Troubleshooting the DVD Burning Experience

As with burning CDs, there are many things that can go wrong when you're creating home-made DVDsprobably too many to mention in a book this size. In the interest of time and saving trees, let's look at some of the problems you're most likely to encounter when burning DVDs of TV shows recorded in My TV.

Choosing the Right Media

The first obstacle in a series of potential show-stoppers is choosing the right type of blank discs for your DVD burner .

Matching Media with Your DVD Burner

There are at least five popular categories of DVD media available now: DVD-R (pronounced "DVD minus R") and DVD+R (you guessed it: "DVD plus R"), DVD-RW and DVD+RW, and DVD-RAMand the list seems to keep growing. All have slightly different properties and price points. Some will work with your PC's DVD burner but not your living room's DVD playerand vice versa.

So how do you choose the right media for your DVD burner? Theoretically, you should be able to look at the logo on the drive door of your DVD device (for examples, see Figure 12.8 and Figure 12.9) and determine its compatibility. Alas, if only it were that simple. In reality, you will probably need to determine the exact make and model of your DVD burner, and then try to match it with the appropriate media using online resources, such as those published at Web sites like www.dvdrhelp.com.

Figure 12.8. This logo on your DVD burner's drive door indicates that the device supports 4.7GB write-once DVD-R disc media.

Figure 12.9. If your DVD burner bears this logo, it supports rewritable DVD+RW technology, which is designed for maximum compatibility with home DVD players.

To determine the make and model of your PC's DVD drive, do this:

1. Right-click on the My Computer icon on your XP desktop or in the Windows Start menu.

2. Choose Properties to open the System Properties window.

3. Choose the Hardware tab, and then click on Device Manager.

4. Scroll down the list until you see the DVD/CD-ROM drives entry, and click on the adjacent + symbol.

5. Write down the model number.

Now you can do an online search to get more information. For example, the "HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4320B" identified in the System Properties menu in a Gateway Media Center PC (see Figure 12.10) was revealed to be an LG Electronics combo drive, which an online search determined has write compatibility with DVD-R and DVD-RW discs.

Figure 12.10. This view of the hardware properties of a Gateway Media Center PC lists an LG Electronics 4320B combination CD-R/DVD-RW drive.

Matching Media with Your DVD Player

Let's assume that you've successfully purchased blank DVDs that are compatible with your PC's DVD burner. Congratulations are in order. Unfortunately, that's only half the battle. Even if you can now burn a DVD, you still may not be able to produce a disc that your DVD player will recognize. You'll need to get the specs on your playback deck as well, and match that up with other online compatibility lists.

If all else fails, try calling the manufacturers of your Media Center PC and your DVD player, or visiting their respective Web sites, to gather more information on their DVD format compatibility.

Your Video Is Too Big for the Disc

Another common problem you may run into is that your video file may exceed the size of your recordable disc. Using MyDVD's standard settings, only about one hour 's worth of video will fit on a standard DVD disc. One way to adjust this is by tweaking the bit rates, which refer to the number of bits of data needed to display each second of video.

Some of the DVD authoring applications mentioned earlier in this chapter allow you to make changes to the bit rate (selecting a lower one will let you pack more video onto a DVD, but at some cost to the quality of the video). Unfortunately, MyDVD and PrimeTime do not allow you to change the bit rate of shows recorded using Media Center My TV. Your best bet for recording long programs in that fashion will be to use the Trim Video feature in MyDVD (see Figure 12.11) to reduce the size of the file you are burning to disc. If necessary, you can use this feature to burn separate volumes , to create a multipart set of discs.

Figure 12.11. You can drag the start and end handles, and click the forward and reverse arrow buttons to nudge the trim handle backward or forward a few frames at a time.

tip

How can you fit a full-length movie onto a blank DVD in PrimeTime? You can't. However, you can record the movie at a lower bit rate. To do this, choose advanced recording features from the recording menu in My TV, and change the settings for the recording quality. The default level is Best, so try knocking it down to Better, or even Fair, to make a recording that will fit on a standard 4.7GB DVD disc.

To trim the video file down to size, do the following in MyDVD:

1. Click on Tools.

2. Click on trim movie.

3. Drag the green handle on the left side of the movie timeline to the starting point you want.

4. Drag the red handle on the right side of the movie timeline to the ending point you want.

5. Click OK to accept the changes to your DVD project.

To save a My TV recording as a VCD rather than a DVD using PrimeTime, do this:

1. Choose Settings from the main PrimeTime menu.

2. With the General tab selected, choose Recording Devices.

3. For the Type of Disc setting, select the (minus) symbol, and PrimeTime will change the value from DVD to Video CD (see Figure 12.12).

   Figure 12.12. Along with changing the disc type, this settings screen in PrimeTime lets you specify which recording device you prefer to use.

   

4. Click OK.

What About the Cost?

Blank DVD discs have come down significantly in price, but even on sale, they still usually run at least a few bucks each. Recordable CD discs, however, are dirt cheapin the range of pennies per disc, especially if you buy in bulk. As a result, you may want to experiment with recording video programs as VCDs rather than DVDs, if for no other reason than to save some cash. You will lose a lot of quality, so don't use the VCD technique to record a movie that you want to keep for posterity. But if you just want to burn a quick disc of your favorite sitcom to watch on your laptop during your next layover in Denver, a VCD disc might be just the answer. And when you're finished with it, you won't feel bad about just dropping the disc in the trash.

The Absolute Minimum

Burning your own DVDs is one of the coolest features supported by your Media Center machine. It can also be one of the most frustrating. Here are a few pointers to keep in mind:

• There are essentially three types of DVDs you can create with your Media Center PC: data DVDs, video DVDs using digital video stored on your PC, and video DVDs using video recorded by Media Center.

• Media Center recordings use a special format created by Microsoft. Lots of software packages will let you record video DVDs, but as of this writing, only Sonic's MyDVD and PrimeTime software allow you to burn DVDs from Media Center recordings.

• TV and movie studios take copyright restrictions very seriously these days. Feel free to copy video for your personal use. Just make sure you got the video through legal means, and refrain from distributing copies en masse.

• You may need to do some homework to buy the right blank discs for your DVD burner. A profusion of competing formats has made a mess for consumers. Bottom line: When you buy blank DVD media, be sure to save your sales receipt.

• When it comes to burning recorded TV programs onto DVDs, size matters. Fitting a full-length movie onto a DVD can be tricky. Try recording with a lower quality setting to reduce the bit rate.

• Want to save some money? You might want to burn a VCD instead of a DVD. Most recording software supports both formats, and a lower-quality VCD can be made on an inexpensive CD-R disc.