best way to convert mpeg4 h.264 to DVD?

[xycer]

i've tried TMPGEnc Plus, WinAVI and CXtoDVD, but only WinAVI could even encode it, however, the source video was 2.35:1, and winavi was unable to keep the aspect ratio, and i'd rather find a better tool anyway.

whats the best way to convert h.264 mpeg4 video to DVD format?

[guns1inger]

If FFDShow can read the h.264, then you should be able to open it as a DirectShowSource with avisynth, and from there feed it to tmpgenc. Use FitCD to create a basic resize script, then change the AviSource to DirectShowSource and see if you can load it into virtualdub as a test. I suspect that the audio might give you more of a problem - what format is it ?

[celtic_druid]

ffdshow can decode it, but you still need a parser for it to work. What container? mp4? Would have thought that ConvertX should handle it since libavcodec can decode H.264 (this is what ffdshow uses) and libavformat can handle mp4, mkv, etc.

[xycer]

it is mp4 i believe.

sorry guys, but i'm really a noob with avisynth. i don't think ill need to resize it... if theres anyway i can feed it to TMPGEnc Plus, that'd be great, because TMPGEnc can pretty much automatically resize it.

so if someone can kind of guide me on how to feed it to TMPGEnc Plus, thatd be great. it sounds like thats what you were trying to tell me, gunsl1nger, so if you can tell me exactly how i do that, that'd be great.

also, do i need the x.264 codec installed? all i have is ffdshow and quicktime alternative (if that has anything to do with it) installed, but i CAN view the video with media player classic.

[celtic_druid]

No such than as x.264 codec. There is x264, but that isn't a codec, just an encoder, as such it won't help since you want to decode, not encode.

Media Player Classic has a built in mp4 splitter. TMPGEnc should in theory be able to open the file directly since it can open files via dshow. For dshow apps other than MPC though, you would need a standalone mp4 splitter installed.

[xycer]

ok, i installed a mp4 splitter codec (googled it, got it from free codecs.com) and i am now able to open the video with TMPGEnc Plus.

now i just need to know how to demux the ac3 audio from the mp4.... any help? =]

thanks for the help so far.

edit: actually, the audio is aac 5.1... im guessing thats not ac3? if not, how would i go abouts converting this to ac3 5.1? or is it even possible?

[celtic_druid]

Was about to say that AC3 wasn't possible in mp4 (well it is via private streams, but so is everything else).

Easiest way would be ffmpeg, not the GUI though since that only does 2 channel output. Since your source was an mp4 the channel ordering should be ok. Apple does some odd things with aac in mov's though.

[xycer]

ugh, never used ffmpeg before... i always used GUI.

i just downloaded ffmpeg, but when i open it, it lists a bunch of text really fast in DOS, then closes.

i've already extracted the audio in aac format with yamb. what do i do now? how do i use ffmpeg?

[celtic_druid]

You don't need to extract to use ffmpeg. You also didn't need to download it if you had the GUI.

You might want to try foobar 2000. It has an AC3 output plugin and can decode 5.1 aac files.

[xycer]

foobar didnt work. i've now tried like 3-5 different methods, but all failed.

at this point, id be happy with just 2ch ac3, but i can't even do that. tried besweet/gui and ffmpeggui.

[celtic_druid]

ffmpeggui should be able to do that. Just be careful what ffmpeg build you are using.