DVD authoring question...

[mjl1297]

I want to make a DVD with a menu and subtitles. I have an avi file and a srt file which are supported by my standalone DVD player. I could just go with that but I would like to add a menu to give it that polished look. However in making the DVD is there a way to do this so that during the authoring process the avi file's quality isn't negatively impacted? I'm hoping there is a way to do this without having to convert the avi file to mpeg-2 or something similar first and if I HAVE to do that can it be done losslessly without an enormous increase in the file size?

[Baldrick]

You must convert it to mpeg2 or else it wont be dvd-video compliant. And if the avi is heavily compressed it will increase in size as mpeg2 usually requires higher bitrate.

You can use convertxtodvd or dvd flick. They support a basic menu and avi with subs.

[Ai Haibara]

Edit: Yeah, on re-reading the post, I can see you want to make a DVD-Video disc. Ignore my post, then, for the most part, unless you actually do want to make a .divx file with a menu. (I need sleep...)

When you say, "I have an avi file and a srt file which are supported by my standalone DVD player.", do you mean your player supports playing DivX/Xvid AVIs? If that's the case, is your player DivX Ultra-compatible? You might try the methods listed in this post, if so: https://forum.videohelp.com/threads/332525-Playing-AVI-Movies-as-data-files-with-menus?p=2061981

If your player is not DivX Ultra-compatible, your only options are to live with the file-selection menu your player gives you, or convert to a DVD-Video disc as Baldrick mentioned. Note that programs like ConvertXToDVD, DVD Flick and AVStoDVD will more or less only give you a simple menu, though.

[mjl1297]

What I decided to do was create the entire project in DVDStyler right down to the burning of the disc. I've done this once before and the quality was fine.

Does anyone have any thoughts on the maintenance of the quality with respect to the original file when you convert within DVDStyler?

[Nelson37]

Yes, Don't. The quality loss is not worth it just to gain a menu, when you already have a compatible player.

[mjl1297]

Nelson37 would you care to go into more detail? Is there a way to maintain the quality by altering the configuration settings? What exactly does DVDStyler do to the file to cause this significant quality loss?

[Nelson37]

It re-encodes the video to make it DVD-compliant MPG-2. All this does is give you a way to make menus. Re-encoding ALWAYS means loss of quality. Maybe a little, maybe a lot, but always some.

Just play the avi with subtitles from a disk.

[mjl1297]

Yeah I guess that is what I have to do. Shame really as I was quite proud of my menu design. I wish there were a program that would simply give you a menu front end for your files without the necessity for reencoding but based on my research there doesn't appear to be. Thanks everyone for your help.

[louv68]

Yes, you will lose "some" quality, but I would still make a DVD out of it if you want to share the video with friends and family.