Newbie question: how to convert various avi & mpg files to dvd-r

[Severian_ofUrth]

I've never tried this before, but I just got a Pioneer A05 DVD-RW drive and wanted to convert my Babylon5 divx files to something readable by my Sony DVP-S530D DVD player (so I can get my wife to watch em with me ) I've been looking at the FAQ's but they seem geared toward people going from DVD to divx, not the other way around. I'd like to get the files into DVD-R format as I don't think my player supports DVD-RW or VCD. I tried TMPGEnc and Nero, but all I got was a .mv2 (whatever that is) and a .wav file. Please help!

[gd_nimrod]

Dvd players are not capable of playing DivX. So don't even think about putting divx movies on dvd-r to watch on your standalone - cause it ain't gonna happen! But you CAN however convert the divx movies in to mpeg-1 and mpeg-2 files which you CAN watch on your dvd - depending on the model. Since your not sure about your standalone, i suggest you visit www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers and see what types of media your dvd player is capable of playing. Post again if it can read vcd's or svcd's.

[setarip]

Click on the DVD Digest link at the top of this page - and read some of the excellent tutorials...

[Severian_ofUrth]

Thanks for the replies! My player supports dvd-r and dvd+r as per some info I found online, but so far it's no go. Can you recommend a specific tutorial, as the ones I've seen are either dvd to divx or divx to vcd. I made an mpeg2 file that is viewable in powerdvd, but lacks sound. And I still have that wav file from my previous attempt. Do I need to create video_ts and audio_ts folders or is that just for vcd? Do I need to somehow convert my mpeg2 file to a vob file? Oh, and if I manage to get this to work at a small enough size, where I can put 2 or 3 episodes on a disk, how do I create a menu of options? Sorry for all the questions but I've never done this before!

[setarip]

Again - Click on the DVD Digest (NOT DivX Digest) link at the top of this page - and read some of the excellent tutorials...

[Severian_ofUrth]

thanks for the RTFM response....

Anyone care to point me to one or even 2 or 3 guides for what I'm trying to do? I don't mind doing my homework, but it's not my intention to become a guru at this, and I was hoping not to have to read 30+ guides to figure out the terminology, tools, and options required to convert a divx movie to a DVD. That's why I posted. No doubt the guide you were referring to is easy for you to find becasue you know what to look for; I don't. I didn't find it before I posted, and I haven't found it now that I've looked again. Is there anyone on this board with a streak of mercy for an admitted n00b?

[setarip]

Per the information listed at VCDHelp.com, specific to your model standalone DVD player, it will additionally recognize CD R/W and VCDs. So, if you'd care to take a shot at converting one of your DivX-compressed .AVIs to VCD format and burn it onto a rewriteable CD (CD R/W), try the following (R my F M ;>}):

To create a VCD (Also costs a lot less than burning DVDs):

1) Load .AVI file into TMPGEnc
2) Set to "System Video and Audio" (lower right side)
3) Click on "Setting" radio button
4) Click on "System" tab, change mode to "MPEG1-VideoCD" (from default of "MPEG1")
5) Click on "Advanced" tab, change "Video arrange method" to "Center (Custom Size"), change dimensions to 352x288 or 352x240
6) Change "Source aspect ratio" to either "4:3 525 line (NTSC 704x480)", "4:3 525 line (NTSC)", or "16:9 525 line (NTSC)" - If you're in the PAL world choose either of the two similar PAL settings instead
7) Under the "Video" tab, change the dimensions to 352x288 or 352x240 (Note: "Video" tab mode of "MPEG1" is okay) - set "Motion Search Precision" to "Normal Quality". Change the "Aspect Ratio" to match, as closely as possible, the "Source Aspect Ratio" you set under the "Advanced" tab.
8) Change "Rate Control Mode" to "Automatic VBR (CQ_VBR)"
9) Under the "Audio" tab, set to 44,100 224Kbps
10) Press "Start"

(Note: Or you could simply use TMPGEnc's VCD "wizard"/template - but I can't attest to it's adequacy)

Note that if your video runs longer than 60 minutes, you'll have to subsequently split your VCD-MPG file in two. This too can be easily and precisely accomplished using TMPGEnc. Under the "Files" dropdown menu, click on "MPEG Tools" and select the "Merge & Cut" tab. Once again, make sure to change the mode to "MPEG1-Video CD". Load your file and enter a new (.MPG) name in the "Output file" box. Then doubleclick on the ORIGINAL file's name in the window, which will bring you to the cutting area. Select your desired start and end points for the first half, click on "Okay" which will bring you back to the first window and generate (in a sequence of three automated steps) the first new file. To create the second new file, repeat the steps starting with "Then doubleclick on the ORIGINAL..." (be extra patient with the second half, as the program has to do more seeking to establish the beginning of the new file).

Use a burning program, such as NERO to burn your CD-R or R/W CD as a VCD (DON'T ask NERO to format the file as a VCD, since you've already accomplished this!)

[Severian_ofUrth]

lol
I appreciate the help, you rock, thanks!!!

[setarip]

"I appreciate the help, you rock, thanks!!!"

My pleasure ;>}


(Regards from ZZ Top)

[Severian_ofUrth]

Ran into a bit o trouble....

Setarip's instructions seemed to work for the video, but I had to do one thing I learned from another tutorial: before you click "Setting", you need to click "Load" and browse to <PATH>\TMPGEnc\Template\Extra\unlock.mcf. Otherwise, you can't change some options.

I wasn't sure about a couple of things like the video source type under the "Advanced" tab, so I used the default which was "Non-interlace (progressive)". And I wasn't sure about the differences between "Source aspect ratio", "Video arrange Method pixels" on the "Advanced" tab, and "size" under the "Video" tab. Presumably, "Advanced" is input and "Video" is output, but why do the values need to change? Shouldn't that cause distortion to the image? I'm sure Setarip's instructions were correct, but this is a lingering question I have.

I was able to open the file in windows media player 7.1 and PowerDVD XP 4.0, but the stream didn't have sound. During the setup, I was unable to load an audio source, only a video source. I got the error "File cannot be opened or is unsupported". But the settings show "Layer-2 44100Hz 224kbps".... So I found this guide: <http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgenc.htm> and it told me to extract the audio with virtualdub to a wav file. I did so (took 8 seconds to rip). Then I tried to play the wav file and got the error "This file requires MP3 ACM codec to be installed". Crap. I have the Nemo codec pack installed and that I had to do some registry editing some time back to get the audio in the NOLF2 demo to play, so I figured that whatever I did was screwing this up (although regular mp3's play great). So I reinstalled the Nemo pack and the wav file opened fine! Incidentally, after I reinstalled the Nemo pack, TMPGenc was able to read the audio source, but I decided to use the wav file as per vcdhelp. Everything looked great until I hit "Start". Then I got the error "wav File cannot be opened or is unsupported". So I rebooted, hoping that the Nemo pack had made changes to the registry that TMPGenc hadn't detected, but then I got the same error. I decided to go with using the avi as both the video and audio source, despite vcdhelp's suggestion, and lo!, the audio and video weren't out of sync.

I was able to open the file fine in windows media player, getting both audio and video. However after I burned it to VCD using Nero, PowerDVD just gave me a green screen and choppy audio, but I thought I had read somewhere that that wasn't unusual so I put it in my Sony player and it wouldn't detect the disk. I tried burning the file again at a slower speed but got the same result. I'm stuck again. Any thoughts?

System Specs:
Microsoft Windows 2000 w/SP3
WDC WD1200JB-75CRA0 Hard drive
AMD 2400+ w/512 megs (stock speeds)
GeForce4 Ti 4600 (doubt this is a factor)
Audigy 1 (not sure if this is a factor in audio conversion)
Yamaha 24x10x40x cd burner
GQ CD-R's 40x 700MB

Conversion notes:

23:23 minutes for a 43.44 minute avi file (divxmpg 4 v3 video+ mp3 audio)
TMPEnc used 18 megs and all of my remaining CPU, but Winamp3 never skipped a beat!
The input file was 207 megs and the output is 614 megs
The mp3 to wav rip took 8 seconds