DISCUSSION: Converting video to VCD, SVCD, or DVD

ic. Good luck!

Hey wapcaplet -- thanks for the great script! I hope this hasn't been asked already (admitedly, I didn't read all 740-something posts in this thread).

What's easist no frills way to take the mpg file produced by tovid and get it onto a DVD which plays on my DVD player. I don't need no steenkin menus or subtitles, etc. Just wanna play the video on my DVD Player. Gotta a link to thread I missed?

Try this post:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...00#post1388700

Or

$ dvdauthor -o dvd dvd_output.mpg dvd_output2.mpg ...

To add chapters every 10 minutes use this command instead:

$ dvddauthor -o dvd -c ,10:00,20:00,30:00,40:00,50:00,1:00:00,1:10:00,1:20:00,1:30:00,1:40:00,
1:50:00,2:00 dvd_output.mpg dvd_output2.mpg, etc..

and then...

$ dvdauthor -T -o dvd

to create TOC files.

$ mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o whateveryouwanttocalltheiso.iso dvd/

to make the iso to burn.

To test the iso before burning it:

$ xine dvd://path-to-iso

Afterwards, just burn the iso with whatever tool you want to a dvd. Ofcourse, i am asuming here that your mpg is encoded into dvd format via tovid.

Thanks! That's exactly what I was looking for! Tip for wapcaplet: It's be very nice to have something like that in the FAQ ;-) Cheers.

welcome.

I finally sat down and worked on the GUI during the last couple of days. It is very near the point of being able to do all of the necessary pre-authoring steps. I've posted the start of a tour of the GUI on the tovid website. That's more or less what the release will look like. Continuing with encoding lets you choose the output directory, and a log window displays the output of all the commands as they run (tested with simple things like 'ls', but not yet with actual tovid script output). I still have a little headache to figure out (dealing with the two large buttons at the bottom, which change with each panel), but other than that, all that remains is some testing.

I've also looked into KVCD a little bit. It doesn't look very difficult, technically, to implement - some new configuration would have to be done to allow the new resolutions, and to use the notch quantization matrix. However, I am more than a little concerned by this:

The KVCD "Notch" Quantization Matrix is Copyright (c) 2002, 2003 of Softronex Corporation. Please contact us for commercial use.

In tovid's current state, I have no plans for commercial distribution, but as the author of a piece of software that is growing in popularity (with, I fondly hope, explosive potential as one of the first Linux DVD authoring suites), I would be concerned about how the Softronex Corporation might interpret "Commercial use". I hope that people are using tovid for a wide variety of applications - putting home movies on DVD, archiving tapes of old TV shows that you can't find in stores anymore, and maybe even as a general-purpose VCD/DVD-compliant video converter. I have absolutely no problem (and in fact would be quite flattered) if people were using tovid for commercial purposes. If I introduce KVCD as an output format, and someone uses tovid to create commercial KVCDs, there's the potential they might come down against tovid's users for using KVCD in a commercial setting, or against me for being the author of the software. You can never be too careful in this age of software patent nonsense.

However, they do say "please contact us", so I think at the very least I will contact them and ask what their terms of usage would be for this situation.

nice work on the website man.

Hrm, i didn't know that about kvcd. I suppose someone else here can explain it here more since i am not that familiar at all with kvcd stuff.

hi folks, first time in this forum and quite new to linux. I was looking for a video converter to use in my new mepis environment. have been using tmpgenc. all along in windoze using mvcd-templates. I havnt read the whole thread, so I dont know, if mvcd was mentioned, but from my experience it is superior to kvcd and its free. so you might just have a look into that. (www.molevcd.de) would be great to have that integrated:

wow, another vcd format? Thx for sharing.

Hi wapcaplet and everyone,

I have been using Linux for a few years now... but have never attempted to make a VCD.

I have run into a (hopefully) small problem..

Here is what I get when I run the run the script and do the [C]heck ...

==========================================
Checking for required and recommended programs...
==========================================
mplayer/mencoder: /usr/bin/mplayer
==========================================
mplayer was not found, or is not new enough.
mplayer is needed for the following suite components:
  tovid (Converts video to (S)VCD or DVD mpeg format)
  idvid (Identifies video format, resolution, and length)
  postproc (Adjusts A/V sync and does shrinking of encoded video)
If you want to use the above components, please install mplayer.
You can get mplayer from http://www.mplayerhq.hu/
==========================================
mjpegtools: /usr/bin/yuvfps /usr/bin/mpeg2enc /usr/bin/mp2enc /usr/bin/mplex
ffmpeg: /usr/bin/ffmpeg
transcode: /usr/bin/transcode
normalize: /usr/bin/normalize
ImageMagick utilities: /usr/bin/convert
SoX: /usr/bin/sox
dvdauthor: /usr/bin/dvdauthor
vcdimager: /usr/bin/vcdimager
==========================================
Some required or recommended software was not found. You may
want to install these before using tovid for full functionality.
Please check out the tovid documentation on the web:
  http://tovid.sourceforge.net/
==========================================

The first time I ran the script I needed almost everything... (vcdimager, dvdauthor, normalize, transcode, ffmpeg, mjpegtools)

However with synaptic I was able to add all these packages to my Dabian Sarge

...your script grabbed everything except as you can see mplayer

When I am quite sure it is installed...

frankin:/home/will/tovid_0.17# locate mplayer
/etc/mplayer
/etc/mplayer/input.conf
/etc/mplayer/menu.conf
/etc/mplayer/mplayer.conf
/root/.mplayer
/root/.mplayer/config
/usr/bin/gmplayer
/usr/bin/mplayer
/usr/lib/menu/mplayer-586
/usr/lib/mime/packages/mplayer-586
/usr/lib/mplayer
/usr/lib/mplayer/vidix
/usr/lib/mplayer/vidix/cyberblade_vid.so

Here is the version output from MPlayer that I have installed..

MPlayer 1.0pre6-3.3.4 (C) 2000-2004 MPlayer Team
CPU: Intel Celeron A Mendocino/Pentium II Dixon (Family: 6, Stepping: 5)
Detected cache-line size is 32 bytes
CPUflags:  MMX: 1 MMX2: 0 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 0 SSE2: 0
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX SSE

Is this version not compatable?

Thanks for any help...

PS -- What distro of Linux do you like

PPS -- one of your fans writes about "tovid Video Conversion Suite"

This is one of the most effective and easy to use applications for converting movies, in my humble opinion.

-- located here... --> http://www.pibby.com/blog/
-- lol... I just noticed he posts here also Hi piddy!

Sorry if I have asked any questions that have already been answered.. I also have not read all 480some posts in this thread

.

Welcome, reddragon! Thanks for the detailed post. I'm pretty sure what's happening is that mplayer is reported as "not new enough." I don't know exactly what versions will work, but the 'configure' script checks the output of:

mplayer -vo help | grep yuv4mpeg

There are many slightly different versions of mplayer, and I don't know what versions have the yuv4mpeg output driver. The yuv4mpeg output driver is required; presumably, it's unavailable in your version. You can still install tovid and give it a try, but my guess is that it will bomb out with errors about an unsupported command-line option (or may even do weirder things, since the error-checking is not as robust as it should be). Who knows - it just might work, and mplayer is just not listing yuv4mpeg in the '-vo help' output.

If it turns out your version doesn't support it, let me know what it does support and maybe I can find a workaround (though I have tried many other approaches, and none of them work as well or as reliably as the yuv4mpeg one).

The version I am using at the moment is 1.0pre5try2-3.3.4, so it looks as though your version is newer. I'd hate to think they've removed this output driver from newer versions! Then again, I'm not really understanding their version naming convention. I think I read somewhere that the mplayer developers think they're really close to version 1.0, so all the recent releases have been 1.0pre-something. It's something of an ongoing maintenance problem to deal with version changes in dependencies, but I guess that's just the way it has to be in open source, when software is always growing.

PS -- What distro of Linux do you like

If you'd asked me two months ago, I'd have replied "Gentoo" without hesitation. Portage is far better than Mandrake/rpm was at getting software installed along with its dependencies, and I like how configuration changes can be audited before applying them. I always know I can get the near-latest version of something by unmasking a package (quite handy in getting dvdauthor 0.6.10), and I feel relatively in control of what gets installed on my box.

However, I had a minor entanglement recently with--guess what!--a dependency version upgrade breaking something else. Specifically, the Gentoo phase-out of XFree86, replacing it with X.org. I looked at my package list one day and noticed I had X.org installed; I said, "I don't really want such an unstable windowing system just yet." I had apparently installed it as a dependency to something else that I had upgraded (I must have left an upgrade running overnight, and didn't pay much attention to what would be installed).

I uninstalled it, and then realized that there was no XFree86 anymore. I was still in an XFree86 session, so I logged out and went ahead with reinstallation of X.org. When I got my GUI back, I found that most of my favorite fonts (the fixed-width one I use in my text editor, especially!) had become very ugly. I managed to get most of the fonts (or references to them) restored, along with an annoying reconfiguration of X (xorg.conf), but they still don't look quite right. I've just given up and gotten used to it. To top it off, I think it has a bug in window focus, because I've noticed (especially in GIMP, and especially when using XFCE) that it can take as long as 30 seconds for a window to realize it has received the focus. Very annoying, when you want to grab a new paintbrush out of the toolbox. Could be an XFCE bug, though.

Gentoo's dependency handling is very good in one direction (getting dependencies for a package). But it appears to be poor at handling reverse dependencies--what software depends on this one, and what will happen if I try to upgrade this one. I'd still say Gentoo has been the best overall distro experience I've had, but Debian's apt had much better package handling. I'm not to the point of wanting to switch to something else just yet, because I'm still learning things in Gentoo and think it has the potential to improve.

This is one of the most effective and easy to use applications for converting movies, in my humble opinion.

Actually, tovid is really difficult to use, in comparison with the tovid GUI ...which brings me to another topic: I'm getting back into GUI development, after an extraordinarily hectic month at work (along with some nice paychecks!) My brain has been in no condition to do programming, but it's starting to recover and progress is being made. I'm very happy with the way the GUI is turning out, and have many ideas for potential improvements once it is released. I hope it turns into the k3b of video disc authoring (and maybe even the DVD shrink of Linux)! I'll just be happy to know that I've helped bring VCD/DVD authoring to open source.

So, I can't promise any deadlines, but it won't be very much longer!

Thank you for your detailed reply ...and the warm welcome!

but the 'configure' script checks the output of: mplayer -vo help | grep yuv4mpeg

Here is my output...

frankin:/home/will/tovid_0.17# mplayer -vo help | grep yuv4mpeg
        yuv4mpeg        yuv4mpeg output for mjpegtools
frankin:/home/will/tovid_0.17#

...this is good right?!?

If you'd asked me two months ago, I'd have replied "Gentoo" without hesitation. However, I had a minor entanglement recently with--guess what!--a dependency version upgrade breaking something else. Specifically, the Gentoo phase-out of XFree86, replacing it with X.org. I looked at my package list one day and noticed I had X.org installed; I said, "I don't really want such an unstable windowing system just yet." After I uninstalled it, I realized that there was no XFree86 anymore. Long story short, I got X.org all reinstalled, and then found that most of my favorite fonts (the fixed-width one I use in my text editor, especially!) had become very ugly. I managed to get most of the fonts (or references to them) restored, along with an annoying reconfiguration of X (xorg.conf), but they still don't look quite right. I've just given up and gotten used to it. To top it off, I think it has a bug in window focus, because I've noticed (especially in GIMP, and especially when using XFCE) that it can take as long as 30 seconds for a window to realize it has received the focus. Very annoying, when you want to grab a new paintbrush out of the toolbox.

I have a friend that's completely nuts about gentoo.
Myself I find it takes to long to install apps... maybe im to impatient. lol

Debian Sarge impresses me so much.. I love it.. but I will leave that rant for another time...

Actually, tovid is really difficult to use, in comparison with the tovid GUI

I am looking forward to really testing out your script and GUI. I have often joked I should be a beta tester cause if there is a way to break something.. I can usually find it. lol

So, I can't promise any deadlines, but it won't be very much longer!

Just let me know when it's ready for testing.. I would love to be involved anyway I could.

Thanks again for your insight..

Will - aka reddragonofearth

.

Debian Sarge impresses me so much.. I love it.. but I will leave that rant for another time...

Have you tried to "upgrade" to Debian Sid? The difference between gentoo and Debian Sid is that gentoo is very bleeding edge, and Sid, although known as "unstable" branch of Debian, has had at least some testing done in its packages. Ofcourse, that is what i have heard, since the really experimental debian branch is known appropriately as experimental.

Anyhow, i am not saying debian is better than gentoo or vice versa, but since you are on Sarge already, why not use Sid? I been using it for 2 yrs now without many problems at all.

My brain has been in no condition to do programming, but it's starting to recover and progress is being made. I'm very happy with the way the GUI is turning out, and have many ideas for potential improvements once it is released. I hope it turns into the k3b of video disc authoring (and maybe even the DVD shrink of Linux)! I'll just be happy to know that I've helped bring VCD/DVD authoring to open source.

Good to hear from you man. Take your time, is all i gotta say.
Cmon now, we all know tovid pwns k3b, lol. But it would be interesting if k3b put tovid into their
app...you never know.

I've got to say that the tovid suite is great. I've been using it for a while to convert videos to dvd.

Seem to have developed a small problem now though. I am running 0.17 and as of last night I've noticed that when I make a menu (using makemenu), after authoring none of the text gets highlighted using xine.

Functionally, the menus work fine using xine's navigator (using up, down and select) but you can't see anything happening (i.e. no highlights).

Strangely I've always had this problem using QDvdAuthor or DVD Styler. In QDvdAuthor nothing highlights and in DVD Styler the moust cursor changes when you move the mouse over where the button should be, but no button shows up.

Not a major issue but I was just wondering weather anyone would have any idea why this happens?

BTW I'm using Slackware 10.0 (kernel 2.6.7), xorg 6.8.1, XFce 4.2, xine-lib 1.0, nvidia drivers 6629

Just a general question: The dvd-vcd option lets one make vcd-like quality videos that get burnt on to a dvd. Hows that different from making a regular vcd mpeg? Couldn't you just use that and burn it to a dvd as well?

Thx.