burn DVD

[adhesive]

After reading all the threads on this subject, I am confused. Is there an easy way to burn Sage recorded materials onto a DVD for use on a home DVD player or not? The only method that seems to work for me, based on the software I currently have, is to use WinDVD to convert the MPEG files into the proper home DVD format, using the "Make Movie" function, which takes forever, and subsequently burn them onto the DVD.

Can someone please clarify for me if I am missing something and hopefully show me a more efficient way.

[stanger89]

There have been a number of thread on it, but to sumarize:

For the quickest DVD burning:
1) Recording in on of the DVD for mats (they all start with DVD in Sage), this way the files are already DVD compliant and don't need to be transcoded.
2) Cut commercials (if desired) with something like VideoReDo or Womble MPEG2VCR
3) Author the DVD (this convert the MPEGs to VOB/IFO and creates menus, this should only take a few minutes assuming you did 1)) TMPEG DVD Author seems popular.
4) Burn the disk, either with your authoring program or something like Nero.

Doing that, you should be able to put out a DVD in under an hour depending.

[nielm]

Some (stupid) software insists on decoding and re-encoding the MPG files even when they are already in the correct format -- Intervideo's WinDVD Creator appears to be one of these... which is why I use TMPEG DVD Author...

[adhesive]

What other choices do I have to create the .VOB files efficiently besides TMPG DVD? Creating these files seems to be the major stumbling block. Also, why does Sage not offer this as a recording option?

[mdmint]

Originally posted by adhesive
What other choices do I have to create the .VOB files efficiently besides TMPG DVD? Creating these files seems to be the major stumbling block. Also, why does Sage not offer this as a recording option?

Seems to me the answer is obvious. SageTV's focus is timeshift TV viewing and recording. SageTV's focus is not DVD archiving... there are websites and forums that do focus on DVD authoring and related software options. Do a Google search...

[stanger89]

Not to pick, but the fact that Sage/the 250 can record DVD Compliant streams takes most of the work out burning a DVD. The VOB is just packaging that any respectable DVD Authoring SW should be able to do for you in a matter of seconds.

Also TMPEG DVD Author is not the only option, I've made DVDs with Ulead DVD MovieFactory that came with my Pioneer drive.

[adhesive]

Thanks for the advice.

I did a little more testing w/ WinDVD Creator Plus. It took about 7 or 8 minutes to convert the recording done in DVD standard mode into the proper format for burning. It's not as quick as TMPG DVD Author (based on your comments), but it's not the end of the world either. I will work with it a little longer to see how much it bothers me before shelling out for a copy of TMPG DVD Author.

[rrussell]

I'd like to add step 3.5 up there - use DVDShrink to shrink the content if necessary.

I've been putting 3 and 4 one-hour shows onto a single DVD by authoring the disc and telling it to ignore the size overflow, then using DVDShrink to make it the right size for a DVD+R before I go on to burn the actual disc.

Oh also, I tried both WinDVD author, and tmpgEnc, and VASTLY prefer tmpg. It's not only faster, but allows infinitely more versatility putting together video and chapter menus, and the interface is much less cluttered. The ability to just make ten chapter stops in a disc without any fuss is priceless to me.