from .avi file to DVDdisc howto
DVD movie howto (from .avi file to DVDdisc)
Having a DVD drive, and some movies, I have always wished to create DVDs that I could watch on my stand alone DVD player. I was successful today and thought I would share this information in the event that it is useful to anyone. I have done this using a existing AVI file. What you will need:
1. Transcode. Available at: http://zebra.fh-weingarten.de/~transcode/
2. mjpegtools. Available at: http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net.
3. Latest dvd+rw-tools. Available at:http://fy.chalmers.se/~appro/linux/DVD+RW/
4. mkisofs. Available at: http://freshmeat.net/projects/mkisofs/
5. Mencoder (comes with the mplayer package). Available at: http://www.mplayerhq.hu
6. dvdauthor. Available at:http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/
7. K3b if you use KDE is quite nice. Avialable at: http://www.k3b.org/
To make things read easier , I'll use a real filename : matrix.avi
Create a new dir ( I use movies )
mkdir movies
here you can sore the ...avi files you want to burn to DVD
Encoding the movie:
Know or find out what TV format you will be using.
For most of Europe & Australia, use PAL.
For America (and others?), use NTSC.
For PAL:
transcode -i matrix.avi -V -y mpeg -F d -Z 352x288 --export_fps 25 --export_asr 2 -E 48000 -b 224 -o matrix
For NTSC:
transcode -i matrix.avi -V -y mpeg -F d -Z 352x240 --export_fps 29.970 --export_asr 2 -E 48000 -b 224 -o matrix
Replace matrix.avi with the .avi file you want to encode and replace matrix with the name you want to give to the encoded files.
We now have 2 new files: matrix.m2v (video) and matrix.mpa (audio)
Combine the new audio & video files into one DVD mpg.
mplex -f 8 -o matrix-dvd.mpg matrix.m2v matrix.mpa
This will result in a file : matrix-dvd.mpg
You should test this file by playing it ( with xine or kaffeine) and see if it looks good and if audio/video synchronizion is ok.
If audio/video(AV) sync is not correct, try overriding transcode's AV Sync auto correction with '-D 0' like so:
transcode -i matrix.mpg -V -y mpeg -F d -Z 352x288 --export_fps 25 --export_asr 2 -E 48000 -b 224 -D 0 -o matrix
If all is ok , we can proceed.
In order for our disc to be played in a stand alone DVD player, the directory structure HAS to be perfect, so please make sure you type the next several commands exactly as shown, in the order shown:
mkdir dvd
Now we have to use the program "dvdauthor" ,which can create the file and dir structure for a DVD. It has many features to create menus and picturebackgrounds for DVDs , but I'll not go in to that, we keep it simple (we just wanna watch the movie on DVDplayer)
Dvdauthor requires a simple configuration file. This is a xml file that you create.
Here is an example from the dvdauthor website:
<dvdauthor>
<vmgm />
<titleset>
<titles>
<pgc>
<vob file="matrix-dvd.mpg" />
</pgc>
</titles>
</titleset>
</dvdauthor>
You can copy and paste this file into your favorite editor ( I use Kedit) and save it as "dvdauthor.xml .
The only line you need to change is the "vob file"line, replace matrix-dvd.mpg with the .mpg file you created before.
ps this is all done in the same dir (~/movies )
Now let dvdauthor do its work with this command:
dvdauthor -o /path-to-dvd-dir -x dvdauthor.xml
in my case:
dvdauthor -o /home/jack/movies/dvd -x dvdauthor.xml
IF all went well, you have in the dvd dir 2 new dirs : VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS
Now we need to create an .iso file of the dvd dir so we can burn it to DVD.
Still in movies dir type:
mkisofs -dvd-video -udf -o matrix.iso dvd/
replace matrix.iso with yout-title.iso
And finaly, start up K3B Tools/DVD/burn dvd iso image
and select the iso file you just created before, and burn your DVD.
Happy viewing.
Jack renders
ps I made this howto from several different howtos I found on the net , but they didn't work for me ,I had to take info from several
howtos and combine it , so it would work for me.
