dvd burning avi files without compressing, Nero Vision

[tchambers]

I like the idea of putting a normal screen and a widescreen version on a dvd. Of course it helps with a title page and buttons to push for either version of the video, such as Nero Vision allows you to do. When I try to burn this in Vision, it compresses the video and I lose clairity on the giant tv screen. Does anyone know of a program that will do all of this without compressing the avi file? I can burn them in Burning Rom, but of course, no title page and button option. By the way, both files are 4gb together, so plenty of room for a title page.

[Baldrick]

Do you want a dvd-video? then you must reencode because avi is not dvd compliant.

If you just want the avi files on the dvd with a menu you have to use something else like make a .divx with a menu using DivXMediaBuilder.

[tchambers]

So if I here you correctly, you don't use an avi file on a dvd that is going to be passed on for someone to use in thier TV's dvd player? If that is the case, is the compression that Nero Vision applies as about as good as it gets? When I play the dvd back on the computer, great picture, when I play it on a 55 inch big screen, very grainy. My thought was that if the avi file were not compressed, maybe a better picture on the big screen? If that is not the case, what would you suggest for final dvd from avi with title page and buttons?

[mats.hogberg]

No, Nero is one of the worst DVD encoders there is.
There are lots (48 at last count IIRC) of guides, found under CONVERT left, on AVI to DVD.

/Mats

[tchambers]

What tool would you reccomend for the best avi to dvd encoding. I am looking for the best video I can produce, with a title page. What encoding am I looking for? Is there a name for the different encodings?

[guns1inger]

The best results are achieved by ecoding video with a good mpeg2 encoder (ProCoder, CCE, Tmpgenc), encoding audio with a good AC3 encoder, authoring with a good authoring tool, then burning with a good burning engine (imgburn2). This takes time and planning and knowledge, but doesn't take too olong to pick up if you apply yourself to it.

If you want a quick solution with minimal effort and reasonable quality (and a simple one page menu), look at ConvertXtoDVD. Quality wise it doesn't compare to manual method, but it is faster and better than Nero.

[tchambers]

Thanks for the tip. In your list of manual steps, which step would include adding the screen menu with options to select regular or widescreen? I assume that convertxtodvd does that.

[LloydAZ]

A couple of things that you will want to consider:

1. Length of the video
2. Media that you are recording on
3. Authoring software capabilities

The AVI files that you are using are probably either DivX or Xvid which can utilize lower bitrates and maintain a quality image. DVD requires MPG-2 compression, which requires higher bitrates to maintain a quality image, thus the resulting file size will be a lot larger.

If this is a full feature-length film and you want to have both the widescreen and fullscreen versions on the same disc you will have to consider either lowering the bitrate of the MPG-2 file to allow the two versions of the film to fit on a single-layer disc, or burning to a dual-layer disc.

Look at one of the bitrate calculators in the tools section here. Imput the length of the film and the size of the disc you are recording to. Now, double the length of time (since you are going to put both versions on the same disc) and see how much the bitrate drops. Remember, the higher the bitrate number, the better the quality.

I'm going out on a limb here with the authoring software, so if I'm wrong on this someone please correct me.

Your authoring software may need to utilize more than one VTS for this to properly work. Even though both MPG files will be encoded as 720x480 NTSC (720x576 PAL), the aspect ratios for the files will be different (one at 4:3, the other for 16:9). Items within the same titleset I know have to be the same resolution and framerate, but they may also have to be the same aspect ratio. Thus you would have to author the DVD using an authoring tool that allows you to use more than one titleset such as DVDLab Pro. I'm not sure if TDA does multiple titlesets, I've never used it, but I hear very good reviews here about it being an excellent authoring program.

I hope this helps out a bit.

Take Care,
Lloyd

[guns1inger]

TDA does allow mutliple titles - just use seperate tracks

[mats.hogberg]

which step would include adding the screen menu with options to select regular or widescreen?

That'd be the authoring step.

/Mats