Best way to create a DVD from a video file?

johann_p · 01-01-2006, 02:19 PM

I would like to burn a DVD from all kinds of video files I have on my harddisk - avi, wmv, rm files of different size and aspect ratios.

What is the most easiest and robust way to convert such files so that I can burn a DVD from them that can be played on a standard DVD player? Something extremely simple which would simply create a new track for each file would do.

I would like not to have to fiddle with cryptic settings and options though ... since mplayer can play all these files, why should it be a problem to simply automatically convert them to whatever a PAL DVD needs?

I have experimented with this quite a while ago and gave up, totally frustrated.

wapcaplet · 01-01-2006, 02:56 PM

I suggest tovid.

ilikejam · 01-01-2006, 03:00 PM

Here's the mplayer (well, mencoder) command I use to convert to DVD type MPEG:

Code:

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=9800:keyint=15:acodec=ac3:abitrate=384:aspect=4/3 -ofps 25 -o video.mpg /path/to/file.avi

johann_p · 01-01-2006, 03:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ilikejam

Here's the mplayer (well, mencoder) command I use to convert to DVD type MPEG:

Code:

mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -vf scale=720:576,harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=9800:keyint=15:acodec=ac3:abitrate=384:aspect=4/3 -ofps 25 -o video.mpg /path/to/file.avi

Thank you for the info ... but once I have this video.mpg file, how do I get a burned DVD that can be played in a DVD player from that?

Also, will this work for any kind of video, e.g. rm or wmv?

johann_p · 01-01-2006, 03:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wapcaplet

(I cannot post URLs yet, not even quoted, so I cannot quote you here - johann_p

)

Great -- this looks good! I just downloaded and installed it and will try it out now.

Unfortunately, the GUI does not seem to work.

When I run tovidgui (not tovidgui.py as is written on the web page), I get:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "./tovidgui", line 32, in ?
from libtovid import TDL, Parser, Project
ImportError: No module named libtovid

I have installed the whole package with config/make/make install into /usr/local/bin, so tovidgui is in the path, as recommended on the web page.

wapcaplet · 01-01-2006, 05:23 PM

There's one further step, as per the instructions in 'INSTALL':

Code:

su -c './setup.py install'

(From the tovid source directory). Then the GUI should work properly.

johann_p · 01-02-2006, 04:10 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wapcaplet

There's one further step, as per the instructions in 'INSTALL':

Code:

su -c './setup.py install'

(From the tovid source directory). Then the GUI should work properly.

Ugh, not reading the INSTALL is embarrassing

Thank you for your help, the GUI works fine now too!

I'll give feedback here after I have tested this all the way through.

BruceCadieux · 01-02-2006, 05:58 AM

I also recommend tovid.