Help With Converting .AVI to DVD for Bowling For Columbine

Alright, I'm a big newb. My problem is that the vid is .avi and 1hr 58 minutes long and super high-quality, so it won't fit on one disk. I tried Windows Movie Maker, but it butchered the quality when I cut it in to 2 parts.

1.How should I go about preparing, before I actually burn?

2.As well, what programs should I use to cut it into two (PLEASE LIST THE ONES I NEED)?

3. O yeah, and it has a resolution of 16:9 (HDTV) but, my t.v is an LCD with a standard 4:3, will it work on that?

Here Is What the Vid Specs look like:

 

What do you Mean it won"t Fit on One Disk?? You can Fit a Lot more than 2 hours on a DVD....

I think the Problem is you don"t know how to make a DVD??

To make a DVD from your AVI file you have to First Encode it to a DVD Compliant Mpeg-2 file and then use a DVD authoring program to add your Menu"s and Chapters which it then Formats into a Video_TS Folder and then Burns to a DVD....

To do this Method you need a Mpeg encoder like "Tmpgenc" to encode the AVI file to Mpeg-2 at 720x480 for NTSC or 720x576 for Pal with a Bitrate of 4850kbs for Video and 192kbs for audio at 48000hz....

Then you Would Load the Encoded Mpeg-2 File into a DVD authoring Program Like "Tmpgenc DVD Author" to add your Menu"s and Chapters and to author the DVD.....

You can also do all of this useing Programs Like "Ulead DVD Movie Factory"........

If you Don"t want any menu"s or Chapters and Simply want to get the Movie on to a DVD so you can watch it in your DVD Player then you can do it easilly useing this Program:

VSO DivXToDVD (Freeware)
http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_encoders/vso_divxtodvd_free.cfm

The Program will create a "Video_TS" Folder for you which you can Simply Burn to DVD in "DVD Video" Mode useing something like "Nero"...

Also take a Look in the Guides section on How to use these different programs....

Good luck

PS: Your File Does NOT Have HDTV Resolution it just has a Widescreen 16:9 Display Aspect Ratio and you can encode it to 4:3 it will just be letterboxed and if you Keep it at 16:9 your DVD Player will Letterbox it to display it on your 4:3 TV set...

 

alright, here's what I did, I just burned my DVD for the movie. The problem is, the quality isn't the greatest.

I used:
1. DivXtoDVD (to get to MPEG 2)
2. DVD Shrink (to shrink the size a bit)
3. DVD Decrypter to burn

basically I used this guide: http://home.comcast.net/~bbmayo/DivXtoDVD.pdf

-Now, don't get me wrong the quality isn't that bad, but it still isn't up to par with DVD quality.

-[bold]What programs can I substitute in to make the quality better [/bold] ?

 

Well of coure the Quality isn"t going to be Very Good because in the First Place the Encoder in DivXtoDVD is More Geared for speed and not Quality Pluss you are Encodeing more than Once as you are also useing "DVD-Shrink" to Further Compress the Video which also degrades the quality....

If you used a Proper High Quality Mpeg-2 encoder Like Tmpgenc or MainConcept Encoder and then used a Proper DVD authoring program then the Quality would be MUCH Better....
If you do it the Easy and Fast way you are also going to be doing it the Low Quality way.....

Cheers

 

Minion, thx for your help so far, but I've got one more big problem. The file is too big to be encoded. For example, when I go through all the steps with TMPEGnc, and get to the 4th one.

My problem:
-I set the 'Other Settings' for 2-pass and the Highest quality (slowest speed) like your supposed to.
-But, when I get to the 4th page it says that the file is something ridiculous like 9588 MB large and takes up 250% of the disk (lol)
-I reduced the average video bitrate to the lowest it can go (2000) and it still was like 125% of disk space usage.

[bold]Is there any way, that I can accomplish this with such a large file size. (the vid is 1hr 57 min.)?
OR
Do I have to cut the vid into 2 parts to reduce the size? If so, whats a program I can use that won't reduce the quality that much?[/bold]

 

sorry, here are the questions I meant to ask:

Is there any way, that I can accomplish this with such a large file size. (the vid is 1hr 57 min.)?
OR
Do I have to cut the vid into 2 parts to reduce the size? If so, whats a program I can use that won't reduce the quality that much?

 

Ummm...That is not Right because a 2 hour movie needs a Bitrate of 4850kbs for Video and 192kbs for audio to Fit it on a DVD...

I think Tmpgenc is seeing your File as Being a LOT Longer than it really is...To fix this you can go into the "Source Range" settings and Mark the Beginning and end Points of the File and then Tmpgenc should see the File at it"s Proper Length...

Also Going to "Options" to "Enviromental; settings" to "VFAPI Plugins" and Raiseing the Priority of the "Direct Show File Reader" should also fix that Problem....

Also do not use 2 Pass VBR Because that makes it take Twice as Long and doesn"t really Improve the Quality very Much....

Cheers

 

alright thx a lot, that fixed my problem, but what should I use instead of 2-pass VBR? The Default setting?

 

The only other setting that will have a File size that is Close to your Projected File size is the "CBR" setting...

Also remember to set the audio to "Mpeg-1 Layer-2" audio at "192kbs" because LPCM audio files are Huge....

Cheers

 

alright, now thx to you, I see the makings of one kick ass DVD. lol.

Minion > DVD programs

 

ive got a movie in avi format!


please tell me if this ir the right thing to do =





1. convert the avi to mpeg2? howdo i convert to mpeg2?
2. burn the mpeg2 to dvd format using what software

 

Well tmpgenc is a Good Quality Mpeg encoder that produces very Good Quality then only Problem with it is that it is Not very Fast so it Might take a few Hours to encode your AVI to Mpeg-2/DVD.....

After you have it encoded to a DVD Compliant Mpeg-2 file you can use a Simple DVD Authoring Program Like "Tmpgenc DVD Author" to Put the File on to DVD with Basic Menus and Chapters.....

You can also use an all in One Program like "VSO ConvertXToDVD"....

Cheers