Topic: avi to DVD files... one last question

[timP]

 

I see the light at the end of the tunnel...

the avi file is ready.. audio synched etc.. got nero now to burn and some sweet menues made in DVDlabPro

but I have a 11GB total file size in avi and DVDshrink won't recognize avi

do I have to convert it to MPEG2? or is there a shrinker for avi?
how do you make the .TS fils that I get in the DVD torrents?

anyways, thanks alot and look for freebies of the finished product....

[hyperplane]

for an AVI video file to be burned onto DVD to play in regular settop DVD players (the kind that hook up to a TV set), you need to convert the video to MPEG-2, and the audio has to be WAV (a.k.a. PCM) or AC3 or MPEG audio (which sucks bollocks).

CCE or ProCoder are the better MPEG-2 video encoders, IMO. TMPG and MainConcept okay (but TMPG takes freaking forever compared to ProCoder or CCE or MainConcept on my P4 beast).

for audio encoding to AC3, BeSweet is iffy... but may work okay. Some authoring programs (like Ulead DVD Workshop) can encode the audio + video for you (Ulead uses the MainConcept MPEG encoder). for better AC3 conversion, something like SoftEncode (no longer made) is excellent... and i think Minnetonka software company makes some AC3 encoding software currently.

[macdaddy]

isnt that kind of going the wrong way..?

like going mp3 > WAV

[timP]

how much of a loss in image quality and audio quality should I expect with a program like ULead or TMPEG?

it looks pretty nice now and don't want to loose much

also, will the MPEG file be as large/smaller/bigger then the avi?

[hyperplane]

isnt that kind of going the wrong way..?

like going mp3 > WAV

if the AVI is an uncompressed AVI file, or a DV .AVI file, then NO, it's not like going mp3 > WAV. in these cases digital master/clone video source > DV .AVI > MPEG-2 video (DVD specification) is more like going DAT > WAV. you cannot burn an AVI file onto disc and have it watchable in a settop DVD player; unless the AVI file is a divx file (which are good quality for the compression size - WAY better than VCD or SVCD - but not as good as a high bitrate MPEG-2 video file).

now, if you take a show already on DVD (MPEG-2 video file), then edit it, and then re-encode it, that IS like going MP3 > audio CDR (WAV) > MP3. it's a BIG mistake to re-encode MPEG-2 video, because there's quality loss and MPEG-2 video is a lossy format to begin with.

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tpoff - how much loss in quality you see depends on the bitrate you select for the MPEG-2 video compression. higher bitrates (and using the VBR, a.k.a. Variable BitRate mode) are what you ideally want... e.g. max bitrate = 8000, average bitrate = 7000, min bitrate = 2000. and have WAV (a.k.a. PCM) audio. at those settings, you can easily get 60 minutes of high quality video onto 1 DVDR.

if you use a lossy audio compression (AC3 or MPEG audio - MPEG audio is the worst quality of any DVD-spec audio), then you can fit more onto a disc... as well as if you lower the video bitrate.

TMPG seems to take longer than any other MPEG-2 encoding software i've ever used on any of 3 or 4 computers. if you used Ulead DVD Workshop with the MainConcept MPEG encoder, it would definitely be quicker than TMPG. still, IMO, ProCoder or CCE will give you better quality than TMPG or MainConcept. and CCE is the fastest encoder i've ever found. i can do 4 passes with it in the time it takes MainConcept to do 2 passes, and the more passes the merrier (i've been doing 6 - 10 passes all along with DVD creation, and always had excellent results).

one other thing to keep in mind: the AVI file and the encoded MPEG file will probably not look so great on your computer monitor (it will look better on a TV set), because the majority of footage out there is interlaced which doesn't look good on computer monitors, but looks perfectly fine on TVs (which are made to show interlaced footage).

[timP]

vargas..

PM me with your adress..

I have some DVDs for you if you want 'em

you are the fuckin man