700mb AVI..to MOV....to MPEG?? onto DVD-R

[smuudge]

Hi All, I have a 700mb AVI that i hoped i would be able to burn direct onto a DVD-R using toast 6 'dvd-video' option, unfortunately i get the error '4.7gb needed, 4.4gb available'..

I now know I need to convert this file into a .MOV then into a MPEG2 to burn a DVD to play on my DVD player...can anyone help me in doing this? Cheers.

[Dunnyman]

Couple of ways around it, one of them is to burn to a disc image, instead of a disc, then DVD2One it, making it what you need, other way is a little slower, but depending on your mac, not much slower, use ffmpegX to convert your avi to the fast DivX setting, it runs very quickly, then convert to the DVD with the new avi file. Either one should work fine!

[smuudge]

Thanks Dunnyman, i tried FFmpeg again and the encoding failed so i am burning a Toast image this time to try it that way. Will let you know how i get on! Thanks.

[sdm]

How many minutes is your avi? A 700mb avi should easily fit on a dvd, but it all depends on bitrate.

you should be able to encode mpeg2 and build the dvd directly from your avi (assuming it plays in quicktime) using ffmpegXs presets.

[mmasw]

I now know I need to convert this file into a .MOV then into a MPEG2 to burn a DVD to play on my DVD player...can anyone help me in doing this? Cheers.

why would you bother with an intermediate step of converting to .MOV??

you could simply go directly from avi>mpg2 and eliminate the inevitable quality loss and time involved in an extra encode.

[smuudge]

Im new to this and thats what i thought you had to do!

Anyway, the MOV file I created seems to be of similar quality to the original AVI. Im saving the file out of Toast now hoping that I will be able DVD2one it and burn a DVD finally. If not I will try the Fast DivX setting in FFmpeg as a last option before I give up!

[sdm]

depending on how its done, a coversion from .avi to .mov won't lose quality (remember that .mov format is a wrapper and the codec and data rate determine the quality)

In any case, the toast image + dvd2one should work (i've never tried it)

I wouldn't recommend using the fastdivx preset for this though
(you would be lowering the quality/file size, then encoding to mpeg2 - that doesn't make sense -- or maybe dunnyman could explain why you would do it?)

I think you should use the dvd preset in ffmpegX. How long is the .avi?

[smuudge]

The AVI has been deleted to save some space, I now have 2 movies, both in .MOV format, one is 132minutes and the other is 151 minutes long, I am currently Toasting the 151 min MOV file which I intended to DVD2one and then hopefully burn..

[smuudge]

Thanks for all your help. I have successfully burnt my first DVD!

Just one last question, should i bother running AVIs through DIVx Doctor prior to creating the Toast image?

I know it doesnt take very long but AVIs tend to be alot smaller than MOVs and I could do with saving the space! plus i dont see any quality or sync difference between the AVI and MOV!?

Thanks again.

[Dunnyman]

The reason I use the fast divX is to avoid sync errors later on, every time I've used an avi file to go to VCD/SVCD/DVD, I had major sync issues, someone suggested running a fast divX THEN going to VCD etc, and it seems to work just fine for me. Your mileage may vary however...

[Wibbler]

A lot of the responses to the original post seem to give convoluted messages.

Its a doddle to convert a avi file to write out to a DVD-R.

The size of the avi, 700mb is irrelevant, as a short time length could be encoded with a high bitrate to get 700mb, and conversly a long time length could be ecoded with a low bitrate to fit into 700mb. The actual time of the avi is more important.

With ffmpegX, just open the avi, select the DVD preset and select the output disk to be a 4g DVD, then select author to DVD and click the encode button.

If like me your quicktime will not read divx, select the decode with mplayer option.

The whole thing is relatively painless, and what you end up with is an ISO image file that can be written to DVD-R. I use the Apple Disk Utility as I never bothered with Toast..

W.I.Bler

[smuudge]

Thanks il try that, how long does it take on average for a 700mb AVI? Thanks.

[Wibbler]

On my PB G4 867MHz it can take between 20 and 30 hours, depending on system loading. Its the sort of thing you start off and forget it.. (SleepWare)

W.I.Bbler

[smuudge]

patience is a virtue . Ive heard that the new Toast 6 with Jam handles dolby audio encoding direct so you literally drag, drop and burn any movie file instantly. Not sure how true that is as i dont have a copy

[Wibbler]

The 20 -30 hours are when you use ffmpgX gui to call the shots, but I have experimented withe the ffmpeg (no X) program directly from the command-line and have managed to do the whole thing in around 5 hours on the same system.

ffmpegX is the GUI and ffmpeg is the actual program that does the real work, and the only connection between the two that I can see is in the name.

I'm not knocking ffmpegX, as I think its a fantastic front-end GUI and it does take the headaches out of driving the underlying applications manually, but thats all - ffmpegX doesn't do the real work of conversion.

W.I,Bbler

[smuudge]

thanks mate il stick with the toast route.

[DevFive]

It would be great if there was a wizard to simplify the process.