HOW-TO - CONVERT AVI, OGM or MKV to DVD

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

HOW-TO - CONVERT AVI, OGM or MKV to DVD
...With Illustrations

In this guide I will explain how to convert the said file-types to DVD format. There are many possibilities and this is not the only possible way. Throughout the guide I will explain why every tool was used in place of another and offer as many options as I can think of. If you find any mistake or have any questions/comments on this guide please e-mail me at alien_gw@hotmail.com, I will answer as soon as I am able. Now onto the guide.

Tools:

The following tools are for quick reference only, you will not need them all. They will appear through the guide as they are needed. Other tools appear in the guide as alternatives.

MediaInfo
VirtualDubMod
TMPGEnc Xpress
Sony Vegas
Besweet

AC3Fix
Womble MPEG-VCR
DVD Menu Studio
DVD Maestro
Nero Burning ROM
~10GB HDD Space

Outline:

Separating audio and video streams
Encode Video Stream
Encode Audio Stream
Editing project
Authoring & Creating a Menu
Authoring & Creating a Menu cont'd...
Testing, Roasting and Comments

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Section 1 - Separating audio and video streams
We will begin by gathering information on the file then separating the subtitle, audio and video streams. Please prepare a pen and paper or open notepad since there is some information that you will be taken here and used later. The reason we will separate the streams is because though our encoding tool, TMPGE Xpress, is excellent for video encoding, it cannot handle many audio formats and often causes sync problems. It is highly recommended to follow this chapter.

Step 1 : Gathering information

We will be using MediaInfo to get information on the movie file. GSpot may also be used to gather the required info if it’s an AVI file.

When you first run MediaInfo it will ask you to choose your preferences. They are easily changed from within the program, so don’t worry about making the right choice and press ok.
Open the movie file. File > Open > File *It is possible to open folder if you have multiple files that you wish to encode to DVD. I opened a folder already in my example. I’m using the tree view.
Write down the Video Codec, Aspect Ratio, Frame rate, and Audio Codec.

Step 2 : Download the required codecs

You could skip this step if you have the codecs already installed on your computer. If you don’t then you’ll have to get them from softpedia.com. As a general rule you should not have any codec packs installed on your computer with the exception of the matroska pack. This is not advertising, it’s for your own safety. You want the fewest codecs possible, not the most.

Step 3 : Lets’s start!

*Don’t overwork your computer! Whether you are demuxing an audio or video stream, or actually encoding something overworking your PC may cause undesirable effects. (ie; Corrupt files.) Be sure after every-step to do a quick test of the beginning and ending of each file. I had 13 to practice with making this guide. I ran into corrupt files 3 times

We will be using VirtualDubMod to extract the different streams from the container file. There is sometimes a problem where VirtualDubMod doesn’t like MKV files. This doesn’t happen all the time, but it does happen. If that’s your case then follow this guide until step 4.You may also need the matroska pack for it’s decoders.

Run VirtualDubMod and open the video file; File > Open Video file… *You may get an error like this, just click no and ignore it:
Click streams > Streams List. From here you will be extracting your audio stream(s), and subtitles…
Choose the audio stream you want to extract and choose save wav. If the audio is AC3, you will choose Demux instead since all the audio will eventually be changed to AC3 anyhow. Select where you wish to save it then continue…
Choose the subtitle stream (will show as a text file) and choose Demux, save this as an SRT file.
Now you will disable all the streams and press ok. :
Click file > Save As… You will save as AVI, direct stream copy. Skip the next steps if you don't need to do a batch encode. If you're project has several files to encode you should use the batch encode option. Check 'Don't run this job now...' if you plan on doing a batch encode. Click Save. :
For batch encode follow steps 1 - 6 on all your files all the files in your project. When they have all been entered, click File > Job Control...(F4) > Click Start :

You now have your AVI with the video stream only, you will have wav/AC3 audio files and possible SRT files aswell. That’s perfect, test the files to be sure they have been processed properly and that they’re of approximately the correct length.

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Section 2 - Encode Video Stream
We will be using TMPGE Xpress to encode the AVI Video files to m2v video files so that they will be DVD compliant. This can just as easily be done with TMPGE Plus, CCE, MainConcept or another encoder. I have chosen TMPGE Xpress because it offers amazing quality and many options that are not available with the other said encoders, with the exception of TMPGE Plus. Xpress has a more user-friendly approach than Plus does

Ready : TMPGE Xpress

Run TMPGE Xpress and choose 'Start New Project'
Select 'Add File...' You will now have a menu with several tabs. On the 'Clip Info' tab you will set video mode to 'Progressive', and Aspect Ratio to what was listed in MediaInfo. NTSC is for North America & Japan, PAL if for Europe:
In the 'Filter Tab' you will remove any letterboxing from the video stream if it appears and is constant through the whole movie.Firstly, you will check to see if your movie has letterboxing by scrolling the preview bar across the length of the movie, check the beginning, middle and end, sometimes it only appears in the beginning. If it does not appear, skip this step! If you have hardcoded subtitles it is a bad idea to remove the letterboxing since you will probable be cutting the subs out at the same time. To remove letterboxing ckeck Crop, check Activate Image Crop, and adjust top/bottom to remove the letterboxing. Now press OK. (You may fiddle with the other options to improve the picture quality to your likings, however this veries case by case and is simplistic to figure out) Do this for all the video files in your project.
Click the 'Select Output' tab and choose DVD PAL/NTSC (Depending where you live). Choose again the Aspect Ratio, Set Rate Control Mode to VBR for highest quality (or CBR if you want it to encode fatser), and Ignore the Audio. Click Select.
Here you get to play around a bit. Leave the Image resolution to the default highest. You don't want to compress the image. You aren't going to tough the Average Bitrate either, that will be set in a minute. Set the Audio Bitrate to 192, since that will be what it is set to later. Set 2-pass VBR under Advanced Encoder settings. Set the min. bitrate to 200 and the max to 8000. Don't allow padding since Xpress won't require it. Your bitrate is already set at a max of 8000kbps, so the other option is pointless. Now you should have DVD 4,7GB (UDF) selected by default. You will notice the Average Video Bitrate has just been set for you after adjusting the Capasity, set capasity to 99%. Press OK.
You now have yet another screen that shows your settings. You will adjust video mode to 3:2 pulldown if your encoding NTSC, or Progressive if it's for PAL. Set Motion Search Precision to High, or Highest. Leave Advanced settings to default, change Output Stream Type to ES (Video Only) and press Encode.
Now there is only a few more settings to toggle. You want your files seperate to keep the audio in sync for later, so select output clips seperately and choose the output destination. In the Encoder settings tab choose your preferences. I always choose 'no preview'. Puts less stress on my baby

This process will take a long time. Go get a coffee or leave it to work overnight. Once the process is done you'll want to test your files ate the beginning, middle and end to be sure they're not corrupt

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Section 3 - Encode Audio Stream
We'll be making the best out of what we've got and turn whatever stream we were given into AC3. We'll be using BeSweet because it's free and can easily convert wav files to AC3. I'm taking suggestions on better apps for this job, but at the moment I will show how it's done with BeSweet. If your source was AC3 already you'll just have to skip to step 2.

**There have been MANY problems using BeSweet to encode to AC3; so many that I can no longer recommend BeSweet for this section. I will soon edit the guide with illustrations to use your choice of Sony Vegas or FFMPEGGui. BeSweet uses the FFMPEGGui engine to output the AC3, so this will first be tested. I only recommend Sony Vegas for this part. (I'm using Sony Vegas+DVD Production Suite 5.0) I will edit the guide by sunday January 23rd, until then email me if BeSweet doesn't work for you.

Step 1 : BeSweet

Run BeSweetGUI.exe and you should get this screen:
You must tell it the location of your input files (the wav files) and output files.
Set it to output AC3 like in the 1st picture; the option is below 'BeSweet Profiles'.
Finally click 'Batch Mode' if you have multiple files to convert, or 'WAV to AC3' if you only have one. It may ask you to confirm the Input, Output or BeSweet.exe location. For BeSweet.exe browse to the folder containing BeSweet.exe.
If you pressed Batch Mode you'll have to drag and drop the wav files into the window then hit 'BeSweet's List -> Multiple AC3s'. You'll get a window like this:
They'll all be saved to the set output directory. You'll know when it's started encoding by the opening of a DOS prompt:

Step 2 : AC3Fix

Sadly this app doesn't have a built in Batch function. It is possible to make a bat file in notepad, however I wasn't able to get it to work properly that way. If you could figure a way to do it please let me know and I'll put it in.

Copy AC3Fix.exe and AC3GUI.exe to the same location as your AC3 files. It won't process unless they're in the same directory.
Run the AC3GUI; Click 'Open', select the AC3 file you want to fix, ok. Click 'Save' and choose the filename and output folder. The output can be anywhere you like, it doesn't have to be in the same directory as AC3Fix.exe. When you name the file be sure to add the .AC3 extention, otherwise it will add ".fixed.ac3" at the end.

*The reason we use AC3Fix is because it will fix bad frames and corrupt sectors and basically test the Ac3 for us. Also BeSweet sometimes has problems making DVD compliant Ac3 audio, AC3Fix fixes that.

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Section 4 - Editing Project
Now we have everything encoded and transcoded! There are 2 main reasons for this section. Firstly, up to now we have not been able to cut, join or crop parts of the movie due to the effect it would have on the audio/video sync. We will now multiplex and be able to edit the movie as we see fit. ie; removing the intro, commercials and credits. The second reason is because some authoring apps do not accept seperate audio and video streams. We are going to use TMPGE Xpress to multiplex the audio and video and MPEG-VCR to edit it. I know TMPGE Xpress can edit and cut parts out of the video, but MPEG-VCR is just much faster. *The authoring tool I use is DVD Maestro, it requires you to have the files Demultiplexed! If you are following this guide entirely, you will not be needing to Multiplex the audio and video streams (unless there is something you need to edit). Check if your authoring tool can handle individual streams before doing a step you don't need.

Step 1 : Multiplexing with TMPGenc Xpress

Run TMPGE Xpress and select MPEG Tools...
Choose MPEG-2 Program (VBR) from the drop-down menu, select the Video input(m2v), Audio Input(ac3) and the Output(mpg). If the Video and Audio files have the same name they will be selected automatically by TMPGE Xpress.

Step 2 : Editing with MPEG-VCR

Run MPEG-VCR, click File > Open MPEG Movie...
Now here there are only 4 tools you need.
1. Mark In
2. Mark Out
3. Cut
4. Save
First you edit out commercials and other parts in the mid section of the movie. Mark In at the beginning of the part you want to cut, Mark Out at the end of the part you want to cut, click Cut. For the Intro and Credits you Mark In where you want the movie to start, Mark out where you want the movie to end, and click Save. Choose the filename (output directory) and hit save. Do not touch any other setting as it will cause a reencode, and you don't want that!

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Section 5 - Authoring & Creating a Menu
This is the most custom and creative part of making your own DVDs, in truth; the only fun part. Now you may not want a menu, in that case you need to use a different authoring app and guide. Remember at the beginning I told you to check Doom9.org, well they have guides for a number of authoring apps, click here to see that listing. They have their own guide for DVD Maestro aswell, check that out too. We will be using DVD Maestro to author, and DVD Menu Studio to make the menus. Now, DVD Menu Studio isn't the only choice to make the menus, nor is it the best. It's the easiest. The best is Photoshop CS, if you know how to use Photoshop well, then use that, I will make a note at the end of this section on what is needed.

Step 1 : DVD Menu Studio

http://www.svcd2dvd.com/Guides/Maestro/MaestroGuide1.aspx
http://www.dvd-makers.com/public/department277.cfm

Run DVD Menu Studio, you'll get a screen like this:
First thing you want to do is get a background image or you could create one with the app.
- To Import an Image go to File > Import... Choose Image. Don't worry about it being too big, you can resize it to fit the blank screen in a second.
- To make your own I suggest using an app you're good with (ie; photoshop) then import the Image. If you want to make one on your own, click here. It's crappy, but I'm not up to teaching Graphics methods. Ask around in the Graphics section.
I now use the Rectangle Tool to cut out the bottom of the picture, I'm gonna put the title name there:
Play around with the options at the bottom while the rectangle is selected to render it nicely. Check what I did:
Now to add some Text. Click the 'Artistic Text' tool, it's above the Rectangle tool on the left.
I added a bunch of text, and made it 'fancy' with some of the generic rendering tools (Found at the bottom of the screen) You can edit what you want as long as it's selected. Notice everything I added is within the smaller of the 2 boxes. That's the 'safe zone'. Anything of importance goes in there.
Now we are going to add Subpictures. Add these to the items you want to be selectable in your menu when we author with DVD Maestro. I added it to Play, Choose Episode and Options.
Now preview your menu, and choose your color scheme for the buttons so we could send it off to DVD Maestro. You have 4 subpictures. Experiment with them. Sub 1 is the main color, Sub 4 will make a colored box on the hot-spot. There are 3 areas that need color mapping. Unselected, Selected, and Activated. Activated would be when you press 'enter' on your remote. Check NTSC Safe colors if you're making a menu for NTSC.
Now we export; Click the 'DVD Export Menu' button at the top center beside the preview buttom (Also, File > DVD Export Menu). Choose PAL/NTSC, DVD Maestro > Next.
Now choose your Output destination and hit Export!

Step 2 - DVD Maestro

*SRT files are not accepted by DVD Maestro. Click here to change your SRT subs to an acceptable format.

When you open DVD Maestro you will get an error message, this is because you're missing some unrequired hardware. Ignore the error:
We'll start by Importing Media assets. In the bottom right, there's a beige box. Right-Click in the box and choose 'Import Media Assets'. If you haven't already demuxed your MPGs to m2v and ac3 Maestro should do it for you. If it can't (my situation) you'll have to demux with TMPGE Xpress. Do it the same way you Multiplexed in the last section, but choose Demultiplex. You'll also import any tracks you want to play in your menus, and the menu that you exported from DVD Menu Studio. The only thing you cannot import in this fasion is your SRT file for your subs. I'll get to that later. DVD Maestro will really scan your files to be sure there's nothing wrong with them. If it complains about something, that means you made a mistake. No coasters with this app
Right-Click on Untitled.dvd (Go to File > Save as... to give your project a name), now as I was saying, right-click on Project.dvd and select Properties. You will have 3 tabs; General, Choose NTSC/PAL, Set Parental Control Rating; Disk Image, Give the DVD a Name, Set copyright Protection (Yes, now you can protect you stuff against people like the pros!); Replication, Set regional Protection.
Now you will add movies equal to the number of m2v files you have. Don't worry about joining, Maestro will make it seamless. If you have episodes of an anime or TV show just put each episode as a movie.
Now double click the first Movie; you will drag and drop the m2v and ac3 files from the asset bin to this window. If you right-click the ac3 you could set the language or create a perfect sync file. I recommend syncing your movies always! To add the sub, right-click the empty box to the right of the "ABC" and choose Import Subtitles File. For chapters I manually set chapters every 3 minutes. In the top left corner you see a zoom option, zoom out a bit before you try and add chapters:
After adding the files right-click Movie 1 and select Properties. You have the ability to put restrictions on what commands the user can do. You may want to disable all options relating to subtitles or audio switching if you have a single audio track without subs.
Now in the Menus Branch, add a new menu and drag & Drop the DVD Menu Stdio Menu you exported from the asset bin to the menu window. You're going to have to draw rectangles over all the hot-spots for Maestro to recognize them see by pic:
Now the color mapping you did in DVD Menu Studio should have come to Maestro, check to be sure. If it hasn't then play with the colors to make it the same in the color mapping tab. On the Advanced tab click 'auto-assign'. Now go to the Buttons tab. You'll notice the navigation boxes. Click on 1, in the window and the navigation boxes will show you what happens if someone were to press up/down/left/right on a remote:
On the Playback control tab you will be able to add an audio track, if you do make the track loop.
Once all your Menus and Movies are put inyou will have to go to View > Connections. Here's where you have the master controls. You select what every press of a button does. Look at mine:
You change the connections by right-clicking selecting the connection.
Now test your menus with the Navigation Simulator, make sure your buttons lead to where they're supposed to. You won't be able to view the video but you could see the 1st frame and you could jump between menus.
Finally you'll want to compile or create a disk image, both options are under Tools, or click one of these buttons (There is a known problem with 'create disk image', I recommend using 'compile'):

Now I sincerely recommend that you search for additional information on DVD Maestro as it is capable of much more than what I've just described. This is a basic menu just to get your hands dirty and perhaps interested in learning more.

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Testing, Roasting and Comments

Part 1 - Testing and Roasting

Now no matter how professional DVD Maestro is, computers do mess up. You're going to want to test your VIDEO_TS folder or ISO in a DVD Playing app like PowerDVD or WinDVD. VLC is a freeware you could test an ISO on. Make sure the menus go where they're supposed to, the subs show up. The audio is in sync. The right video is with the right audio... etc. After that you're going to burn your project to DVD-R.

VIDEO_TS, use Nero Burning Rom
VIDEO_TS or Image (ISO), use DVD Decrypter

Don't burn at Max Speed, 2x - 4x is good.

Part 2 - Comments

I want to say thanks to the suprnovaforums for allowing me to learn and build my interest in DVD converting and production. Doom9.org and Videohelp.com for their wealth of knowledge. easy-answers.com for some new ideas

If there are any questions or comments about this guide, feel free to e-mail me at alien_gw@hotmail.com

*To any mod or admin, if my chance there are still links or mention to warez in this guide, I apologize. I read through it and removed everything I noticed that was related to such subjects to follow the rules of the forum.

Cobra · Moderator Joined: 06 May 2002 Location: UK

Moved to the User Guides forum.

_________________

Forum Rules :: PM me with any questions/problems/suggestions!

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

Do I submit this guide using this link, or will it be done for me?

I have to drop the img sizes too, sorry. I'll get on that asap.

dazndan04 · Member Joined: 22 Jan 2004

was wondering, does it keep the same subtitle font? or will it jus have a random one?

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

It takes the colors you choose in SRT2SUP. STR2SUP guide.

gastorgrab · Member Joined: 29 May 2004

Media Info set off my firewall, is it spyware?

Its trying to contact "mediaarea.net" (216.194.94.189)

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

MediaInfo isn't spyware, it's an opensource project hosted on scourgeforce. It may have been looking for updates unless you got from a source other than scourgeforce.

http://mediainfo.sourceforge.net/

gastorgrab · Member Joined: 29 May 2004

Is there a way to turn it off?

AVNerd · Member Joined: 30 Dec 2004 Location: CA

Is there a way to make the movies themselves not get cut off (past the 'TV safe zone') when authoring with DVDmaestro? Ive found I can keep it from happening if I place a black border around the video while encoding, but Ive noticed that my comercial 16:9 DVDs do not have these black borders and they also dont go past the safe zone on my TV. So is there an authoring technique used to prevent this? Thx.

edit: Really helpful guide btw.

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

@Gastor; I'm not sure, you could block it with your firewall if you like. It hasn't caused me any problems and my spyware cleaners don't ever touch it.

@AVNerd; Do you mean the menu? In DVD Maestro and DVD Menu Studio both there is a 'safe box' where nothing should be cut from. Keep the main aspects of your menu in there. As for the video itself, it's usually unnoticable unless you have hardcoded subs, in which case you have to play around with the TV settings or add borders as you said.

Retail DVDs are also cropped, the TV crops any input. The retail DVD's are made in such a way that you don't lose anything importand.

AVNerd · Member Joined: 30 Dec 2004 Location: CA

I just double checked and youre right.... My retail DVDs get cut as well... Thanks Ecko. Your guide helped me a lot!! Hopefully I'll be able to teach people as much as you've taught me some day soon.

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

Just as a note since this happened a few times already, when you email me make sure you leave a return address. Generally I can just hit reply; but I've gotten 3 (Unknown Sender) emails in the last week and I simply dunno how to reply to the email

Hunter85 · Member Joined: 05 Feb 2005

In section 3 - Step 2 : AC3Fix:

"Run the AC3GUI"

What is this one? Where do I get it?

Ecko_Blue · Member Joined: 08 Dec 2004

AC3Fix http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=91
AC3Fix GUI http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=AC3fix_GUI

shadomic hedgehog · Member Joined: 08 May 2003

I have just a small question. When you get to section 2, step 5. How big can the output size be? That dotted like stopps at 4.2gb, but i have discs that say 4.7 Can I go over that point? Or is it reduced for some reason?

OK Thank you V

Hunter85 · Member Joined: 05 Feb 2005

For 4.7 discs it is 4.2 size it should be. Dont know why but thats the way it is. Just keep on going

Batanen · Member Joined: 08 Sep 2004

Excellent guide! It's helped me quite a bit....just keep having problems with subtitles, but will figure it out later

However, I do have a question. I've got a series that I'm trying to do similar to what you did, but my question about the aspect ratio in the TMPGEnc Xpress 3.0 Clip Info screen. Basically, what is the difference between Pixel 10:11 (NTSC 4:3) and Image 4:3? Is one better to use for video than the other?

Thanks!
Batanen

shadomic hedgehog · Member Joined: 08 May 2003

Ok, I have run into a problem, I got to section 4 step 1, and when i encode it with TMPGEnc, I have two audios, so like... how is this gonna work? Since I can only apply one

Batanen · Member Joined: 08 Sep 2004