ffmpeg encoding?!?!?

[faeriedust66]

Firstly, i am an EXTREME newbie, so i apologize in advance for being stupid, not knowing the terms, asking questions that have already been asked to death and/or posting in the wrong place.
I think i covered everything....

On to business. I have anime files (in .avi format) that I would desperately like to burn onto a DVD. I looked around here, and I saw that a software program, ffmpeg, would be able to convert my files to DVD compliant format?! i used it (properly, i think) and the output was .m2v files. Next, I used VSO DivXtoDVD to... do something... then I used DVD shrink to create (burn?!) an iso image from these files, and THEN, dvd decrypter burned the iso image onto my DVD... did I do everything correctly? or did i do this in a very backward way, cause my final DVD did NOT have audio.... have i missed something? did I skip something during encoding? am i right to assume that the problem originated when ffmpeg encoded the file?

Can anyone please offer any suggestions/hints/new software to try?

Thanks so much!

ANnIe

[ChrissyBoy]

On to business. I have anime files (in .avi format) that I would desperately like to burn onto a DVD. I looked around here, and I saw that a software program, ffmpeg, would be able to convert my files to DVD compliant format?! i used it (properly, i think) and the output was .m2v files. Next, I used VSO DivXtoDVD to... do something... then I used DVD shrink to create (burn?!) an iso image from these files, and THEN, dvd decrypter burned the iso image onto my DVD... did I do everything correctly? or did i do this in a very backward way, cause my final DVD did NOT have audio.... have i missed something? did I skip something during encoding? am i right to assume that the problem originated when ffmpeg encoded the file?

How did you use ffmpeg? What was you command line?

If you did it correctly then DivXtoDVD is not required as you already have a compliant mpeg.

Can you detail the steps further?

[NoFace]

When you created the m2v files, you created a video file only, no audio. I'm not familiar with ffmpeg, so I cant tell you how to use it, but I imagine there is a good tutorial in the how-to->convert section of this site. You may want to try one of the avi to dvd tutorials, as it will tell you what you need, and then how to use it, step-by-step. There may be one that uses the software you already have.
As for me, I use virtualdub (freeware) to separate and create a sync-reliable audio file. Then I use tmpgenc (i think it's still a free trial, but you need to purchase a licence for the mpeg2 function) to combine the avi video and my audio file, and encode it to a dvd-compliant mpeg2 file.
I then use tmpgenc DVD Author to add the menus, etc, and get it ready to burn, and then use Nero to burn.
And that's only one way to do it. I'm sure there are ways to do it using only freeware.
If there's one thing i've learned about this site, it's read, read, read, before you post...

[faeriedust66]

ChrissyBoy.... i followed a guide i found here ... http://aktee.t35.com ... i used his method to encode because it was the only guide i found that allowed me to re-size my files so that the subtitles in my anime files would not get chopped off ... so the command line i used is whatever he gave us to use... so i'm not entirely sure what the details are... i've posted on his site asking my questions, but i thought i would also post here to see if anyone else had any other suggestions..

[Abond]

Regarding the guide (if you follow it to the end) you should end up with an mpg file (video+audio), yet you said you have only m2v file (video only). Now if you have this you do not need DivxtoDVD. If you used the m2v file (which is video only) as input for DivxtoDVD, no wonder that at the end you have no audio! Further more in DVDShrink you must have the audio listed. If you haven't it - well your compilation simply has no audio.
Now, you can use directly DivxtoDVD loading all the files you want to have on one DVD (selecting the last file first) and do the encoding (complete DVD structure at the end with audio and video but no menu). Afterwards load the resulted DVD files in TMPG DVD Author and make a menu. You can even burn with it to disc.
P.S. I am suggesting this to you as I see you are new to this stuff. I, personally, would not do what I suggest to you.
Damned, I completely lost the subtitles cut case. Well, use fitCD to find the resizing you need, then use the avisynth script that FitCD creates for you, learn how to deal with audio using VirtualDub (to uncompress or to demultiplex), BeSweetGUI or AC3Machine (to convert to suitable for DVD formate). Work your way with a bitrate calculator to find which average bitrate you need to encode. Learn something about pulldown - what it is and why you need it if you are in NTSC and why you do not need it if you are PAL. Once you get this information and have the avisynth script correctly written (this you can check opening the script in virtualdub) encode the video with HC and the audio with besweet. Then use an authoring programme to combine (multiplex) both and a burning programme to... burn.
Hopefully, all this doesn't scare you...

[faeriedust66]

not scary, but definitely daunting and intimidating... but i'll try... can i put forth another way of doing it? and you can let me know if it's an okay way?

mainly, all i'm trying to do, really, is to frameserve... i've tried burning the episodes without doing anything to them but converting to mpeg, and they work out fine.. audio AND video but the end result cut off the subtitles...

would it be possible for me to extract to audio with something like VirtualDubMod, frameserve and encode the video file alone (to m2v) and THEN just put them back together (er.. demux? mux?) and finally burn it onto DVD? it kinda makes sense to me, but i'm not sure if it's do-able...

thanks!!

Annie

[Abond]

Yes, it is doable. About the audio it depends of the source audio. As DVD require mpa (mp2) audio or DD ac3 audio, if the source is in such format, then it can be used directly to mux with the m2v video. If the source audio is not in these formats it require reencoding either directly (let use the most popular mp3 to mp2 or ac3) or intermediated through uncompressed wav (usually when you have mp3 VBR or another strange format as source) and then encoding to mp2 or ac3.

[faeriedust66]

so my audio is in mp3 format... which means i have to uncompress it? then encode to m2p?! what do i use to do that?

[Abond]

Uncompress - use VDMod. Load avi. Streams->Stream list. Right click on the stream, select Full Processing. Click Save wav.
Convert to ac3 or mp2 (not m2p it is something diferent) - use ffmpeggui. Load the source, set the bitrate (128 or above in 32 step) set the samplerate to 48000 Hz. Encode.

[faeriedust66]

coolness... thanks so much for your help, Abond... i'll try what you suggested.. here's keeping my fingers crossed...