Authoring from downloaded video files ...

[deepcut]

Hello, i have a lot of downloaded video files i would like to burn to DVD.

Many of the programs seem to be for ripping then burning.

Can anyone recommend a good program that will burn from many filetypes (AVI, MP4, MKV etc) to DVD ?

It would be great if the program was Cuda-enabled.

I have tried TMPGEnc Authoring Works which is great but not Cuda-enabled.

I am currently trying DVD-Fab but can't find a way to burn straight from an AVI or whatever.

Any help greatly appreciated.


Cheers,

DC.

[mike20021969]

ConvertXtoDVD is great. But I don't think it supports CUDA.

Or give Freemake video converter a try (it burns to DVD as well as convert file types):

Fastest Video Converter with CUDA and DXVA

http://www.freemake.com/free_video_converter/

[ashe09]

all programs needed to encoding !!!!!!!!!!!!1

1) ConvertxtoDVD (Best Quality loss)
2) Freemake Video Converter (Not Bad)
3) WinAVI Video Converter (Some Quality loss)
that all three i use,take chance with it

[deepcut]

Hi and thanks very much, i will try them all

[Bjs]

1: Dvdflick ... all in one, no cuda support

While there are programs with cuda support available ... decoding speed is improved but cuda does not support mpeg2 encoding.

[deepcut]

Thanks Bjs.

I just tried FreeMaker, it's impressive. I also tried Tipard HD Video Converter, it is very fast to convert to VOB's but doesn't do the burning.

[Hoser Rob]

I'd recommend AVStoDVD, which is a front end for a number of excellent open source processing programs that I can't be bothered to learn. It works a lot better than anything else I've tried, and it's free.

It gives you the option of 1 pass constant bit and 1 or 2 pass variable bit encoding, and automatically selects according to source bit rate. I always check before processing and leave it alone if it selects 1 pass CBR. If it selects variable rate I always set it to 2 pass even if the program selected 1 pass. This will take a lot longer but it's the only way I can get consistent results without pixelation and/or stuttering video.

BTW DVDFab will give you those problems even if you are just ripping a DVD. The DVD decryption (ie the free part) works great but the encoding won't do 2 pass and so doesn't give you good results. I'll only use their decrypter.

The problem with the sorts of source files you want to encode is that they're often produced by people who have wacky codec packs that, frankly, you shouldn't use with Windows. AVStoDVD is the only program I know of that will deal with that stuff and consistently give you decent results if you use the 2 pass mode as I mentioned.

Keep in mind that some of those source files are created with programs like DVDFab that doesn't have 2 pass mode, or the software does and they don't use that mode, so you won't get good results anyway. There's more to it than bit rate/file size.

The other thing is that if you're using 2 pass mode (which is the only way to get good results with a variable bit rate source), unless you're using a very fast machine with 4 cores it's probably going to take at least as long to process and burn it as it would to watch the video. With a single core machine it could take twice as long. I'm at the point where I'm thinking a bigger monitor would make more sense.

[deepcut]

Hi Rob, thanks for that, very informative. I was wondering why some of the DVD's i've made have been jerky i will have to try two passes and see the difference.

[mike20021969]

I was wondering why some of the DVD's i've made have been jerky i will have to try two passes and see the difference.

2 pass distributes the overall bit-rate more efficiently to give you better video quality than 1 pass (depending on the source of course).
I doubt it will stop a video being jerky.

[deepcut]

Ah, OK thanks Mike, i've got a lot to learn.

[Hoser Rob]

Actually I find 2 pass mostly stops things like pixelation but has made some videos less jerky. Don't know why really, I suspect it has to do with weird codecs. Of course, if the jerkiness is there in the source there's a limit to how much you can do about it.

I've found that if I rip a DVD with DVDFab Decrypter and then use a high quality program like Handbrake to convert it to a 700mb file in 2 pass mode I get much better results than if I use something like DVDfab in one pass mode to convert it to a file twice the size. You can't necessarily assume a 1400mb video is better than a 700mb one.

What happens is that the bit rate per second of the source varies. Higher for more complex scenes. If you're converting to a different size / bit rate, the software has to guess on the fly how much to change it. It can't do that properly. So in 2 pass the first pass analyzes the video statistically to figure it out.

[deepcut]

OK so 2-pass is definitely better even though it won't necessarily be unjerky.

I just used FreeMake for a few and i'm pleased with the results.

[mike20021969]

@Hoser Rob
Taking into account bit-rate and resolution, 2 pass is good if you want a specific output file size.
But constant quality mode (CQ) for VidCoder/HandBrake would give a better result and possibly/probably cut down encoding time.
Where are you limiting your rips to these 700MB (1400MB) sizes? How are you determining these figures?

This thread though is about burning files to DVD.

[Hoser Rob]

I don't limit rips to 700mb or whatever. I was experimenting.