multiple avi to dvd?

[tenders]

well i admit i'm not up to speed any more on converting software i'm looking to convert 3 or 4 avi's on to 1 dvd5.

any idea what program will do this with decent results? i have ConvertXto dvd but it just makes seperate files which are too large , even on the lowest setting. tmpg no longer seems to work for me.


thanks

[redwudz]

What's the total running time of your AVIs? I use ConvertX and add several AVIs and it always seems to come out to the right size for a DVD-5.

[tenders]

What's the total running time of your AVIs? I use ConvertX and add several AVIs and it always seems to come out to the right size for a DVD-5.

they vary. some are 200mb and i think the biggest is about 400mb. i have an older version which does not allow you to add several avi's to make 1 dvd. if there is some sort of program that i can adjust the bitrate that would be a bonus convertxtodvd just dosen't cut it in this case.

[redwudz]

Their size as a AVI doesn't really matter. When you encode to MPEG the total running time of your videos combined is what you use to set the bitrate and the quality and the size. We have bitrate calculators that will tell you the bitrate you need to use to fit them on a single DVD, like the VideoHelp Bitrate calculator. Then you could encode them separately with a MPEG encoder using that calculated bitrate.

Next you drop them into an authoring program, make your menus and burn. There are freeware encoders like HC and QuEnc and authoring programs like GUI for dvdauthor and DVDAuthorgui in 'Tools' to the left. Some times the 'One-click wonders' won't do the job.

[tenders]

hehehe..yeah since quality is not all that important...i was looking for a 1 click wonder as you put it that would allow me to convert /author 3-4 avi's ready to burn to a single dvd5.

running time varys also...from 42 min to 58 min. i could do this one by one , but i'm kinda hopeing there has been some sort of technological advance that i don't know about

[redwudz]

Technology comes at a price. The latest version of ConvertX would likely do this all easier. But the individual programs and a bit more work will give you better quality. And for zero cost.

First, add up all the running times of your videos and plug that into a bitrate calculator set for DVD-5 size. If the bitrate falls below about 3000kbps, you might consider using the 1/2 D1 format instead for better quality. See 'WHAT IS' DVD for that to the upper left.

Then you encode each one to that bitrate and they will all fit on a DVD-5. You can convert the audio to AC3 to save space, but MP2 also will do, depending on your encoder.

If you want to do them all at once, use batch encoding. But you will have to do a bit of studying to do all that with freeware.

Then you author and burn. Think of it all as a learning experience.

But we do have guides available and many members that do this regularly.

[steptoe]

Try using ConvertXtoDVD by VSO, it will easily batch encode most video files, especially AVI's and seems to be one of the few that can actually manage to keep the audio in synch

I use it to convert HDTV to DVD and it manages this quite easily, just select the first file and it does the rest


It will happily create DVD files for DVD-5 or DVD-9, you can set if you want quick conversion with lo-quality or slow conversion but hi-quality, I just set it to the highest quality and leave it running overnight

It will also burn your DVD with menus, but the 'menus' are a bit of a joke, basically just a blob with the filename used as a track title, but it works even if it looks rubbish


If you want, do what I have done in the past and let in create a menu, then just run it through TMPGenc DVD Author and create a better menu

[guns1inger]

Have you actually added all 4 files to a single project in ConvertxtoDVD, instead of encoding them separately ?

[tenders]

took abit of screwing around but i finally fit 3 onto the disc


thanks