n00b: Confused about authoring.

[Clumsy Marianne]

Each week, I download TV shows from America that don't air here. They are usually 360MB .AVI files, encoded with XviD.

I use Windows XP, and I have a basic DVD burner. I haven't the foggiest idea how to get these files onto a DVD I can watch on my TV - I know this is an annoying question, but can someone refer me to a basic program that will let me burn multiple AVIs to a DVD?

[reboot]

VSO Divx to DVD. (also does XviD and a number of other formats).
Open the program, click the little folder icon to load a video, hold down the ALT key, and select however many you want, from last to first. Click OK, and convert.
Burn the finished product to DVD.

[Clumsy Marianne]

Thank you. That looks exactly like what I wanted, I'll leave it converting my files overnight to see how it goes. Will this allow multiple AVI files to be on the one disc; and will it have a menu?

[reboot]

No, no menu. They will all play as one movie.
If you want menus and separate clips, then you need an authoring program that does such.
DVDLab or Tmpgenc DVD author are the two most popular, although not easy to learn.
Nerovision Express may do what you want as well.

[setarip]

If you are going to be regularly downloading such videos, you might want to consider purchasing a relatively inexpensive ($70 - $80 US) standalone DVD player, such as the Philips DVP 642, that can playback UNCONVERTED multiple (XviD-compressed or DivX-compressed) .AVIs (with simple menu selection) on one DVD.

You should be easily able to directly burn 10 or more of your typical 360Mb .AVIs, without any conversion, to a single DVD (Simply burn them as Data DVDs).

[milOtis]

i would reccomend Ulead DVD Workshop...NOT Ulead DVD MovieFactory...Ulead DVD Workshop is great, and lets you add motion menus, etc...but in a step-by-step kind of program. also lets you take your video file(s), and cut it into chapters with just one-click in each spot you want to divide it, also had a built in burning engine. it's very user-friendly and full featured. jut savin you some time, since ive downloaded and tried pretty muc every program that is out there, but have only used this one consistently for the last 2 years

free trial here:

http://www.ulead.com/dws/trial.htm

~ milOtis

P.S. - this program is not at all hard to learn...you can have your first dvd up and burning in 10-15 minutes, with menus, and chapter scene selections and everything without any prior knowledge of how to use DVD authoring programs.

DVD Workshop screenshots...(made some video concerts into chapter selectioned, song by song scenes - each button is a thumbnailed video of the scene too in the menu, so they are all motion buttons before you even click on em, which is cool)

[Jj4]

Concert DVDs

Hello. I was searching through the forum for information on how to (if possible) make a DVD mix of different songs played by different artists from different DVD concert videos.

I have a collection of DVD concerts that I have backed up using DVD Decryptor and Shrink DVD. Once I burn the backup copy of the Concert DVD, I make a folder on an external HD that I have and I copy the contents of the DVD Shrink temp folder to it so that I can recreate a backup DVD at a later date should I have to.

I am very new to all this, in fact I'm surprised I'm able to use the DVD Decryptor program and Shrink programs with no problems....
lol.

Anyway, my question is, can I make a sort of "best of" DVD using my favorite songs from the various Concert DVDs I have? Much like compiling a music CD with different artists.

I do have another program called Ulead Video Studio 8. Although I haven't tried it yet, I'm assuming I can make clips of the various songs and compile it through that program. But I'm guessing there may be a much easier way.

thanks in advance for the help!

[setarip]

To Jj4

You can create such a compilation by using DVD Shrink in "Re-author" mode.(Read the "FAQ" in the DVD Shrink-specific sub-forum here)