wife friendly dvd software

[tedpenner]

I'm looking for a one-step DVD burning software that doesn't make you think about file type, codecs, or even size. I need a one-stop-shop for DVD burning that will even take care of the compression. Back in the day, I think I remember something called MyDVD that would do that pretty well. I'm not sure what is out there today with a high WAF (wife approval factor).

[guns1inger]

ConvertXtoDVD is the most robust, reliable, any-format-to-DVD, tool for beginners out there. That is where I would start.

[tedpenner]

Thanks for the suggestion re: ConvertXtoDVD. That works a treat. Now she is 'learning how'. This makes me sad as more research is now necessary

You were correct in thinking that this would unravel like a ball of yarn. My worst nightmare has come true

In one scenario, she has 5 AVI files at 2GB total for all 5 episodes and and 4GB DVDs on which to store them. During the burn, she looses some quality. It seems strange to me also, that the program would need to compress that. Selecting the option to "use original format (when possible)" still produces a warning.

The thought occurred to me that we might be able to take additional steps to get the avi files all into a more suitable compressed format with high quality before running them through ConvertXtoDVD for dvd creation. What would be the best tool for this and what format would be best to convert it to?

[guns1inger]

The basic rule of digital video is :

Filesize = Running Time X Bitrate.

Bitrate is the amount of data per second allocated to store the data. Some codecs, such as Divx/Xvid allow for higher levels of compression, so the bitrate is lower, and consequently the file size is also reduced. Other codecs do not compress as much or as well. DVD uses Mpeg-2 for video, which does not compress to the same degree as Divx/Xvid.

For optimum quality, you do not want to put more than around 2 hours of a 4.38 GB DVD. If the source is lower quality you might go to 3 hours. However over around the two hour mark, quality will visible begin to decrease.

I suspect that your 5 avi files use equate to well in excess of 5 hours running time, and there-in lies your problem.

The simplest answer is to purchase a cheap DVD player that supports Divx/Xvid playback, and then burn these files as data. Using this method you can put 12 episodes of a TV series, or 5 - 6 movies on a single disc. You don't get fancy menus etc, but you also do not have to convert the files.

[tedpenner]

If I converted the avi files first to a highly compressed format, could ConvertX use the files? Right now, she gets 3 hours on a single DVD. I was hoping for significantly higher numbers at high quality. I know I had something a while back that worked very well and did high compression but I don't remember what it was.

[minidv2dvd]

3 hours on a single layer dvd is not going to produce high quality. it's down around 1800kb/s, and the lowest most people would consider good quality would be around 3000kb/s/

[tedpenner]

What format compresses the most? WMV, Xvid, etc?

[MOVIEGEEK]

DVDFlick is free and easy to use, it will convert just about any file.

[guns1inger]

What format compresses the most? WMV, Xvid, etc?

What exactly do you want to do with these videos ?

If you want to play them on a vanilla DVD player then you have to convert them to DVD, and live with the limitations of DVD.

If you have an alternative player then you have to abide by it's limitations. Cheap Divx/Xvid capable players will allow you to get modest quality movie length videos into 700MB, and therefore fit 6 films to a disc.

The best quality for size codec at the moment is H.264, which is fine if you have a PS3 or WDTV unit.

[tedpenner]

My thinking was that I could convert down to something that played nicely like wmv and then convert that to DVD. I was thinking that I would then end up with better quality. Is that reasonable?

[tedpenner]

DVDFlick is free and easy to use, it will convert just about any file.

That's interesting. We tried DVDFlick and all it did was 'author' the DVD into video_ts and audio_ts folders. We then dropped those files onto a dvd using infrarecorder and the dvd player wouldn't play it. What did we do wrong?

[SingSing]

Depends on whose wife whom you are referring to ?

[minidv2dvd]

My thinking was that I could convert down to something that played nicely like wmv and then convert that to DVD. I was thinking that I would then end up with better quality. Is that reasonable?

no. the more times you encode any video to different formats the worse it's going to look. source straight to dvd will always look better than source to compressed intermediate to dvd.

[minidv2dvd]

We tried DVDFlick and all it did was 'author' the DVD into video_ts and audio_ts folders. We then dropped those files onto a dvd using infrarecorder and the dvd player wouldn't play it. What did we do wrong?

always try playing the files on the hard drive before burning to disc. if they play with software like powerdvd they should play when burned to disc.

use imgburn not ifrarecorder and only use high quality dvdr like verbatim or taiyo yuden.

[Cornucopia]

...In one scenario, she has 5 AVI files at 2GB total for all 5 episodes and and 4GB DVDs on which to store them. During the burn, she looses some quality. It seems strange to me also, that the program would need to compress that. Selecting the option to "use original format (when possible)" still produces a warning.

The thought occurred to me that we might be able to take additional steps to get the avi files all into a more suitable compressed format with high quality before running them through ConvertXtoDVD for dvd creation. What would be the best tool for this and what format would be best to convert it to?

I'm going to reiterate something said above.

Look at what you've got to start with this way:

5 AVI files at 2GB are HOW MANY minutes?...Let me guess (hmm episodes about 1hour each?...) = 60 * 5 = 300 minutes.

2GB * 1024 MB/GB * 8 b/B / 300 minutes / 60 sec/min = 910kbps which is fair to almost good quality for SD Xvid AVIs.

Now look at it from the DVD perspective:

You've got 4.37GB max space available for a single-layer DVD-R (assuming NO overhead, which is rare).

4.37GB * 1024 MB/GB * 8b/B / 300 minutes / 60 sec/min = 1.98Mbps which is poor to fair quality for 2nd generation (at best--you CERTAINLY DON'T want to go through MORE conversions) compressed MPEG2 SD DVD video.

It's like saying I've got 200 copper coins and want to buy a container that costs 437 silver coins. Unless you know the relative buying power of both the silver and copper coins, you won't know what you'll get for your exchange rate, nor how good a quality or large a size container you'll end up getting.

And you certainly don't want to trade in your 200 copper coins for a certain number of magic beans just because you've been told their exchange rate is better with respect to copper.

You want something quick and easy, DONE!
You want it high quality (which you didn't ask for in the original post), then you have to learn how to compromise when it doesn't need to be quick nor easy. This takes learning (on both your wife's and your own part).

Scott

[johns0]

3 hours on a single layer dvd is not going to produce high quality. it's down around 1800kb/s, and the lowest most people would consider good quality would be around 3000kb/s/

3 hours on a dvd5 with 224kbps audio is 3174 kb,not sure where you got 1800.Maybe you meant 5 hours which is around 1800.

[tedpenner]

See, I used to have something that 'would' do what I am wanting here. I just don't know what it was called.

[minidv2dvd]

3 hours on a single layer dvd is not going to produce high quality. it's down around 1800kb/s, and the lowest most people would consider good quality would be around 3000kb/s/

3 hours on a dvd5 with 224kbps audio is 3174 kb,not sure where you got 1800.Maybe you meant 5 hours which is around 1800.

i left the audio at pcm 1536 kbps, my mistake, should have asked what they use.

tedpenner - it's always better to compress your video just once to the final format. two rounds of encoding just lowers the quality of the end result that much more.

[Cornucopia]

See, I used to have something that 'would' do what I am wanting here. I just don't know what it was called.

Neither do I. However, in the meantime, does it seem like you might not be giving us enough information? Because after what I just posted, a response other than something like "oh yeah, now I see what you mean..." doesn't jibe.

You can't get "blood out of a turnip", and you can't get HOURS AND HOURS (like 5) of HIGH QUALITY video on a DVD-R-SL.

Scott

[guns1inger]

Of course, quality is in the eye of the beholder, and often distorted by time and memory. We have, from time to time, had posters claiming to have acquired, from a dubious store front, a DVD with 8 hours of a series on it in high quality. Of course, we know this is not possible. Full D1 at these bitrates will look awful, and VCD resolution will look like, well, VCD. And in every case, when asked to produce detailed information on the encoding of these files, those who claim they are full DVD quality seem to then disappear from the conversation with nary a peep.

[tedpenner]

She is getting 4 shows at roughly 45 min each on a single dvd with ConvertX to DVD. If she can live with that I certainly can. I'm still curious though about what I used to use. It looks like I would have to go find the old threads on dealdatabase to find it. Maybe I will do that soon.

[guns1inger]

That sounds about right for typical downloaded source