I am using a program called kavi2svcd. It takes *.avi files and converts them to *.mpeg to burn to a CD (SVCD). Is anyone familiar with this program? When I ran the conversion it ended up making two files (one about 700MB and one about 200MB). Is there any way I can set it to compress the video so it fits on a single CD (700 or 750MB)?

Also, I want to make (legal) backups of my son's DVDs. He very frequently scratches them or accidentally steps on them when he leaves them on the floor of this room (he's only 3 years old so he doesn't know any better). Are there any free programs, in linux, which have this capability? I don't mind compressing/stripping them (as I'll let him play with the backups).

Ryan

Compress more? mpeg compression is already very good ... I doubt you can half the size of a mpeg.

Try K3B, I think it does this (I could be wrong, I don't have a dvd recorder). It may even be already install in your system. If it's not just install it via the menu. It comes with mandriva CDs.

Thanks for the response. I basically want to put these *.AVI files on one CD. Is there anyway to do this? Also, I have K3B, but it doesn't backup DVD movies, only data.

Ryan

Hi.

I use the program called "dvdbackup" to create a backup copy of DVD movies on my hard disk. It comes in a single C-language source file and all you've got to do is to compile it into the binary with one command. Once you've copied the contents of the DVD onto your hard disk, you can then use mkisofs and growisofs to burn them onto a blank DVD.

Don't you have to shrink the DVD somehow?

You do if you want to minimize your hard disk usage. There are "shrink" programs such as DVD::Rip. In fact, I've been trying to get DVD::Rip to work on my system (not successfuly yet).

If you simply want to create a mirrored copy of your DVD, no shrinking is necessary.