Page 1 of AVI to MPG to DVD - Best tools

Evening all,

Recently acquired some footage from family getogether which people want burned onto disc but it is in AVI format. Have tried to encode it straight to DVD but the quiality has suffered to the point of becoming unwatchable. Obviously each re-encoding is compromising the quality of the finished article, so the question is has anyone any recommendations for software that can be used to put avi`s into an apprporiate format while retaining the quality of the original DV? or am I doomed to create blocky artefacts whenever encoding?

Mike

Funnily enough - just doing it at the moment.

I`m using Windows Movie Maker to edit the DV footage (this is proper DV-AVI from a Mini-DV camera). Then exporting the full movie as DV-AVI.
Then using TMPG to then encode into MPEG2 (highest motion setting, bitrate of 8Mb).

The quality comes out very very well (although it takes a while to encode).

When you say you`ve been given it on a disc...is it a small file? Since DV-AVI takes around 12-16GB per hour of footage. Perhaps its compressed with the DivX/Xvid codec?

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About 700MB, but this is not a problem as I can leave it to encode while I am at work. Currently using TMPGEnc-2.524.63.181 to encode direct from AVI (think it is DivX compression) and then (hopefully) will burn to disc. Crazy, because it seems that this should be such an easy thing to do. Hate dealing with footage that other people have messed with first and then expect DVD-quality, Oscar winning material :)

Mike

This item was edited on Wednesday, 8th June 2005, 20:41

Don`t encode direct from the AVI file. Get Virtualdub and process the files through that to get an uncompressed AVI file (you can also apply various processing filters). Then recompress to MPEG2 via TMPGenc. Remember to demux the file to video and audio so you don`t risk losing sound sync.

J Mark Oates

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Has anyone in my family ever suffered from insanity?
No, we`ve all enjoyed it immensely.

Quote:
Don`t encode direct from the AVI file. Get Virtualdub and process the files through that to get an uncompressed AVI file (you can also apply various processing filters). Then recompress to MPEG2 via TMPGenc. Remember to demux the file to video and audio so you don`t risk losing sound sync.

Only problem with that is the avi file bloats to ridiculous proportion. On a 15GB HD (Partitioned) the space vanished. have a 250GB HD but is USB2.0 and FAT32 (I.e. Partition Magic does not likw it because it cannot see it during boot-up sequence - needs to be in Windows). Obviously FAT32 will not deal with files >4GB(?) so it looks as if the TMPEnc is going to have to be the first attempt.

Mike

PS Converting to MPG is obviously do-able, but what about burning it to DVD-5 so people can watch it on standalone DVD players (all units are compatible with playing DVD+R)?

Quote:
Only problem with that is the avi file bloats to ridiculous proportion

Yep, but uncompressed video takes up a lot of space. If you want to edit video you really need a decent-sized slave HDD to work in (80Gb+). Uncompressed AVI at DVD resolution takes up around 13Gb/hr (IIRC). I take it you don`t have room on your system for a standard slave HDD, hence the USB unit. If there`s a way to reformat that to NTFS rather than FAT32, that would solve a lot of problems, but if Partition Magic won`t play ball, I`m not sure what to suggest.

As regards burning to DVD, there are plenty of programs available for basic authoring, not least TMPGenc Author. I use ULEAD Movie Factory 4 Disc Creator.

J Mark Oates

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Has anyone in my family ever suffered from insanity?
No, we`ve all enjoyed it immensely.

Don`t honestly see any advantage converting a divX avi to a `normal` avi before converting to MPEG.

Quote:
Remember to demux the file to video and audio so you don`t risk losing sound sync.


could you explain that process and why we should do it?


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67suissac[at]moc.tenretnitb/cassius76.html" target="_blank">JamesL

OK, encoded and then used TMPGenc DVD Authoring (excellent software for anyone who has stumbled on this thread without knowing about it) but when it is changed to MPEG the audio suffers. Now it spliltis into the video and a seperate wave file - has anyone put this file through audio cleaners and then used it with the original video file? In theory I don`t see why it wouldn`t work, but has anyone had any experience?

Mike

PS Although understanding the rationale behind decompressing the avi, would not the `damage` have been done in the primary encoding to DivX - surely this is not something that can be changed by uncompressing and recompressing?

PPS Appreciate all input - thanks.

I `ve just downloaded my first movie/film and got it onto a dvd disc that plays on my toshiba !!!!
Long old process tbh !
I downloaded an avi file , recoded it thro aimone , then coverted/demuxed/transcoded (?) thro dvdlab , then took it into dvd shrink and encrypted it , then finally burned to dvd disc , ........ and it worked .. whey !
the burning software used was nero !
I managed to pick up software from various sources on the net ;)

Tell ya what, these people that download movies and do the do and sell them for £5 ... myself I coundn`t be arsed !


Coops

CPS
"Always watching "