[iOliverC]

Im thinking of buying DVD Studio Pro, but I have some movies that are encoded in DivX, and was wondering if there was any chance I could simple import them like any standard movie format?

Thanks,
Oliver

[Uncle Skeleton]

I'm not overly familiar with DVDSP, but I think it doesn't "import" anything (except mpeg-2 which it doesn't need to convert). Instead it comes with an mpeg-2 export component for quicktime pro. So yes, if quicktime can play it you can use it, but it's up to you to use the right settings in the export

[iOliverC]

Originally posted by Uncle Skeleton:
I'm not overly familiar with DVDSP, but I think it doesn't "import" anything (except mpeg-2 which it doesn't need to convert). Instead it comes with an mpeg-2 export component for quicktime pro. So yes, if quicktime can play it you can use it, but it's up to you to use the right settings in the export

So I could burn the movies to a DVD and play them on a normal DVD player?

[TC]

Just had to laugh at the idea that someone who watches divx movies is then going to 'buy' a pro app from Apple to burn them onto DVD.
Wouldn't it be cheaper to just buy the DVDs?
Sorry, couldn't resist.

You will have problems with DVD studio pro because it is very strict about the dimensions of DVDs it will produce and the assets it will import. When DVD Studio Pro 2 first came out it would only let you use full size movies. The latest update allows you to use half size, the same as are used in SVCD.

Here are the details from Apple:
Following is a list of supported MPEG-2 video resolutions:
Full D-1: 720 x 480 NTSC, 720 x 576 PAL
Cropped D-1: 704 x 480 NTSC, 704 x 576 PAL (matches analog blanking)
1/2 D-1: 352 x 480 NTSC, 352 x 576 PAL
SIF (Standard Interface Format): 352 x 240 NTSC, 352 x 288 PAL

So anyway if you want to play your DivX films on a DVD player then your best bet would probably be to use a programme like ffmpegX to convert from divx to SVCD.

The best option though is to go out and buy a player which will play DivX films, that's what I did.

[Uncle Skeleton]

Originally posted by TC:
Here are the details from Apple:
Following is a list of supported MPEG-2 video resolutions:
Full D-1: 720 x 480 NTSC, 720 x 576 PAL
Cropped D-1: 704 x 480 NTSC, 704 x 576 PAL (matches analog blanking)
1/2 D-1: 352 x 480 NTSC, 352 x 576 PAL
SIF (Standard Interface Format): 352 x 240 NTSC, 352 x 288 PAL

So anyway if you want to play your DivX films on a DVD player then your best bet would probably be to use a programme like ffmpegX to convert from divx to SVCD.

SVCD is 480x480 and specifically rejected from the DVD spec. Some players (mostly ones that play SVCDs anyway) might still play SVCD-on-DVD, but only by coincidence. I don't know if DVDSP would allow you to author such a disc, but judging by the unanswered queries about doing such a thing I would guess no.

The best option though is to go out and buy a player which will play DivX films, that's what I did.

easier still is to buy a radeon card for your computer and a few long RCA cables. Hardware "mpeg-4" players are always going to be limited and behind the latest technology anyway

[elucid]

hey,

use toast to burn multiple avi to dvd without headache or broken pocketbook

my friend has dvd sp2 and some other more hight end dv stuff, but not enough knowledge to "really" use it with crap footage ie. mpeg or avi
we tried to make a few dvd's with lots of tv shows we wanted for prosperity and thought we could fit a bunch on one dvd and be able to make a fancy menu, unlike using toast, however....
dvd sp will import avi, and not mentioning audio sync issues, a 350 Mb avi imported results in about 1.6 gig in the project, same with mpeg, or mov...

i'm outta my league with all this stuff but i do know that toast will burn all these file types on a dvd without reencoding if it isn't necessary. but i'm a designer and toast just sucks with menus...but if you don't care about that then just get toast.

for the experts, is there a way to import the mpeg stuff in dvd sp without unnecessary encoding? so 500 Mb vcd quality video doesn't take up the whole disc, which for me makes putting vcd or svcd quality stuff on a dvd pointless. arggh i just want a few dvd's with nice titles to fit mass quantities of vcd stuff on too....

[dwishbone]

i use QT Pro to convert the AVI's into MPEG2. if the aspect ratio and everything is correct it works just fine.

[Uncle Skeleton]

elucid:

you know how a CD works? you put (uncompressed) audio on it in a very specific format, which allows 74 or 80 minutes of audio, and then your CD player can read it. Or, you could put 10 hours of music on it as a data CD in mp3 format, but then only your computer can read it. Right?

the same is true of DVDs. You can burn whatever 4.4 GB of data you want on them, as a data DVD. But your set top DVD player won't touch it. To make a Video DVD (analagous to an Audio CD), you have to follow the spec, which is MPEG-2, in which format you can fit about 2-4 hours of content on one disc, depending on the compression ratio you choose. So now you see why the format of the original movie doesn't matter, only it's length. Also you see that if you do tell Toast to burn a DVD of avi files without re-encoding them to MPEG-2, what you get will not play on any set-top player.