Burn just the VIDEO_TS folder, or all folders in the ISO file?
 

Preface

This is continued from email, from an interaction with a client. The client's film was edited, corrected, encoded, authored to ISO, then uploaded via FTP to online project server. Instructions for using FTP were sent in an email (link to a post on this site), along with some email addendum notes. (Those notes: "Use Coffeecup for Windows, then File > Manage servers, then hit the green + mark, then fill in supplied login information, and then transfer files from right to left, to desired download folder. Or use Filezilla for Mac, input login data in fields at top of screen, transfer files from right to left, being sure to select the desired destination folder.")

Further instructions instructed to burn the ISO with the freeware Imgburn in Windows, or the freeware SimplyBurns in Mac OS X. Also advised to only use the best blank DVDs: Taiyo Yuden or Mitsubishi/Verbatim. See the Blank DVD Review for help on that topic.

If there were still questions, client advised to ask for more help. :)


Burn only VIDEO_TS, or burn all folders? (AUDIO_TS, etc)

The file was downloaded, and an email confirmation reply was received -- along with the following question:

This particular video was short, less than 15 minutes of content, and therefore not a large enough to natively fill a DVD to the DVD-Video spec requirement of 1GB minimum. The authored VIDEO_TS folder came out to slightly more than 750MB total.

Technically speaking, DVD burning software should sense that a DVD-Video authored folder set is present, and to create a lead-out that fills the disc to 1GB of space. However, that doesn't always happen. Furthermore, even when it does happen, a longer leadout isn't always treated "the same" as a disc with 1GB of actual content on board.

The consequences of having a disc less than 1GB filled is that it won't play on a majority of DVD-Video players (aka, the standard "DVD player" used to watch videos). For that specific reason, a 250MB "dummy file" was created (PADDING.BIN), and dropped into a non-interfering "dummy folder" alongside the VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS folder (PADDING).

The DVD-Video spec also requires AUDIO_TS be present, even if blank. You can skip it, and it often does not matter, but there are players that will barf and eject a disc when this folder is not present. So for the sake of strictness to the DVD rules, leave it.

So, the folders present in this ~1.1GB file are: VIDEO_TS, AUDIO_TS, PADDING

You should only see these on the final burned disc, not before! Don't try to "open" the ISO file to extract the contents in any way. Simply burn the image file using an image-burning capable DVD writing software (Imgburn or SimplyBurns). That's all it takes.

And that should take care of everything. Good luck at the film festival. :)


UPDATE: Instructions for using Imgburn and SimplyBurns have been added here: http://www.digitalfaq.com/forum/dvd-...html#post16423
Thanks, -admin