Converting AVIs to DVD[5]

[Round_Brix]

Hello everyone

This is my first post here. VideoHelp is a gigantic website and I'm really enjoying it.
I simply say my problem. I've got tons of AVI files which I want to convert to DVD-R. now, I've tested lots of programs and my favorite one is Convert X To DVD. so, what's my problem?
my problem is that when you load/add about 120 minutes (or a little bit more) avi video file to Convert X To DVD it gets full and you can't add more files to it (you can but you need a DVD 9 to burn it).
now, I've got some old DVDs that has more than 8 hours of video (I don't know whether they were AVI at first place or not) on it and they're simple DVD 5. so please suggest me a software which can add and convert about 6 or more hours of AVIs to one single DVD 5.

Thanks in Advance

[videobruger]

But you may add more than 120 min to a DVD-5 using ConverXToDVD ?

http://forums.vso-software.fr/2-how-many-avi-without-losing-quality-t7894.html

Else there is DVDStyler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zarVpzLFw6E

[Round_Brix]

But you may add more than 120 min to a DVD-5 using ConverXToDVD ?

http://forums.vso-software.fr/2-how-many-avi-without-losing-quality-t7894.html

Else there is DVDStyler

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zarVpzLFw6E

Thank you. I'm gonna try DVDStyler.
well, maybe 130 or 140 or even 150 minutes, I'm not sure, but the thing is that you can't add/convert more than that with Convert X To DVD and I need a software which can add/convert more than 6 hours of AVI files to one single DVD-5. I know it's possible cause I've got some DVD[5]s that got more than 8 hours of video (DVD-R).

[yoda313]

Two things at least here - 6 hours on a dvd is probably pushing it to say the least. Unless these are really substandard videos to begin with trying to squish that much video onto a dvd will not look very good. You could burn to a dual layer disc to use more space per video assuming you have a dual layer drive.

Also you can do pretty much whatever you want in terms of length. Its bitrate not this mythical "120 min" that they slap on the dvdr. Lower the bitrate and you can fit more on the disc. Of course the lower the bitrate the lower the quality will be all things being equal.

Does this have to be a dvd? Can it be a data disc? If this is xvid/divx standard definition stuff quite a few dvd players will play those on a dvd as data without converting to dvd mode. Of course you have to check the individual player to make sure it does play divx. And there can be some oddball type files that won't play without some type of manipulation.

[Round_Brix]

Two things at least here - 6 hours on a dvd is probably pushing it to say the least. Unless these are really substandard videos to begin with trying to squish that much video onto a dvd will not look very good. You could burn to a dual layer disc to use more space per video assuming you have a dual layer drive.

Also you can do pretty much whatever you want in terms of length. Its bitrate not this mythical "120 min" that they slap on the dvdr. Lower the bitrate and you can fit more on the disc. Of course the lower the bitrate the lower the quality will be all things being equal.

Does this have to be a dvd? Can it be a data disc? If this is xvid/divx standard definition stuff quite a few dvd players will play those on a dvd as data without converting to dvd mode. Of course you have to check the individual player to make sure it does play divx. And there can be some oddball type files that won't play without some type of manipulation.

Thank you Yoda. well It can't be data disc in this case. I burn all of my disc as data-disc (for archive) but need to convert some of them to dvd-r for some reasons. I don't mind the low quality, the thing is most of the softwares that I've tried can't add more than certain minutes (no matter what the quality - bitrate - resolution is). I need to convert them to DVD5 [single] and can't use dual layer [DVD9] in this case.

[yoda313]

In that case have you tried avstodvd? It is very versatile.

[Round_Brix]

In that case have you tried avstodvd? It is very versatile.

Haven't tried it yet. gonna get it.

Thanks.

[Round_Brix]

DVDStyler looked good and it was working but stuck after converting 2.6 GB
I tried it several times and it stuck. then I tried some of the previous versions but they stuck at some point too.

AvstoDVD didn't convert/add as much AVI as I hoped.

[davexnet]

Well AVStoDVD by default will not accept anything that forces the video bitrate below 2500 .
You can lower it in the preferences/video tab, if you *really* want to squeeze more time
at the expense of picture quality.

[Janssen]

I've just made a DVD with 9h30 of video on it, on a 4.7GB (4,700,000,000 bytes) DVD

I had to lower the quality a lot, but i could afford it since it was the audio that mattered and not the video. It's a conference-type movie where i'm talking in front of the camera all that time, so i could afford to lower the video quality.

All you need to do is lower the bitrate of your encodes so they fit. For 9h30, most of my DVD clips are encoded at video: 854k audio: 128k.

I know some programs refuse to encode/accept below 2000k. I used ffmpeg + DVD Lab pro and it worked. This is my ffmpeg encode line:

ffmpeg -i myfile.avi -target ntsc-dvd -aspect 16:9 -b:v 854k -flags +ilme+ildct -top 0 -acodec ac3 -ar 48000 -ab 128k -y myfile.mpeg

You can download ffmpeg here: http://ffmpeg.zeranoe.com/builds/ (Get the latest static build).

I played around a bit with a lower resolution (half-D1, 352x480) to get better quality at lower bitrates, without success. I'm not saying it's impossible, just that i didn't succeed in obtaining good quality at that resolution. No matter what bitrate, high or extremely low, the quality seemed to always be better (even much better) on full-D1, 720x480. AFAIK, there is no reason to ever use half-D1, in any circumstance.

If you want to get a rough estimate on the bitrate you need for the DVD/time:

1) Calculate the number of seconds in your DVD:
(hours * 60 + minutes) * 60

2) Divide the DVD size by the number of seconds (and convert to kbps)
4,700,000,000 / seconds * 8 / 1000


So, for 9h30:

1)

(hours * 60 + minutes) * 60
(9 * 60 + 30) * 60
570 * 60
34200 seconds

2)

4,700,000,000 / seconds * 8 / 1000
4,700,000,000 / 34200 * 8 / 1000
1100kbps

The kbps is for both audio and video combined. In reality, for some reason, the encoded files are bigger than the given kbps (it's not exact as i believed it to be), so going with 1100 will go over the 4.7GB limit. You need to go a bit lower, maybe 100 or 150kbps lower. Basically, take the estimate and go lower.

[manono]

Basically, take the estimate and go lower.

Or just use a bitrate calculator which will take into account both the audio bitrate as well as the muxing overhead.

[Round_Brix]

Thank you all and thank you dear Janssen for the great post.
I changed the bitrate and it worked.

Thanks again.