DVD prep question...

[mjl1297]

I have a project consisting of an avi file and a srt file. I'm wanting to make a DVD with a menu and selectable subtitles and wish to know if there is a way to do this without suffering any quality loss in the video stream? I looked at the many guides available on this and other websites but the selectable subtitles didn't really seem to be addressed. Maintaining the video quality is paramount and I wish to avoid re-encoding. Many thanks .

[hech54]

Maintaining the video quality is paramount and I wish to avoid re-encoding.

Not gonna happen. "AVI" can mean many things and AVI is nowhere near DVD Spec so it will be re-encoded again(your AVI was also seriously compressed and is already a victim of quality loss).

[mjl1297]

I'm sure there was some compression but isn't avi just a container similar to mkv? This file is nearly a gig in size and when I preview it on my computer I see very little artifacting so I'm wondering how heavily compressed it actually is. I haven't run Gspot on it yet but I intend to.

Now is there not a way to do what I'm wanting to do? If I must re-encode I want to maintain the same level of quality. I should be able to since we are digital right?

[hech54]

This file is nearly a gig in size and when I preview it on my computer I see very little artifacting so I'm wondering how heavily compressed it actually is. I haven't run Gspot on it yet but I intend to.

Considering most DVD movies - movie only, no extras, are about 4 to 6 gigabytes, you are already at 1/4 the quality of the original....chances are it's dixv or xvid in the AVI file.

[mjl1297]

Yes no doubt you are correct. I had momentarily forgotten my correct sizes relative to length. That being said it still doesn't look that bad and I'm rather picky. Colours are vibrant and like I said I'm not seeing any artifacts that jump out and throttle me. So would it be possible to take this .avi file and my .srt file and combine them on a DVD, add a menu, keep the subtitles switchable, and preserve the same level of quality that I currently have on the original .avi file? The menu isn't an essential by the way, I would just like to have one.

[manono]

So would it be possible to take this .avi file and my .srt file and combine them on a DVD, add a menu, keep the subtitles switchable, and preserve the same level of quality that I currently have on the original .avi file?

Everything except for what I boldfaced. The degradation might not even be noticeable, but it's there. You're reencoding from one very lossy format (XviD, DivX, most likely) to another one (MPEG-2). Apparently you're not very picky about video quality, so what you propose is possible and I'm sure you'll be happy with the results if you do a decent job of it.

[mjl1297]

Well actually I am rather picky and that's why I'm surprised that this file looks as good as it does to me on playback. Pixelization and other artifacts of highly compressed files really get up my nose but I'm not seeing it in this file--not that much anyway. The original source from which this file is drawn had some inherent limitations, it was shot on 16mm if I remember correctly, so I'm allowing for that too.

[guns1inger]

You don't have a lot of choice. If you want a DVD Video as output then you have to encode it to DVD spec mpeg-2. You haven't posted any useful details about the source file, so we can't really give you anything specific to try.

[marioval]

Just load your avi and srt into avstodvd, choose hcenc 2-pass and let the app do its thing. Then burn it to a dvd, play it on your TV then judge for yourself if the quality is acceptable.

[mjl1297]

Sorry about the lack of specifics. I'm away from home and don't have the file in front of me but I appreciate everyone's input regardless.

[mjl1297]

Thanks again everyone for your help. Here's the upshot to this affair--

1. Arrived home, made a dramatic entrance, and ran G Spot on the file. It was a DivX file.

2. Burned the .avi and the .srt files to disc using ImgBurn.

The quality of the original file was only acceptable. The source was filmed in 16mm and uploaded from a VHS copy of that so I don't think there was a whole lot of damage that could have been done if I had re-encoded it but I wanted to avoid it if at all possible. All of my DVD players natively support DivX so playback wasn't an issue. Unfortunately the subtitles were in Polish--bit of a surprise that--but the audio is English so no worries there.