basic DVD burning question

[CrzyCanuck72]

hey, I have a pretty basic DVD burning question that hopefully someone can answer clearly...

basically, what is the easiest way to burn .avi files to a DVD so they play in a basic DVD player, and what settings should I use to fit the most content onto the DVD? When you're burning so it plays on a player, are you restricted by the length of the video, or the file size?

I have a MacBook with a Superdrive, Toast 8, iDVD, etc.

Thanks!

 

[polevault139]

I don't know a ton about burning DVD's but I'll know some. I'm pretty sure that Toast can burn avi files pretty easily, just drag them into the window. You are goingn to be restriced by the file size so if you have a really high quality video you might only get 60 mins on a DVD, but if you have a video with crappy quality uou could get 240 or more mins.

Make sure you know the difference between DVD-R and DVD+R, I have always used the - ones but I dont really know the difference.

 

[~Shard~]

If you have Toast 8 it's a piece of cake. Just select the Video option for burning, then select DVD-Video fro the format menu. You can then drag your AVI into Toast and it will encode it and burn it for you, no problem! And yes, depending on the quality and file size it will depend how much you can fit on a DVD. Remember, even if you have a 700MB AVI that doesn't mean it will fit on a 4.7GB DVD - it will depend more on the length of the movie. In general you should get anywhere between 1 hour and 2 hours onto a DVD, more if the quality of your AVIs is lesser.

 

[CrzyCanuck72]

yeah, I knew I could use the Video pane of Toast...but how can I get more content onto a DVD? Reencode? Using what software?

 

[~Shard~]

There should be custom encoding and video quality options which would allow you to put add more content. Just drag and drop all the AVIs you are wanting to put on the disc and check what Toast reports back as the default amount of space used/required. Then play around with encoding settings and such to squeeze everything onto the DVD.

 

[richard4339]

If you don't have Toast, you can still do it through iDVD, as well. I did that recently for a movie I wanted to burn.

 

[~Shard~]

If you don't have Toast, you can still do it through iDVD, as well. I did that recently for a movie I wanted to burn.

If you would have read his post carefully you would have seen that the OP indicated he has Toast. But yes, iDVD would probably work as well.