best software to burn avi videos to DVD

[jomuir]

Hi,

I am out of date with dvd burning software, I have Nero 8 on my desktop and have a new laptop that has Power2Go Version 6. I quite like Nero 8, especially as I can add as many avi's and it automatically reduces/increase quality based on how many avi's you add - it does not have a play all option which would be nice.

I have just burnt a DVD on my laptop and do not like Power2Go (only tried it once, so not given it a fair go, but first impressions and all that)......anyway, obviously I am now wondering about software for burning videos onto dvd's (also require it for burning MP3 to create an audio CD and burn data onto both CD & DVD)

As a result an recommendations on software? (free would be great, but will purchase the latest version of Nero or other software)

Cheers!

[steptoe]

For putting AVI/MKV on DVD, I personally use ConvertXtoDVD. It will convert pretty much any video file to a DVD playable disc and even burn it automatically if you want, and has basic DVD menus, but with a bit of effort you can also have full motion menu DVD menus

You don't really want to be putting more than one or maybe two AVI's on a single DVD (assuming you are referring to movie rips), the more you fit on there the worse the final quality will be. But saying that I have put 6 TV episodes on DVD with a simple menu without noticing much quality drop, but then again the source was very high quality HDTV capture so had a good basis to start with

If you have a very high quality source to start with it can end up with a good result, but a poor quality movie rip will give you worse as its converting something that has already been compressed. Its also one of the few pieces of software that can actually manage to keep the audio in sync when converted which a lot suffer with managing correctly

v5 of ConvertXtoDVD is supposed to be out 'sometime soon' but that was 2 months ago and we are still waiting, so v4 is currently the latest


As for MP3 to audio CD, again I personally use EasyCD-DA Converter. Its good at what it does, because it doesn't try to do everything in one package .... unlike Nero has become, but some love Nero and I went off it after v7 as it became overbloated software that refuses to even upgrade if you have an older version already installed. And if the install/uninstall fails for some reason then thats when the 'fun' can start


For burning DVDs, have a look at IMGBurn. 100% freeware and is probably the best DVD/blu-ray burner on the market. It produces compatable burns everytime and more importantly actually works. Even if you insist on using cheap crap media it still manages to outclass 'commercial' software

[hech54]

Hi,

I am out of date with dvd burning software, I have Nero 8 on my desktop and have a new laptop that has Power2Go Version 6. I quite like Nero 8, especially as I can add as many avi's and it automatically reduces/increase quality based on how many avi's you add - it does not have a play all option which would be nice.

I have just burnt a DVD on my laptop and do not like Power2Go (only tried it once, so not given it a fair go, but first impressions and all that)......anyway, obviously I am now wondering about software for burning videos onto dvd's (also require it for burning MP3 to create an audio CD and burn data onto both CD & DVD)

As a result an recommendations on software? (free would be great, but will purchase the latest version of Nero or other software)

Cheers!

Clarify please.
Are you talking about DATA discs................................or DVD Video and Audio CD.

[jomuir]

Talking about burning tv eps that I have recorded onto dvd for the kids watching in the car or on holiday etc

So probably add 6 eps to a dvd, also some films now and again - so more the DVD Video and Audio CD

Thanks for the reply(s) I will look at the software mentioned.

[hech54]

Talking about burning tv eps that I have recorded onto dvd for the kids watching in the car or on holiday etc

So probably add 6 eps to a dvd, also some films now and again - so more the DVD Video and Audio CD

Thanks for the reply(s) I will look at the software mentioned.

6 "AVI" episodes, converted to DVD, then placed on a single layer DVD(as "DVD Video") will look like complete garbage...not to mention many softwares choke while attempting to cram so much onto a disc.
Unless your car plays "AVI files burned as data to a blank DVD"....it's time to rethink your strategy.

[Cauptain]

Talking about burning tv eps that I have recorded onto dvd for the kids watching in the car or on holiday etc

So probably add 6 eps to a dvd, also some films now and again - so more the DVD Video and Audio CD

Thanks for the reply(s) I will look at the software mentioned.

If anime/cartoon has 30/40 max mns per episode correct??

DVD get 240mns watchable. Use ConvertXtoDVD.



Claudio

[videobruger]

DVD get 240mns watchable.

Also my experience. And for recommendations on "about software for burning videos onto dvd's " besides ConvertXtoDVD, AVStoDVD is popular and my personal favourite is DVDStyler - and they both have "Play All" buttons in the default menu template.

For DVDStyler you might see these videos from youtube to get an idea of what's it all about - as well as you might search youtube for videos of all 3 softwares mentioned.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYa6nVulBFU

http://youtu.be/fPSCYojl6qU

[Hoser Rob]

While I agree that burning that many episodes onto a DVD will give you crap quality, if you're talking about using it for the kids to watch in the car you don't need perfection.

I used to use DVDstyler but I only use AVStoDVD now. I tried a lot of them but avstodvd is the only one I didn't uninstall. DVDstyler doesn't give you as high quality encodes as avstodvd but for a small screen in a car you may not be worried about that.

But ... the big thing that avstodvd has is that it will work with almost any input file, which dvdstyler and the others I've used do not do.

I don't know what kind of files you want to burn or the source but there are lots of them out there that were produced using bad non standard codecs. Just because a file is an avi or mpg doesn't mean it'll work with all software.

AVStoDVD is also good at figuring out the bitrate it'll use as you add files to the DVD. After you add some the meter will look full, but you can keep adding files until it says you're over. The first time it says it's full just means that's at best quality given the file.

For burning I like ImgBurn, as do many here. I think avstodvd has the option to burn straight from encoding using it, but I forget. I never used the burn from the program.

If you're out of date with this stuff one thing I'd watch out for is that I find there are a number of programs that used to be good freeware but are now useless adware. If I see the word adware I generally won't touch it. Generally a pretty interface to a program that doesn't work right and won't even uninstall properly.

[Seeker47]

This recent thread
https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/343072-Mkv-to-dvd-with-dvdflick?p=2139007

referred specifically to MKV . . . but much the same issues apply to various video file formats.

The point I was trying to make in post #12 of that thread is that if we had a lot more of these programs than we actually do, it might be easier to dismiss one of them -- particularly for those who may only consider the FREE programs. But we don't have that many of them, so we can't. I happen to think it is necessary to have at least a couple; I use three, counting CX2D v. 3x and v. 4x as two of them, with AVStoDVD being the third. The latter is what I've come to prefer, based on the quality of the results. But, for a most recent example, yesterday I had a conversion of a rather obscure older movie plus its .SRT subtitles. AVStoDVD (v. 2.4.1) just gave up during the subtitle incorporating phase. It said to check the log file, but the log file reveals nothing further about this. And so it goes: sometimes a failure occurs with the video encoding phase, or sometimes with the audio muxing.

I then ran the very same project through CX2D-4. The result was a nice quality dvd, with no errors noted. (This was an .Avi, file, by the way. It mentions Xvid and VirtualDubMod in the header, for whatever that's worth.) It took 17 minutes, or about 1/4 the time that AVS would take, using the same computer. Most of the time, I would still reach for AVS first. My review in the Tools section shows that I have been plenty critical of CX2D, with good reason. The program often falls short, in certain important respects. That said, I think the $40. license I bought from them a few years back was money very well spent. Strange as it may sound, I also encounter cases where CX2D ver. 3 succeeds on a job at which ver. 4 failed, or vice versa. And cases where CX2D failed but AVS gets the job done. Go figure ! It may be the skylight, the side door from the garage, or ______, but so long as you have a route that works . . . .

[hech54]

Funny. I usually chase newbies away with my rude-ness. You guys chased him away with too much techno-babble.

[jomuir]

I have not been chased away .....not been able to get online for a while.

The 6 eps are only 20-25 mins long (each) so it does not reduce the quality to much, sometimes 6 is too many, and need to reduce one dvd to 3 eps per dvd couple of nights ago.

I have noticed that pc world (uk) are doing nero 11 for £30, which seems a good offer as I really do not like CyberLink software.

I do not normally burn dvd's as mentioned this is really for a small car dvd player - I watch HD video quality via my popcorn hour and my attached 1 TB & 2 TB hard drives - thus the questions about DVD burning software.

I do seem to be burning more an more, and presume this will increase in the school holidays - so thank you all for your replies, I will look into all these options.

[jomuir]

[QUOTE=hech54;2140778]

6 "AVI" episodes, converted to DVD, then placed on a single layer DVD(as "DVD Video") will look like complete garbage...not to mention many softwares choke while attempting to cram so much onto a disc.
Unless your car plays "AVI files burned as data to a blank DVD"....it's time to rethink your strategy.

Strategy?? - to do with the quality? It is really not that bad as they are short episodes.........what strategy would you suggest, just reducung the number of files per dvd?

Is there a rough guide for number of minutes per dvd or a rule of thumb about this?

[videobruger]

Is there a rough guide for number of minutes per dvd or a rule of thumb about this?

For what it's worth, here's my rule of thumb: 240 min - just above 2 Mbps

Garbage or not ? Judge for yourself.

[Cauptain]

Jomuir, you can try KVCD tricks (Maximized Templates for DVD).

The quality is good and very acceptable. Search in web for this.



Claudio

[jomuir]

cool, will look at kvcd.net .....

so 6 x 20 mins (episodes) works for that....for the larger programs I only have 3 eps per disc, so I guess I follow roughly the same rules as you.

[Hoser Rob]

I don't think that 6 episodes at 20-25 min (probably 22 min or so if it's a regular TV show without ads) should hurt the quality that much, especially for the kids in the back seat. Unless you have a big 1080 flat screen TV back there ...

Some programs do a better job at putting more video than what's optimum for best quality than others. Some really don't want to put more than 1 hr 45 min or so on there. AVStoDVD is quite good at this.

Regarding Nero, in my experience it's not better than ImgBurn. I wouldn't pay a cent for it.

If you have a bunch of stuff you want to burn for the kids, avstodvd has a batch processing mode so you can encode a series of videos. Just tell it to output to a VOB folder or ISO file then burn those with Imgburn (at least that's my choice). It makes a lot more sense with a lot of videos than having the software burn straight to disc.

Everyone new to this sort of thing wants to burn straight to disc, but after burning a lot of them, it's not necessarily the best way to go.

jomuir, I'm with you 100% on preferring to just plug the damn computer into a screen though. I hardly ever watch TV so I just got a big computer monitor. Haven't burned a DVD since. It'd be a pain even if you didn't have to deal with the appalling lack of video standards.

In fact, I'd be surprised if in 5 years you'll even be able to buy stuff on DVD or CD.

[Cauptain]

cool, will look at kvcd.net .....

so 6 x 20 mins (episodes) works for that....for the larger programs I only have 3 eps per disc, so I guess I follow roughly the same rules as you.

Kvcd make 5~6 hours movies to DVD in 720x480 or 15 episodes x 20mns.


Claudio