Best free dvd authoring suggestions please

[redisk]

I'm currently using DVD santa to author my .mkv, .avi, ect to the dvd files and was wondering if there was any faster programs out there. I know that DVD Santa is the best (from what i've been able to find) for the .MKV format but is there something better? Right now it takes about 2-4x the length of the movie to recode it. I do understand that there will be a delay of course because recoding is a intense process, just hoping for a bit more speed.

Thanks.

[guns1inger]

Actually, DVD Santa is crap, IMNSHO. ConvertXtoDVD claims to be able to handle MKV files now. On my system a 90 minute avi takes around 50 minutes to encode at highest quality.

FWIW, none of these solutions will give the best output. They all aim for speed and ease of use - quality is much lower down the list of priorities. The best solution takes a lot longer. On my system, doing it the manual way (for me that is FitCD, avisynth, ProCoder, DVD Lab Pro) takes around 4 - 6 hours (depending on the length of the movie) from start to finish. The quality is generally 30 - 50% better than what ConvertXtoDVD can do.

[träskmannen]

The quality is generally 30 - 50% better than what ConvertXtoDVD can do.

Interesting - how do you measure that?

[mats.hogberg]

Don't confuse authoring with format conversion. I'll move this to a more fitting forum.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

how do you measure that

Purely subjectively - how else ?

I get better clarity and detail, and a lot less blocking than even the original avi (most of which are pretty dodgy anyway)

[träskmannen]

So it's measured in subjective percents? (just teasing).

How you perceived the difference in quality was, however, seriously meant.

[cougar_ii]

Hi there,

Also please take into consideration, that if you select DVD5 as your output, ConvertXtoDVD will reduce the bitrate (If needed) to make it fit on your DVD5.

If you wish (If possible) a better quality output, select DVD9 so it has double the space to output.

And VSO Software uses FFMpeg in ConvertXtoDVD !

My 2 cents...