Encoding an .AVI to DVD

[shimonmor]

I made a slideshow in Premiere 6.5 and exported it to .AVI file and now I want to put it on a DVD to play in home DVD players with menus and such.

I tried two different methods. One was with Roxio DVD Builder which came bundled with my DVD burner and the other is with a program a bought a couple of months ago called Ulead DVD Workshop 2.0. The are both similar in building the menus and attaching various medias to your CD but the Ulead program has more capabilities.

The .AVI file looks like any other DV movie file but when I put them onto the DVDs the quality really suffers and I get some weird pincusion and barrel effects on some of the slides in the movie with the Ulead program. I've got highest quality selected in these programs.

Anyway, is there a GOOD program out there for putting stuff (like movies and photos and slideshows) onto a DVD. I don't need any slideshow programs (I tried the trial of Arcsoft's DVD Slideshow 1.0 but the quality was awful) but just a program to encode stuff onto DVD.

It seems like not all encoders are created equal.

Also, is their a good forum out there for this type of question (ABX is great, but sometimes specialized forums give better results).

[Redleg]

Take a look on videohelp.com you'll likely find what you need.

[sammy2066]

Dr.DivX >>>>

[shimonmor]

Originally Posted by Redleg

Take a look on videohelp.com you'll likely find what you need.

Thanks. Looks like a very good forum. I've already read through quite a number of posts and I did register...but you need to wait two days before you can post or reply. I guess they want you to become familiar with what's already out there before you come in firing away with questions that have been answering numerous times already.

[shimonmor]

Originally Posted by sλmmy2066

Dr.DivX >>>>

I checked this out at http://www.divx.com/divx/drdivx/ but it looks like DivX is a special codec that needs a decoder or a certified DivX player. I want to mail out these slideshows to friends and family (most of whom are technologically handicapped) so I need a standard DVD mpeg2 format that they can just pop into their home DVD player and watch. I'll probably have enough problems with DVD+/-R compatability issues with certain players. I want to keep this simple.

[HiJon89]

Just search for AVI to DVD on google and you should find some good guides, most of those are for the absolutely best quality possible so the process they suggest may be lengthy and difficult, or you could just use a program to do it all for you such as AVI to DVD.

[count minaba]

If you have a dv editor, you could capture the avi and output as a DVD (mpeg2).
I use Pinnacle Studio 9.

[DrStrange]

This program is well thought of in a lot of fora and its still free for the moment. It converts other formats apart from avi:

http://www.vso-software.fr/divxtodvd/divxtodvd.htm

[ronbo 613]

Hello-I've used TMPGEnc to make MPEG2 files for DVDs for some time. It does a good job, the more you learn about encoding, the better video files you'll make. For high quality MPEG2 files, I use 2 pass VBR; 8000high, 6000avg, 2000low. I use the tooLame MPEG audio plugin with TMPGEnc. It makes much smaller audio files than the stock PCM audio, sounds just as good, and should play on any standalone DVD player made in the past few years. TMPGEnc can take some time to render your AVI clips, so I use this TMPGEnc Batch List program to line up the clips and let the computer work on them while I'm doing something else.
As far as DVD authoring, I'm assuming you don't want to spend a lot of money. I have Ulead MovieFactory 2, good for beginners, kind of limited. I recently upgraded my Nero that includes NeroVision Express 3, haven't tried it yet but I hear it's OK, in the same class as MovieFactory2. If I had my choice for an inexpensive authoring program, I'd go with TMPGEnc DVD Author. They have a free trial version, you can check it out.

[dddibley]

Ditto on ronbo 613's suggestion.. TmpgEnc. The DVD Author package works great too.

Problem is AVI to MPEG encoding can take a LONG time. Old 1Ghz PIII was about 8:1 (8 hours encoding for 1 hour source). 2.66 CelD is much better

Best to capture in MPEG2 to begin with. Have an old Radeon VIVO that saves oodles of time. Not good as quality as encoding, but TV movies or composite inputs come out looking just fine.

ddd

[shimonmor]

I didn't realize it but my Premiere 6.5 has an encoder built in...I just never activated it.

My issue is not so much a lack of an mpeg2 encoder...there are lots out there...it's that I am having quality issues with some encoders...like I said, not all encoders are created equal.

After reading a lot of posts on the videohelp forum, I've learned that the included encoder with Premiere is very good and so is TMPGEnc.

Thanks for the help.

[dddibley]

Happy burning

ddd