Best method of getting 8 half hour episodes on a dvd

[Dentist]

files are currently in xvid, between 28 and 28 1/2 minutes each and about 238mb a piece, what would be the best method to get them on dvd with a simple menu to select each episode

[lordsmurf]

Well, for one, they have to be converted to MPEG.

[Dentist]

well i tried one in Winavi and did dvd output(vob) that would be fine i assume?

[jimmalenko]

Convert each file to a DVD-compliant MPEG-2 file using this guide, or any of the AVI to DVD guides found in the guides section. Remember when calculating your bitrate that you need to use the running time of all 8 eps combined, so you would use roughly 230 minutes (3 hr 58 minutes) as your running time. Once you have all eps as MPEG-2, then use authoring software such as TMPGEnc DVD Author, DVD-lab, dvdauthorgui etc etc to create your menu(s), add chapters, etc etc. Output and burn.

[Dentist]

in total i got 3h 47m 5s and got 2456 for the bitrate, would that be too low or will it be fine?

[gadgetguy]

For SIF it should be fine, Half D1 is iffy, and for Full D1 it would suck. IMO

[ZippyP.]

Should be fine for 1/2 DVD, about SVCD bitrate at a lower resolution.

[aguillon]

Frankly if you re not too worried about the quality, don't waste too much time on calculating the optimal birate and convert to a modified VCD standard - you can create a specific template for this in your favourite encoder. Normal VCD standard for the video track (NTSC or PAL), and Mpeg2 48hz audio for the audio track (that s the non standard part). This will play perfectly in any DVD player.

Load up the files in your favourite DVD mastering software. It may warn you about using non-standard low quality streams (don't worry, it will play fine). Create a little menu with an entry for each of the episodes, make chapter points if you must, then burn away. I do that all the time and I have absolutely no complaints whatsoever

[junkmalle]

Or burn the files as is on an ISO data DVD and get a DVD player that supports Xvid AVI files.