AVI to VOB

[Mecha]

I dont know how many different programs I've used now.. I've tried alot of them. But no matter how I do I still dont seem to get it right.

The thing I want to do is to convert my anime episodes(Divx&XviD) to DVD format so I can make an anime DVD. Its as simple as that.. My episodes are around 180mb each and I wanna fit like 10 episodes at least on each DVD without messing up the quality to much, hopefully not at all.

And I wanna make some menus for them too..

So what application(s) is the best for me to achieve this dream of mine?

I would be very glad for and answer.


Over and Out Mecha

[Still Learning Here]

You need these 2 program: Cinema Craft Encoder and DVDLAB PRO

[rkm69]

Encode them into mpeg2 using procoder express - it can read divx files.

[daamon]

Hi Mecha,

The high level answer is as follows:

1. Encode Divx / Xvid AVI to MPEG2.
2. Author (add menus, create VOBs etc. in VIDEO_TS folder).
3. Burn to disc.

A bit more detail:

1. Take your Divx / Xvid AVIs and encode to DVD compliant MPEG2. Specs for MPEG2 (audio and video aspects) can be found under "What is DVD", top left of the page.

Before encoding - figure out how good a quality the source is. If it's low quality, encoding to full resolution MPEG2 may not be the best thing. There are guides for encoding Divx / Xvid. I've no experience of this - I'm a DV AVI man myself...

Which tools to use for encoding? Well, there's a fair few but the most popular ones seem to be (in no particular order):

TMPGEnc
Canopus Procoder
Mainconcept MPEG Encoder
Cinema Craft Encoder

I use TMPGEnc. This guide is really good for understanding the settings in TMPGEnc. Don't forget to rate it if you use it.

2. Again, there are a number of authoring tools. Here's three:

TMPGEnc DVD Author (TDA) - Easy to pick up, fairly flexible.
DVDLab - More complex, but more powerful.
DVDAuthorGUI - No experience of it. I believe it's simple and basic.

3. Burning can be done using any decent burner - i.e. Nero etc. Some authoring apps have burners too - TDA does and seems stable.

A final bit of advice... - Read all the guides, glossary etc. as background knowledge is really helpful before you embark on this.

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[Mecha]

The guide you just gave me is quite good.. except I dont get the thing about not making TMPGEnc encode the sound. Should I seperate the sound from the avi file and then encode just the video itself? In that case.. how do I merge the sound with the video later?

Sry for these questions but Im a total newbie on this area. All I wanted was to make some anime DVDs and have spent 2 weeks figuring out how to do this. And Im not gonna stop now! Im gonna finish this! Im gonna look at my DVDs and be amazed by future skills in anime DVD making

[daamon]

Sry for these questions but Im a total newbie on this area. All I wanted was to make some anime DVDs and have spent 2 weeks figuring out how to do this. And Im not gonna stop now! Im gonna finish this! Im gonna look at my DVDs and be amazed by future skills in anime DVD making

No need to apologise - at least you've put the effort in, asked for help when you're stuck and have the tenaicty and character to want to crack it! A good start even before you sit in front of a PC!!!

The guide you just gave me is quite good.. except I dont get the thing about not making TMPGEnc encode the sound. Should I seperate the sound from the avi file and then encode just the video itself? In that case.. how do I merge the sound with the video later?

I'm guessing you're in the US or thereabouts (update your proile with your location) - that means you'er in NTSC land which means that you can have (basically) either WAV (also known as (L)PCM) audio or AC3 audio - see the DVD specs I mentioned above.

TMPGEnc encodes input audio to MP2 - which isn't officially part of the NTSC DVD spec but will probably play on your stand alone DVD player (I've heard 80% chance).

So, which one - WAV or AC3? Well, WAV is uncompressed audio at 1,536kbps whereas AC3 is compressed at a bitrate of your choice (would recommend around 128 - 224kbps, depending on the source).

As WAV is uncompressed, it takes up more room on the disc which means there's less for the video file(s). So, to get more video (in terms of time) you have to reduce the quality.

Or... If you go for AC3, which is compressed, there's much more room for the video files so you can fit the same amount (again, in terms of time) but at a better quality.

Use AVICodec to see what type of audio you have - if it's AC3 then use VirtualDub (I think it extracts AC3 - look into it) to extract the audio from the file - keeping it in the same format.

If it's not AC3, or VirtualDub doesn't extract to AC3, then extract to a WAV file. "But I don't want a WAV file..." - True. That's why you then use ffmpeggui to convert the WAV to AC3.

So, eventually you'll end up with just a video file that used the Divx / Xvid AVI as a source to produce a DVD compliant MPEG2 - video.m2v from TMPGEnc and an AC3 audio file -
audio.ac3.

I know for a fact that, when authorig using TMPGEnc DVD Author, you can use these two separate audio and video files as inputs and the app will do the rest for you. Other authoring apps should / will do the same...

Finally - This old post of mine may be of use. You'll need to pick out the relevant bits...

Hope that helps. Good luck...

[Mecha]

Ok, fixed virtualdub dont seem to be able to open up my Divx file though.
I get this sucker infront of me instead:
http://www.projectmecha.net/error.jpg

Soo.. What next?

[Baldrick]

http://www.projectmecha.net/error.jpg doesn't work.

[mats.hogberg]

You could also try Goldwave to extract the AVI audio to wav (to work around VirtualDub not opening your AVI). Open the AVI in GoldWave and just save wav.

/Mats

[Mecha]

http://www.projectmecha.net/error.jpg doesn't work.

Yes it does

[Mecha]

I have PAL btw so that means I should make MP2 sound ? Or ?

[mats.hogberg]

Now it works. Didn't before. If VDub can't load it, I seriously doubt anything else (like TMPGEnc or any other encoder) will. You've got to get that codec, and install it.

/Mats

[mats.hogberg]

I have PAL btw so that means I should make MP2 sound ? Or ?

You could, but AC3 is more universal - Use ffmpeggui to go from wav to AC3

/Mats

[daamon]

I have PAL btw so that means I should make MP2 sound ? Or ?

As mats.hogberg says, AC3 is more universal but there's a couple of things to consider:

1. Unless it's been fixed, AC3 from ffmpeg (the core behind ffmpeggui) is not fully compliant to the AC3 spec - there have been reports that it doesn't work with some Pioneers. Or, the other way of looking at it, is that the AC3 will work with pretty much every DVD player out there. Works fine on mine...

2. If your DVDs are only gonna be watched in a PAL region / PAL DVD player then there's no reason why you can't use MP2. If you're gonna share them with friends / family with NTSC then MP2 isn't for them.

I can't comment on the error message as I get a "404 page error" from the link. Try posting the image too instead of a link - there's instructions when you post.