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atomised · May 24, 2005, 10:36 PM

hi

this is probably something very easy to explain but obviously not for me!

got my g5 yesterday so i thought 'let's burn that 700mb file that never used to fit onto a cd'.

using toast 6.09 i drop the file into it but it seems to expand the file and when i go to burn the dvd it's telling me that the file is too large.

i've done the 'get info' on the file and it seems to be 700mb.

the dvd's i'm using are some i bought at the apple store...all fancy and apple and expensive...

so, is this something i'm doing?
how can i fix this problem?

Uncle Skeleton · May 24, 2005, 10:58 PM

1. If you burn a CD in ISO-9660 format (in toast), you can get 702.3 MB on it
2. You're clearly trying to burn a Video DVD. If you were to burn that file as a data DVD it would fit (700 MB < 4.4 GB). If you ask it to convert to Video DVD it has to re-encode. Think of trying to burn a CD from a 2 hour mp3. The mp3 is only 50 MB, but obviously iti's not burning the compressed mp3 file to make an audio CD, what it's doing is burning the audio waveform in the format that Audio CD's are (uncompressed), and you can only fit 80 minutes of that on one Audio CD, no matter how compressed you can make that waveform in formats that are not allowed on Audio CDs.

atomised · May 25, 2005, 01:27 AM

ok, i kinda get what you're saying as i expect a movie/tv/etc file to expand as it's encoded.

what seems perplexing is i was able to burn vcd files into cd's of around 350mb (for example). so a 700mb onto a dvd, even with the encoding process, doesn't seem to be a stretch. or is it more about the actual time length of the contents of the 700mb file rather than the mb component?

Chuckit · May 25, 2005, 01:41 AM

Yes, it's the actual length of the video that matters. Just like audio CDs can't go any longer than 80 minutes no matter how much you compressed the music on your hard drive.

atomised · May 25, 2005, 10:30 AM

ok, that makes sense.

what would be the way, do you think, to get a file like that onto a dvd to watch through a dvd player?

Uncle Skeleton · May 26, 2005, 09:44 AM

ffmpegX is probably the quickest way to author a VIDEO_TS folder of arbitrary compression, then you burn that with Toast under DVD (UDF). If it's under 2 hours (or you can trim it to be) you can use iDVD >=4.

I would recommend though, that you investigate how to just drive your TV with your mac. Doing all these lengthy and quality-reducing conversions, just to pander to your set top box, is going to get old real fast. What kind of mac do you have?

tooki · May 26, 2005, 02:42 PM

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

1. If you burn a CD in ISO-9660 format (in toast), you can get 702.3 MB on it

In fact, the maximum capacity varies depending on the disc. It varies by a few megabytes depending on the exact design of the disc.

tooki

the_glassman · May 26, 2005, 04:41 PM

Overburn?

atomised · May 26, 2005, 10:17 PM

thankyou all so far...very helpful!

ok, so i now have investigated the dual layer dvd option which seemed to be going well until 3 different burn attempts (two different files) which both ended prematurely with toast telling me there was not enough memory, each time it gets over half way through before the memory issue!

so does anyone have an idea on this? i've started to have a fiddle around and to be honest it made me feel like i was using os8 or 9 and i'd have to increase the virtual memory...surely not?!

Uncle Skeleton · May 27, 2005, 12:40 PM

Sounds like a buffer underrun. Do you have the Buffer Underrun Protection option on in Toast?

atomised · May 27, 2005, 06:18 PM

the last time i tried i did have it on. i've now turned it off so i'll have to give it a try.

but what does it do exactly?

ta!

Uncle Skeleton · May 28, 2005, 05:23 PM

no, it should be on. it activates a hardware feature of the drive that can resume a burn with the laser in the same place, if the data stream gets interrupted.

I don't know then. Do you actually have dual layer media? Toast ought to know if you're trying the wrong one, but if it somehow doesn't, trying to burn 2 layer's worth of data on normal 1 layer media certainly would cause problems.

atomised · May 28, 2005, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by Uncle Skeleton

no, it should be on. it activates a hardware feature of the drive that can resume a burn with the laser in the same place, if the data stream gets interrupted.

I don't know then. Do you actually have dual layer media? Toast ought to know if you're trying the wrong one, but if it somehow doesn't, trying to burn 2 layer's worth of data on normal 1 layer media certainly would cause problems.

well i got the same error message with it off (hmmm...).
for the record its error message #20.

toast i think 'knows' its dual layer and the annoying thing is it takes awhile to know if its not going to work as the encoding takes so long...extending out the annoyance...

thanks all so far!

atomised · May 28, 2005, 11:11 PM

ok think i have an answer of sorts...toast 6 doesn't like to burn in tiger.

what i've enjoyed about this process was that i started on trying to fit the file onto the dvd, solve that then find out toast is kinda broken in 10.4...

this is from another person's post on the roxio forum...

"Here I thought it was just me, but I'm also going through similar problems. I have Quicktime movies I wish to make into simple DVD's, just pop it in and play, but everytime I try, it crashes halfway with no reason. This was after I installed Tiger, before, 6.0.9 chugged away with no problems.

When I upgraded to OS X 10.4, that was when Toast crashed almost every time. Even when I installed the 6.1 update, there're still crashes.

I have a G5 with 1,8Ghz CPU, 1.5 GB ram and plenty of hard drive space. I've been using Toast since version 5 when I could take any video file that quicktime could play (Mov, Divx, AVI) and convert it to DVD. But now, it's just taking up space. I'm hoping some update comes out soon. "

well, at least i know it's not my new computer just my new operating system breaking things...

theolein · May 29, 2005, 07:38 AM

Hi, just a quick question. What is the length, in minutes of that 700 mb file you're trying to burn?

atomised · May 29, 2005, 08:07 PM

around 80mins, that's why i have been trying the dual layer dvd after the advice on the single layers not working for the file.

but as it appears toast and 10.4.1 don't like each other its sorta a moot point!

i am curious if there is another effective encoding and burning program...

ta

theolein · May 29, 2005, 10:15 PM

If you look under "backup" under utilities on macupdate, you'll find a few. I have no idea how good or bad they are. I actually used to use xcdroast.org on my old Titanium powerbook and although the interface is absolutely disgusting (X11 app), it can do almost anything, but I don't think there's a Tiger version out yet.