AVI+DVD+Chapters = ???

[eMacNobie]

Hi, guys!

Can anyone help me please! (^_^)\/ I'm with a huge doubt. (?_?)ºo

I have Anime episodes on my comp on AVI format and I want to organize them on a DVD on a DVD player.

My anime episodes are: on AVI format, on 640X480 (sais VLC) and about 150mb each.

*I friend sold me a DVD with some anime episodes <he is a windows user(¬_¬)> and when I open the info when playing on Apple DVD player it sais that the screen format is 4:3 and the size is 704x480.
This DVD plays perfectly on a regular DVD player.

I have on my comp this programs: MacTheRipper, MediaFork (Handbreak), Toast Titanium 8 and VisualHub - I had ffmpegx but was anything but trouble.

I want to burn the episodes to play like my friend's DVD (like on pictures below - btw: each chapter is an episode.).

What should I do? (?_?)l|

To which extension should I convert the AVI files?

How do I make the animes fit the 4:3 proportions?

And talking about 4:3... I have a AVI movie on 16:9 and when I burnt and played on my DVD player it didn't fit the screen was still on 16:9.

How do I convert a 16:9 to a 4:3 without losing resolution and part of the movie screen?

Can anyone help this noob here on a step by step walkthrough. Pleaseeee! (*_*)º

Thanx in advance (^_^)\/

[guns1inger]

The examples you have posted come from Tmpgenc DVD Author.

640 x 480 is 4:3 with 1:1 pixel aspect ratio. They can be correctly resize to 704 x 480 for 4:3 TVs, and encoded as 4:3 NTSC video.

When you play back on your TV you will lose the edges of the screen to Overscan (look it up in the glossary). You can only avoid this by resizing your visible image and adding black borders to get back to compliant resolutions.

All of this is very easy on a PC, which is what your sample was done with. I'm sure it can be done on a mac as well, but you may have to use different tools to what you have.
I will ask a Mod to move this to the Mac forum, where you may have better luck getting details.

[jgrant83]

You can't convert 16:9 footage to 4:3 without losing horizontal resolution unfortunately. You'll have to crop the edges out or use a letterbox. This obviously isn't a conventional DVD-video considering the files are AVIs instead of mpg2s. Sorry I can't be of much help with the Mac stuff.

[bielp]

Hi guys!
Try winx DVD Author which i used. AVI + DVD + chapter = Winx DVD Author!

[terryj]

If you want Fancy menus like the above examples listed,
your easiest and fastest way to do so would be using
DVD Studio Pro, v. 3.02 or higher.

I say v. 3.02 or higher, because with QT 7.x, and the proper
codecs installed, you can just import the AVIs as they are,
and place them on their own timelines (tracks).
Set buttons for each track, and then build your menu picture.
Build the Video_TS folder, and Burn to Disc.

Using the programs you have, you can use Toast 8
to create a DVD, and each AVI will be a button in
the menu when the VIDEO_TS folder is built,
and you can set Chapters to Automatic, and it will
place chapter points at the beginning and end of
the avis.

Just drag and drop the AVIs in the order you want them to be
in the Toast 8 Video Tab, with the DVD selection button
on the left selected. Make sure the names of the AVIS
are what you want them to be
(Chapter 01 vs. Naruto_Season_One_Episode_1_(EZTV).HD.avi or somesuch)
to save on having to edit that after you drag and drop.


However, you will be stuck with Toast's default menus
and buttons, which aren't all that pretty, but you can
add your own backdrop picture, so that is a plus.
(You can tweak the buttons and menus in Toast 7, but it's not for the faint of heart.)

[eMacNobie]

If you want Fancy menus like the above examples listed,
your easiest and fastest way to do so would be using
DVD Studio Pro, v. 3.02 or higher.

I say v. 3.02 or higher, because with QT 7.x, and the proper
codecs installed, you can just import the AVIs as they are,
and place them on their own timelines (tracks).
Set buttons for each track, and then build your menu picture.
Build the Video_TS folder, and Burn to Disc.

Using the programs you have, you can use Toast 8
to create a DVD, and each AVI will be a button in
the menu when the VIDEO_TS folder is built,
and you can set Chapters to Automatic, and it will
place chapter points at the beginning and end of
the avis.

Just drag and drop the AVIs in the order you want them to be
in the Toast 8 Video Tab, with the DVD selection button
on the left selected. Make sure the names of the AVIS
are what you want them to be
(Chapter 01 vs. Naruto_Season_One_Episode_1_(EZTV).HD.avi or somesuch)
to save on having to edit that after you drag and drop.


However, you will be stuck with Toast's default menus
and buttons, which aren't all that pretty, but you can
add your own backdrop picture, so that is a plus.
(You can tweak the buttons and menus in Toast 7, but it's not for the faint of heart.)

Hi TerryJ

I don't want anything too fancy for now. I'm going to stick with toast for now.

I tried the Toast way but all I got was a black screens. (v_v)º


I opened Toast (titanium 8),
then click on video,
then on DVD-Video,
Then I draged and droped the Avi files in the order I wanted. - * The AVI files cannot be open with quicktime.
I click on the red button and burnt my DVD.

What I did wrong?

And about DVD Studio Pro; Even a total noob like me can make that work?

[Case]

I opened Toast (titanium 8), then click on video, then on DVD-Video,
Then I draged and droped the Avi files in the order I wanted. - * The AVI files cannot be open with quicktime.
I click on the red button and burnt my DVD.

What I did wrong?

Toast uses QuickTime to read the AVI file for conversion, so as long as QuickTime Player cannot play the AVI, then most likely Toast cannot convert it to DVD.
Maybe you can make QuickTime play the file by adding a codec component.
To find out what codec is used in the AVI, you could play the AVI in VLC and open the Information window (Cmd-I), look under Advanced Information, where the streams are listed. Toggle the small triangles to view the stream information, including video codec and audio codec.
If there is a QuickTime Component for that codec, then you could install that component to make QuickTime read files that use said codec.

[eMacNobie]

Thanx Case!

But I tried to input the Xvid codec component to my Quicktime but no luck. Everytime I opened the avi file, the quicktime crashed every time I opened any AVI file I have. (
I reboot but the problem insisted.
...

I want to stick with the AVI cause is the lightest video extension I know But the catch is, Apple and Toast can't recoganize them (V_V)º.
But the AVI takes less memory on a DVD, meaning, more anime chapters can fit on a DVD.

I tried converting the AVI to AVI again using VisualHub but the files became havier.

A 170mb became 238mb sometimes more.

If I upgrade my quicktime to Pro I'll still need the codec? Will quicktime pro read my avi files without any problem?

Or if I get the DVD Studio Pro I'll have my avi problems solved?

Does any MAC user here save anime episodes on chapters on a DVD to be played on a regular DVD player the way I want to do?

[Case]

The DivX Decoder.component that comes with Toast 8 should be able to handle DivX, XviD and similar generic MPEG-4 flavors. So if you have Toast 8, then you won't need an Xvid codec. But if you do install this extra component, QuickTime Player shouldn't crash!

So what did VLC say? Was it "XVID" video, "mpga" audio, or something else?

QuickTime Pro mainly adds the Export option to the File menu of QTP, but it won't help with difficult AVIs.
DVD Studio Pro relies on QuickTime to read files, just like Toast, so that wouldn't solve everything just yet either.

[terryj]

Install the Perian Codec.

Perian handles XVID/DIVX,
and would handle said issues
with Quicktime Pro/DVDStudio Pro.
It's what I use, as I don't have Toast 8,
and don't have any issues.

I can currently stack episodes of Death Note five episodes
to a disc in Toast 7, with avi's that are converted from MKVs
to XVID flavor, they work and play just fine.
I have also done five avis to disc by dragging and dropping
into a timeline, creating menu as described above and built/burned to disc.

Perian too also handles playback of generic mpeg-4 flavors.

I would install Perian first, then test to see if the avi's will open
and play in Quicktime.
If they do, then you should have no problems in Toast.