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  1. Member
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    Hi,
    What program can convert avi/divx to dvd fast & free. DVD flick is to slow, takes approx 1-2 hours per avi/divx movies. I do enjoy the simplicity of the program, but I have around 50 movies to convert and the process is just too long.

    Nero vision could convert/burn in 30 minutes, but do not want to upgrade license, to Nero 9 just to use Nero vision. With nero I just drag/drop file, click burn. Very, very simple.

    I know this question has been asked a zillions times, I've tried other programs such as avi2dvd, they are all just too slow compared to Nero.

    Any assistance greatly appreciated.
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  2. Mod Neophyte Super Moderator redwudz's Avatar
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    DVD Flick hasn't been updated in a while. You could try AVStoDVD or one of the other all-in-one converters here and you may find some faster ones: https://www.videohelp.com/tools/sections/all-in-one-dvd-converters

    The easiest way to improve encoding time is to use a faster CPU.

    Simplicity in a program usually means lack of control. The encoder settings largely determine encoding time when using the same CPU. Faster = lower quality most times. That's how Nero does it faster. Lowering the bitrate will make the encoding faster as will using a faster encoder. HCEnc/QuEnc encoders may be faster.

    Try some of the other converters. Lower the bitrate down to a tolerable level and they should perform fairly fast. Alternately, use a program that can do batch encodes and run it overnight.
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    Hi Red,
    Hope your doing well? Thanks for reply. No processing speed issues, running a 3.0 quad processor. Yes, I do notice DVD flick has excellent qaulity after encode, just takes forever. I like the simplicity of DVD flick. But minimal settings, cannot adjust bitrate etc......

    Guess, I'll just have to experiment with more programs, I've tried around 5 already, that under performed. Was thinking of purchasing Sony DVD author, I have Sony Vegas which works outstanding, but lacks in dvd converting.

    Thanks for all your help.
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    Maybe FAVC would work? I'm new to converting or re-encoding but so far I like using this program. It is somewhat automated, but allows a choice between optimized for speed and optimized for quality, with a a few other settings thrown in for good measure. Menus are very basic.

    I have only used it to downsize MPEG-2 1080i recordings to DVD quality, but .avi is allowed for input. I picked the highest quality settings and 2 pass encoding using HCEnc. I was pleased with the results, though it did take a long time (about 2 1/4 hrs for a 56 min program) on a dual core 3.0 GHz PC.
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    Originally Posted by Illusionist View Post
    But minimal settings, cannot adjust bitrate etc......
    I can't argue about the etc, but there does appear to be an adjustment available.

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    Thanks Sambat, found project setting, changed bitrates, encoding alot faster. Went by the guide, that did not mention project settings etc.... All is well now.

    Thanks for replies.
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  7. what do you chose from the target bitrate menu?
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  8. dvdflick gets stuck to audio and goes over 10 hrs encoding audio for only 64%
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  9. DVDflick is my guilty pleasure: its crude, but I can run it blindfolded, its results are predictable and very good if the source files are good, and its pleasantly fast on an i5 processor (25 minutes to create a 130 minute DVD). Unfortunately, it is abandonware, hasn't been upgraded for a while, and googling for answers to problems usually net zero results.

    Which version are you using? The last release was 3.0.7, which fixed several annoying interface bugs (most important being your menu on/off setting is now remembered as a default). However, 3.0.7 installer comes with a buggy version of FFMPEG which was supposed to speed DVDflick up but often does the reverse, bogging it down and causing it to stall interminably. Last year I somehow stumbled on a post somewhere that mentioned this can be fixed by either reverting to version 3.0.6 completely. or replacing the FFMPEG file in the 3.0.7 program folder with the FFMPEG from 3.0.6. I did the latter, and it cleared up a lot of issues under XP Pro, although I sometimes need to use the entire 3.0.6 application when 3.0.7 refuses to process certain files under Windows 7.

    AVStoDVD is an option you can try instead of DVDflick: it is currently developed and has a more accessible user base. I hate its modular interface and find it slower to work with, but its very powerful. Not without its own glitches, however: note the several large ongoing "problem with AVStoDVD" threads here on VH.
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  10. VH Wanderer Ai Haibara's Avatar
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    Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    AVStoDVD is an option you can try instead of DVDflick: it is currently developed and has a more accessible user base. I hate its modular interface and find it slower to work with, but its very powerful. Not without its own glitches, however: note the several large ongoing "problem with AVStoDVD" threads here on VH.
    Part of that is probably that they know MrC is around to answer all of their questions. But, yeah, it certainly does take a little getting used to.
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    Use avstodvd in batch mode, save to VOB folder or iso, and do it when you're not doing something else on the computer. Like overnight. I've done this many times.

    Realize that if you want high quality encoding you need 2 pass. All those purveyors of crappy adware / cheap DVD authors tell you that they'll give you top quality, now. Don't believe it.

    For a good explanation of why, see the Handbrake docs on their site. It's not a DVD author but it's one of the best converters out there, and has better documentation than many paid programs.

    If you want faster conversion and are willing to accept less quality, I'm afraid the only answer I can give is to get a much faster computer. Conversion / encoding has been around for a while. If there was a programming technique that really worked all that much faster they'd all be using it. Personally if I'm going to put something on a medium I can't rewrite on I want to maximize quality and I won't regret the extra time later as much as crappy video quality.
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  12. Originally Posted by Hoser Rob View Post
    Realize that if you want high quality encoding you need 2 pass. All those purveyors of crappy adware / cheap DVD authors tell you that they'll give you top quality, now. Don't believe it.
    Not necessarily. Much depends on the specific files you want to convert, and even then the overriding question is more "what is your own personal benchmark of high quality?"

    I'm viewing on a very persnickety pair of LCD televisions : a Sony 32EX500 and a Samsung 40 inch LED, both 1080 running at 120Hz, fed by an HDMI-connected DVD player. I download a LOT of video files, mostly international TV series and movies that are unavailable here in the States. Its never the same format twice, could be any mix of straight-up AVI, DiVX, MKV, FLV, or MP4. I'd say about a third of these files are so imcompetently encoded that they fail to play on either Mac or PC media players, I can't even watch them until they're converted to DVD using an all-in-one product like DVDflick or AVStoDVD. Over the last few years converting hundreds of these video files, I see no middle ground: they are either HiDef or near-HD pristine, or they're macroblock city. Using DVDflick in single pass, the good files result in DVDs that rival my off-air HDTV reception: crystal clear, I can't see any factor that would be improved by multipass DVD conversion. The same happens with the crummy files: they wouldn't look any less crummy if a ran them thru 16 passes. For someone with a relatively high volume of videos to process, the overnight routine gets real frustrating real fast for very little boost in perceived quality.

    I always have to add, "per my files and my gear and my eyes." Each of us has different source material, PC and viewing setup. Hoser Rob may indeed see a dramatic quality increase that justifies a more involved, multipass approach. I also agree with his advice that if you want speed, you need to upgrade to a newer PC. My workhorse XP Pro spare tower that I had dedicated exclusively to such video tasks recently died. While I'm deciding what to replace it with, I'm doing my DVDflick conversions on my much newer i3 and i5 laptops. The laptops utterly smoke the older tower, converting a group of six 20-minute video files into a DVD Video TS folder in less than 25 mins (the old tower typically needed two hours to create a DVD folder).

    For a good explanation of why, see the Handbrake docs on their site. It's not a DVD author but it's one of the best converters out there, and has better documentation than many paid programs.
    HandBrake is incredible, everyone should have it in their video app arsenal. Slower to work with, and the interface is a little arcane for newbies, but the results are astounding. When all else fails, HandBrake will almost always succeed (and offers many possible tweaks along the way). Its esp good at maintaining lipsync audio, which can drift significantly when processing less-than-perfect source files with other converters.
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    Yep, handbrake may be a bit arcane, but compared to other ones I've tried that do a really good job it's pretty easy. There really seems to be a choice between ease of use and functionality with these sort of programs and I think Handbrake has the best balance of all of them.

    Among DVD authors I think avstiodvd has the best balance. Ive tried others that had similar performance ... they seemed to use the same utilities in the background, avisynth in particular ... but they were a lot more arcane to use. Largely this was bad interface design. Often these freeware designers don`t bother to put the tasks that you use 80% of the time more prominently displayed in the menus. That`s why they`re so hard to use if you`re not a real video geek. Which is why they`re so damn hard to learn. I just don`t really want to be a DV geek that much. While avisynth seems to be a great program there`s just no way I`m going to learn it`s scripted language to do what I want to do.

    Actually the main reason I use avstodvd is that it (or really avisynth, I suppose) will work with just about any file. Some of those codecs people use arwe pretty wonky. Sometimes avisynth wouldn`t frameserve the input and I converted it with avisynth, which is also a good converter. That almost always worked.
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  14. Member Seeker47's Avatar
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    https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343506-best-software-to-burn-avi-videos-to-DVD?p=21...=1#post2140925

    For quick & easy results, I've not seen anything faster. Quality of results varies quite a bit though, but it can be decent or even good.

    Originally Posted by orsetto View Post
    Not necessarily. Much depends on the specific files you want to convert, and even then the overriding question is more "what is your own personal benchmark of high quality?"

    I download a LOT of video files, mostly international TV series and movies that are unavailable here in the States. Its never the same format twice, could be any mix of straight-up AVI, DiVX, MKV, FLV, or MP4. I'd say about a third of these files are so imcompetently encoded that they fail to play on either Mac or PC media players, I can't even watch them until they're converted to DVD using an all-in-one product like DVDflick or AVStoDVD. Over the last few years converting hundreds of these video files, I see no middle ground: they are either HiDef or near-HD pristine, or they're macroblock city. Using DVDflick in single pass, the good files result in DVDs that rival my off-air HDTV reception: crystal clear, I can't see any factor that would be improved by multipass DVD conversion. The same happens with the crummy files: they wouldn't look any less crummy if a ran them thru 16 passes. For someone with a relatively high volume of videos to process, the overnight routine gets real frustrating real fast for very little boost in perceived quality.
    I think we're fishing off rather similar waters, with a couple exceptions. My lines are trying to bring in mostly rare or little-known movies -- the majority of them foreign and not all that recent -- which are just not available here, and may never be. I'm not willing to wait another 5 - 10 years on the very faint chance that one day Netflix or Amazon or some domestic sat/cable channel may have it. The other difference is that I see a lot more middle-ground of video quality than you seem to. But true -- for a lot of this stuff, lord knows where it came from, or how it was recorded. And multiple tools may be required, before you can get it into some decent-viewing condition. (For me, that obviously does not include watching it on the PC monitor.)

    [I fear that a lot of this is becoming moot, what with the collapse of the "cyberlocker" ecosystem. The alternatives are none too pretty.]
    Last edited by Seeker47; 15th Feb 2012 at 17:58.
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  15. Member
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    I go back to a Ti-99/4a with a disk drive that could get me 90 kilobytes on a single sided floppy.
    We loaded up boxes of disks and mailed them around North America.
    Granted, it wasn't video, but what I paid per single sided 5.25 floppy disk now buys gigabytes of storage - taking inflation into account, the storage is laughably cheap - God bless China.
    Your letter carrier will keep their job and you can thumb your nose at the people who would pull your strings.
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  16. Member
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    Originally Posted by sambat View Post
    I go back to a Ti-99/4a with a disk drive that could get me 90 kilobytes on a single sided floppy.
    We loaded up boxes of disks and mailed them around North America.
    Granted, it wasn't video, but what I paid per single sided 5.25 floppy disk now buys gigabytes of storage - taking inflation into account, the storage is laughably cheap - God bless China.
    Your letter carrier will keep their job and you can thumb your nose at the people who would pull your strings.
    I remember those days, though I never used the Ti. I do remember those discs.

    A couple of months ago I read in the Economist that in 1980 a gigabyte of storage cost $200K. In 2012 dollars that's over $550 thousand(!!!).

    Now? Per gig? A dime with an external HD?

    And one of the on demand malware scanners I use updates every day at about 6 to 7 meg per update. 20 years ago the HD in your desktop would have been filled by virus definitions in less than a week.

    The thing is, HD space is cheaper than DVDs now, especially when you factor in having some way to store them.

    And even if you have a gamer computer it's going to take a significant fraction of the time it takes to watch the movie to encode and burn it. Optical drives are by far the slowest thing in modern computers. You can't speed that part up ... of my 2 laptops, one runs about 3 times as fast as the other, and the time it takes to burn a DVD is indistinguishable in either.

    All of which is why, along with the general pain in the butt factor with even the best burning programs, I don't convert much video to DVD anymore. Only if it's for someone who doesn't have any other way to play it.
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