Converting to Mpeg

[soundguy585]

I am kind of new to this and looking for assistance in converting to mpeg2 format. I download flv videos and need to convert to mpeg for use in creating dvd's with Nero 7. Flv's are not supported, so I would like to convert various formats to create the dvd's. It would be great if i could format
with the same specs of the flv without making any quality or size changes. I'm not sure whether I am clear or not, so any questions to clarify are welcome. Thank You

[Baldrick]

Without making any quality changes?

Not possible.

But you can convert to mpeg2 with the free avstodvd( or convert directly to dvd). Nero 7 is very very very old....

If you want more details then post the full details from your flv. Identify them with mediainfoxp.

[LMotlow]

It would be great if i could format
with the same specs of the flv without making any quality or size changes.

I agree with Baldrick, mainly because he beat me to the punch with his post.

Besides, he's right.

You don't list your country of residence, so I'm assuming you want NTSC DVD. If you need DVD for PAL or NTSC, the spec standards for NTSC/PAL DVD are here: https://www.videohelp.com/dvd#tech.

DVD is encoded as MPEG2. DVD can't be any other codec. If your FLV's were downloaded from the internet, likely they aren't the right frame size, audio sampling rate, or audio format for dvd. They're not the correct codec and they're probably progressive videos while DVD is usually interlaced at 29.97 fps (NTSC) or 25 fps (PAL). Encoding to MPEG2 means re-encoding the FLV, which will be a quality loss but it can be minimized if done carefully. Much depends on the original FLVs. Most web downloads are of poor quality, which won't be improved by simply re-encoding for DVD.

I doubt that anyone in the forum would recommend Nero 7 for any part of this project. One free tool that can be used is ffmpeg, but it's downright heavy-handed for newcomers. Members more familiar with free converters and DVD authoring tools will likely chime in with more suggestions, while Baldrick's suggestion about AVS2DVD is a good one and very popular. I don't use the free converters. In any case, FLV must be decoded and re-encoded for DVD, and probably some or all of them will have to be resized. We need more information about some of these "various formats" that you mentioned.

[soundguy585]

Thanks Guys for your input. I know Nero 7 is very old. I purchased it years ago and I like the way you can make a nice menu to give it a professional like interface and also I like the smartcoding where it adjusts the quality according to the dvd size and the file size.

If I re-code the flv,mp4,mkv or whatever to mpeg2 using the about same specs as the original that should give me a good output? I have been experimenting with different settings and have not found a sweet spot yet. I will continue to work on it. It's fun to fool around with different settings to achieve a good quality to size ratio.

[_Al_]

it is not much about finding a sweet spot or looking for right bitrate in DVD making, it is about feature video length and bitrate while making a DVD,

-if your footage is less than about 1hour , you are limited by max bitrate for DVD specs, you choose max bitrate for CBR encoding method, or you can use CRF 1pass method (only HcEncoder or some advanced encoders) not being afraid of not placing it all on a DVD
-if video footage is longer than say about one hour, you calculate video bitrate using bitrate calculator and that will give you average bitrate to fill your DVD

all you can do is,
-choosing mpeg2 encoder,
-choosing feature length,
and get "a" quallity, or for 2pass encoding with average bitrate, you shorten length of video (closer to that one hour limit) to increase the quality

If I re-code the flv,mp4,mkv or whatever to mpeg2 using the about same specs as the original that should give me a good output?

no, it is all relative to quality of original video, encoder does not "see" original bitrate anyway, or you can have super video with little bitrate or crappy video with lots of bitrate, input video bitrate is not important at all, encoder just tries to compress video to give it a quality that is as close as original is (having in its mind that human will watch it), but cannot ever be the same (only lossles encoding) , higher bitrate - closer to the original ,

[soundguy585]

Thank You _Al_ for taking the time to educate me. I am disabled in a wheelchair with plenty of time to fool around with different software and settings.
I download videos and like to tweak them a little. From time to time I have to recode them to play on my Tv. The tv cannot use flv or mkv, so I must convert them to a format that It accepts. There is alot of good info here and I will certainly use it.

[nic2k4]

You can try Video Container Changer, it uses ffmpeg, but provides a simple interface. It can output to many formats including DVD VOB though it would be best if you had a way of playing MKV, AVI or MP4 as there would not be any re-encoding involved.