AVI to DVD with soft subtitle and menu with AVI2DVD

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

This guide will illustrate how to convert an AVI file to DVD with switchable subtitles and a professional looking menu using the freely available AVI2DVD and its DVD menu creator.

You will need:

the movie, in AVI format (usually about 700 MB or so)
the subtitle of the movie, usually in SRT format
AVI2DVD (available here on the website)
Irfanview (to convert the pictures)
a paint program (to add text and other effects to background), such as PAINT.NET (free)
a couple hours to spend (most of which is unattended)
about 10 GB of space
and a lot of patience!

Before you start, please load the movie and subtitle into your favorite player and test them to make sure they synchronize properly. If they don't, use something like Subtitle Workshop to fix them, but that's subject for another guide.

Anyway, start up AVI2DVD, and you're in the initial screen "Step 1: Input"

Load the AVI file you want, go onto "step 2: Output"

In screen 2: output, you can leave everything as "default". Change the output ISO filename if you want to, or if you don't need an ISO at all, uncheck the choice "make Iso". If you have a PAL video source, 25 fps, be sure to select PAL to NTSC conversion.

I usually leave the chapter settings alone, with default of every 5 minutes. It's enough so people can skip, and it doesn't take any time on your part. In any case a chapter menu is beyond the scope of this guide.

Go onto Step 3: Encoders

I usually leave everything alone here as well. QuEnc is free MPEG2 encoder. The more choices you select, the slower encoding becomes. I usually check everything except Trellis, and Extreme quality. Those 2 can stay off. I'd suggest you encode a short piece, maybe 15 seconds to a minute, and check the output quality begfore you decide, or just leave it as default.

Go onto Step 4: Subtitles

Click on the button to load the matching subtitle to the first (and likely, only) soundtrack. Leave all other settings alone. You may want to consider making the fonts slightly smaller than the original default, but that's up to you. I use the settings here.

Now add the job and watch it appear below. Do NOT click on "Go!' yet. Click on Step 5: DVD Menu

A very professional looking menu can be created with a nice picture, a line of text, and some text buttons. You don't need fancy music or looping video to impress.

Easiest way to find the picture for your background is via the Internet. Google's image search is an excellent way to start. I am going to demonstrate by using a Japanese movie called Zatoichi (2003). I found this wallpaper for Zatoichi on the net... It has enough blank space for the menus, excellent.

NOTE: If you don't like the pictures you find, or rather not to, you can use the built-in DVD frame capture. Click on Capture Images button on step 5, and pick some frames out of the movie itself as your main menu.

Open the picture into Irfanview, and resize it to 720 x 480 for the background. I am on NTSC system, so I use that resolution. If you have PAL, you'll have to use some other resolution appropriate for your system. Save it with a different name as a BMP file, and load it into your paint program. The menu creator only load BMP files. Add the title and other texts in the Paint Program as you see fit.

And leave some TINY marker for where you want the controls to go back in the menu creator. You would need three buttons: subtitle on, subtitle off, and play movie. It's recommended that you do all the text and picture manipulation here as the interface for adding the text buttons is EXTREMELY convoluted in AVI2DVD's menu creator.

Once you are satisfied, save the picture, and load it into the menu creator.

Now let's add the buttons, by using TEXT BUTTON below, click and drag, enter text.

If you need to reposition the item, make sure you have "move mode" selected at the bottom. Else you'll end up replacing the item. And you must draw the box big enough, but you don't see the box. That's what I mean by convoluted.

Any way, you just need 2 words: English and Off. Click on Add SubButton, and the first one will be "Off", then "English". Change the settings so they sort of match what's on already used in the background, or at least get reasonably close.

Then there's one more button... PLAY MOVIE. Add that as well.

Make sure you assign the menu to the job by using that selector to the right. Check the checkmark, select the job number (usually, only 1), and hit the SAVE MENU button.

Hit GO, and let it finish.

Test the entire folder first with something like PowerDVD, which will play off the HD in "DVD on HDD mode".

Once you are satisfied, then you can burn the image to a DVD, using whatever tool you choose, such as Nero or DVDDecryptor. Enjoy your DVD!

ironchef · Member Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: Australia

Hi...
I followed all the instructions above but when I about press GO!!!..It asked me to choose an audio stream...so I went back to Step 1 but there is nothing in the audiostream to choose from...

Can you please help me out...

Thanks in advance..

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

ironchef · Member Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: Australia

Hi Kschang...
Thank for the fast reply....I am very new to some of these programs...
Which information you want to know about mi file when open with GSpot....sorry I don't how to capture the screenshot..

Stream Type and A/V Interleave
Type:OpenDML AVI IMRR:1.00
I/L:1 vid frame (40ms), p=504 Split: No

Not sure is that what you after...

Thanks

swarez · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2003

Hi.
I have the same problem as ironchef. There is no audiostream option given.

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

I want to know about the audio stream in your AVI file.

Use something like Gadwin Printscreen (free tool) to take the shot, then read the instructions at the bottom to upload/post the shot. You can crop out the name of the file and such.

ironchef · Member Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: Australia

Here the capture...Hope it work...

Thanks

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

You have a VBR (variable bit-rate) MP3 as your audio track. Very nasty stuff. While it COULD increase the quality and reduce file size, the headache it introduces far outweighs the benefits in produces.

What you need to do is to demux the audio from the AVI, convert it back into CBR (constant bit-rate) MP3, then mux it back into the AVI so you can use it with AVI2DVD.

Follow this topic for a bit of help:

http://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=296981

ironchef · Member Joined: 21 Apr 2006 Location: Australia

Will this decrease the quality of the movie..??
I also use The Filmmachine and it work well...quality is good....but it don't have the menu option....

Thanks

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

I doubt you'll notice the quality difference in audio. I certainly don't.

swarez · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2003

How do you demux and mux audio from and to a avi file?
I'm having a hell of a trouble getting this to work. I tried using Video dub Mod but I could'nt get the audio stream to work after that as well and I don't know how to combine the video and audio files together in a single file.

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

That's actually a different topic altogether. In the future please ask that sort of question in the newbie forum. For now, here's your answer. In VDubMod, open your AVI, open the streams menu, and you should see the "save WAV" which will take out the audio for you and save it as a large WAV file.

Process the WAV however you want, compress it to MP3 or MP2 even. When ready, turn OFF the existing audio track by double-click it. It should turn "cross-hatched". Then add your new audio track by hitting the ADD button. Pick processing mode as "stream copy". And Save the AVI, and let it start processing. VDubMod will then combine the audio with the video for you, replacing the original soundtrack.

swarez · Member Joined: 25 Jun 2003

Thanks man, I appriciate it.
Still not working though. The avi file that VDM makes uses the Microsoft PCM format that Avi2DVD doesn't recognise as well.
I've tried converting the wav file through Itunes but that doesn't work either.
Thanks anyway, I'll keep on trying.

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

That means you didn't set the audio compression. Set it to MP3 compression, pick a bitrate out of that long list, do full processing, and try generating another AVI file.

baon2219 · Member Joined: 24 Apr 2006 Location: United States

hi i have a question. i want to install two subtitle files--should they be the same folder---have different names? i am not sure if this is even possible.

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

It should be quite possible. I just never had to do it yet. Just add ANOTHER subtitle button. AVI2DVD allows up to 3 different ones.

compuwhiz1 · Member Joined: 10 May 2006 Location: United States

I took your advice, and downloaded Avi2dvd to convert a video that I downloaded from my VCR to my computer (yes, I know that VCR's are becoming extinct, but you can't find this movie on DVD!). When I opened the program, and selected my .avi file, it said that I had to remove symbols (such as underscores) from the input file name, so I did. So I went back into Avi2dvd and selected the newly renamed file. After a few seconds, the program comes up with an error that says something along the lines of "Floating division point by zero". Now, I'm usually able to figure technology out with just fooling around with it, but as soon as this error comes up, the program freezes, and I have to exit and open the application back up. What in the world do I have to do to fix this problem?

Thanks!

screenshot.jpg

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

Hmmm... I don't know. You were able to play this AVI okay, I guess? No errors at all? This program is somehow VERY picky about punctuation marks and such. I simply took them ALL out and left the .AVI

EDIT: I noticed in your screenshot that the "resolution" was kinda messed up. Did GSpot say your AVI was okay?

compuwhiz1 · Member Joined: 10 May 2006 Location: United States

Ok, I figured out with Gspot that I did not have the correct codec installed to play the video... I should have figured that out when Windows Media Player kept playing it as an song instead of video. Thanks for the help, and I'll let you know how it goes!

hilario · Member Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Location: Portugal

Hi all:

I managed to make a DVD with this wonderfull program.

Now I need an information.

I have a movie with 2 AVI files.

Is it possible to create only one DVD file with these 2 AVI files without any interruption on the movie ??
Also pls note that I have to add Subs to the movie that are also splied into 2 SRT files.

pls explain if it is possible.

tks in advance and sorry if this was explained in this forum already.

hilario.

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

from the way I understand, you just rename them to [title]1.avi and [title]2.avi where [title] is your actual title. Basically it must be consecutive. Just add the first file, and the program knows to seek out the 2nd file and so on. However, I'm not 100% sure on that. Maybe you need to add ALL of them.

hilario · Member Joined: 14 Apr 2006 Location: Portugal

deeliuk · Member Joined: 03 Nov 2006 Location: United Kingdom

hi i have problem when i reached at the end 5 step and hit go button message comes interface not soppert plz tell me what is this

kschang · Member Joined: 08 Nov 2002 Location: United States

Interface not supported? That sounds like a bad DLL or wrong codec being used. Which encoder did you use and what does the log say after that?

gutabo · Member Joined: 10 Nov 2006 Location: Peru

Greetings,

Thanks for this nice guide, it has helped me a lot. I was wondering, I have 4 short movies I wanted to do a DVD with, can it be done with this nice app? I don't want to join them, I want to have them as separate movies inside the same DVD...

Thanks in advance!

FBI Agent · Member Joined: 06 Nov 2006 Location: United States

Great program, but the sound is out of sync. How can I fix this?