Roxio and DVD Shrink

[reeo]

I have Roxio, can it be used with DVD ShrinK? It appears Nero is supposedly the way to go. I'm not a teckie so I really need some help.

Second Question. When I open DVD Shrink to a folder where I've dowloaded movies I get a message. "DVD Shrink encountered and error and cannot continue". Then it lists the location of the file and says it's "Video TS_IFO, The System cannot find the specified file."

In another folder I have such files and VOB files etc. I really don't know what all that means yet but the folder I'm trying to open has no IFO files.

I just want to point it to a specific movie but no way can I proceed. I tried deleting all those files time being but still no go. I am totaly cluless at the moment. If I point to a folder with downloaded movies and no IFO files, why does it keep giving me this message?

Any help is appreciated.

reeo

[dap OLD werewolf]

"If I point to a folder with downloaded movies and no IFO files, why does it keep giving me this message?"

That's because it NEEDS ifo files in order to prepare a dvd format file for burning. If you don't have any IFO files, what kind of files DO you have in that folder that you are trying to shrink? Are there vobs there at all?

You would be better off telling me what you are trying to do in the first place, from what it sounds like you are downloading dvd format movies that are too large to fit on a single layer dvd and want to shrink them down to size so you can burn with ROxio onto a dvd. DVD Shrink is an app that is to be used with dvd format only. Are all the "movies you downloaded" into your folder dvd format? If a video file is dvd format it will contain VOBs, IFOs, and BUPs.

As to your first question, will DVD Shrink work with Roxio, well yes, considering the two have nothing to do with each other. ROxio is a program which simply burns whatever you have prepared onto a disk. DVD Shrink is a program that you can prepare dvd files for burning with, either by shrinking a dvd that you have on your computer to a size that will fit on a dvd, or else copying a dvd disk that you have. Once your dvd is correctly prepared for burning, whether you used DVD Shrink or DVD2One or any other app that is made for that purpose, you should be able to burn it with Roxio or Nero or any other burning app. If you have a dvd format video on your computer that is not oversized (i.e. not over 4.5-4.6 gigabytes if you don't have a dual layer dvd burner) then you shouldn't even have to use DVD SHrink or any other app, you should be able to burn it as is, unless you want to reauthor it to have menus that fit your specific needs.

The main question is what kind of files are in the folder that you are trying to work with? Perhaps they're not even dvd format at all. So please let me know whether there are any VOB files in the folder, or perhaps they're avi files or bin and cue files, etc.

A DVD will also have more than one folder. THis link will show you how to burn a dvd format video using Nero, sorry I don't use Roxio, but it should give you an idea of what kind of files and folders you should have if your movie is dvd format, and the principle of burning with Roxio should be more or less the same.

[reeo]

Yes I want to burn DVD's from downloaded movies. I ddidn't/don't know about DVD format. I guess your saying it needs VOB, IFO and BUP's. How would one ever know if any movie has these files when you download them? The movies are just that movies, none of the files you mentioned. The ones I checked are avi format. So no possible way to put them on a DVD?

I have a home video that I copied from VHS to DVD. I put that in the computer which is in a Video_TS folder. When I open that folder there is all the files you mentioned. I can point DVD shrink to that folder but get almost the same identical error message. (wish i could copy and paste the exact message) Forgive me for being lost here but a little guidence, like you've do so far, would be appreciated. Then I could read up on what is necessary but for me the initial start is confusing.

BTW you didn't include the link. Roxio is a pain to figure out anything. If you need more info just ask and i'll do my best to provide.

Thanks again

reeo

[dap OLD werewolf]

Ok, well you have a lot of learning to do. AVI is not dvd format, it is a different compression algorithm than dvd, just like a vhs isn't a dvd. Most users convert files to avi format instead of sharing dvd format because you can get a much smaller file than a dvd with comparatively little quality loss for exchanging on the internet. With avi you have several choices. Avi's will not play on standard standalone players if they are older, but these days you can get a dvd player that will play avi's for about 70 USD or less (this is what I would recommend, then you don't have to waste time converting to a different format and lose quality in the process). If you have an avi-supported player (it will support mpeg4 format and should have divx and sometimes also xvid stickers on the machine), all you have to do is burn with Roxio or whatever as data (iso). You can't use DVD shrink on an avi, because it's looking for a dvd format file, and it's not there.

It's pretty obvious to me that you are a complete novice about movie formats, because as you say "The movies are just that movies", this is not so. For one thing I would make sure that in windows explorer "my computer" you have your files set to show extensions (Open Explorer, go to Tools, Folder Options, click on the View tab and make sure you have "Hide extensions for known filetypes" UNchecked. If you download lots of movies you will probably see that some have .mpg extensions, some .avi, some may even be .mov or other. And movies are not just that, movies, as you say. Just like you can't open a Word file using Excel, different video file formats have different properties and programs that can be used with them.

If you don't want to invest into a standalone dvd player which supports avi formats then you will either have to watch the movie on your computer or else change the avi to a format which a standard standalone will recognize. And that would be vcd (worst quality), svcd (a bit better quality) or dvd (best quality). But it is not possible for me to go into how to convert to each format here, and there are many programs which will do it, and better ways and worse. What I suggest you do first is some reading about the different file formats, and I think you'll find most of the answers you need on my help page:
http://www.rita.LT/video_tools/help.htm

Yes I did forget to include the link in the message above, sorry about that, but the link I would have given is one of the FAQ questions on the help page I'm giving you now.

I hope that helps.

[reeo]

Yes it does help. It give me a good basis to start. Thank you very much.

reeo