Making Dvds for play in a Dvd player. What format?

theslaz · Mar 31, 2014

I have an extensive collection of movies on my hard drives in many different formats. I would like to copy some to a Dvd for a relative of mine that is going to be living in a 5th wheel for the summer. The Dvds have to be playable in a Dvd player. Need to know what format has to be used and maybe a recommendation as to what program to use. The relative does not have a computer that they can take with them. A Tv and Dvd player is what they have to work with.
I did experiment by copying four movies in .avi format. They did copy; but of course the Dvd player did not recognise them.

Thanks in advance

simsaladimbamba · Mar 31, 2014

How to burn a video DVD in [URL="http://burn-osx.sourceforge.net/Pages/English/home.html"]Burn[/URL]:

example below uses an .avi file, but it can also be applied to an .mp4 or .mov file

theslaz · Mar 31, 2014

Thanks for your prompt reply.
I actually have that program and that is what I burnt my experimental Dvd with. However, when I tried it in my Dvd player; I got a message that the files were not recognized. I may have done something wrong; and I will try with your instructions to see if I can get it to work.

simsaladimbamba · Mar 31, 2014

theslaz said:
Thanks for your prompt reply.
I actually have that program and that is what I burnt my experimental Dvd with. However, when I tried it in my Dvd player; I got a message that the files were not recognized. I may have done something wrong; and I will try with your instructions to see if I can get it to work.

You have burnt a DATA DVD and not a VIDEO DVD as pictured in my post.

theslaz · Mar 31, 2014

simsaladimbamba said:
You have burnt a DATA DVD and not a VIDEO DVD as pictured in my post.

You are right there! I will try your way and let you know.

theslaz · Mar 31, 2014

What format do these files have to be for "Burn" not to have to convert them? Every file I drag over has to be converted! Very time consuming; and the one file I did convert increased in size by 1 Gig!

simon48 · Mar 31, 2014

theslaz said:
What format do these files have to be for "Burn" not to have to convert them? Every file I drag over has to be converted! Very time consuming; and the one file I did convert increased in size by 1 Gig!

Here's some info on the DVD spec. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DVD-Video

ecschwarz · Mar 31, 2014

theslaz said:
What format do these files have to be for "Burn" not to have to convert them? Every file I drag over has to be converted! Very time consuming; and the one file I did convert increased in size by 1 Gig!

MPEG-2 is the format used by DVDs - there isn't a real practical way to keep (or play) these files on a hard drive, hence the conversion. The only way I've seen it working is by having the VIDEO_TS folder from an existing DVD ready to go and then burning it with Toast or Disco.

theslaz · Mar 31, 2014

I experimented with vob files and they do work in "Burn". Converting to vob files is quick and they remain about the same size. I'm using a program called "WinX HD Video Converter for Mac". What I like about it is that it is fast and you can do a batch. I'm converting 40 files as we speak. I will use "Burn" to burn them if I can figure out how to build the menus! If I can't do menus; tha I will try "Toast".

Thanks

theslaz · Apr 1, 2014

I wound up using "Toast Titanium"; as it has way more options for making menus. Works! Takes about 1 hour to burn two movies on 1 DVD. Only got 18 hours to go!

Search

Search

Making Dvds for play in a Dvd player. What format?

theslaz

macrumors 6502

simsaladimbamba

Guest

theslaz

macrumors 6502

simsaladimbamba

Guest

theslaz

macrumors 6502

theslaz

macrumors 6502

simon48

macrumors 65816

ecschwarz

macrumors 65816

theslaz

macrumors 6502

theslaz

macrumors 6502

Our Staff