Video conversion

[Truant]

Need to convert avi files to DVD for a friend.

Obviously I can search and randomly try stuff, but was wondering if anyone here has any experience and/or recommendations.

[Zaelath]

Hrmm, I used to use a guide from a site that disappeared.. depends how much time you want to devote to it, what the source is etc. You can get *really* good results from fairly shitty source video if you want to spend a lot of time faffing about with filters, but there's a high cost in time.

Given every has (or can aquire) the full nero suite these days, I'd say just go ahead and use nero vision...

I can't talk to the quality of the conversion, and the menus seem a bit crap (didn't get as far as working out if you could skip putting menus on, I'd probably 'rip' it again w/ dvdshrink just to get rid of them...) but it's about as easy as your going to get.

[Drolgin Steingrinder]

Here's one I've used:

Hey kids. I'm sure this info has come through here before, but here is the simplest way I have discovered to get media off my computer and onto my television. This is assuming you aren't all XBoxed up. This process can be a lot more detailed, but here's the quickest way to get going.

You will need the following:

A blank DVD.
A DVD burner.
A DVD player capable of playing burned DVDs.
TMPGEnc Plus. (version 2.5 for this demonstration)
TMPGEnc DVD Author. (version 1.5 for this demonstration)
Approximately 10 gb free space.

I'm currently using the K-Lite Codec Pack 2.44 Full (standard install) with no other codecs on the machine. I don't know how dependent the apps are on codec settings. If you run into trouble you could try blowing away all your codecs and going with that one. A Google search will return numerous download spots. However, SINCE CODECS ARE SUCH A PAIN IN THE ASS, if you're currently able to play everything you want to play it might be more trouble than it's worth.

NOTE: ADHD steps in bold.


Step 1

The first step is to convert the .avi file to .mpg to be compatable with DVD players.

Load TMPGEnc. If the wizard does not open, click File, Project Wizard.

Choose NTSC under the DVD tree. (If you're not in America, this might not be the way to go.)

Choose an audio setting. For the purposes of this demonstration I've choosen CBR MPEG-1 Layer II Audio (MP2). You can choose different audio settings for higher quality, but on my shitty tv CBR MP2 sounds just fine.

Click Next.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/4739/step017ak.png


Step 2

Click the Browse button next to Video File.

Select the desired file.

Click Open.

Click Next.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/4267/step020lp.png


Step 3

This takes you to the filter settings. If you want to crop out opening or closing credits or only grab a specific scene, check the Source Range box and click the Setting button. It will load a new dialogue box that is fairly simple.

If the video file you have is in a 3:4 ratio (standard TV), this next step can be skipped. Click Next to move on. The file we're working with here is in widescreen.

Click Other settings.

Click the Avanced tab.

At Video Arrange Method choose Full Screen (keep aspect ratio).

Click OK.

Click Next.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/2891/step036xd.png


Step 4

Here you will choose the specifics of the encode.

Choose DVD-R 4.7GB(UDF) in box in the middle.

Select 192 in the Audio Bitrate box. You can go higher or lower. If you have a great speaker system on your tv, you will probably want to go with a higher setting or choose a different audio encode back at step 1. 192 sounds just fine on my TV.

Type 33 into the box Makes file size XX.XX% of disk capacity. For this demonstration I have three episodes to convert, so I will specify the output to be 33% of the disc's total capacity. Adjust this percentage accordingly. At this stage you can compress the shit out of your file to fit many episodes onto a disc, but quality will suffer. The bigger the file, the better the quality, but TMPGenc will not, of course, improve a video file that's crappy to begin with. This isn't CSI where you click a button and video tapes from security cameras zoom in to clearly identify the perp.

Click Next.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/951/step045id.png


Step 5

Choose a location for the output file.

Choose to begin encoding or to setup another file. Start encoding immediately will start the proccessing the file we've just setup. I have two more files to specify, so I'll check the batch option and repeat the above steps twice before running the encode.

Click OK. You will be prompted with a message stating the output file does not exist, is it ok to create it. Duh.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/3753/step053bf.png


Step 6

Go download some porn. The conversion from AVI to MPEG can take a while. On my 3.0 ghz machine with a gig of RAM, using the above settings takes approximately the running time of the video to convert. I'm able to use the machine to surf or write discs, but I prefer to walk away and let it do its thing.

The next step is to create the DVD using the author tool. You may want to preview your newly created mpeg files in the video player of your choice to make sure everything went smoothly.

Launch TMPGEnc DVD Author.

Click Create new project.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/5943/step065nf.png


Step 7

Click Add File. A standard file open box appears.

Select the files to add.

Click Open.

You will be prompted with an Add Clip dialogue box for each clip. Should you want to add chapter stops, click the Chapter cut edit button. Otherwise click OK to each one.

If your files are added in the incorrect order, drag and drop them around to the way they're supposed to be. The order specified here will be the order they play on the disc.

Click Create Menu.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/9499/step070en.png


Step 8

As this is going to be something I'm going to watch once and discard, I'm not going to put any effort into making a menu. The menu builder is fairly powerful and lets you create sub menus and all kids of fancy stuff. If you want to create an option to select each episode individually, you will have to add each episode to its own track back in step 7.

Select Play all tracks as the Firstplay action.

Click Output.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/8185/step085lc.png


Step 9

Choose an output folder.

Click Begin Output.

You will receive another "this folder does not exist, is it ok to create" message. Again, duh.

By default, DVD Author will put the created folder underneath the path you specify in a folder called Volume 1. You can change this in the application settings.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/739/step099mz.png


Step 10

Take a walk. It will take DVD Author a few minutes to build your DVD. My machine takes 15-20 minutes to build.

Click Open DVD Writing Tool. Now that the DVD folder is written, you can use any video DVD writing application to create your disk. You can click OK and then switch over to any other software.

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/8086/step10a7en.png

I have a couple of DVD+RWs that I use for one time viewings. If you want to reuse a DVD+/-RW, first click the Erase DVD+/-RW button before writing. The downside is not all players support RW discs.

Click Write DVD

http://img260.echo.cx/img260/7629/step10b5is.png

Once the burn completes, drop the disc in your DVD player and away you go. Simple.

Questions and comments are welcome, but don't let this highly technical(TM) presentation fool you -- I'm no expert.



Helpful links:

NTSC & PAL explained: http://www.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Contrib/WorldTV/

Aspect ratios explained: http://www.thedigitalbits.com/articles/ ... orama.html

DVD Player compatibility: http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers (Video Help has many, many detailed guides on video conversion.)

Pegasys, aka TMPGenc homepage: http://www.pegasys-inc.com/en/index.html

Thanks image shack.

[Sumdaor]

Convert X to Dvd

[Ashur]

Nero. That is all.