Going backwards - AVI to DVD

10th Jan 2005 10:56 #1

Member

[Please note: I posted this to the ffmpeg forum first; I'm re-posting it here in case anyone more knowledgeable about Toast 6.0.7 than I am knows anything about Toast's converting of the original audio to - apparently - .sd2 audio format. Or if you know anything about how Toast sizes up the destination output size depending on whether you have "DVD" or "(DVD+R) DL" chosen. - Ed.]

Say I've got 2 AVI (XviD) files. They're both encoded using the A52 AC3 audio 5.1 codec.

I get the AC3 QuickTime component and install it. I use QuickTime Pro and concatenate the 2 AVIs together and export to a self-contained QuickTime .mov file.

I want convert this .mov (back) to a burnable DVD (UDF). I try the simpleton's method (Toast) first; it looks to me like it's re-encoding the audio as ".sd2" (Sound Designer II format?!?), 44.1 kHz. Looks to me like Toast is going to strip the 5.1 mix and produce a stereo mix instead. Bad dog.

So, I thought I'd try ffmpegX. Anyone with suggestions on settings to use? I'm assuming for "Audio" I'll select "Passthrough" and un-check "Encode audio", right? (If I do this, I assume all the "Audio parameters" settings are ignored, correct?)

Now the fun part - the video. I assume I should choose "MPEG2 [.MPG] (ffmpeg)" (or "(mpeg2enc)", whatever) and check "Encode video".

The rest of the settings - "Video", "Options", "Tools" - I have no clue about. When you go from AVI (back) to DVD, you can't put in what isn't there anymore, right? So I don't know whether to select DVD/4000 MB under "Bitrate calculator", or whether to change the 4000 MB to 8000 MB (I have a Pioneer DVD-108 DL-capable burner). I don't know whether to change the PAL rate of 25 in "Video parameters" -> "framerate" to NTSC or not ("Info" says the .mov is 25 fps; I have an American - i.e. NTSC - DVD and TV setup, not sure it can play PAL). I don't know whether to use "2.35:1" or "DVD 16:9" in "Video parameters" -> "Autosize".

All I want to do is to get this .mov onto a DVD-R (or DVD+R DL) disc so I can view it on my TV, hopefully with the AC3/A52 5.1 mix intact. Can anyone make settings suggestions based on this?