VPX suddenly showing dvd writing problem

RogerGunkel wrote on 10/28/2017, 7:07 AM

I upgraded from VPX7 to VPX about 3 weeks ago and have completed a number of projects all of which I have written to dvd with absolutely no problem. If a project is over the length required for a standard dvd, the programme gives me the option of fitting the length to the dvd.... until today.

I have a wedding video just finished, which is about 95 minutes long and when I go to write to dvd everything appears normal and there has been no option to fit the length to the dvd so I go ahead and render it. However, when it is ready to write the dvd, the tray opens and a message comes up telling me the file is too long for the dvd and I should shorten the length of the file??!! This is something I have never seen before as every version of MEP and VPX that I have used for hundreds of dvd projects has always fitted the file to the dvd. Nothing has been changed by me, I am using the same dvds I have used hundreds of times and yet this has only started happening today.

Anyone have any ideas as my clients are waiting for their dvd to be delivered over the weekend.

Thanks,

Roger

Comments

emmrecs wrote on 10/28/2017, 8:36 AM

Hi Roger.

I've never seen this happen in quite the way you describe, either. If a project is too large for a standard disc I would expect to see a warning message pop up on the initial burn screen, not tell you just before the actual burn to disc is about to start!

However, since the "abort" seems to have occurred at the point where the actual DVD write should have happened you should find a folder on your hard drive containing the actual files to be burned. If so, there is nothing to prevent you using a program like the free ImgBurn to transfer them to disc.

As a matter of interest, and if you have got that folder, how "big" are the files within it in total? Assuming they don't exceed about 4.5GB it should burn successfully, I think.

If that folder does not exist, for some inexplicable reason, I would suggest reburning the project as a Disc Image. If you have to do this, how large does VPX say the output files will be (it appears as a figure on the initial burn screen)? Once you have the Disc Image, again ImgBurn will allow you to burn the DVD.

I've burned several Disc Images (and hence DVDs) since the latest update to VPX and not seen this problem so I don't think it's inherent to that update.

HTH

Jeff

RogerGunkel wrote on 10/28/2017, 9:37 AM

Hi Jeff,

Thanks for the input, it's certainly an odd and unexpected problem. I always burn my finished edits to 1080 MP4, so since writing the first post, I have taken the MP4 files and put them into a new timeline and gone to create a DVD from the new project, something I have done many times before. The results were exactly the same, with the same message which I will post once the computer stops rendering another different attempt.

I have also loaded the same MP4 files into VPX7 and tried producing a DVD from that, by duplicating what I had previously tried in VPX. Whilst typing this, a completed DVD has popped out, so the problem appears to be with VPX not my computer or Windows10. I'll compare the DVD writing settings on both programmes to see if anything has changed in VPX. I'll also try downloading ImgBurn to see if that will write my original image.

I'll also post a screen grab of the message which will also show the file size on the burn menu, although the fact that it has made a DVD in VPX7 from the same files, means they are not too large.

Roger

RogerGunkel wrote on 10/28/2017, 10:07 AM

Ok, I've checked the dvd that came out of VPX7 and there are no problems with it The only problems came from trying to scroll along the timeline to enter chapter points, as the mp4 files created in VPX show extremely dark on the timeline making it it impossible to pick out parts of the video, although if you hit play, they run fine!

I've also posted the screen grabs I took from the dvd writing menus from both programmes and the initial menu from VPX showing the file size. Incidentally, the image file created in VPX also shows the same file size error message if I load it into VPX7 which suggests some sort of new bug, perhaps from an automatic update in VPX.

Roger

emmrecs wrote on 10/28/2017, 10:36 AM

Hi again Roger.

Looking at your screenshots I noticed you use DVD+R (at least you do according to the burn screen). I only ever use DVD-R and always burn to Disc Image so don't normally see that part of the screen.

As an experiment I loaded a recent project into VPX (version 15.0.4.176) and also inserted a DVD-R blank disc into one of my DVD writers. VPX reported it as a DVD+R, which it isn't. I wonder whether VPX is misreading the blank disc data and hence contributing to creating the problem you see? Since I never write direct to disc from the program I've never seen this before.

Just as a test I also used ImgBurn to verify the same blank disc as being DVD-R, not +R.

Jeff

RogerGunkel wrote on 10/28/2017, 11:34 AM

Interesting that you picked up the DVD+R notification, as I have never used DVD+R and like you use DVD-R exclusively. It has been an error in several versions of MEP and VPX, so I have never worried about it as the burning has always been no problem.

I decided to set up a completely new project from scratch, but this time just used the previously created MP4 files just as I had successfully done in VPX7. I set everything just as previously, including chapter points, music and menu pic. This time though the initial rendering was identical to previously, but the dvd was burnt as normal. That means that there must have been some error introduced into the original project file, which is a little worrying. I took a screen shot of both the original failed image file and the one from the new project which both use identical files and menus etc. However the original file is showing at 4.66Gb which would explain why it wouldn't burn, but why did the programme not give a warning before rendering and how is it so much bigger than the new one? There seems to be something introduced into the rendering sequence after the rendering to mpeg2 by the programme. Very odd!!

Roger

johnebaker wrote on 10/28/2017, 12:00 PM

IMO - the initial 'Used space on disc' is a guesstimate of how much disc space will be used. I have seen similar variation in projects in MEP Premium vs older versions of MEP

It is not until the actual rendering has been completed that the true space requirement is known - mainly due to the average bitrate being higher, hence lower compression, when there is more than average movement in the movie, ie higher frequency of change requires more data.

From the screen shot you have posted the 'Used space on disc' is slightly lower than that available and, IMHO, there is not enough headroom for the difference after rendering. From experience I aim for an indicated used space of less than 4000 MB for a single movie and 3800 MB for a multi movie disc.

Another cause is defective areas on the disc itself, whilst the disc may nominally hold 4.7 GB, it may have defective areas reducing the disc capacity.

DVD+R have a total capacity of 4,700,372,992 bytes (4700 MB) assuming no bad sectors. The error message shows you are 76MB over this maximum. I would suggest try reducing the bitrate setting from 6224 to 6000.

As Jeff has mentioned, I too used DVD-Rs only, I have found them more reliable than DVD+Rs.

@emmrecs

Some DVD-R discs are often displayed as DVD+R for some unknown reason.

HTH

John EB

RogerGunkel wrote on 10/28/2017, 12:18 PM

Hi John,

Thanks for joining in. Just to be clear, I have made 3 separate attempts to produce a DVD using the identical MP4 files in each project. The first file as you can see from my last post was 4.66Gb which is too big as you correctly say for the disc. However from the disc writing menu, the programme normally asks if you want to split the file into two discs, or reduce the size. I always reduce the size unless the length is going to be longer than 2hrs. For the first attempt, there was no such message resulting in an error message after rendering but before burning, asking for a larger disc or reducing the file size.

In the second attempt from a new protect file in VPX7, using the identical MP4 files, the image file was 4.11Gb In the third attempt, using another new project but back in VPX, The DVD was also rendered successfully with the image file being the one shown and identical in size to the second successful attempt in VPX7. There appears to be no explanation for this that I can think of. It is not down to faulty DVDs, as I have so far tried 4 failed attempts from the original project using DVDs that have been tried and tested over literally hundreds of DVDs over the years.

Roger