# Windows DVD Maker cancelling out at 80%



## meromero (Oct 15, 2007)

I am having trouble burning DVDs with Vista Home Premium's pre-installed Windows DVD Maker. I've seen quite a few threads about problems with this, but none specifically answering the problem I am having. 

What I'm trying to do is burn some music videos stored on my HD (which I've ripped from CDs I've purchased legally; there should be no problems there) and compile them on to one DVD to play on any DVD player. Data DVDs burn fine with my data burning software, but every time go to burn a movie DVD (with menus, etc) it stops at about 80% saying there is not enough free space on the DVD. The total DVD length was 109 minutes, and the DVDs I am using are Memorex DVD+R 4.7gb (120 minutes) My DVD drive is MAT****A DVD-RAM UJ-850S ATA Device.

This is especially frustrating as it takes about six to seven hours to burn a DVD on medium speed, and I cannot use the computer during this time. I've also tried deleting half of the contents, and burning at slower speeds to no avail. What is the problem?

Before I started using Vista, I had an XP desktop with a pre-installed DVD burning program (the name slips my mind, sorry!) which I remember having similar problems. No matter what software or DVD hardware I'm using, I've never been able to successfully create a DVD. Is this just something I'm doing wrong, or just bad luck? 

Thanks!


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## MysticEyes (Mar 30, 2002)

> What I'm trying to do is burn some music videos stored on my HD


What format are they?



> This is especially frustrating as it takes about six to seven hours to burn a DVD on medium speed,


The actual burning should only take minutes. Converting to DVD compliant files can take 
some time.

Try the trial of this Vista ready app and see if it works.

http://www.vso-software.fr/products/convert_x_to_dvd/

This free app should also work with Vista.

http://www.dvdflick.net/


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## fairnooks (Oct 1, 2007)

It'd be nice if Adobe had a trial version of Premiere Elements 3 or 4 so I could recommend them try and buy (or not) but that program is so good at solving these kinds of problems, I still recommend it.

The reason its taking so long is probably that your video is being converted into DVD-compliant Mpeg-2 format before being burned.

Why it stops at 80% I don't know. If were closer to 50% then it would probably be a quality setting where the Highest quality 4.7 gig DVD only holds about 1 hour of video (note: highest quality does not refer to quality of video placed on it but rather the bitrate of the Mpeg-2 video being made). The 120 min. is at standard quality.


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## meromero (Oct 15, 2007)

MysticEyes said:


> What format are they?


.avi, though a few of the newer ones I've been encoding in .vob. In the DVD Maker preview window, the videos play fine and I've never gotten any error messages.



MysticEyes said:


> This free app should also work with Vista.
> 
> http://www.dvdflick.net/


I'm trying this one as I type. Thanks!



fairnooks said:


> Why it stops at 80% I don't know. If were closer to 50% then it would probably be a quality setting where the Highest quality 4.7 gig DVD only holds about 1 hour of video (note: highest quality does not refer to quality of video placed on it but rather the bitrate of the Mpeg-2 video being made). The 120 min. is at standard quality.


I understand that the reason it takes so long is because of conversion, and I wouldn't have a problem with it if I just knew that the DVD would work after all that time. There is no option in DVD Maker to save the converted file to my hard drive and load it for burning later, nor is there any way to change quality settings that I know of. It recognizes the disk as having "150 minutes" on it instead of the 120 mentioned on the label, but still, I only use up 109 minutes, so I don't think there should be a problem there.

I wish, instead of ignoring the problem and moving on to different software, I could just find out what was wrong and fix the one I use now. I was planning on making DVDs with menus and the works and these free DVD burning programs don't seem to support menus. I know it sounds cheap, but I would rather work with software that came with my computer and is supposed to work, rather than buying something else.

Could it have something to do with using DVD+Rs instead of DVD-R, DVD+RW, or DVD-RW?


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## MysticEyes (Mar 30, 2002)

> I wish, instead of ignoring the problem and moving on to different software, I could just find out what was wrong and fix the one I use now. I was planning on making DVDs with menus and the works and these free DVD burning programs don't seem to support menus. I know it sounds cheap, but I would rather work with software that came with my computer and is supposed to work, rather than buying something else.


Not familiar with the latest Windows DVD Maker, but earlier versions needed additional software to actually burn a disc.



> There is no option in DVD Maker to save the converted file to my hard drive and load it for burning later, nor is there any way to change quality settings that I know of.


Sounds pretty useless to me, but there has to be some sort of quality/size feature. The ability to change the video bitrate, hence the quality/size is rather important and basic.

Maybe you should spend some time here:

http://www.windowsdvdmaker.com/

The other problem with Windows DVD Maker is that help will be hard to come by as most of the better video forums (and the experts who hang there) totally ignore, don't use it.

Also note both programs I recommended can create menus.


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## meromero (Oct 15, 2007)

MysticEyes said:


> Not familiar with the latest Windows DVD Maker, but earlier versions needed additional software to actually burn a disc.


The problem I get is when it tries to burn the DVD, after the encoding finishes. There is no possible way to save the encoded file, so I have to wait six to seven hours every time I try.

I have been working with this program for a few days now and can guarentee that there is absolutely no way to change the quality settings with it -- only options for the burner speed (slow, medium, fastest), aspect ratio (4:3 or 16:9), format (PAL or NTSC), an an option to change the location for the temporary files.

I am not an expert and don't want any fancy software; I am just interested in making this one disk, and perhaps converting one or two VHS tapes to DVD if I can ever get it working properly.

The guide page on windowsdvdmaker.com is broken and the forum seems inactive, with most questions remaining unanswered, so I tried this forum instead. I would never ask a question in a forum unless I have exhausted every other resource and am sure I cannot figure out the problem by myself.

I could not find any menu creating information in the DVDFlick program, though I did burn a test DVD that worked fine. The video looped continuously with the default menu for my DVD player.

I hope I can get some help from someone that has the latest version of Windows DVD Maker!


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## fairnooks (Oct 1, 2007)

I have the latest version of DVD Maker...at least I should have, but I don't even use Vista much yet. That OS is so immature yet its not even funny--to the extent that some pundits say its really in trouble (the next ME)--I think it'll turn into a fine upstanding OS...someday.

I just went over the settings and I don't see anything for quality settings either. I totally understand you want it to work since it came with the system and you only want to do a few DVDs but that looks like another unfinished product of Vista to me. It may be there somewhere but its as important to set the quality as it is the aspect, format and burn speed. If there's an hour or less of video its silly to burn it at 150 minute quality.

Well, I couldn't do much more than confirm your plight. If you ever decide to make the jump to a program that was designed by a team of programmers with economic motivations you won't even need help I'm sure.


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## MysticEyes (Mar 30, 2002)

Well here's another freebie that does do menus, and the HCenc encoder is one of the best.

http://favcfavc.googlepages.com/home


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