avi to dvd with external burner

[mique]

hi,

im a newbie and have searched around trying to get this question answered but to no avail.

ive just bought an external dvd burner for my mac osx 10.2, im trying to burn avi movie/tv files onto dvd so that i can play them on my standalone dvd player (not computer)

i am using toast 6 and have tryed several different things. i understand that the files are too big and need to be converted. so, i have tryed making a disk image in toast, the dvd-video starts encoding and after a while i get a message saying that quicktime is missing softwear to complete this task...so that doesnt work.

im not sure if i need to use some other softwear like ffmpegx, 3ivx, divx...and if so i have no idea how to use them and how to get started.
so, basically i`d would really appreciate some very simple instructions or directions to a `how to guide` that can get me from point a to b.

thanks for patience and help

[daamon]

Hi mique,

Firstly, welcome to the site and the forums...

I'm not a Mac user, but the principals of getting AVI to DVD are the same so I'll share those with you.

If your standalone DVD player supports the playing of AVIs - if it does, most likely Divx and possibly Xvid - then I can't really help you there...

To get AVIs to play on a DVD they need to be encoded to a DVD compliant MPEG2 (see "What Is... DVD", top left of the page for specs) and then authored: i.e. create the VOB, IFO and BUP files in the VIDEO_TS folder with a (usually empty) AUDIO_TS folder.

I don't know what software you can use on Macs to do the encoding and authoring.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[galactica]

check out the tutorials on my webpage, link in my signature
if still stuck feel free to post here

[mique]

hi again,

thanks for the advice...im slowly making some progress but no dvd in my hand.

i checked out the web site and downloaded sizzle but im not sure if mpeg2works is what i need. does this program convert avi file to mpeg 2? and if so once i go through sizzle - will i be able to burn a dvd movie with toast?

one other thing is there any freeware i can use or is mpeg2works the works?

thanks

[mique]

hi again,

thanks for the advice...im slowly making some progress but no dvd in my hand.

i checked out the web site and downloaded sizzle but im not sure if mpeg2works is what i need. does this program convert avi file to mpeg 2? and if so once i go through sizzle - will i be able to burn a dvd movie with toast?

one other thing is there any freeware i can use or is mpeg2works the works?

thanks

[miksu]

You could try ffmpegX for converting. It's easy to use and has lot of options for more advanced users. It has also useful bitratecalculator, so you can easily calculate highest rate that fits in disk. And it has also ready profiles for DVD, SVCD, etc... Some of ffmpegX-codecs are Altivec optimized (including ffmpeg-MPEG2), it's fast even on my old good old Sawtooth (G4/450)

ffmpegX is able to make Apple Disktool-images (DMG) that can be burned with Apple Disk tool. Toast is fine, but I have had weird "sense-code" problems with it, that's why I usually create images first and burn with Disk Tool.

[SERBIAN]

Basicly you have to install DivX and 3ViX codecs for QuickTime first and then convert your AVIs to MPEG2 /.mpg/ for DVD...Here is the list of shareware/freeware apps you should check and find which one you want to use:

ffmpegX
MovieGate
iVCD
MPEG2 Works

Toast 6 should also be able to do the conversion job for you...

When you get your MPEG2 movies then you just author your DVD with the app you used for conversion or with Sizzle...Then burn the DVD with Toast or from Finder /using Disk Utility/...

There is some more apps [PRO/shareware/freeware] and you can find them on Versiontracker.com or Macupdate.com...

[verderacer]

Hello All,

I have read the above and I am having the same issue partly in wanting to convert avi's into DVD's. Is there one tool that can do this?

Or like mentioned in previous postings convert the avi to mpg then convert it to vob files...

I also would like to know how to and what tool to use to string together several vob files into one avi or mpg file.

Any help appreciated.