.avi files to convert to DVD-Video format

[spike47]

Hi
I am getting myself confused has to making a DVD to use on a DVD player, the video files I have are in .avi format transferred to my pc form a Camcorder with Mini DV tapes, they have to play on my friends DVD player a Panasonic DVD-S500, I have DVD-R Discs, it says in the (Playing Media) formats for this Player that DVD-R disc save to be in a DVD-Video format and that it has to be finalized, I have Wondershare (DVD-Creator and Uni-Creator).

So the question is do I need to convert the .avi files to another format before using DVD-Creator ?, and how do I finalize the disc has it says in the Panasonic manual, have done one to try ( It wouldn’t play on the dvd player) but there was no unction to finalize on the DVD-Creator or does that do it automaticaly ?.

Cheers
Spike

[Sharc]

Hi
So the question is do I need to convert the .avi files to another format before using DVD-Creator ?

Why don't you just try? Import it in DVD Creator or whatever authoring SW you have and it will tell you when it can't convert it or doesn't recognize the format.

[spike47]

Hi
Tks for your reply, yes have done that still but won't play, in the DVD player manual it says that DVD-Video format has to be finalized, but there is no option in Wondershare DVD Creator to do that !.
Cheers
Spike

[spike47]

I have DVD+R and DVD-R discs, what is the best type to use

[OldMan64]

In this day and age, either DVD+R and DVD-R discs should work just as well, unless that player is really old.
As far as a disc being finalized - that is something that a DVD recorder needs to do before taking it out of the recorder. DVD authoring software should not have/need that function as the DVD writing to disc should be finalized before it is complete.

[Cornucopia]

Dvd-r is slightly preferable over dvd+r in those very old players. In newer ones, it shouldn't make a difference.

Yes, the dvd needs to be finalized, but when you burn "dvd-video" the app in question should know that it must be that way, and so should do it for you when burning. This is known as "disc-at-once" burning.

YES, FOR TRULY UNIVERSAL DVD PLAYER COMPATIBILITY, YOU MUST CONVERT ALL YOUR AVI'S TO DVD-VIDEO FORMAT (Video_TS folder with VOBs and IFOs and BUPs). This will very likely require a reencode and will very likely lose some quality AND be larger filesizes.


Scott

[jagabo]

AND be larger filesizes

Not if his sources are DV AVI.

a Camcorder with Mini DV tapes

[Cornucopia]

True

[Sharc]

YES, FOR TRULY UNIVERSAL DVD PLAYER COMPATIBILITY, YOU MUST CONVERT ALL YOUR AVI'S TO DVD-VIDEO FORMAT (Video_TS folder with VOBs and IFOs and BUPs). This will very likely require a reencode and will very likely lose some quality ....

Sure. The OP's authoring SW is apparently "Wondershare DVD Creator". I don't know it, but how can a SW be called "DVD creator" when it does not convert the source file format (or at least reject it properly rather than complaining about finalization issues), create the DVD folder structure and finalize the burned DVD properly. What does "DVD creator" really create? Just wondering.

[Cornucopia]

I don't trust ANYTHING made by Wondershare. There are so many better options, even free.

Scott

[spike47]

Hi All
Thanks for all your replies, have finally got it sorted ( not easy !) the 60min DV tape was around 12gb in size containing 71 clips, so this is what I did to get what I wanted.
1st: Copied the whole of the 60 DV tape to PC via Camcorder.

2nd: Used " Wondershare Uni-Convertor" to convert to "MP4" I could of used any conversion, but had to choose one for it to be able to be merged", then used the merged button to merge all the clips into one Video file.

3rd: Used "X-Vid" to convert into a DVD-Video file ( it did finalize the DVD at the end, have done it on both DVD-R and DVD+R discs and both play ok on DVD Player .

Note: It quite surprised me that the initial 60min tape was 12gb in size !, but the DVD via X-Vid burned to 3.3GB !.

Cheers and thanks again for all your comments.

Spike

[jagabo]

Converting to MP3 make no sense. MP3 is an audio only format. It's not DVD compatible. You want AC3 audio.

If "X-Vid" is the XVID codec -- that's also not DVD compatible. You need MPEG 2 video.

If you converted audio to MP3 and video to XVID the files would have be converted again to AC3 and MPEG 2. The degradation from the MP3 and XVID conversions could have been avoided by going directly from DV AVI to DVD AC3/MPEG2.

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

DV is always about 13 GB per hour. For best quality convert an hour of DV video to ~4GB MPEG2/AC3 for DVD.

[spike47]

Converting to MP3 make no sense. MP3 is an audio only format. It's not DVD compatible. You want AC3 audio.

If "X-Vid" is the XVID codec -- that's also not DVD compatible. You need MPEG 2 video.

If you converted audio to MP3 and video to XVID the files would have be converted again to AC3 and MPEG 2. The degradation from the MP3 and XVID conversions could have been avoided by going directly from DV AVI to DVD AC3/MPEG2.

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

DV is always about 13 GB per hour. For best quality convert an hour of DV video to ~4GB MPEG2/AC3 for DVD.

Hi
Thanks for your reply and suggestions, sorry meant MP4, didn't really matter what file system I choose under " Wondershare " Uni-Convertor", X-Vid would make a DVD Video file from it or any other formats ( well almost any !).

cheers
Spike

[manono]

Thanks for your reply and suggestions, sorry meant MP4...

It was still a waste of time and unnecessarily degrading to the video since you could have gone directly from DV-AVI to DVD video. Just use AvsToDVD (or other programs) to do the conversion. You don't need to join the separate videos in advance. Or you could have joined them without any conversion. I believe VDub2 can do it.