convert xvid clips to dvd properly

Hi ajcool,

Welcome to the forums.

ConvertXToDVD is regularly recommended here. There's a "Tools" section with links at the top of this page, and to the left. Have a hunt around there and see what else catches your eye...

By the way - it is possible to fit 3 hours on to a single layer DVD - some people even go as far as 7 hours! It all depends on:

1) The bitrate for the audio and video
2) The resolution - at lower bitrates, increasingly smaller resolutions help to avoid that blocky look (known as "macroblocks"), but the picture's not as sharp looking.
3) What you're happy with in terms of acceptable picture quality.

The first trick is to demux the audio from the video.

With VBR MP3 it is best to demux to a PCM WAV audio file. I find that GOLDWAVE does an extremely good job at this but GOLDWAVE is not freeware. However I find it indispensable for demuxing MP3 audio from MPEG-4 AVI files (such as XviD or DivX files). I should point out that many people find that this can be done well with VirtualDubMod which is freeware. In fact here is one such thread about that: CLICK HERE

Once you get your demuxed PCM WAV audio file I would convert to AC-3 format. The most popular freeware tool for that is ffmpegGUI although Aften is another freeware option that gives you much more control over the AC-3 encoding process. In fact here is a mini-guide I wrote about using Aften: CLICK HERE

Once you have your audio done you want to use a bitrate calculator to determine the bitrate you need to use in order to set-up the video encoding. One of the best bitrate calculators are located on this very website at the follwoing web address: https://www.videohelp.com/calc

For further details I will refer you to another thread that became a mini-guide on how to encode MPEG-4 AVI files (such as DivX and XviD) to MPEG-2 DVD spec: CLICK HERE

One important note to make ... what resolution to use?

With a DVD Video you can use what is called Full D1 resolution or Half D1 resolution. Full D1 is usually 720x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for PAL. You can also use a width of 704 instead of 720 if you want although 720 is the standard even though either will work. Half D1 is 352x480 for NTSC or 352x576 for PAL.

If you want to put 3 hours per DVD Video disc (single layer DVD) then you would want to use Half D1 resolution. If you are using FitCD (see my link above) then you would pick the "1/2 DVD" option for the destination (whereas in my mini-guide I use the "720 DVD" option).

Here is the trick for selecting the resolution ... Full D1 will always give you a sharper image whereas Half D1 will always give a slightly less sharper image ... but at low bitrates Half D1 will look better in that it will have less (if any) compression artifacts whereas at low bitrates Full D1 will have many noticeable compression artifacts. The trick is determining at what bitrate you switch from Full D1 to Half D1. That is the trick because every source is different. The general rule is to switch to Half D1 if the video bitrate has to drop to or under 4000kbps but if the resolution of the source is "high" and if the source video is very "clear" ... well that favors using Full D1 for "lower bitrates". Also the movie itself can make a difference. For instance a movie that is "dark" or has less "action" (like a drama instead of an "action" film) favor Full D1 in that all of that makes compression easier-to-do. The more video "noise" and the more action in the a movie then the less compressible that movie will be so the switch to Half D1 may be needed before you hit or go below 4000kbps.

What I can tell you is that at 3 hours even the highest quality of sources will require Half D1 resolution if you want good quality compression artifact free (or minimal compression artifact) video.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman