my advice. Top Tip: Only the label from the 'best' file system supported by playback device is ever visible/used. So the UDF one takes precedence over the Joliet one and the Joliet one takes precedence over the ISO9660 one. Just click 'Yes' when you're ready to proceed. Now that you've given your disc a name, you'll have another option to configure - the layer break position. The transition between layers normally causes the player to 'pause' playback for a second whilst the drive's laser moves to where it needs to be and focuses on what it needs to read. What you need to do on this screen is pick (from the options provided) a nice spot (Cell) within your movie for that transition to take place. The item (Cell) you select will be the first thing on the 2nd layer and hence what's shown AFTER the momentary pause. Where possible, you want to avoid having a pause in the middle of a fast moving 'action' scene and instead put it somewhere you're less likely to notice it. The coloured stars will give you an idea of the best place (technically speaking) for the layer break position, but just remember, you're the only one that knows what's going to work best for your movie. Luckily for you, ImgBurn has this great feature whereby you can preview what you're looking at - Cell wise! If you want to, select each option in turn and click the 'Preview Selected Cell' button to see what's going on in the movie at that point. If you do decide to preview something, the preview window will appear! Within the preview window, Cell 1 is what would play just BEFORE the layer transition, Cell 2 is what would be played straight AFTER it. You can use the buttons to 'step' through the movie frame by frame. Alternatively, just drag the slider! Remember to close the preview window when you're finished - ImgBurn won't let you do anything else until you do. When you've made your decision, click the 'OK' button and breath a sigh of relief. You'll then be shown a summary screen that contains some details about the image. This is your last chance to back-out if you don't want to go through with the burn! Ah ha, got balls of steel have you? Fine, go ahead and click the 'OK' button then. >_ Hoorah! The disc is burning! It's going to take a while so go and do something else until it finishes. Of course if you want to stick around and watch the 'Time Remaining', please do! Each to their own and all that. When it's done, click 'OK' and go show off to all your friends that you've conquered double layer burning with ImgBurn. The End!
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