avi to which format to burn and then watch on dvd home player

[timwolff]

what is the best (video quality, no choppiness, etc.) to convert avi files to for watching on a dvd player at home? which preset, which additional options? I will be burning it on popcorn or Idvd whichever is better. I am burning out trying to figure it out. please let me know if you can help. timwolffhouse@yahoo.com

[tomlee59]

This kind of question pops up so frequently that there ought to be a sticky with the answer. So here's my two cents:

"Best" is very subjective, so there can't be a single answer for everybody. Some interacting factors to consider are total filesize, video quality (resolution, bitrate) and audio quality (stereo vs. surround, bitrate). Some folks care a lot about sound, others are happy with basic stereo.

Do you need this to fit on a single single-layer DVD? Or do you have a dual-layer burner?

Ok, all those factors aside, here's a basic starting point: A single-layer DVD can handle a typical 2-hour movie fine. If you want to squeeze more than that onto a single disc, you'll need to back off on quality (bitrate), or go to dual-layer. Ffmpegx has presets for making a DVD. Use them. For example, if it correctly reads the duration of the movie (and if not, you can override its wrong guess), you can click on its little calculator to have it compute the bitrate corresponding to squeezing the movie on a single disc. Ffmpegx has some opinions on what constitutes "good" settings, and conveys that to you with colors. If the bitrate shows up in red, you can guess what that means. If ffmpegx believes that the bitrate is unnecessarily high, it shows up in purple. You can (and probably should) back off on the bitrate til it shows up green. Why isn't higher necessarily better? Higher bitrates stress decode electronics more, and some lower-end players may not be able to keep up gracefully.