Converting question

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Hello all,

I have read a ton of posts on this topic but am still a bit unclear.

I have a bunch of .avi files that I wish to burn onto DVD to be playable on my DVD player. I also with to add menu's so I can skip ahead to what I want to see.

From what I have read, one of the better programs for this is Tmpeg. Is this correct? Or does anyone have any other suggestions?

Now I have read the guides and they did help. However, they really only give you basic lines to follow.

Can anyone give me some helpful tips and hints ahead of time with regards to avoiding out of synch sound, choppy video, etc, etc. Do I have to "do anything" to the .avi files before I start converting? Also, what kind of resolution can I expect after I convert it with an .avi file that is 175meg for a 22 minute video?

Just in case, I have a LG-4040B, P3-733, 256RAM, 10gig and 40gig HD, GF TI-400Pro (I think).

I hope I have given enough info.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

LG

[Gazorgan]

175 MB for 22 minutes is pretty good. It implies you should have reasonable quality, but not guaranteed. Other factors include the resolution and type/bitrate of the audio.

Basically you are going to convert the AVI to MPEG2 with TMPGEnc(there are others, but this product is pretty user friendly and has a free 30 day trial). You then have to 'Author' the DVD(different software, there are many), to put in menus and chapters. Typically you will have 6-8 episodes on a simple menu. You can put in chapter points, so you can jump forward in any given episode.

That's basically it.

Where it gets tricky is with the quality/Audio of the source AVI. Certain AVI's are more involved to convert and tend to have sync issues if not done right.

[duhmez]

Check out divx to dvd conversion guides. Issues will encounter will be aspect ratio issues and possily VBR audio issues.

If the avi is 4:3 then it is good to go. If it is not, tmpg will add black borders to make the ratio the same. if the aspect is 1.85 you need little borders, if its 1.77:1 then you need no borders AT ALL, and set the Dar to 16:9.

beware, in tmpgenc it has alot of options under source aspect ratio, and each one will add borders to your video differently, so you must check them all to make sure youa re getting the right one.

If it's 4:3 avi, then un tmpgeng mereely chosing :4:3 display" will be fine. chooseing 4:3 525 line9ntsc) will add some border which may or may not be what youb are looking for.

Tmpgenc also cannot handle VBR mp3 audio.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Thanks guys. Now you gave me a headache :P

How do I find out all this stuff? In the .avi files, how can I find out what aspect ratio and bitrate they are?

It cant be as simple as right click, properties, can it?

Also, each file I have is 175 meg. How large with the file be once it is converted? Just curious so I know what to expect.

LG

[mujahid7ia]

GSpot Codec Information Appliance is good for determining many of the AVI's specs. Others prefer AVI Codec...

About the file size of the converted file, it depends on the quality. If you know what bitrate you're going to encode at, and the audio quality, you can calculate it (TmpgEnc gives a rough estimate).

[Lucifers_Ghost]

GSpot? I'm so leaving that one alone lol. However I will try both programs.

I want to use as high a bitrate and audio quality as I can really. Otherwise, why bother putting them on DVD ya know? Mind you, they are only rips of Transformers G1 eps. But, for sake of nostalgia, I want them to look as good as possible ya know?

Another question. How long does it take to convert a file? I will stagger a guess and say it depends on the bitrate and audio rate chosen correct?

Thank you all for the help. I truely appreciate it. Looks like I have a lot of work to do on this.

Anyone else feel free to add more suggestions. It is always welcome

[mujahid7ia]

I want to use as high a bitrate and audio quality as I can really. Otherwise, why bother putting them on DVD ya know? Mind you, they are only rips of Transformers G1 eps. But, for sake of nostalgia, I want them to look as good as possible ya know?

https://www.videohelp.com/calc.htm - put in length of all episodes you want on one DDV and other settings, and it will tell you max bitrate that will fit on the DVD. (Always use lower just in case)

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Ok,

So I tried to fuddle around with that calculator thing, but most of these numbers are things I am not familiar with.

I want to show an example and maybe get some "semi-specific" thoughts.

I have an avi file with the following info that I got from Gspot:

Length: 44:30
Size: 403meg
Video: 640x464, Bitrate 1097, Fps 23.976
Audio: Bitrate 130kb/s (65ch, stereo), FS 48,000

Is that even a good quality cap?

This is a file (along with others) that I wish to convert so I can burn them on to DVD. The issue that I have with the calculator is that I dont really know how much to raise audio in reference to video settings. I dont want to have great video with mediocre sound or vice versa.

I apologize if I am annoying anyone with these questions, but I really am not familiar with this sort of stuff. I have read some of the guides and, quite honestly, its information overload for me.

My questions are basically, given that I have several of the above files, what settings should I convert at to get, lets say, 5 or 6 eps on a DVD.

Again, I apologize for my noobishness.

LG

[duhmez]

Take the horizonal res (EG 640, divide by the bottom res, eg 480)
640/480= 4:3=1.33

[GeoPappas]

Also, what kind of resolution can I expect after I convert it with an .avi file that is 175meg for a 22 minute video?

I have an avi file with the following info that I got from Gspot:

Length: 44:30
Size: 403meg
Video: 640x464, Bitrate 1097, Fps 23.976
Audio: Bitrate 130kb/s (65ch, stereo), FS 48,000

Is that even a good quality cap?

What is the source of these AVI files?

When I capture AVI files from my miniDV camcorder I get MUCH larger files. For example, a 25 minute video turned into a 6 GB (yes that's gigabyte) AVI file!

[Lucifers_Ghost]

What is the source of these AVI files?

They are DVD rips. The file looks and sounds good playing on my PC, but that doesnt mean it will translate to a good DVD file though.

[Lucifers_Ghost]

Ummmmm ... ok!

Please, oh please, tell me what the hell I did wrong or IF I did something wrong.

I took a 403meg avi file, conerted it with tmpgenc to NTSC DVD format and it gave me 2 files: a 652meg m2V file and a 500meg wav file.

Now, I am certainly no expert on this but something tells me this isnt correct. With the info that I have given, can someone tell me what I did wrong and how I could possibly correct this?

If this is the correct output, is there a way I can make the files a bit smaller? From what I think I did, I think I had all the settings as low as they could be and going by this I can only get 3 original files on a DVD. Seems a little low. I was hoping for 5.

Any thoughts would be appreciated

Thanks

LG

[mujahid7ia]

What settings did you use in TMPGEnc? Vid/aud bitrates?

the files are good enough quality for cartoons IMO (which you have rite?)

you should easily be able to fit 5-6 (i would go for 7-8) on a DVD... You probably used too high quality settings in TMPGEnc (i.e. way higher bitrates than source file)...

[Lucifers_Ghost]

For the vid rate, I had it set at NTSC 16:9 Low Res. For the audio bit rate, I am not sure. It was pretty high though. Like around 2500 or something. It wouldnt LET me go any lower.

Is that normal?

[mujahid7ia]

Click on settings in TMPGEnc and tell me the number bitrate of teh video (eg 1150 kbps) and audio @ 2500?! That's a high audio bitrate! Esp. since the source files were 130kbps. 128 kbps would be better.

It wouldn's let you? Just go to Other Settings in the Wizard and click on teh word Bitrate and click Unlock. Then you can change it.

[duhmez]

transformers are 4:3 not 16:9, so you will want to change that.
Choose 4:3 NTSC FILM.

Recommend 352,480. For DV compliance you should use AC3 audio. In fact, you should rip the raw audio form the dvd (multichannel 5.1) and leave it as is. Compress the video by itself. 4 MBPS will net you about 2 hours, I recommend do your video @ 3500 MBPS this way you can get 8 or so episodes on each disk. When the video is reprocessed mux it with
the unaltered Ac3 track of your choice.

In dvd2avi when you ripm the disk make sure "demux all tracks" is selected under audio>dolby"
the resultant filename will tell you the audio delay you must use to properly mux the audio back in. (look forr somehting like delay -43ms or something)
*note* the delay may indeed be 0 too, youll have to look./

[mujahid7ia]

Recommend 352,480. For DV compliance you should use AC3 audio. In fact, you should rip the raw audio form the dvd (multichannel 5.1) and leave it as is. Compress the video by itself. 4 MBPS will net you about 2 hours, I recommend do your video @ 3500 MBPS this way you can get 8 or so episodes on each disk. When the video is reprocessed mux it with the unaltered Ac3 track of your choice.

It's only a cartoon, and the source files only have a bitrate of 1097 kbps, so isn't anything in the range of 3-4mbps overkill?

EDIT: oops, were you talking about the DVD Capture? Then that rate's OK I guess... 8)