i'm at my wits end!!!

[Darth Porno]

i give up obviusly i'm doing something wrong. i just want to take these damn avis and write them to a viewable dvd. should be simple right? all of the avi are playable through the VLC player on my mac. i've done everything that was told to me in this post https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=300434 but nothing has worked. i've wasted a whole week of my life trying to get this to worked and if i even get them to start encoding and burning in toast, as soon as it starts to write i always get some error or toast just quits. there has got to be a simple way to burn these 16:9 avi to a watchable dvd.

[fatespawn]

If you have iDVD 5 or 6 there is a way that I use.

Use ffmpegX to create .DV files
Use the "animorphisizer" to set the 16x9 flag: http://homepage.mac.com/sith33/FileSharing34.html
Create a new iDVD project
Goto "map"
Drag your .DV to the "drag content here to automatically play when disk is inserted"

Burn

Just make sure when viewing your video in iDVD that "widescreen preview" is displayed at the bottom and the video is correctly proportioned. That's the only hurdle I've had.

-Fate

[DesertRat]

Have you chosen the "Decode with QuickTime" in, I believe 'options'? I do this all the time with tv shows and I don't have a problem. Do you have the mpeg2 codec for QuickTIme? That could also be part of the problem. FFMPEGX can be quite frustrating but once you get everything where it should be it works... most of the time.

Much better documentaation is really needed.

[Darth Porno]

Fatespawn: i have'nt tried to create a dv file in ffmpeg only in imovie and the project was like 17.5 gig so i just stopped becaus idvd said it would take 6 more gig and i didn't have enough space so i stopped going that route. will try it in ffmpeg to see if that works.
DesertRat:i haven't checked the decode in QT option and i have QT pro but i have never installed an mpeg2 codec so it's possable it's not in there. what a headache this is. but i tell you what. at least the duel 2.5 g5 i have at work encodes with a quickness so i can at least see that what i've tried has worked or not in a reasonable amount of time. that's more than i can say for my 1ghz g4 i have at home.

[fatespawn]

Well, an hour long iMovie project is in the ballpark of 12-13GB. But when you send it to iDVD, iDVD renders the video to fit an hour of video on 1 DVD.

Using the method I described above, I plopped about 3GB or .DV's into an iDVD project. But when I select the "status" button, it only shows 1.1 GB used of 4.7 WITH multiple motion menus. So, I wouldn't worry about file size unless iDVD complains.

-Fate

[Darth Porno]

Fate, so i can create a .dv for each episode and then plop about 3 45 minute episodes into idvd correct?

[Darth Porno]

do i need to change any of the .dv settings in ffmpeg?

[fatespawn]

I have iDVD 5

It can handle 60 minute videos (or greater if you have a Dual Layer drive)

I'd stick with trying ONE video at a time. I don't know if you'll have to change the ffmpegX settings for .DV. You'll have to convert one (try a short one) and preview it in Quicktime to check for the correct aspect ratio. If the aspect ratio is off, adjust your setting in ffmpegX. Once you're satisfied that the .DV looks good, treat it with the animorphiciser like I mentioned and drop the new file into iDVD.

Fate

[Darth Porno]

holy crap dude, using ffmpeg to create a .dv file, the file was 17.5gb!!!! same size as the iMovie project i created. i have to try a differant way. i just dont have enough space on my hd to encode multiple episodes. i have 13 episode and i don't want to use 13 dvds to put them on.

[fatespawn]

Sorry I didn't realize your hard drive limitations. Yes, uncompressed video is going to be large. But, it sounds like you need Toast support more than ffmpegX support. Here's what I found after a brief google search:

--------
Video Tab
If you want to make a CD or DVD that contains photo slide shows or videos this is the place. Toast 7 supports any QuickTime video file, including AVI, DV, MOV, MPEG-1, and MPEG-4, as well as non-native formats such as MPEG-2, DivX, XVID, VOB, and iMovie projects.
--------


So while I'm not an expert on Toast (or ffmpegX for that matter) I have to wonder why your .avi's won't work with Toast without any conversion with ffmpegX.

[/i]

[Darth Porno]

i don't know either man. they play just fine in VLC. when i drag them into toast it burns the video sweetly, just no audio.

[fatespawn]

Darth,

I guess you have either a problem with your avi's or a problem with Toast. ffmpegx will only change the format of your avi's if you so desire.

Why don't you try changing your avi's to another format like ffmpegx supports? Try x264 or something compatible with Quick Time. Then you can preview your new file in Quicktime and determine if the audio is there. If it is, you should be able to drop your new file into iDVD or Toast as you desire.

Fate

[drenkin]

I just encode my menus in iDVD using (small) dummy movie files, rendering to a disk image...this goes quickly and is unlikely to crash.

I encode each .avi separately with ffmpegX using mpeg2enc "DVD" setting. This way you skip having to have BOTH huge DV originals and huge iDVD projects on your drive at the same time...rename the resulting .vob files to match the names of the rendered dummy .vobs, and replace 'em in the VIDEO_TS file structure. (Keep the appropriate IFO, BUP and VOB files together as a set.)

Finally, open the assembled VIDEO_TS folder in myDVDEdit, which will fix a handful of sector errors, created by your real .vobs being different file sizes than the dummy originals...and for each title, change the aspect ratio from 4:3 to 16:9 auto letterbox. Save your changes.

Make disk image from the tweaked VIDEO_TS folder, and burn.

[skagnetti]

THANK YOU VERY MUCH. Gawd! You'd think Such An Easy Process would be a itsy bitsy bit EASIER to find on the INTERNET. it doesnt mention this ANYWHERE in the final cut pro user manual, the final cut hd express user manual, the inprogram help menus, the Final Cut Website, the APPLE WEBSITE, the IDVD WEBSITE! FFS HOW are you SUPPOSED to know to USE ANAMORPHASIZER to make your digital project that you SHOT in 16:9 actually, hmmm, well i dunno, perhaps SHOW UP IN 16:9 ON DVD! i didnt even know that IDVD was the problem until now. GAWD APPLE SUCKS

This is a demonstration of how poorly apple writes their user guidebooks, and how poorly their OWN PROGRAMS work Together, and how poorly THEIR WEBSITE is set up.

anyways we've been trying for 3 months to get our film in widescreen and be fully finalized to no avail, and i really appreciate this information you have provided here!

now could somebody please give me the Non-APPLE version on how to make a video for the web that streams, has the highest quality possible, and is at the lowest amount of MBs possible, all the same time, you would really have made my day (we've been using .MP4 Quicktime Conversion coding, works well enough, but is it the best?) Thanks again!!!!