help with avi file?

i have a avi file and when i play it on quicktime or in idvd it does not have sound but if i play it in vlc player it has sound how do i make quicktime and idvd have sound? also i want to bun this same avi file witch is only 1.6gb on one dvd-r with idvd or toast and it does not fit why? can any one tell me how to burn it? could it be because the movie is long its 2hrs and 30min.

1/ Most likely AC3 (Dolby Digital) audio. Install the plugin. There is a different plugin if you're not running 10.4.x and QT 7.1.

2/ MPEG-2 for DVD requires more bytes per minute than DivX/XviD in AVI, so the DVD files will be larger than your source file. To fit 150 minutes on a DVD-R in DVD format, you'd need a video bitrate of around 3512 kbps, which may be below iDVD's setting. Toast 7 defaults to 4000+ kbps, but you can enter a lower custom bitrate.

I was just about to post a similar question and might be able to help some via my suggestion of ffmpegX but also need some help of my own (BTW I posted a similar--but different--question about an MP4 file under a different thread if some kind soul can help with my problem there).

I too have an .avi file that plays clear video but no audio with iDVD or Quicktime on my computer and it will burn with Toast/iDVD but there is no audio. When I burn it the file is the right size on my standard/non-HD TV screen and the image is very clear--no jumpiness (more on these issues below) but the file does not have audio. The only way to get a clear image and clear audio so far is to use VLC. But I don't want to watch the file on my computer; rather, I want to burn it to DVD and watch on my TV. I ran the file through ffmpegX 0.09W and got sound and an image but the image is jumpy--almost like it sticks and then skips. Here are the settings:

The file name designates that the file is AVI, and is a high resolution HDTV AC3 5.1 vidx file. When I drag it into ffmpeg it says the following:

From: AVI
Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 960x544
Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, 5:1, 384 kb/s

clicking on info for my original source in the upper right corner of ffmpegX also tells me: Video: [XVID] 960X544, 12bpp 29.70 fps 2404.2 kbps (293.5 kbyte/s) audiocodec: framecopy (format=2000 chans=5 rate=48000 bits-0 B/s=48000 sample-1)

I have to admit, I don't know what most of that means.

My Target Format in ffmpeg is set as follows:

To: DVDffmpeg
Video: ffmpeg mpeg2, 720x480, 4000 kbps, 23.976 fps, no crop
Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, 224 kbps

I went in and changed the audio to .ac3 (dolby digital) and before I burned the DVD I changed the video autosize from DVD to 16:9 although when I played the video it was jumpy, as I said above, and I had a bunch of crap floating around the bottom of the screen below the bottom of the video image (these floating words--which appeared to be screensaver type stuff that I see when the DVD player has been paused too long--did not appear on my computer screen at any point before or after encoding with ffmpeg).

Another time I encoded the video with the DVD autosize (720x480) and then adjusted it to 16:9 with MyDVDEdit after ffmpeg encoded the file. The MyDVDEdit corrects the image size but the iamge is still jumpy. In the end, I know there is something I need to adjust but I don't know what to change. I'm guessing those changes have to do with the Video tab in ffmpeg. Here's what I have listed:

Video Codec: MPEG2 [.MPG] (ffmpeg)
Bit rate calculator:
Video Bitrate: 4000
35 min keep in:
1 CDs of DVD 4GB
4000 MB

Video paramters with Autosize DVD lists video size as 720X480 and changes to 720X400 if I shift to 16:9. There are two other options DVD 16:9 which keeps 720X480 (should I select this one to eliminate the stuff floating at the bottom of my screen since it stays at 720X480) or 16:9 (keep height) which gives me a video size of 848X480. The framerate is listed as NTSC Film (other choices are NTSC (29.97) or PAL--which isn't the setting I want since I'm in the US).

I know this is getting very long but hopefully all the details will be helpful in solving my problem and the problems of others who are dealing with similar files. So I'll end with three questions:

(1) What do I need to change to get rid of the jumpy picture screen?

(2) What should I select in terms of Video Size: should I choose one of the 16:9 options or should I leave it at DVD (740X480 and then correct the problem with MyDVDEdit)? And is NTSC Film ok?

(3) Should I change the audio from mp2 to ac3?

Thanks for bearing with me on this and reading this tome. Take care.

Originally Posted by danielmak

(1) What do I need to change to get rid of the jumpy picture screen?

My guess would be that you need a 3:2 pulldown.

Originally Posted by danielmak

(2) What should I select in terms of Video Size: should I choose one of the 16:9 options or should I leave it at DVD (740X480 and then correct the problem with MyDVDEdit)? And is NTSC Film ok?

Set the video size at "DVD 16:9". That should give you a nice anamorphic widescreen DVD.
720X400 and 848X480 are not valid for DVD.

Originally Posted by danielmak

(3) Should I change the audio from mp2 to ac3?

With mp2 you get stereo audio; with ac3 you can preserve the 5.1 channel surround sound.

Case,

Thanks for the response. I have another question about this. The codec that I added per your recommendation earlier in the thread worked so that I get sound in Quicktime (again, less of a concern since I'm not really interested in watching on my computer) and with iDVD. I burned the file with iDVD prior to your response to my question here but ran into the problem of iDVD squishing the image when I play it on my stand alone DVD player. But I figured since I already had the disk image saved I would use MyDVDEdit and fix the settings by changing to 16:9 pan&scan letterbox. The problem is that MyDVDEdit tells me that the files are read only. I'm guessing this is some kind of copy protection by iDVD. Is that correct? Anyway, I ask this because I don't get a jerky image with iDVD. So, is there a workaround with iDVD or am I better off using the 3:2 pulldown and sticking with ffmpegX? Thanks.

You need to Get Info (cmd-I) on the VIDEO_TS folder and change Ownership & Permissions to Read & Write and then in the Details hit the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.

Originally Posted by ffooky

You need to Get Info (cmd-I) on the VIDEO_TS folder and change Ownership & Permissions to Read & Write and then in the Details hit the "Apply to enclosed items..." button.

Man I feel like an idiot. Nothing has been simple with my attempts to convert this .avi file and then another .mp4 file so I forget about the simple things. Thanks, for answering this ffooky even though it wasn't the brightest question.

Although after I make the changes and redo the file in MyDVDEdit the file is jerky on my computer screen. It wasn't prior to the shift to 16:9 panscan letterbox. So I'm back to nothing being as simple as I'd hoped. I will try again with ffmpegX. Take care.