Good software for buning H.264/MPEG-4 to DVD+R

[wingman99]

Good software for buning H.264/MPEG-4 to DVD+R for windows 8.1

 

[c627627]

My old Nero 8 is compatible with Windows 8 but as far as freeware goes, maybe try http://www.imgburn.com/index.php?act=download


I am interested in what others would have to say when it comes to freeware.

 

[Supertrucker]

I use imgburn for pretty much everything. O.S. images, Data backups, DVD movies, blurays etc. Never had a problem with it

 

[wingman99]

Would that software work with a 2 hour video encoded to H.264/MPEG-4 Burn to DVD+R, so I can use it in a DVD player.

 

[Supertrucker]

if the player supports the file type, i cant see why not. Are you looking for a program that will convert a video file to a dvd compliant format that will work in all dvd players or just burn a file that your player is capable of playing back?

 

[wingman99]

Yes I want the conversion to work on all DVD players.

 

[c627627]

OK. "Burning" means to record any data to an optical disc.

What you need is a program to convert video files to DVD compliant folder VIDEO_TS before ANY burning program can "burn" (create) a DVD disc from that VIDEO_TS folder. So you weren't really asking about burning, but about converting.

Try this
http://handbrake.fr/


There are others which I used but they are not free and if they are free, they are loaded with adware, which can be avoided but they're really sneaky about getting you to install it.

 

[Twiggz]

If you have encoded the video to .mp4 using the H.264 encoder it should already be universal with DVD Players. Heck, I can take that video and just drag and drop it onto a regular CD-R and it'll play on my Bluray Player.

 

[c627627]

Yea, Bluray players can have integrated USB ports and can play content from web sites directly.


Standard old DVD players can sometimes only play standard DVD folders, VIDEO_TS folders, you know, the kind that show up when you insert a standard DVD disc in your computer and browse to it.


Editing DVD structure can be complicated business. It's my hobby, by the way, I love to buy complete series on DVDs then make custom DVDs with only the best episodes, combining official menus from multiple DVDs into a single layer DVD, without any compression. It can be quite challenging to combine different DVD structures.

 

[wingman99]

Yea, Bluray players can have integrated USB ports and can play content from web sites directly.


Standard old DVD players can sometimes only play standard DVD folders, VIDEO_TS folders, you know, the kind that show up when you insert a standard DVD disc in your computer and browse to it.


Editing DVD structure can be complicated business. It's my hobby, by the way, I love to buy complete series on DVDs then make custom DVDs with only the best episodes, combining official menus from multiple DVDs into a single layer DVD, without any compression. It can be quite challenging to combine different DVD structures.

Thanks for the help, I will try HandBrake for converting the MPEG 4 to VIDEO_TS folder.

How do you make custom DVDs without compression, don't you have to use MPEG 2 to fit a two hour movie on to a single layer DVD+R

 

[c627627]

Episodes are usually 30-60 minutes. So I edit the menus to include only the episodes which fit as 100% 1:1 data copies on single layer DVDs.

For movies, I have to use dual layer DVDs or one 4TB external hard drive, which is actually enough to fit all Blurays and all stabdard DVDs I own. I buy them and then have to edit them because of the 15 minute needless warnings and previews. Editing Blu-rays is particularly difficult.

 

[Twiggz]

Why don't you guys move away from DVD's and just stream this stuff? Just curious.

 

[wingman99]

Why don't you guys move away from DVD's and just stream this stuff? Just curious.

Streaming Quality is not as good as DVD and Blu-ray there is allot more data on a 2 hour DVD then 2 hours of streaming, They use unbelievable amount of compression with streaming and you can tell the difference.

 

[wingman99]

Episodes are usually 30-60 minutes. So I edit the menus to include only the episodes which fit as 100% 1:1 data copies on single layer DVDs.

For movies, I have to use dual layer DVDs or one 4TB external hard drive, which is actually enough to fit all Blurays and all stabdard DVDs I own. I buy them and then have to edit them because of the 15 minute needless warnings and previews. Editing Blu-rays is particularly difficult.

I cant remember why is it when you have 2 hour movie on a DVD and you rip it there is more data than 4.7 GB DVD+R,? Is it because movie DVD is MPEG 2.


What extra steps do you have to take to edit a Blu-ray?

 

[Twiggz]

He mentioned Handbrake, that's what I use to convert my DVD's to .mp4. It has many different encoding options for size, quality, etc. I suppose there is quality difference, but to stream it to anywhere has been worth it. The accessibility is just amazing.

I see your point though.

 

[Supertrucker]

If the clip is two hours or less Windows built in media maker thing will do it. Was built into 7 at least, not sure about Vista or 8.

If a two hour movie is bigger than a single layer disk, it is because of bonus features or lower compression encoding designed specifically to make it that little bit harder to copy a movie.


Edit: and if by edit a bluray you mean make it fit on a si gle sided single layer disk, bdrebuilder can do it, but it takes a bit of setting up and support programs , once that's done it's pretty close to a one click compression.

 

[wingman99]

If the clip is two hours or less Windows built in media maker thing will do it. Was built into 7 at least, not sure about Vista or 8.

If a two hour movie is bigger than a single layer disk, it is because of bonus features or lower compression encoding designed specifically to make it that little bit harder to copy a movie.


Edit: and if by edit a bluray you mean make it fit on a si gle sided single layer disk, bdrebuilder can do it, but it takes a bit of setting up and support programs , once that's done it's pretty close to a one click compression.

After it is converted to DVD will it be in VIDEO_TS format and play in any DVD player.

 

[c627627]

Why don't you guys move away from DVD's and just stream this stuff? Just curious.

Because just like there was a time when someone seeing you having a cell phone was like someone seeing you driving a Ferrari today, there was a time when we made DVD collections in the old days and they are useful today because we can watch them in rooms with no internet access and in cars with DVDs in them and no internet access. I could see how someone new and young would not be messing with DVDs however, although grandma and kids rooms still have those old DVD players and nothing else.

 

[c627627]

After it is converted to DVD will it be in VIDEO_TS format and play in any DVD player.

That is what you need to happen. You need software which makes DVD compliant files, which are stored inside a VIDEO_TS folder.

I cant remember why is it when you have 2 hour movie on a DVD and you rip it there is more data than 4.7 GB DVD+R,? Is it because movie DVD is MPEG 2.

2 hour movies are usually stored on a dual layer DVD disc which is twice the size of a single layer disc. Single layer disc usually hold 60 minutes or so at maximum DVD quality of between 8100 kbps and slightly more than 9000 kbps, depending on which AUDIO compression is used.

When you decrease the video quality, you can fit more, but those are maximum numbers, if the video bitrate is too high, it will not be standard DVD compliant.

 

[c627627]

What extra steps do you have to take to edit a Blu-ray?

Those can be problematic to edit.

When I got around to editing Blu-rays, I found the one buggy program that could have the potential to do it, this one:
http://clownbd.com/

But it was buggy and lacked certain key capabilities.



I talked to the author to make changes to make things work and he did, immediately, it pretty much was not updated since then.

But it still does what I needed it to do.


Here are my notes about it:


Clown_BD BD Copier 0.41


If using Windows XP or earlier version of Windows, install UDF2.5 driver. Windows Vista/7 already have UDF2.5 driver installed.


0. Install Virtual Clone Drive to mount Blu-ray ISOs.

1. Install ImgBurn, it's needed to export edited video files.
[ImgBurn > Tools > Settings > Sounds TAB > UNCHECK them]

2. Clown_BD BD Copier > Browse to folder with Blu-ray files > (Lower left corner) BD-R DL > Read >

3. Click on the MPlayer button > Browse to MPlayer\mplayer.exe. It will automatically preview files when you click on .mpls numbers on the right side of the screen so you can UNCHECK everything you wish to remove

4. (Lower right corner) ImgBurn > Browse to Destination > Build (yellow folder)

Remember to change the ISO Volume Label so that the name of the disc is displayed correctly when the iso file is mounted.


It is not necessary to remove Disc Region Settings screen or the Parental Level screen since Region Limitations are removed and Parental Lock settings should be available as an option.


In case of problems with starting ImgBurn, try deleting folders with names of Blu-ray titles you were working on (inside Clown_BD BD Copier folder).


Clown_BD BD Copier.ini file is created after the program is started once.


To export Blu-ray video files instead of exporting an ISO file:

1. CHECK: Use tsMuxeR and then CHECK the main movie files which have just been UNCHECKED when you selected tsMuxeR.

2. Click on HDD Copy (lower right corner) > OK

3. Go to the Clown_BD BD Copier folder and open Clown_BD BD Copier.ini file in Notepad and change the line
set DestinationPath=
to set the custom export folder.

4. Save the file in Notepad and then double click on the *.BAT file to start the video file export process...



Some rare Blu-ray titles may not copy small required PLAYLIST files.
Workaround:

1. Extract Blu-ray files from the original.

2. Process the entire unedited disc through Clown_BD's and extract all files.

3. Use a file comparing program to find the missing files inside

\BDMV\BACKUP\PLAYLIST
and
\BDMV\PLAYLIST


4. Now start from the beginning and Edit original Blu-Ray. When you get to ImgBurn, click on the Show Disc Layout Editor Window.


5. Then copy those two sets of files from the original disc (top window) to the same location in the bottom window.

6. It may not be necessary, but also manually copy the 0012FA folder from the root of the original disc (top window) to the same location in the bottom window.

7. Set the Labels TAB.