How to put 6 hours of video onto DVD like standalone DVD recorder in EP mode

ipaquest · 05-07-2012, 06:44 PM

Been having some difficulties in creating a DVD with 4 hours and 6 hours of video. I have a standalone DVD writer, and with it I can record in three different modes, SP, LP and EP. These give me 2 hours of video, 4 hours of video, and 6 hours of video on a standard 4.7GB DVD. Can't I use Linux software to do the same thing? I have ffmpeg and can convert the video files into the right format, but I have had problems getting a DVD builder software to build the DVD so that I can burn it. The software crashes, repeatedly, even with the latest OS release...or it does not allow me to put videos that will be more than about 120 min total running time. Note that I know that there are posts with people saying you will get horrible video with 4 hours, and worse with 6 hours of video on a 4.7GB DVD. BUT I INSIST that it is fine for me on my standard definition television connected to my standalone DVD player. In fact, I regularly use 6 hours of video on a 4.7GB DVD.

DVDStyler 1.8.2: works for making a 120 min DVD. No option for 4 or 6 hours.
DeVeDe 3.21.0: crashes
Man2DVD: no option or crashes
KDVDCreator: no option or crashes
qdvdauthor 2.01: no option or crashes
tovidGUI: no option or crashes

It is frustrating. Must be for other Linux users too. Not sure what format the standalone DVD recorder uses nor what it does to compress the video, but the formats that I would like to try are 720x480, 352x480, 352x240 with varying bitrates to find out what is similar to the DVD recorder specifications.

I've also tried DVDStyler 2.0.1, but it only allows for 720x480 NTSC, and I have not figured out if I can use ffmpeg to encode video for 4 hours on this resolution.

I was thinking of trying dvdauthor with an xml file, and encoding the video with ffmpeg, though am not familiar enough with the format to do it and the gui applications call dvdauthor anyway. And it is a several step process to manually do it. Eventually, I would like to use the fancier features of the gui applications too.

It would be helpful to have the ffmpeg commands to use to convert video into various formats that will get the 2 hour, 4 hour, and 6 hour DVD video to work. So far, I have just tried:

Code:

ffmpeg -target ntsc-dvd

But the man pages does not specify what settings this gives, but it is 720x480 resolution.

jschiwal · 05-07-2012, 07:07 PM

Use ffprobe or mediainfo to analyze the video on an EP video you have recorded. The number of vertical lines will probably be 480 for mpeg video. 1/2 D1 video (352*480) with a low bitrate is probably what you need. Check the specs of your player. It may indicate what you need to use to be playable.

You may also need flags like +ilme+ilmct, and give the min and max video bitrates or q values. 224k audio bit rate @ 44.1k sample rate mp2 audio is the sweet spot.

Try burning the dvd without one of those GUI front ends. They may be too helpful, not allowing you reduce the bit rate were you want it.

When I started encoding videos for commercials at work, the encoder used 352:480 video IIRC. Check on Wikipedia what DVD & mpeg specs allow.

RobLMoore · 09-28-2012, 06:35 AM

you will need the following.

Windows 7 (for the cmd script)
ffmpeg (to transcode your video into half sized mpg's)
dvdauthor (to create the DVD structure)
mkisofs (to create your ISO)
growisofs (to burn your ISO to DVD)
nircmd (to eject the DVD)

Just extract all the support files into the same folder, create the cmd scripts (their text files), create a media folder in the same folder to place all the video's you want to convert. I have processed many thousand of videos with these scripts, so they have evolved over time.

I have broke the CMD files into separate systems because sometimes I do not want to do anything except convert a huge video that my computer can't handle into a smaller one so I can watch it on my computer.

Use this command script to transcode your video to mpg in DVD compatible format. Don't worry about the 360x240 format, most stand alone DVD players will expand the video. The quality is good for standard def. For better quality, such as for 720, you will want to change the line

Code:

if /i not %%~xa EQU .mp3 if /i not %%~xa EQU .jpg ffmpeg -threads 8 -i "%%a" -target ntsc-dvd -vf "yadif=0:-1:1, scale=iw/2:-1" -y newmovie1.mpg

to

Code:

if /i not %%~xa EQU .mp3 if /i not %%~xa EQU .jpg ffmpeg -threads 8 -i "%%a" -target ntsc-dvd -vf "yadif=0:-1:1" -y newmovie1.mpg

(transcodeing will take much longer).

Note: Transcodeing takes about 120fps for the 360 format and about 80fps for the 720 format with my Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400 (2M Cache, 1.83 GHz, 667 MHz FSB). So I am able to transcode at 2-4 times faster than the actual length of the video. FFMPEG is multi-threaded and uses both cores.

***************** 1. CreateMPG.cmd *****************

Code:

@echo off
cls

title transcode stills with mp3 to intro.mpg
if exist .\media\001.jpg Echo transcodeing all .jpg files in sequence starting with 001.jpg and
if exist .\media\001.jpg Echo combining with intro.mp3 to create an intro.mpg.
if exist .\media\001.jpg ffmpeg -r .07 -i ".\media\%%03d.jpg" -i .\media\intro.mp3 -loop 2 -map 0:0 -map 1:0 -target ntsc-dvd -y intro.mpg

rem ****** clean Up ******
if exist intro.mpg md mpg&move "intro.mpg" mpg

for /r %%a in (.\Media\*.*) do (
title transcode to mpg2 %%~na
echo transcodeing media into .mpg
if /i not %%~xa EQU .mp3 if /i not %%~xa EQU .jpg ffmpeg -threads 8 -i "%%a" -target ntsc-dvd -vf "yadif=0:-1:1, scale=iw/2:-1" -y newmovie1.mpg


rem ****** clean Up ******
if exist newmovie1.mpg ren newmovie1.mpg "%%~na.mpg"
if exist *.mpg md mpg&move "%%~na.mpg" mpg
)


exit

use this command script to create the DVD structure, create an ISO of the DVD and burn the ISO to disc.
***************** 2. finishDVD.cmd *****************

Code:

@echo off
cls
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION 
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS

rem ****** Createing Dvd.xml ******
if exist Dvd.xml del Dvd.xml

echo ^<dvdauthor dest="dvd"^> >>DVD.xml
echo  ^<vmgm^> >>DVD.xml
echo   ^<menus^> >>DVD.xml
echo    ^<pgc entry="title"^> >>DVD.xml
echo     ^<vob file=".\mpg\intro.mpg" pause="10"/^> >>DVD.xml
echo     ^<post^>jump title 1;^</post^> >>DVD.xml
echo    ^</pgc^> >>DVD.xml
echo    ^<video format="ntsc" aspect="16:9" widescreen="nopanscan"/^> >>DVD.xml
echo   ^</menus^> >>DVD.xml
echo  ^</vmgm^> >>DVD.xml
echo  ^<titleset^> >>DVD.xml
echo   ^<titles^> >>DVD.xml
echo    ^<video format="ntsc" aspect="16:9" widescreen="nopanscan"/^> >>DVD.xml

for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ('dir /b .\mpg\*.mpg') do ( 
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  call :times "%%~na%"
 )
)

set /a maxcount=%count%+1
set count=1

for /f "tokens=*" %%a in ('dir /b .\mpg\*.mpg') do ( 
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  call :times "%%~na%"
 )
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  echo    ^<pgc^> >>DVD.xml
 )
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  echo     ^<vob file=".\mpg\%%~na.mpg" chapters="0,5:00,10:00,15:00,20:00,25:00,30:00,35:00,40:00,50:00,55:00,60:00,65:00,70:00,75:00,80:00,85:00,90:00,95:00,100:00,105:00,110:00,115:00,120:00,125:00,130:00,135:00,140:00,145:00,150:00,155:00,160:00,165:00,170:00,175:00,180:00,185:00,190:00,195:00,200:00,205:00" pause="3"/^> >>DVD.xml
 )
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  if !count! LSS !maxcount! echo     ^<post^> jump title !count!; ^</post^> >>DVD.xml
 )
 if intro NEQ %%~na% ( 
  echo    ^</pgc^> >>DVD.xml
 )
)

echo   ^</titles^> >>DVD.xml
echo  ^</titleset^> >>DVD.xml
echo ^</dvdauthor^> >>DVD.xml
 

rem ****** Createing DVD structure ******
title Createing DVD structure DVD1
if not exist dvd md dvd
if not exist ".\dvd\DVD1" md ".\dvd\DVD1"

dvdauthor -o ".\dvd\DVD1" -x Dvd.xml

rem ****** create DVD image ******
title Createing ISO DVD1
mkisofs -dvd-video -p "RSS" -publisher "RSS" -V "DVD1" -v -o "DVD1.iso" "DVD\DVD1"
if exist *.iso md iso &move "DVD1.iso" iso

rem ****** write to DVD ******
title ****** write to DVD DVD1 ****** 
growisofs -dvd-compat -Z d:="iso\DVD1.iso"
start "" /min nircmd.exe cdrom open

pause
ENDLOCAL
exit

:times
set /a count=%count%+1

goto end

:end

Use this command script if you already have a DVD saved to your computer and want to create and ISO of it.
***************** 2b. Create ISO.cmd *****************

Code:

@echo off
cls
setlocal ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION 
setlocal ENABLEEXTENSIONS

rem ****** create DVD image ******
title Createing ISO DVD1
mkisofs -dvd-video -p "RSS" -publisher "RSS" -V "DVD1" -v -o "DVD1.iso" "DVD\DVD1"
if exist *.iso md iso &move "DVD1.iso" iso


pause
ENDLOCAL
exit

Use this command to burn your DVD ISO to disk.
***************** 3. WriteDVD.cmd *****************

Code:

@echo off
cls

:start
rem ****** write to DVD ******
title ****** write to DVD DVD1 ****** 
rem growisofs -dvd-compat -Z d:="iso\DVD1.iso"
growisofs -Z d:="iso\DVD1.iso"
start "" /min nircmd.exe cdrom open


goto end

:end
pause

exit

As A slight plus, this system will also create a mpg of stills with one mp3 for your DVD introduction. I haven't worked on the script for a few months, but eventually i want to have it create a basic menu.

Stills have to be named in order such as 001.jpg, 002.jpg, any break in the order such as not having a 003.jpg when you have ten stills will stop the stills from transcodeing. the intro.mpg will still transcode, leaving you with a long pause on a still but music playing.

For linux you should be able to pick through the command lines for all the software and figure out the proper format because the software is cross platform.

I have attached a 7z file with the cmd script and links to the software. just remove the .txt from the file name to use it.

414N · 09-28-2012, 06:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RobLMoore

If the blog messes up the format of the post, email me and i will send you a zip/7z file with the cmd scripts and links to the current supporting software.

You just need to use the [code][/code] tags to surround your code, so it will keep its formatting.
Try doing it editing your previous post.

jefro · 09-28-2012, 03:34 PM

I had an old dvd recorder like that. I think it used divx but supported more. As noted above the ability to play or select needs work manually.

Best is to record on it then view the files in linux box.
Look at the way it records. Many of those support a few formats of files but more importantly the length of video is a result of the compression and quality of the file. That way each minute is being recorded in a smaller file. It is not like a tape recorder that slows down the speed of the tape.

linux_BSD · 09-28-2012, 04:29 PM

@ ipaquest

I use tovid. http://tovid.wikia.com/wiki/Tovid_Wiki

An excellent program. It's like a Swiss knife for DVD authoring. I had put 6 hours and sometimes more by playing around with the options this program offers. The program runs best from the command line but there is a gui front end, but I don't use it.

I use these options when I want to put 6 hours or more on a 4.7GB DVD.

-half-dvd = (352x480 NTSC, 352x576 PAL) Half-D1-compatible output
-dvd-vcd = (352x240 NTSC, 352x288 PAL) VCD-on-DVD output
-quality ( default is 6. 10 is the maximum.)

Note: tovid defaults to 720x480 when creating dvd compatible media. But you can override it by using either -half-dvd or -dvd-vcd . You cannot use both on the same command line.

If you intend to put 6 hours or more on a 4.7GB disc, you'll have to choose between quality or quantity.
I once put 8 hours of footage on a standard dvd. It looks fine on basic TV sets but it shows graininess on higher end TVs depending how much tovid compresses the video.

Tip: The default encoder tovid uses does not sync the audio and video that well. Instead of using the default encoder, pass the -ffmpeg option to tovid. Tovid will now use ffmpeg and It will encode the videos faster and keep the audio in perfect sync with video(s).

- Cheers