[smileLP]

i've downloaded various movies and things from various share and pay forums and for some reason toast hates 'em

toast usually won't even recognize it as a file to burn

and on the rare occasion where toast SEEMS to be burning it, it then won't play in either of my 2 dvd players

are ALL DL'd movie clips etc. be NG to burn? i find that hard to believe. and they cant' all be defective, can they?

what (hopefully simple) thing am i not understanding

[smileLP]

oh, btw, they're always either avi's or mpgs, etc., in case that wasn't clear

any help greatly appreciated!

i would love to put 500 short avi's (totally only 2-3 gig) onto a 4.3 gig dvd

thanks in advance!

[mduell]

Are you burning DVD Data or DVD Video?
You need to convert all the clips to MPEG2 (which will make them larger or lower quality) and burn a DVD Video if you want it to work in set-top boxes.

[smileLP]

i download movies from limewire as well as pay sites i belong to, and they DL as avi's or mpgs or mov's. so it's video (they're movies - - not data), rt?

are you saying i need to convert avi's and mpg's and mov's [movie files] to "MPEG2"?

thanks, btw

[larkost]

You are not understanding.

If you want these to work in a DVD player, then they will have to be converted to "video DVD", and one of the things along that process is converting the video to MPEG2 (the only format that DVD players understand).

If you are downloading these videos, then most of them are in much more compressed forms than MPEG2, so you are already going to have a problem understanding that you can't use the current file sizes for anything. Some of them are also probably in not-really-standard-formats (most of these get named "avi"s... but they are not really), and so a lot of programs will choke on them.

Now if you are burning this DVD as a means to archive the videos for use on computers, then you just have to make a "data DVD", in which case there is no conversion.

[smileLP]

you sound very very knowledgeable

ok, so i have this FFmpegX converter thingy

can i put these avi's in a format playable by a dvd player by selecting, what?, "DVD mpeg2enc"?

or should it be something else?

and yeh, i've noticed these avi's tend to be highly compressed, since an 800 MB one doesn't seem to want to fit on a 4.7 gig blank disc! so i know there's some weird stuff going on there

but do you think converting w/FFmpegX will do the trick? if not, is there a diff conversion method/software you'd suggest

(and i DO want to play these in my dvd player(s); it's not just archiving data)

[smileLP]

btw, i'm experimenting converting an ".avi" to dvd mpeg 2 enc, and just so you know, it is VERY slow going. it's a 700 MB file, and it will prob take hours. it's at 3% done after 20 mins. is that to be expected? thanks again

[smileLP]

lastly, this 700 MB file i'm converting to dvd mpeg2enc looks like it's gonna be about 8 gig when the conversion is done? is this to be expected? that would be a roughly 10 to 1 expansion (conversion) ratio. this means themost i couldh hope to put on a 4.3 blank disc would be about a 400 gig avi, after it's converted/expanded. that's about half a normal feature movie, and thus wouln't be too helpful. again, feel free to correct any misunderstandings on my part, thanks

[ReggieX]

With FFMpegX, you can change how bit the MPEG-2 file is going to end up by clicking on the "Video" tab and using the bitrate calculator to change the VIdeo Bitrate to fit on 1 DVD.

[smileLP]

ok, i'll try that, thanks

will it affect how long it'll take. my 700 MB conversion has taken 3 hrs and is 38% done?

thanks again

[smileLP]

fyi, i have strung a lot of avi's together so that it's 10 hrs worth in 1 avi. but it says it' s only 700 MB

i did that video tab / bitrate calculator thing and it says "170 mins. on 1 dvd"

is that it's way of telling me w/the bit rate set as it is [4000, i think ; green = ok], that it's just gonna do the 1st 170 mins?

thanks

also, for such a project, is there a recommended bitrate? it kinda just popped the # 4000 in there after i tried chaqnging it to a blue # after a red (NG) #

confused? ; )

[mduell]

Conversion to MPEG2 can take a while, espically on a pokey machine.

To get 10 hours of video on a DVD you need to encode them all at about 1002kbps (in MPEG2, of course). Currently they're compressed (in avi form) at an average bitrate of about 160kbps.

[smileLP]

thanks for the info, i'll experiment.

btw, i have a G5, twin 2.5 mhz

when i took a quick look at how it was doing (after about 5 hrs, about halfway done), there was no sound. i wonder if that gets added at the end or something. also, i notice it created just now a wav file, which perhaps it''ll merge, or ask me to merge, wheni burn (or try to burn) this to a disc

- - -

so it said 4000 for a bitrate, but i can tell that's gonna be about 15 gig when done. yet it was set at the 4000 for "1 dvd". like i said, i may have to experiment w/changing that # (btw, does 1002 kbps look pretty krappy?)

thanks much for the info!

[smileLP]

ok it finally finished converting. the final file was 10 gig

so, it wouldn't fit to one disc. i'll have to try changing that bit rate as mduell suggests

BUT, when i popped the converted file into toast, before it got to where it told me it's too big for one disc, it said that it couldn't find the audio part. this, even though it created a similarly titled .wav file. but toast didn't like that file. anything i'm doing wrong re the audio aspect? thanks

[smileLP]

ok, i did the whole thing again and again it's asking where the audio component is (and it's not accepting as a 'valid' audio file the similarly named file w/.wav at the end, which ff created)

any last thoughts before i give up? ??

[ReggieX]

Originally Posted by smileLP

fyi, i have strung a lot of avi's together so that it's 10 hrs worth in 1 avi. but it says it' s only 700 MB)

That's WAY too much to fit on a single DVD. Single layer DVDs you don't want to put more than 3 hours worth on.

[hotani]

best thing is to just get a phillips DVP 642 that will play your .avi files without conversion. They're like $60 and worth every penny.

If you must make a DVD, i think you're on the right track as I've been experimenting with a similar process to make a DVD for a friend. My problem is that once I burn the DVD, it's fine with apple's DVD player but the sound skips on my DVD player (the phillips DVP 642 that plays *anything* won't play it).

Here's my process:
1- drop file into ffmpegX and choose DVD 16:9 as the export format, this creates a folder with the necessary DVD directories in it, VIDEO_TS and AUDIO_TS (ends up being empty). NOTE: this will also create a few other files, they can be deleted after ffmpegX is done doing its thing.

2- in toast, use the 'Data' format and under the advanced tab choose DVD-ROM (UDF)

3- burn, and hopefully it will work better than mine did.

[smileLP]

hotani, are you saying that that DVP 642 will play a disc filled w/avi files i just "copied" onto the disc, like copying any data? (a different process than "burning" movies or avi's or whatever onto a disc via toast, etc.)

if so, that would certainly do the trick

[smileLP]

(but i will also try the "process" you have outlined, thanks)

[smileLP]

reggie X; i've always found the topic of how much fits on a disc confusing

i've got 700 MB worth of avi's, and a disc holds 4.3

the avi's play as 10 hrs, but is it the size (700 MB) or time (10 hrs) that is the final determinant?

how is image quality affected?

do avi's get "expanded" somehow when converted to a dvd-readable format?

see, told you i found this stuff confusing

thanks

[hotani]

Originally Posted by smileLP

hotani, are you saying that that DVP 642 will play a disc filled w/avi files i just "copied" onto the disc, like copying any data? (a different process than "burning" movies or avi's or whatever onto a disc via toast, etc.)

if so, that would certainly do the trick

Yes, that is exactly what it will do.

You can find them just about anywhere: CompUSA, Wal*Mart, Amazon, etc.

[ReggieX]

Originally Posted by smileLP

reggie X; i've always found the topic of how much fits on a disc confusing

i've got 700 MB worth of avi's, and a disc holds 4.3

the avi's play as 10 hrs, but is it the size (700 MB) or time (10 hrs) that is the final determinant?

how is image quality affected?

do avi's get "expanded" somehow when converted to a dvd-readable format?

Yeah, basically MPEG-2 format (which is what DVDs use) takes up more disk space than DivX format AVIs. Which is why you can compress a 2 hour DVD movie which could be up to 8 GB in MPEG-2 into a 700 MB DivX file. What you're doing is exactly the reverse of that, so the expanded files take up *way* more space than the originals. That's why I suggested limiting yourself to around 2 hours worth of video per DVD. You could squeeze more on there, but the quality would go downhill very quickly.

The really easiest way to do this would be Toast, since it'll handle all the conversion for you automatically, and show you how many files will fit on a single DVD. I use Toast 7, so I can't vouch for other versions of it, using the DVD-video section.

If the audio is giving you trouble, you may need to installed the AC3 audio extension: http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/14634 but it's hard to say unless you know exactly which audio codec is being used. Open them up in QuickTime player and do a Get Info, the window should tell you.

One thing to also watch out for: a lot of Windows people make AVI files with XVID or DivX video codecs and rename them to .MPG for some stupid reason, which will cause Toast and QuickTime player to not recognize them.

[smileLP]

>>The really easiest way to do this would be Toast, since it'll handle all the conversion for you automatically, and show you how many files will fit on a single DVD. I use Toast 7, so I can't vouch for other versions of it, using the DVD-video section.<<

the problem is, so far toast keeps asking for the audio component, and then it doesn't like the audio file ffx has been creating

but i will investigate those audio software options - - thanks

[smileLP]

hotani,

sad to say none of the outlined steps or "missing codecs" resulted in a positive result

so i'm now very int'd in that philips dvP 642

one question: how does the menu option work once you load a dvd (w/lotsa avi's on it) into the dvd player. does it list them all 1 at a time and let you select which you'd like to play? (like a conventional dvd player)

thanks

[smileLP]

also, as many avi's show up "small" on a computer screen, does this dvd player expand each avi to fill the screen (tv) size?

thanks again

[hotani]

When you insert a data disc into the DVP 642, it shows a listing of all the files on the disc. When playing them, it resizes to your screen. Only thing I see it having trouble with is some movie files that are natively 720px wide it cuts the edges a bit. It's still widescreen but seems to do better at upsizing than downsizing.

my eyeHome has the same problem, so it is not unique to the phillips player. However, the eyehome has a setting to force widescreen which makes the image downsize a little better.

[smileLP]

ok, thanks, i'll get one in the next few days and i'll report back how i like it (which i expect i will)

thanks mucho!

[smileLP]

update/question for HOTANI

i got it all hooked up and you're right, the DVP 642 DOES play avi's!

so i'm very pleased about that

btw, is it just me, or when you're watching an avi, do the FF and REW (2X, 4X, 6X, 8X) functions not really work as they're sposed to?

it could be a function of the general compressed nature of the avi's, cuz i don't have this problem when playing a comm'l dvd

but when playing a disc full of my own avi compilations, the "2X" speed is about "6X" or "10X" faster. so clearly, it's having a little trouble interracting w/the avi's in this one area

curious if you experienced the same

but thanks again - - apart from this one weird glitch, i love the unit, and it's so much simpler than trying to modify avi's into some other format that'll play on other, lesser, dvd players

[chabig]

Before you do ANYTHING with your avi's, run them through DivX Doctor/ and save them as self-contained Quicktime movies. You'll have a lot more success from that point.

Chris

[smileLP]

chabig,

i don't know what's changed but divX doctor used to do a great job changing avi's to mpgs (QT), but a few mos. ago it mostly stopped working. dunno if it had to do w/my tiger upgrade or not. i definitely have DL'd the most recent version of divX doctor and whereas it always worked fine, now it really never does. it doesn't seem to acknowledge the avi movie i shove in there. or if it does, it stops working after a few seconds. not tiger compatible? thanks...

[chabig]

It still works great for me. When you upgraded to Tiger, perhaps you forgot to reinstall the DivX codec.

Chris

[smileLP]

i do have divx codec v. 6 stuff on my mac. is that the latest? it appears to be based on my poking around the web. thanks

[smileLP]

ok, i just tried divx doctor again, and it converted a 300 MB file REAL FAST. the copy it made is 800 kb or some such. how is that possible? unless it's taking it's "source mat'l" from tohe origianl file in the same folder. if i put the "copy", which has no avi or mpg suffix but rather says ".#2B3D28.m 1", onto a disc, will it play w/o the original source material? am i doing something wrong? thanks again

[smileLP]

ok, the divx doctor converted version just "kicked in" w/the actual file size, and it's essentially the same as the original. i guess it just needed a few mins. to calculate and indicate the final size. so that mystery's solved

but the suffix is still:

#2B3D28.m 1

i wonder if my dvd player will know what that is (i guess i will try it and find out). i kinda expected it'd have an .mpg ending or some such

[smileLP]

yeh, the divx doctor converted file isn't being recognized by the dvd player

maybe if i add a ".mpg" suffix?

instead of the existing weird one ("#2B3D28.m 1")

[smileLP]

it's official - - my dvd player does NOT like the divx doctor altered (avi to "mpg") movie; it won't play it or even acknowledge it's in there

(the "add .mpg suffix" thing didn't work)

[Jacke]

Originally Posted by smileLP

ok, i just tried divx doctor again, and it converted a 300 MB file REAL FAST. the copy it made is 800 kb or some such. how is that possible? unless it's taking it's "source mat'l" from tohe origianl file in the same folder. if i put the "copy", which has no avi or mpg suffix but rather says ".#2B3D28.m 1", onto a disc, will it play w/o the original source material?

Yes (it's reading from the original avi) and no (it won't work with just the smaller file).

It sounds like you don't know what DivX Doctor 2 does, or what it's history.

In the beginning, there was no DivX codec for Mac OS. Quicktime could read AVI files, but there were no real DivX decoders out there. When (unofficial) decoders for DivX finally arrived, there was no sound in the files because most of them used MP3 for sound (Quicktime doesn't play MP3-in-AVI). DD2 was created to solve this by re-muxing the data into a Quicktime .mov file (note that it's not a .mpg file as you believed) while reading data from the original file. Eventually, an official DivX codec was released that had an MP3 parser so you didn't need to "doctor" your files anymore.

Your DivX player doesn't like doctored files because it doesn't play Quicktime .mov files. Very very few DivX players actually accept .mov files. Short story, if you have the DivX codec, you probably don't need DivX Doctor 2, especially not for what you're doing, putting files on CDs for viewing on your DivX player.

Sidenote: there's an "edit" button you can use so you don't have to flood the thread with multiple replies in a row.

[smileLP]

first of all, thanks for the tip re multi-msgs; i will definitely try to remember! (and my apologies...)

thanks for the history lesson; i did NOT know that stuff. but i'm still confused about one point:

>> Short story, if you have the DivX codec, you probably don't need DivX Doctor 2, especially not for what you're doing, putting files on CDs for viewing on your DivX player.<<

are you saying IF the avi's have the DivX codec, they don't need to be altered? if so, that's true,and they will play as is (burned), but i was looking also for ways to improve their FF & RW'ability, since avi's don't really do this well in the dvd player (mpgs do it fine)

btw, the reason i pursued the divX doctor route was cuz of this post:

>>Before you do ANYTHING with your avi's, run them through DivX Doctor/ and save them as self-contained Quicktime movies. You'll have a lot more success from that point.<<

but i could only get them to convert and HUGELY larger file sizes, so that route was NG for me

let's face it, the technology's not perfect yet. i can burn avi's to a disc that plays, so i should be grateful for that, but i can't FF or RW much

thanks again for your comments!