How to convert AVI file to DVD?

Hi,

I have just downloaded a couple of movies in avi format. What I did was to use avidemux to convert the said file to DVD and it took me almost 2 hours per movie. I got an output of .mpeg. My problem now is how do I burn it into a DVD disc using the K3B burner? When I try to create a new DVD Video project, I can see that there are two folders created for AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS, on which folder will I put the mpeg file. Is there an easier way to do this in Ubuntu? What program can you suggest that will handle all the work (converting and burning)? I believe tovid can do this but its difficult to install. Thanks.

Just putting an mpeg into a VIDEO_TS folder will not work. You need to use something to convert the mpeg into vobs.

I use ffmpeg to convert to dvd compatible mpeg, then dvdauthor to create the dvd file structure and vobs, mkisofs to create the dvd image, and finally growisofs to burn the image (although you could use k3b for the last part). You could put all these into a script of some sort to make it easier, which I have done. These are the steps:

1) ffmpeg -i video.avi -y -target pal-dvd video.mpg
2) Make a dvdauthor xml file:

<dvdauthor dest="temp">
<vmgm/>
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="video.mpg"/>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

3) dvdauthor -x dvdauthor.xml
4) mkisofs -dvd-video -udf temp > tempdvd.iso
5) growisofs -Z /dev/hdd=tempdvd.iso -dvd-compat -overburn

By the way 2 hours is very long just for the initial conversion. Using my method takes around 30 mins from start to finish. There are a few things you will need to check though - I'm in the UK so I make pal dvds, you may need ntsc, and if the aspect ration is 4:3 you will need to put that in your dvdauthor xml file because it assumes 16:9 :

<dvdauthor dest="temp">
<vmgm/>
<titleset>
<titles>
<video aspect="4:3" />
<pgc>
<vob file="video.mpg"/>
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>

Another thing to watch out for is that if for any reason you stop dvdauthor and restart it then you will need to delete the 'temp' folder it creates, because it tends to add on to whats already in there.

I've downloaded an AVI already has black bars. Should I still set it to 4:3 or 16:9? Thanks a lot for the help.

Run it with mplayer and you can usually tell the format by the shape of it.