So I finally overcame “burnt toast” syndrome in my burning adventures by cleaning my drive and buying ONLY Taiyo Yuden dvds. I almost never get a bad disk anymore. Yay!
But a couple of things are stumping me.
When I add video files to Toast, often (not every time without fail, but usually) the first file will drive the “space meter” way up. For instance, a 735 megabyte file that runs 1 hour and 34 minutes added drives the space remaining bar up “4.15 GB on 1 disc. Space remaining: 234.3 mg”. Which is frustrating and nonsensical because since when does 735 megabytes equal 4.15 GB?
So I tried ignoring it.
Okay, add a 367 megabyte 46 minute file.
Space remaining goes “4.21 GB on 1 disc, 175.2 Mb remaining”
Wel, I have never been good at math, but I do have calculator and that doesn’t make sense.
Add a third file, same size as the second, and it goes up to 4.28 gb, 108.6 mb remaining.
So for giggles I added the exact same files in reverse order. These were the readings:
Disc 3 added first: 2.75 GB on disc/1.64 remaining
Disc 2: 4.14 gb, 246 mb remain
Disc one, the biggest, added: 4.28gb, 108 remain.
huh?
Obviously something is being written with the first file added. A LOT is being written, but what?
Also: the space remain is not a reliable indicator in other ways… even if space SEEMS to remain, sometimes Toast will try to burn and stop to report that there isn’t enough space on the disc.
What the hell is going on?
Next question:
Some of the burning I do is super-zippy… other times, way slow. I’m using the same hardware, software, discs and settings. I fill the DVDs as much as I can. Does it make a difference if I’m burning .avi or .vob how fast it burns?
It all seems very mysterious and difficult to plan for. I would love to be enlightened.