How do I take .avi or.mp4 files and put them on a video DVD?

[TripleH]

Hello, this is my first post and I created this account purely for this question: How do I take .avi or.mp4 files and put them on a video DVD that I can just put in my DVD player and watch on the TV? I've tried to find the answer online, tried to find a FREE download of a program (or a reasonable price, somewhere below 50$) that puts the file on a DVD for me, and havent been able to find a thing. I'm not sure if it's the type of DVD i'm using, if I need a certain program to do it, if I'm just dumb, or all of the above. The DVDs I have access to right this second are FUJIFILM DVD + R 4.7GB DVDs, and it says "Up to 8x write speed". I have never done this before, the closest thing I've done to it was when I used to use CD players instead of my ipod and burned cds using ITunes and WMP. If anyone could give me a quick explanation of what I needa do to put my simpsons files (.avi) or my wrestling files (.mp4) onto a DVD so I can just put them in and watch them on my TV, it'd be greatly appreciated (Also, I posted it here because I have no idea where I should post it, this was the best place I saw in the list to post this question)

[CobraPilot]

You should check out the guides on the upper left side of the home page to bring yourself out of the "noob" category.

Those guides were written to answer the questions you are asking.

Good luck!

[aedipuss]

after you read a guide or 2 check out the tools section in the left column - all in one converters or video encoders for dvd.

a couple tools that might help you out are dvdflick and the filmmachine.

a good but not free one would be convertxtodvd.

[redwudz]

TripleH, in the future please use a more descriptive subject title in your posts to allow others to search for similar topics. I will change yours this time. From our rules:

Try to choose a subject that describes your topic.
Please do not use topic subjects like Help me!!! or Problems.

Thanks,
Moderator redwudz

And welcome to our forums.

I would also recommend ConvertX as it can handle quite a few formats and is easy to use and reasonably priced. There are lots of freeware programs, but they have a bit more of a learning curve.

And this quiestion would probably be better in Newbie/General Forum. Moving You.

[TripleH]

Sorry for putting it in the wrong category and the dumb name, and thank you everyone for helping me out

[steptoe]

ConvertXtoDVD will do exactly what you are looking for very easily and with fairly good quality at the end, considering you are converting back to DVD from a format that has already been heavily compressed .... but its not free and the trial will leave a watermark. But at least you can play with it to see if you are willing to pay for it

Plus it burns your DVD after conversion and will convert just about any video format out there, as well as simple menus if needed

Also, it handles MKV files, very hi-res source is no problems (1920x1080), will convert DTS audio to stereo or 5.1 surround if needed or can convert stereo to simulated 5.1 surround

It has the option to crop as well, or convert to/from 4:3 or widescreen

But, you cannot change the brightness, contast, gamma, colours or anything useful like that, nor apply any video filters .... this WAS all promised for v3.xx, but I am still waiting and v4.x is apparently being worked on in beta now for release sometime, so maybe that will finally have what was promised in v3.xx

Just remember to set the encode quality to high (the default medium setting is atrocious quality) and make sure you set the DVD format to automatic, otherwise every video source WILL be converted to your format, converting PAL to NTSC or NTSC to PAL is hugely complex if its to be done correctly

PAL is 25FPS, NTSC is either 23.97 or 29.97. So NTSC to PAL means dropping frames and causes havoc and your audio WILL eventually go out of sync. Always stick to what format the source is in

I turn off automatic deinterlace as for that to be done correctly can be very complex aswell, especially for Japanese ANIME that can be a real mixture of interlaced and non-interlaced


You could try looking at a few 100% FREE software packages that do the same, but I still stick to ConvertXtoDVd a sit actually works 99% of the time and is one of the few packages that does actually keep audio in sync when converting from .avi back to DVD


Have a look for FAVC, D2MP, AVI2ISO or AVI2DVD

They all use 100% free software, or can also use 3rd party commercial encoders

[jman98]

TripleH - We were all new at one time. It's not like for a newbie your post was egregiously bad or anything like that. You decsribed your problem fairly well (many first time posters do not), fixed your title and the post got moved to the right place. No harm done.

As steptoe has said, one of your potential issues is PAL vs. NTSC. Getting your stuff converted to DVD is pretty easy. One of your potential problems though is that most easy to use tools convert 25 fps input to PAL DVD and 23.97 or 29.97 fps input to NTSC. PAL DVD might be a problem for you. Look at your DVD player and see if you can set the video output to NTSC. If you have no option to set the video output on your DVD player, then it may not be able to play PAL DVD correctly. In this case you will have to either watch it on a PC or convert the video to NTSC DVD prior to burning the DVD. Format conversions are a bitch and I refuse to do them. If you're going to have to convert a lot, it's just easier to buy something that can play and convert for you without you having to convert prior to burning. Some DVD players can do this. Also, there is the Western Digital HDTV media player which sells for about $100. It plays from USB devices and you won't need to convert at all to watch your videos with it. Just put your videos as is on a USB flash drive or USB disk drive, plug in and go.

Note also that Fuji DVD discs are poor quality and you may have playback issues with them. Verbatim makes the only top quality DVD media available in stores in the USA. Taiyo Yuden is also top notch, but you have to buy those online. All other brands sold in the USA are mostly crap, with a very few exceptions like Sony which can be very good or very bad depending on where it was made. It's generally just best to stick with Verbatim or Taiyo Yuden.