Turns out this is a formidable task.

I will lay out the steps that I am using - of which I am getting minimal results.
Since I have a bt878 - as many others do here - I use 'streamer' to capture the video.
Here is the command I am using presently.

Then I:

This gets me a nice movie that I can watch on the computer with no problem.
However, apparently, this 'movie.mpg' is not compatible with dvdauthor, so I have tried
various combinations along the lines of the following for demultiplexing,
requantize, & multiplexing (even though I don't really understand what all that is):


So then I either use Varsha ( http://varsha.sourceforge.net/ ) or dvdauthor
from the command line with these commands:

Then I test it with the command:

or to an ISO, or whatever method I'm trying at the time.

This is essentially an outline for a mini-howto that doesn't quite work right. Either
dvdauthor says my files are incompatible, or I need to requantize it (again) and/or the
menu of the dvd doesn't work, or the.... the list goes on and on.

Has anyone completed any of these steps with absalute success? I'm sure someone
has, I just hope they are here at Slackware/LQ. All the commands I have gotten from
various places, some here on LQ, some other places on the web. I have tried MANY
combinations of them, so don't think this is an absalute method or the only thing I have tried.

Any ideas?
-tw


EDITED:
I would imagine the best method to solve all these steps is brake it down into 4 sections:
1- capturing video
2- making video compliant for dvd
3- preparing dvd structure
4- authoring dvd

Any or all of these 4 topics are open for input/ideas/etc/

(bump)

Anybody?
Any help will be appreciated!

-tw

I know nothing of capturing video, however I backup my dvd movies with lxdvdrip.
You might look at the readme to see how he does it.

Good luck.

WilliamS,
I appreciate your response - however backing up dvd's is a solved problem for me
Although lxdvdrip is new to me and looks interesting. I think I'll give it a whirl just for fun.

I usually do that through a bash script found here at LQ - of which I use some of its
commands in an attempt to make a dvd of my home movies (kids, family, etc.)

My MAIN problem is getting my captured videos into the right format for the dvd
authoring. Even though they appear to be in MPEG-2 format, dvdauthor throws a fit
about them. All the tutorials I have read are either WAY too simple, or WAY over my head.

[ thinking to myself -> I wish I could find an intermediate how-to ]

But thanks!
-tw

tovid is a pretty good encoder, easy to use. You can probably find it at freshmeat.

Garibaldi3489,

I read the main info page on usage. sounds promising.

If I get up early enough, I'll get into it - otherwise tomorrow evening.
THANKS A LOT! this is about the most promising thing to convert I've
ran across so far.
best regards
-tw

( http://tovid.sourceforge.net/ )

http://tovid.sourceforge.net/

Worked out great. easy to use for converting mpeg & avi to dvd compatible
MPEG files. I'm 1 step further in this process.

Nice thing, since its command line, you can see how its done.
Thanks again for the suggestion Garibaldi3489.

-tw