What is the Simplest Free Way to Make a DVD of TV Shows on Windows?

[andrews777]

I am getting lost in my choices. I have a bunch of TV Shows that I want to dump to DVDs, but I am having serious trouble.

I have tried the free version of DIKO (though it does look different than the view in the tutorial here). I get through the process but it is failing at the end. The last time it was trying to use a file that was not in that project. I also get an error about "ogg.dll" being missing in FreeEnc even though I have it installed and I can see it in several directories. (Though it probably isn't in the right directory....)

I also tried ULead MovieFactory 2.5. It made a nice disk, with no sound.

I even tried Sony Vegas Movie Studio + DVD, but that doesn't recognize the divx and xvid files it seems, and it only will put a single movie on a disk.

These are TV rips, so I am not super concerned about quality. I find it odd that I can't put a bunch of 300-700K files on a single DVD.

I have made a VCD with Roxio of two other shows. That worked, but I can only get about 2 shows per CD that way.

I tried searching here, and I find too many matches. I would appreciate any input. I am eaving willing to buy something, if I know it will work. I "wasted" money on Sony Vegas Movie Studio thinking it would do the job since I plan on doing some of my own video in the future, but that was a disappointment.

Brad

[guns1inger]

I would try ConvertXtoDVD, or even it's free little brother, DivxtoDVD (if you don't need menus).

Before you begin though, you need to forget the original file sizes. They don't matter or count in this equation. At full D1 resolution, you can reasonably fit 2 hours on a single layer disc, perhaps a little more. That gets you three 45 minute episodes. With DivxtoDVD you might stretch that to a soft-imaged 3 hours.

If you want more, then you need to use an encoder that can do half-D1, which probably means doing it all by hand.

Or, get a Divx certified player, convert everything to Xvid or Divx, and put 12 45 minute episodes on a single disc.

[andrews777]

I would prefer simple menus, but I could not see how to have more than a single file with divxToDvd. Did I miss something obvious? (Probably)

Would I just create a data DVD for a divx certified player? Can I put menus on in that case, or does it just show the files? My current Sony DVD player may not be compatible, but I can always try and see what happens.

Brad

[guns1inger]

DivxtoDVD - hold down the shift key when you select the files - just like any windows program.

Yes, just a data dvd. No menus, but a compliant player will give you a file list to choose from.

[andrews777]

Doh! I was using avitodvd.

Thanks I will try that this weekend.

Brad