Append image to beginning of DivX

[d_sellers1]

I'd like to know how to append an image to the beginning of a DivX file. My goal is to replace the plain black thumbnail (when viewed in thumbnail mode in Explorer) with an image of the corresponding DVD cover or movie poster.

I've started ripping my DVD collection and encoding the movies into DivX files. I think that the collection would look better if the thumbnails looked like the DVD cover or movie poster. But I am running in to problems and can't really figure out how to go about doing this. I collected the DVD covers from Amazon for each movie that I have.

I've tried using Image to AVI to create a three second long video clip of just the image that I want to append. I tried using AVI Joiner but it is to picky about the videos it wants to join. They must be the exact same resolution, codec, and who knows what else. Even though I set Image to AVI to create a 720x480 AVI @ 29.97 fps using the DivX codec, AVI Joiner said the two do not match so it would not join the two files.

I tried using Video Edit Magic 4.1 to accomplish the task but just confused myself more than anything else. I tried to drag the image followed by the movie down to the timeline. I guess VEM does not want the .JPG and AVI together. No combination I did would work. I tried to add the AVI that I made with Image to AVI. This kinda worked but exactly what I'm looking for. For started, VEM made me re-encode the file. I can see this causing problems because I'm encoding something that's already been encoded. To make matter worse is the amount of time involved. I encode using the Insane Quality setting. Yeah. It takes a while but I like the results. But VEM wants to re-encode the new video which would mean another couple hours to do. Plus, to make matters worse, I now get an error when trying to view the thumbnail of the IMG/AVI file. AVI Chunker or something pops up complaining about sequential reads. I dunno. I click OK and everything seems ok.

I don't want to spend this much time on something like this. I thought it should be something pretty quick and easy. If at all possible, I would simply like to be able to edit the first frame of my DVD Rip and place the DVD cover onto this first frame (perhaps something like how people add watermarks to videos). I think this would be the easier approach but don't know where to go with this now. Any one with some suggestions I'd like to hear them.

Derek

PS. Attached is a screenshot of the DVD Rip, the JPG, and the AVI created by Image to AVI. The AVI kinda does what I want it to but because of the resolution that's the way it shows up. I wish I could have it show as the JPG but won't loose any sleep over it if I can't.

Here's my process that I'm using to create my DivX videos:
AnyDVD + CloneDVD2 for ripping and making a backup.
#1 DVD Ripper for encoding the rip

I've used DVDShrink and SmartRipper but I don't really like the results. I like the simplicity of these two programs.

[celtic_druid]

You would need matching audio to. Your movie file is an avi or a divx? If it is a divx file, then you would loose chapters, subtitles, menus, etc. when you join. Might be easier to use mkv as a container and attach the picture.

Your image avi would also need matching audio. Personally I'd use AVISynth to load the image, add audio, resize, resample, etc. you could then create an avi or do it before encoding and encode the lot in one go.

[paglamon]

First resize ur image to the exact frame size of ur avi.Create a soundless audio(wav) file of ur required duration(time for which u want ur image to show).Then open the image in Virtualdub.Go on doing Copy-Paste if u want multiple frames of the image.Now in Video select the frame rates and compression similar to those in ur avi.In Audio select WAV Audio(the one u created).Then save this as avi.Then append this avi to ur original movie avi.