Convert .avi to dvd

[dalejrfan5874]

My husband is a high school football coach and we are trying to take game film that has been cutting using editing software and put it on a dvd to play in standalone dvd players. It is automatically saved by the editing software as an .avi file. There is no way to change that. When we try to burn the video clips to a dvd, it says it's too large. We tried using Windows Movie Maker to make the files smaller, but then when they are burned they won't play in a desktop dvd player. How can we convert them so they will? We need to be able to put several video clips on one disk and have them play so he can send the film to colleges for the players. We have Sonic Digital Media LE V7 as our burning software. Thanks for your help.

[redwudz]

You might try ConvertXToDVD. It is a easy program to work with that converts most common formats to a DVD file, ready to burn. That's the easy way.

WMM doesn't output to DVD type formats. I suspect your original video may have been DV, which is a AVI type format. DV is a very easy to edit and common format from home video DV camcorders. WMM can edit and output DV.

DV needs to be converted to MPEG-2 DVD compliant format to make a DVD.

If you are not sure of what format the video is, try dropping it in Gspot 2.60. If your final destination is DVD, compare that to 'WHAT IS' DVD to the upper left for the DVD spec and format. <<<<<<

If you want to make the files smaller, then there are other ways. If you want to edit, then convert, we would have to know the format to be able to give editor suggestions.

Sorry this sounds complicated, but there are many, many video formats out there and it's difficult to give advice unless we know what format you are working with.

And welcome to our forums.

[guns1inger]

You need to encode the video to DVD compatible mpeg2 video and suitable audio, then author it as a DVD. There are plenty of guides and tools to do this, ranging from simple to complex, free to mind-bogglingly expensive.

I would suggest you look at something like Vegas Movie Studio or Premiere Elements as a possible solution. Both feature strong entry level editing and adjustment capabilities, and straight forward DVD authoring. From there, either burn with the built-in burning tool, or with imgburn 2.

[daamon]

Hi dalejrfan5874,

Welcome to the forums.

Before I get into answering your question, there's a bit of background that will help me by helping you...

The first thing is that the world of video, and everything associated with it, isn't simple. To complicate matters - there's definitely more than one way to skin a cat! But, don't let that put you off...

Back in the good ol' days when DVD players played DVD discs (the normal type with films on), it was relatively simple. Nowadays, a lot of players (I intentionally left out the "DVD" bit) will play more than that.

To elaborate... DVD discs (the kind that had films and the like on) had the video and audio stored in a format known as MPEG - this is just a technical name for the way in which the information was stored.

Nowadays, discs can contain files that are in different formats - just different ways in which the video and audio information is stored in the files. You may have heard of Divx or Xvid players. If not, no matter... (Both Divx and Xvid are more formats, a bit like MPEG).

Why am I telling you this? Well, I'm going to assume that you want to make a DVD of the "conventional" type. The main reason for this is that this will definitely play in all players.

Remember I said there was more than one way to skin a cat? Well, now's the time to go there...

You have two main options:

1) To use an all-in-one piece of software that will take your AVI files at the beginning and, with a little creative input from you, give you a conventional DVD at the end. This effectively automates a number of steps in the process.

Pros: Quicker, cheaper, easier and (depending on the chosen software) fairly satisfactory results.

Cons: Some software gives crappy results. Little control of the finer details that possibly affect quality.

Tools: I've seen ConvertXToDVD regularly recommended, though never used it. Thre is an "All-In-One" category in the "Tools" section. The "Tools" link is to the left.

2) Use seperate tools for each step of the process.

Pros: Much more control over the whole process and associated settings.

Cons: Can take longer, more tools may mean more money, requires time to learn tools.

Tools: Too many to list, especially as there's numerous steps. Yet more ways to skin a cat...

Recommendations: I'd say for you and what you want to achieve, and (assuming you new to this), go for a decent all-in-one solution. That'll give you a reasonable to good quality end product in a fairly quick timeframe, with minimum frustration and expense.

Like I say, there's ConvertXToDVD but there are others.

I hope that helps, and good luck.