[Big Slick]

After looking thru the archives and the stickie here, I can't find reference to any (free/shareware) programs that can convert my divx files (plus other formats? avi? mpeg) to straight dvd format that can be played on dvd players.

Then...I'll need a program to burn these files to blank dvds.

Any help is appreciated

[Big Mac]

I think it's Toast you're looking for.

[besson3c]

The free FFmpeg/FFmpegX will do the conversion part, as well as, I believe, the imaging into a burnable ISO.

[OwlBoy]

Install Perian, then drop the files in iDVD.

Perian - The swiss-army knife of QuickTime™ components

-Owl

[besson3c]

That's a good suggestion.. You can probably create your own chapter markers that way too.

[Big Slick]

Took a look at the details on Perian and it looks to me that it will change most formats to be plyable on Quicktime. I don't think that's what I'm looking for is it? I will use iDVD for the slick look, but I need the movies or files to be in a format playable on a standard dvd player first, right? Otherwise iDVD would just copy the same format onto my disc. Is this wrong?

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Big Slick 

Took a look at the details on Perian and it looks to me that it will change most formats to be plyable on Quicktime. I don't think that's what I'm looking for is it? I will use iDVD for the slick look, but I need the movies or files to be in a format playable on a standard dvd player first, right? Otherwise iDVD would just copy the same format onto my disc. Is this wrong?

iDVD doesn't burn anything but DVD (mpeg-2), it will create your actual DVD for you with custom titles. What Perian should do is make your movie file recognizable by iDVD. Otherwise, it will only work with standard Quicktime files.


I'm not completely sure that this will work though, because iDVD may be setup to only accept uncompressed .dv files, and not compressed media. I haven't tried this.

If this doesn't work, I would suggest taking a look at ffmpegX.

[Big Slick]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

iDVD doesn't burn anything but DVD (mpeg-2), it will create your actual DVD for you with custom titles. What Perian should do is make your movie file recognizable by iDVD. Otherwise, it will only work with standard Quicktime files.


I'm not completely sure that this will work though, because iDVD may be setup to only accept uncompressed .dv files, and not compressed media. I haven't tried this.

If this doesn't work, I would suggest taking a look at ffmpegX.

I used iDVD to try a test. I put two files in divx. format into iDVD and let iDVD do the rest, but it won't play on my dvd player. I have an older (4 yrs at least) RCA dvd recorder that's NOT divx compatible, so it didn't work for me.

Guess its back to square one.

[besson3c]

ffmpegX. This will definitely work.

[dlefebvre]

I never did it, because I did not want to spend that much time converting files, plus the fact that most of the times, the conversion degrades the quality. I later found the perfect solution.

When my DVD player died, I bought an Oppo DVD player. It plays anything, including DiVX. It's absolutely the best player I ever owned. Now, I just use Toast to burn DiVX discs. I just drop the AVI (Divix) files in Toast and I burn it. No conversion! It burns in a snap and I can fit more than 10 hours of very decent quality video on one disc. If the DiVX files are widescreen, they fill my HD TV beautifully because the player is intelligent enough to make the difference. And I would say that the result looks sometimes even better than the standard definition cable feed on my HD TV.

For the price (and there's probably cheaper players out there) it's not worth to spend countless hours converting files.

[Big Slick]

I'm trying out ffmegx and it's not working for me. I can drag my files (divx, avi) to the "input" and select dvd mpeg2enc on the "output" and click encode and after the <ding> nothing happens. I've tried instead of dragging the files I select the 'open' and 'save as' tabs and still nothing. I get different messages in the pop-up progress window so does anyone have any experience with this program?

[besson3c]

Do you have all of the prerequisites installed? Have you tried the mpeg2enc ffmpeg encoding option?

[besson3c]

When you go to your ffmpegX menu and select "install binaries", do you see anything in red?

[Big Slick]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

When you go to your ffmpegX menu and select "install binaries", do you see anything in red?

Where does it ask p where can I select install binaries

[besson3c]

Originally Posted by Big Slick 

Where does it ask p where can I select install binaries

Your ffmpegX menu, like I said.

[Big Slick]

Originally Posted by besson3c 

When you go to your ffmpegX menu and select "install binaries", do you see anything in red?

I found the menu (forgot about the menu at top of page), and no nothing appears red. BTW, I'm running 0.0.9x v2

[besson3c]

So, what about the second part of my latter suggestion? Have you tried encoding with mpeg2enc ffmpeg rather than mpeg2enc?

[dlefebvre]

All those conversion headaches, exactly why I did quit and bought a DiVX DVD player.