Converting a Video_TS folder into AVI

[HankE]

Greetings on Christmas Eve:

I am new to ffmpegX, and I am having some difficulty. The online help says to open the Video_TS folder, or to drag it into Source Format. So far so good. Then it says to choose DivX mencoder for the Target. This appears to work.

However, when I click on Encode, it only converts the first file in the Video_TS folder, not the rest of the video and audio files in that folder. What am I doing wrong?

My ultimate aim is to be able to burn the end result onto DVD.

I would appreciate any help anyone out there can give me. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Hank E.

[Case]

If you want to convert a VIDEO_TS folder to DivX AVI, you should load the VIDEO_TS folder itself, not a file from the folder. The top field (to the right of the Open button) should read something like: /Users/username/Desktop/SOME_MOVIE/VIDEO_TS . The "/VIDEO_TS" part should be the end of that line.
Either drag the VIDEO_TS folder to the drop zone, or use the Open button to select the VIDEO_TS folder itself.

A VIDEO_TS folder may contain several (numbered) titles, such as a main feature and extras. A conversion to DivX can do just one title at a time. The title to be converted can be set in the Video tab, in the bottom right, where it says Title. The default value is "1", as most DVDs have the main feature as Title 1.

My ultimate aim is to be able to burn the end result onto DVD.

A VIDEO_TS folder is ready to be burned to DVD, so I wonder why you would want to convert to DivX first?

[lacywest]

Ive burnt several DVD Videos to a single DVD Disk and the results are decent.

But I use SlySoft CloneDVD Mobile v1.1.6.0 ... very nice results

But you need a dvd player that plays divx videos ... I believe I make them a size of 1 GB and then I can put 4 videos on one DVD disk

[HankE]

Case wrote: A VIDEO_TS folder is ready to be burned to DVD, so I wonder why you would want to convert to DivX first?

Most likely because I really don't know what I'm doing!

If I burn the Video_TS folder to DVD, will I need to use some authoring software, like Toast or iDVD?

And thanks for the suggestion, Lacy.

Hank

[Case]

If I burn the Video_TS folder to DVD, will I need to use some authoring software, like Toast or iDVD?

iDVD wouldn't be right for this job. Toast could do it. Without Toast, ffmpegX can help.
The VIDEO_TS folder is already authored, it only needs to be burned with the UDF 1.0.2 file system (disc format), which is sort-of special, in that Disk Utility can't do that (on its own).
1/ Look at the size of the VIDEO_TS folder. If it is under 4.377 GB, then it should fit on a single layer DVD-R. It it is larger, you would need to burn to a dual layer DVD, or compress (requantize) to fit on a single layer DVD.
2/ Create an empty AUDIO_TS folder alongside the VIDEO_TS folder for compatibility reasons. Some players expect it to be present. These should be the only items in its parent folder.
3/ Launch ffmpegX. Switch to the Tools tab. Select the Img tool. Select the parent folder of the VIDEO_TS folder. Press Go. A disc image in UDF will be created (dvd.img). Burn the disc image file with Disk Utility (Images > Burn > Select disc image > Burn).

[HankE]

Thanks. That one worked like a charm. I appreciate your time and your expertise.

Hank

[Aggienator]

If you want to convert a VIDEO_TS folder to DivX AVI, you should load the VIDEO_TS folder itself, not a file from the folder. The top field (to the right of the Open button) should read something like: /Users/username/Desktop/SOME_MOVIE/VIDEO_TS . The "/VIDEO_TS" part should be the end of that line.
Either drag the VIDEO_TS folder to the drop zone, or use the Open button to select the VIDEO_TS folder itself.

I'm trying to do this, but still only get the first file from the /VIDEO_TS folder converted (following the Howto at http://ffmpegx.com/videots_divx.html)

Are there any tools settings I should be making?

TIA

[tomlee59]

If you are truly dragging the VIDEO_TS folder, and not its contents, onto the window, then that should work.

If you still have problems, you may have a corrupted file. Does the movie play properly past the VOB in question?

Also, you may wish to look at the logfile (click on the blue "i" in the Progress pane) to see what, if any, error messages it spits out.

[Aggienator]

I have converted it to an mpeg 4 file with Handbrake and this works fine. So I guess the VIDEO_TS file must be OK.

The Log output is:

Encoding started on Mon Jan  5 21:45:44 GMT 2009
MEncoder dev-CVS-060307-04:23-4.0.1 (C) 2000-2006 MPlayer Team
Mac OSX static build for ffmpegX
FIXME:Hardenabling SSE and SSE2 without detection
CPU: Intel  (Family: 6, Stepping: 6)
CPUflags: Type: 6 MMX: 1 MMX2: 1 3DNow: 0 3DNow2: 0 SSE: 1 SSE2: 1
Compiled for x86 CPU with extensions: MMX MMX2 SSE SSE2
libdvdread: Couldn't find device name.
Reading disc structure, please wait...
There are 9 titles on this DVD.
There are 1 chapters in this DVD title.
There are 1 angles in this DVD title.
DVD successfully opened.
success: format: 0  data: 0x0 - 0x103a000
MPEG-PS file format detected.
VIDEO:  MPEG2  720x576  (aspect 3)  25.000 fps  9000.0 kbps (1125.0 kbyte/s)
[V] filefmt:2  fourcc:0x10000002  size:720x576  fps:25.00  ftime:=0.0400
==========================================================================
Opening audio decoder: [liba52] AC3 decoding with liba52
Using SSE optimized IMDCT transform
AC3: 2.0 (stereo)  48000 Hz  224.0 kbit/s
AUDIO: 48000 Hz, 2 ch, s16le, 224.0 kbit/14.58% (ratio: 28000->192000)
Selected audio codec: [a52] afm: liba52 (AC3-liba52)
==========================================================================
Using MMX optimized resampler
Opening video filter: [expand osd=1]
The selected video_out device is incompatible with this codec.
Try adding the scale filter, e.g. -vf spp,scale instead of -vf spp.
Expand: -1 x -1, -1 ; -1, osd: 1, aspect: 0.000000, round: 1
Opening video filter: [scale w=640 h=352]
==========================================================================
Opening video decoder: [mpegpes] MPEG 1/2 Video passthrough
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Mpeg PES)
VDecoder init failed :(
Opening video decoder: [libmpeg2] MPEG 1/2 Video decoder libmpeg2-v0.4.0b
Selected video codec: [mpeg12] vfm: libmpeg2 (MPEG-1 or 2 (libmpeg2))
==========================================================================
Forcing output fourcc to 58564944 [DIVX]
MP3 audio selected
VDec: vo config request - 720 x 576 (preferred colorspace: Planar YV12)
VDec: using Planar YV12 as output csp (no 0)
Movie-Aspect is 1.78:1 - prescaling to correct movie aspect.
SwScaler: FAST_BILINEAR scaler, from Planar YV12 to Planar YV12 using MMX2
videocodec: libavcodec (640x352 fourcc=58564944 [DIVX])
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
1 duplicate frame(s)!
Skipping frame!
Skipping frame!
CBR audio: 16000 bytes/sec, 384 bytes/block
Flushing video frames
Writing index...
Writing header...
ODML: Aspect information not (yet?) available or unspecified, not writing vprp header.
Video stream: 1143.972 kbit/s  (142996 B/s)  size: 2962888 bytes  20.720 secs  521 frames
Audio stream:  128.000 kbit/s  (16000 B/s)  size: 332544 bytes  20.784 secs
Encoding completed on Mon Jan  5 21:45:50 GMT 2009

I have to confess it doesn't actually mean anything to me!

Many thanks for any thoughts[/code]

[tomlee59]

Are you trying to encode from a VIDEO_TS file on a DVD, as opposed to one on the hard disk? Ffmpegx will not operate on a DVD directly, even if it's unencrypted.

Is your goal to create a duplicate DVD, or is it to convert to DivX? If the latter, then I recommend using D-Vision, which will operate directly from a DVD.

If your goal is to copy the DVD, then just rip (if needed), and then burn the copy from the hard disk. If you need to shrink first, use some sort of requantizer, such as found in the registered version of ffmpegx, as well as some other tools.

[Aggienator]

Are you trying to encode from a VIDEO_TS file on a DVD, as opposed to one on the hard disk? Ffmpegx will not operate on a DVD directly, even if it's unencrypted.

It is on the HDD (ripped with MacTheRipper)

Is your goal to create a duplicate DVD, or is it to convert to DivX? If the latter, then I recommend using D-Vision, which will operate directly from a DVD.

I am planning to convert to DivX so that I can store some DVDs on my computer for when I travel. Will try D-Vision.

Many thanks for your help.

[tomlee59]

I think you will find D-Vision to your liking. It excels at this particular task. It does the best job of figuring out appropriate settings automatically (while still allowing you to override its choices). Aspect ratio, in particular, is automatically chosen correctly without your having to think about it. With some other tools -- ffmpegx included -- AR often defaults to the wrong value, and you can waste a lot of time doing incorrect encodes if you forget to set it.