.avi to VCD using ffmpegX & toast - How do I do this...?

[charmie1701]

I have an .avi file that I would like to burn to CD to watch on my stand alone DVD player.
I am using this application 'ffmpegx' and Toast 6.
I have read the tutorial for ffmpegX and gone through all the instructions on how to get a VCD from a .avi file, but all that it produces is a .m1V file which is a third of the size of the orignal file.
Am I doing something wrong...??

In the Video tab I opened the file and then gave it a location and file name in the save as section. I selected 'VCD' from the Quick Presets dropdown menu. Then in the Tools tab selected the 'Author as VCD' check box. I click the 'encode' button and the progress window informs that that it is converting to VCD, yet I end up with a file I can not use.
Also I can not play the file in Quick Time which is why I want to convert to VCD so I can see it. I can however watch and hear it with mPlayer.

Please could some one help me I also need to convert some .mpg files to VCD to watch on my DVD player.

Thank you

[major]

Are you using ffmpegX 0.0.9? Have you been waiting for the bell to sound and the process to fully complete?

[charmie1701]

Yes I am using ffMpegX 0.0.9.
A bell did not sound but the progress in the progress window said finished.
Was it meant to do more...??

[major]

The following files should be created one after the other: m1v, mp2, mpg, bin/cue.

[charmie1701]

Thanks for the help so far, i think I am getting there.

I left it alone this time until the bell rang. It created the m1v, two .mpg files and a mp2 audio file.
But no bin/cue file pair.

Is there a way I can take these files and produce the bin/cue file pair from them..??

[charmie1701]

Due to the conversion I can now watch the movie using QuickTime on my computer, though I would still like to watch it using my DVD player, if possible.

It seems to have created two .mpg files which totalled are larger than the original file. Does this indicate that the original .avi file could be converted to DVD..?

[major]

Yes, open the .mpg file in the first "Browse" field (within the "Tools" tab), enable "Author as VCD" and click "Author". You will obtain a .cue file and a .bin file. Trash the .cue file and burn the .bin file in Toast 5 "VCD" mode.

[charmie1701]

I have played the original .avi file in mPlayer and compared it with the newly created .mpg file and have noticed a big reduction in sound and picture quality. Is there a way to retain this quality...??

Should I try to convert the .avi to DVD or SVCD..??
Would these formats keep more of the quality..??

[charmie1701]

When I look at the file info it states that it is a DIVX.

VIDEO:[DIVX] 576x304 24bpp 23.98
fps 827.1 kbps (101.0 kbyte/s)
audiocodec:framecopy
(format=55 chans=2 rate=48000
bits=0 bps=16047 sample=0)

What does this all mean....?
What formats can I convert the .avi file to...?

[major]

You can obtain more quality by encoding to SVCD.

[charmie1701]

Thanks for the reply...I have tried encoding the .avi to either DVD or SVCD using ffmpegX, but it will not convert and throws up an error.

What are the steps and options to convert to either SVCD or DVD..??

Please help.

Thank you

[charmie1701]

....or can I use Toast 6.0 to perform a straight conversion from the .avi file to DVD...?

[major]

and throws up an error

Which error?

[charmie1701]

Thanks for all the advice you gave.
I am still a little stuck.

What I need to do is create an SVCD from an .avi movie file.
I hope you can help.

Just to clear up a point I used ffmpegX to convert the .avi file to SVCD.
It then created .mpg, .m2v and .mp2 files, but that was all.

The .mpg file is 1.69Gb.
The .m2v and .mp2 files together, add up to about the same amount.

I have no idea what to do with these files nor how to burn them to disk except using Toast. But seeing as Toast reports them as being too large to fit on a disk and I am unsure as to why the final files are so much larger then the original. The original .avi file was only 699Mb.

Using ffmpegX and looking at the file information I can tell that it is not DVD quality. when I converted it to VCD originally using this programme the picture and sound quality was almost unwatchable. The 1.69Gb mpg file is very good quality and I would like to keep it at this level which is why I am trying to create an SVCD out of the .avi file, but don't really want the hassle of it going over more then one disk. If it has to go on more then one disk then this too is fine.

I Would like to burn to CD so I can watch it on my DVD player.

Totally confused.

Please help...!!