Hi folks.

I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to video, using
wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The final results
(after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to my eye. I'm keen to
copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around various family households
for viewing and safe keeping. However, whenever I try to save the
uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up much smaller than the original in
file size (and therefore probably lower resolution) and I get an error about
an unknown codec when I attempt to playback.

I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and always saved
as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about 5.4GB in size.
I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive so I could save a
number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find a way to save the files
to disc uncompressed and in a readable format I might as well save my money.
What I really want the system to do is save a byte-for-byte copy of the
original without any mangling along the way. Is this possible - if so how -
and are there any free-ish programs that will achieve this?

Thanks,
-Neil F.

neil f wrote:
Hi folks.

I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to video,
using wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The
final results (after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to
my eye. I'm keen to copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around
various family households for viewing and safe keeping. However,
whenever I try to save the uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up
much smaller than the original in file size (and therefore probably
lower resolution) and I get an error about an unknown codec when I
attempt to playback.

I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and always
saved as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about
5.4GB in size. I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive
so I could save a number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find
a way to save the files to disc uncompressed and in a readable format
I might as well save my money. What I really want the system to do is
save a byte-for-byte copy of the original without any mangling along
the way. Is this possible - if so how - and are there any free-ish
programs that will achieve this?

Thanks,
-Neil F.

How are you transfering to disc

--
Trev
You can always tell a Yorkshire man,
But you can't tell him much.

"neil f" wrote in message
news
Hi folks.

I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to
video, using
wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The final
results
(after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to my eye. I'm
keen to
copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around various family
households
for viewing and safe keeping. However, whenever I try to save the
uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up much smaller than the
original in
file size (and therefore probably lower resolution) and I get an
error about
an unknown codec when I attempt to playback.

I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and
always saved
as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about 5.4GB
in size.
I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive so I could save
a
number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find a way to save the
files
to disc uncompressed and in a readable format I might as well save
my money.
What I really want the system to do is save a byte-for-byte copy of
the
original without any mangling along the way. Is this possible - if
so how -
and are there any free-ish programs that will achieve this?


Skipping over the vagaries of archiving on optical discs, this issue
has been discussed (argued) many times here and elsewhere over the
years...

Strange, if you have a DVD of enough capacity you should be able to
save the file(s) without any further work, it sounds like you're
trying to save as a DVD (in other words a DVD for a DVD player) rather
than as *data* files on a optical disc that happens to be a DVD.

As another person asked, what are you using to burn the discs and how?

":Jerry:" wrote in message
...
|
| "neil f" wrote in message
| news | Hi folks.
|
| I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to
| video, using
| wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The final
| results
| (after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to my eye. I'm
| keen to
| copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around various family
| households
| for viewing and safe keeping. However, whenever I try to save the
| uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up much smaller than the
| original in
| file size (and therefore probably lower resolution) and I get an
| error about
| an unknown codec when I attempt to playback.
|
| I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and
| always saved
| as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about 5.4GB
| in size.
| I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive so I could save
| a
| number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find a way to save the
| files
| to disc uncompressed and in a readable format I might as well save
| my money.
| What I really want the system to do is save a byte-for-byte copy of
| the
| original without any mangling along the way. Is this possible - if
| so how -
| and are there any free-ish programs that will achieve this?
|
|
| Skipping over the vagaries of archiving on optical discs, this issue
| has been discussed (argued) many times here and elsewhere over the
| years...
|
| Strange, if you have a DVD of enough capacity you should be able to
| save the file(s) without any further work, it sounds like you're
| trying to save as a DVD (in other words a DVD for a DVD player) rather
| than as *data* files on a optical disc that happens to be a DVD.
|
| As another person asked, what are you using to burn the discs and how?

I've tried a number of DVD burning programs, including Burn4Free and a
version of Nero Lite. I'm burning on a standard PC running XP and the Sata
DVD drive is a two year old Sony.

I drag my files to the program's window and click on 'Burn Data'.

"neil f" wrote in message
...

":Jerry:" wrote in message
...
|
| "neil f" wrote in message
| news | Hi folks.
|
| I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to
| video, using
| wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The final
| results
| (after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to my eye.
I'm
| keen to
| copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around various family
| households
| for viewing and safe keeping. However, whenever I try to save
the
| uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up much smaller than the
| original in
| file size (and therefore probably lower resolution) and I get an
| error about
| an unknown codec when I attempt to playback.
|
| I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and
| always saved
| as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about
5.4GB
| in size.
| I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive so I could
save
| a
| number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find a way to save
the
| files
| to disc uncompressed and in a readable format I might as well
save
| my money.
| What I really want the system to do is save a byte-for-byte copy
of
| the
| original without any mangling along the way. Is this possible -
if
| so how -
| and are there any free-ish programs that will achieve this?
|
|
| Skipping over the vagaries of archiving on optical discs, this
issue
| has been discussed (argued) many times here and elsewhere over the
| years...
|
| Strange, if you have a DVD of enough capacity you should be able
to
| save the file(s) without any further work, it sounds like you're
| trying to save as a DVD (in other words a DVD for a DVD player)
rather
| than as *data* files on a optical disc that happens to be a DVD.
|
| As another person asked, what are you using to burn the discs and
how?

I've tried a number of DVD burning programs, including Burn4Free and
a
version of Nero Lite. I'm burning on a standard PC running XP and
the Sata
DVD drive is a two year old Sony.

I drag my files to the program's window and click on 'Burn Data'.


Yes, but what is the software then trying to do with that data, are
you sure that you are asking to burn it as *data files* and not as an
disc image or DVD?

I assume you are not trying to put a 5.4GB file onto a 4.7GB disc, if
you are any burning program will either reject the burn request or
recompress the file(s) to fit the disc....

neil f wrote:
":Jerry:" wrote in message
...

"neil f" wrote in message
news
Hi folks.

I recently transferred a bunch of Super 8 sound home movies to
video, using
wall projection and firewire from a Sony video camera. The final
results
(after many trials and experiments) seem excellent to my eye. I'm
keen to
copy the films onto DVDs and spread them around various family
households
for viewing and safe keeping. However, whenever I try to save the
uncompressed AVI files to DVD they end up much smaller than the
original in
file size (and therefore probably lower resolution) and I get an
error about
an unknown codec when I attempt to playback.

I did all my editing and flicker removal etc in VirtualDub and
always saved
as 'uncompressed AVI'. Each 3 minute film is therefore about 5.4GB
in size.
I was thinking of getting a dual layer Blu-ray drive so I could save
a
number of films to each DVD. But unless I can find a way to save the
files
to disc uncompressed and in a readable format I might as well save
my money.
What I really want the system to do is save a byte-for-byte copy of
the
original without any mangling along the way. Is this possible - if
so how -
and are there any free-ish programs that will achieve this?


Skipping over the vagaries of archiving on optical discs, this issue
has been discussed (argued) many times here and elsewhere over the
years...

Strange, if you have a DVD of enough capacity you should be able to
save the file(s) without any further work, it sounds like you're
trying to save as a DVD (in other words a DVD for a DVD player)
rather than as *data* files on a optical disc that happens to be a
DVD.

As another person asked, what are you using to burn the discs and
how?

I've tried a number of DVD burning programs, including Burn4Free and a
version of Nero Lite. I'm burning on a standard PC running XP and the
Sata DVD drive is a two year old Sony.

I drag my files to the program's window and click on 'Burn Data'.

But are you burning as video DVD or DVD-Rom the later is data and should be
a copy of your data the former will convert the files to a Video DVD for
playback in a DVD player and so doing compress to mpeg 2 and write along
with the necessary files

--
Trev
You can always tell a Yorkshire man,
But you can't tell him much.

":Jerry:" wrote in message
...
|
| Yes, but what is the software then trying to do with that data, are
| you sure that you are asking to burn it as *data files* and not as an
| disc image or DVD?
|
| I assume you are not trying to put a 5.4GB file onto a 4.7GB disc, if
| you are any burning program will either reject the burn request or
| recompress the file(s) to fit the disc....

I think I've discovered what my problem is - partly prompted by your and
Trev's replies. The test file I was using was 4.37GB in size according to
its properties, which should have fitted ok. But I see that Wikipedia's DVD
entry says there are two ways of expressing GBs - and that in the one PCs
use, 4.37GB=4.7GB as far as a DVD is concerned. First I'd heard of that.

So now I've been progressively frame cutting the file until it recorded ok
as data. Success occurred at about 4GB in PC properties terms (i.e. 4.2GB
was still too big). So I guess that's the safe limit for my video file
archiving.

"neil f" wrote in message
...

snip

I think I've discovered what my problem is - partly prompted by your
and
Trev's replies. The test file I was using was 4.37GB in size
according to
its properties, which should have fitted ok. But I see that
Wikipedia's DVD
entry says there are two ways of expressing GBs - and that in the
one PCs
use, 4.37GB=4.7GB as far as a DVD is concerned. First I'd heard of
that.

So now I've been progressively frame cutting the file until it
recorded ok
as data. Success occurred at about 4GB in PC properties terms (i.e.
4.2GB
was still too big). So I guess that's the safe limit for my video
file
archiving.


Do remember that there is other data, to do with the optical disc and
how the computer should read it, along side the actual data that the
user puts onto the disc, the capacity (as marked on the disc) is the
total possible and not the usable capacity IYSWIM.