Burning Movies to a DVD

**joroho** · 09 January 2008, 03:11 AM

My brother has asked me to download a few John Piper sermons from their website and burn them to a DVD. I'm totally confused. It appears that I'll need three programs: a video editor, an encoder (whatever that does?), and a DVD author. Are all three really necessary? Anybody have exerience doing this sort of stuff and can point me in the right direction?

.joel.

**Soquili** · 09 January 2008, 03:34 AM

Joel if you have Windows XP SP2 or Vista you have Windows Movie Maker.

You can use that to do all you need to put the files onto DVD disc.

**steve.ledger** · 09 January 2008, 04:28 AM

From Windows Vista Ult Help: To publish and burn a movie to a DVD, you must have Windows DVD Maker, which is included in Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows Vista Home Premium. You also need a DVD burner.

IOW: Depending on which OS you are using, and what hardware you have, you may only be able to save .AVI or .wmv files with Windows Movie Maker. These files will not play in a standard Home DVD player, although players that can read DivX/Xvid encoded .avi files are becoming more common.

Anoth issue is that the JP Sermons I looked for are encoded with an .mp4 codec (similar to .mp3 but for Video)
Windows Movie Maker cannot import .mp4 encoded video - so you would need to convert this first to a format that WMM can understand.
There's a very easy to use FREEWARE converter available to accomplish this.

Working with Video is often not as straight forward as some people expect.
However, it is always fun..

**Soquili** · 09 January 2008, 05:03 AM

If you need an mp4 decoder for windows media player/movie maker http://www.bitctrl.de/bcshop/product...29&language=en

It cost about $22.00 USD (13.23EUR). EDIT: actual purchase price was 11.56EUR just a few minutes ago.

To open .mp4 files in Windows Movie Maker you need to use the All Files option of the import dialog or simply drag and drop from Windows Explorer. With out an .mp4 decoder only the audio will be played/recorded.

If you have Nero Ultimate 7 or 8 you can burn the mp4 files to DVD using the Nero codec.

**steve.ledger** · 09 January 2008, 06:02 AM

Originally Posted by Soquili

If you have Nero Ultimate 7 or 8 you can burn the mp4 files to DVD using the Nero codec.

Actually even the OEM Version of Nero7 includes this Bill, well here in Australia at any rate

You can check this in Tools -> Options -> Compatibility

As I said, always fun...

**ss-kalm** · 09 January 2008, 01:09 PM

I'm probably out in left field here, but what are you going to play these movies on ......... ?

If it's going to be a standard DVD player and a TV, then it's unlikely that they will play correctly as MP4's. Someone will correct me, but I don't think that standard DVD players have MP4 compatability.

If it's going to be a computer, then they are just data files, and as such can be burnt to a CD and played from there, as most of the newer computers can happily play back MP4's.

I'm not sure that you need to burn to a DVD ..... But, as I said before I'm sure someone will correct me.

**handrawn** · 09 January 2008, 01:27 PM

Unless you are burning to a CD rather than a DVD, burn the DVD in standard DVD format [vob] - then you can play it on DVD player or any modern computer.

**Soquili** · 09 January 2008, 02:35 PM

Thanks Steve I was not sure if the OEM version could process mp4 files.

Using Windows Movie Maker with a decoder you can burn .mp4 files (or other video file formats) to a DVD for playback on a standard DVD player and television.

You can create a main menu and burn multiple movie files to a single or dual layer DVD -/+ R disc (depends on capabilities of your DVD burner as to whether single or dual layers are supported). You can also create slide shows of still images if you want to do so. You can select PAL or NTSC video, but no support for SECAM that I can find.

When you have the content ready for your DVD you use the File menu > Publish Movie. Then select from the options (see attachment).

The following is a quote from the Windows Movie Maker help:

Import video files, pictures, and audio into Windows Movie Maker

You can import files with the following file name extensions into Windows Movie Maker to use in your project:

Video files: .asf, .avi, .dvr-ms, .m1v, .mp2, .mp2v, .mpe, .mpeg, .mpg, .mpv2, .wm, and .wmv

Audio files: .aif, .aifc, .aiff .asf, .au, .mp2, .mp3, .mpa, .snd, .wav, and .wma

Picture files: .bmp, .dib, .emf, .gif, .jfif, .jpe, .jpeg, .jpg, .png, .tif, .tiff, and .wmf

You can also import files into Windows Movie Maker that have a different extension from the ones listed above, but not all file types will work when you try to use them to make a movie.

**steve.ledger** · 09 January 2008, 06:05 PM

Originally Posted by ss-kalm

I'm probably out in left field here, but what are you going to play these movies on ......... ?

If it's going to be a standard DVD player and a TV, then it's unlikely that they will play correctly as MP4's. Someone will correct me, but I don't think that standard DVD players have MP4 compatability.

If it's going to be a computer, then they are just data files, and as such can be burnt to a CD and played from there, as most of the newer computers can happily play back MP4's.

I'm not sure that you need to burn to a DVD ..... But, as I said before I'm sure someone will correct me.

OK this may be a case of over-thinking.

Simply put, the .mp4 codec (encoder/decoder) must be present on a PC for Windows Movie Maker to use (decode) when opening the video source.
Once this is achieved, Windows Movie Maker will happily process your Videos and publish to DVD* (Exporting to the .vob [Video Object] format) thus enabling the DVD to be played on common home DVD players.

The MP4 codec is not standard for PC's by default, it is however, as Bill and I have noted, present after Nero 7 or 8 has been installed. (Other suites may also ship with the MP4 codec, though Nero is by far the most common)

**raynerj1** · 09 January 2008, 11:14 PM

I don't use the MS video maker thing myself, Does that create a menu file? Without that, most DVD players will not know what to play first and not read properly. Nero has a simple menu maker, but if you want to go all out grab a copy of Adobe Encore and you will have much more fexibility with your menus.

I have tried burning short DVDs to a CD, but DVD players have real trouble with that. It gets real frustrating when you use an entire DVD just for 90 seconds worth of commercials.