BrianJarrett.com

After completion of a huge personal project requiring the creation of amost two dozen DVDs I realized I had a major issue with data corruption. All the DVDs were unusable, corrupted in various ways. The video files seemed to be fine but once they got to a DVD all was lost. I spent two solid weeks on this project only to have to throw away all my work.

I was using Pinnacle Studio 9 to both edit the video and burn the DVD. Editing and creating the video with Pinnacle worked okay; burning the DVDs with Pinnacle, I found, was the mistake. Once I discovered all my DVDs were nothing more than coasters I started doing some research and found I wasn’t the only one who had the problem. Turns out the burning engine in the software is defective and creates corrupted DVDs.

I’d already spent $80 on the software and did not want to spend another $80-$100 on another program. The cheapest solution, as it turned out, was a simple one. I now use Pinnacle Studio to create the DVD video files but instead of burning it to a DVD with Pinnacle I now use Nero to burn the files to DVD. Nero is awesome burning software and is more than adequate to burn DVDs without data corruption.

To do this you must first unload your video and create your movie in Pinnacle Studio, just as you normally would. However, before you burn the actual DVD you need to tell Pinnacle Studio to create the disc content but not actually burn the DVD. Click the “Make Movie” tab then click the “Settings…” button. You’ll see this dialog:

Pinnacle

Under “Burn Options” choose the “Create disc content but don’t burn” option. Now you make the DVD like you normally would by clicking the green “Make disc…” button. If you use the default setup Pinnacle will put the DVD files here:

C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\My Documents\Pinnacle Studio\Auxiliary Files\your_project_name\DVD\Video_ts

“your_username” and “your_project_name” are custom depending on your system. Substitute your values. Windows automatically creates a shortcut called “My Documents” which points to “C:\Documents and Settings\your_username\My Documents”; your movie will by default be there in the “Pinnacle Studio” folder.

In this folder you’ll see some .VOB, .BUP, and .IFO files. You’ll need these for the DVD. You will not need “Anchor” and “Volume”. I don’t know why Pinnacle creates these but Nero will kick an error out if you try to include them. They should be excluded.
Next start the Nero burning ROM and create a new DVD disc project. I use Nero so I’m including directions for that project; if you use something else you’ll have to look in the docs for your product.

In Nero you’ll choose “DVD-Video” from the left menu and give the disc a label by clicking on the “Label” tab and filling in the text box:

Nero

Click the “New” button and you’ll be given the standard two pane view. You’ll then browse the directory where Pinnacle Studio stores the DVD files (see path above) and you’ll drag these files into the “Video_ts” folder on the DVD (click thumbnail for larger image):

Nero

You’ll then begin by burning the disc. Burn times will vary depending on the speed of your media and device. Once complete you should have a corruption-free DVD. Hopefully this will allow you to retain your investment in the Pinnacle Software. When you upgrade down the road you can then decide whether or not to buy another version of Pinnacle. Since I had these problems I’m considering Sony’s software the next time around.

Feel free to leave a quick comment if any of this was helpful to you. I’d love to know.