MPEG-1 and AVI to DVD with chapters

[xClarencex]

Hi everyone.

I have a ton of AVIs and MPEG-1 videos that I'd like to burn to a viewable DVD.

The main thing I want to achieve is chapters to quickly skip through rather than fast forwarding loads.

I used Toast 7, but have found the results (even with the settings maxed out) to be quite poor i.e. the rencoding of the mpeg-1 made the picture quality worse.

I then took the file into ffmpegX. This resulted in identical picture quality, and a burnable video_ts folder, but no option for chapters.

Is iMovie or iDVD the way to go? Although those programs don't handle muxed mpegs do they.

I would very much appreciate anyone's thoughts on the best way to acheive what I have described above.

Thanks!

[Frobozz]

When you use an MPEG video with Toast it automatically adds chapter markers every 5 minutes. If Toast wants to re-encode, change its custom encoder re-encoding option to Never.

[xClarencex]

I changed the reencode setting to 'Never' and it has still encoded it and affected the quality.

I realise that DVD is mpeg-2 and therefore my mpeg-1 needs to be encoded somewhere along the line, but it shouldn't reduce the quality, should it?

[glynnkjk]

Hi Clarence, Yes anytime you encode you loose some quality. But there are ways to get it back.
What size are the files you want to put onto DVD? Width x Height 240x320 or whatever....
I have found that encoding the files back to raw video(DV) 640x480 and then drop that into iMovie.
However, this takes up a LOT???? of disk space. Edit and send to iDVD.

The problem w/mpeg-1 and .avi is that it has already been encoded by a codec that picked up what it needed to make the file. Now you are missing parts that Toast and iMovie use to make a clean viewing movie....putting it into raw video give those programs what they require...

If you got the disk space...you'll like the results.

I use ffmpegx to convert and make sure the DV is 640x480 or else iMovie will take an hour to import it!!!

[xClarencex]

Cheers for the reply!

I have a decent size HDD so that not a problem.

I did start taking the files straight into iMovie, but they take a looong time. And like you say, you end up with very big files.

Is ffmpeg faster at encoding to DV than iMovie? And also, iMovie wont take muxed mpeg-1 files. If I remember correctly, it does, but drops the audio. Any easy solutions you can think of for that? I demuxed but then wasn't sure how to proceed.

[glynnkjk]

If you take the files straight to iMovie as mpeg-1/2 mp4 and such they could very well come out choppy. If you use ffmpegx to convert them to DV---I have a G5 w/512mb ram and 700mb .avi takes about 90min. But when I drop it in iMovie (680x480!!!) it imports it in two minutes or less. The DV format will have a much better out put.

FFmpegx will convert all your mpegs w/audio to DV at about the same speed as iMovie. But iMovie will pick up a whole lot more detail from DV format than mpeg-2 or mp4.

Come to think of it--ffmpegx is faster than iMovie. It uses the ffmpeg codec and is faster.

[Frobozz]

When you describe to picture quality as being worse after Toast did the re-encoding, were you looking at this on a TV or on your Mac? The TV is the way to compare quality. DVD Player zooms up the size of the picture which makes it look fuzzy or blurry. The only way to see the picture unzoomed is to choose Normal in the DVD Player View menu.

You may already know about that but I've encountered many people who complain about a recorded DVD's picture quality when it actually looked acceptable on TV or in DVD Player's Normal view.

[xClarencex]

Ok, I'll whack them through ffmpeg to DV and do the chapters in iMovie. Could do some menus too in iDVD I suppose. But won't this way encode the file yet again before burning?

I have been comparing the mpeg-1 in quicktime to the dvd on apple dvd player. I think quicktime might be smoothing the image, but I'm posititve there's a loss of quality once burnt to dvd with toast.

[glynnkjk]

Yes it does...But this time the encoder uses the entire DV stream instead of the selected bits.
It will be encoded back to a mpeg-2, but this time it will have the whole stream to work with.

The problem w/mpeg-1 and .avi is that it has already been encoded by a codec that picked up what it needed to make the file. Now you are missing parts that Toast and iMovie use to make a clean viewing movie....putting it into raw video give those programs what they require...

It will never be as clear as it would if you went straight from camera to iMovie/Toast. Put going back to DV and using that makes a real good supplement.

Cheers

[xClarencex]

Cheers mate. Thanks for the help. I've got a 2.33ghz MBP, so it wont take a mega amount of time.

Nice one.

[SERBIAN]

Create MPEG-1 DVDs without reencoding to MPEG-2 using MPEG2 Works 4

[xClarencex]

Excellent tutorial serbian. Any way to add chapters to it too? Every 5 minutes or something?

Cheers.

[SERBIAN]

Yes...You can add chapters every 5, 10 or 15 minutes...

DVD Authoring in M2W4 - preparing MPEG2 for DVD burning

"You can set chapter markers at every 5, 10 or 15 minutes for easy navigation and also You can make burnable authored DVD image /.img/ file which you can burn on DVD-R using the "Burn" button at the bottom left corner of Advanced Authoring section...."

[xClarencex]

Using Mpeg2 Works, what's the best way to make chaptered DVDs from AVIs?

[SERBIAN]

DivX, XviD, AVI > DVD How-to using MPEG2 Works 4
.mov > MPEG2 /encoding your movies to MPEG2 and DVD authoring using MPEG2 Works 4

[xClarencex]

I have an AVI with a frame rate of 23.98fps. Is converting it to PAL or NTSC framerate as simple as selecting that rate in Mpeg2 Works? Or does selecting a different output rate to the source rate result in jumpy video?

[SERBIAN]

That particular AVI has NTSC film frame rate...Use the one of the pulldown preset button /based on aspect ratio of your AVI/ under NTSC section for encoding that one in NTSC...

If you try to convert that to PAL you will get jumpy video..

If you are converting regular NTSC /29.97/ <-> PAL /25/ you should get good output...

[xClarencex]

Hi Serbian,

I just tried to make an NTSC mpeg from a NTSC FILM divx avi.

I got an error message asking if I have the mpeg2 component for quicktime, and it also said not to use mpegs with the pulldown function.

I have ended up with a complete video film, but no audio file.

What am I doing wrong? Why do I need the mpeg2 component installed for this?

[SERBIAN]

Disregard that general error message and make sure you have installed AC3 audio decoder component for QuickTime and Perian codec like it says under DivX, XviD, AVI > DVD How-to using MPEG2 Works 4 tutorial...

Since you allreadu have video track encoded, after installation of AC3 audio component, try to extrack your audio to .aiff or .wav using QuickTime and then encode it in .mp2 using MPEG2 Works 4 under Tools/Audio section...Then just multiplex that audio track and allready made video track in one .mpg under Advanced Authoring section using the top table...Then you can author that .mpg as DVD under same section using the bottom table...

[xClarencex]

Any programs out there to create my own chapters, a bit like VCD builder but for DVDs? Or are there any plans to do something like that with Mpeg2 Works?

[SERBIAN]

Im in the process of making brand new DVD authoring panel...It will be much more improved and will have much more options then now...As soon as I finish I'll post the update of my app...