Software for burning .VOB

[jolly_rulz]

Hi guys

well Ive just started to get in2 burning dvd's..Ive been downloading films off the internet(not illegaly)in .avi format...
well i want to burn them to dvd to play on my dvd player and got told to convert them to .VOB..is this correct??
If so..what softwares best for burning .VOB??
I burnt a disc earlier using Powerlink Cyber2go..and i had to burn it with the dataDVD function..when i played it on my dvd player...the picture seemed to thin if u get me..like thinner than widescreen.,,

any help on any of these matters would be great..I just need pointing in the right direction
plus if i've put this thread in the wrong section please move it

Help me out lads
Cheers

[jolly_rulz]

help me out please!!

[Kerry56]

Try converting your avi files to dvd-video format in FAVC or DVDFlick or AVStoDVD. Burn to disk with ImgBurn, which can be used automatically by any and all those programs.

All of those are free to download and use.

Use good media, like Verbatim 16x disks, and burn at 8x or 12x...not full speed.

[jolly_rulz]

Cheers 4 replying Kerry
Should I not convert them to mpeg2 then?? or into .vob
are u saying i convert straight from avi to a format that will play in a dvd?
Ill be recording at x2..as this is the fastest my laptop will record
Please Advise

[Kerry56]

DVD-video is made up of mpeg2 video in the form of .vob files. They are found in a Video_TS folder along with navigation files called .ifo, and backups to the .ifo's called .bup files.

What these programs do is convert your avi to mpeg2, then they author the mpeg2 files into dvd structure....making navigation points in the video that the dvd player can recognize and use, found in the .ifo files.

You can make menus with these programs if you wish. You can import several avi files and make one dvd-video with them...with a menu to select the one you want to watch.

[jolly_rulz]

cheers...i think i understand quite abit more now
so do these authoring programmes create the .ifo files aswell??
can u explain this Video_TS folder?? or is that just what the folder would be called if i opened up the dvd in a pc drive?
Which 1 of the three software mentioned is the best?? one must be better than the others
Will the software convert the image into proper widescreen as like i said in my origional post ..when i played a dvd i burned earlier on a dvd player it seemed very thin the picture..say it should be 16:9 ..it was more like 16:7
but i did just convert avi to .vob then burn the file to disc using the dvd data disc function..it worked on 1 of my 3 dvd players in the house

[Kerry56]

These programs are designed to do all the work of converting, authoring and outputting the finished dvd to ImgBurn for the actual burning on the disk. It is all automated if you select the option to use ImgBurn or Burn to disk (depending on which one you are using).

All dvd videos have a Video_TS folder...many have an Audio_TS folder also but it is a legacy and not used, so it will be empty.

AVStoDVD and FAVC can use an encoder called HCenc. It is by far my preferred mpeg encoder amongst the free options and can be compared favorably to commercial programs costing hundreds of dollars. So those two would be the ones to look at first. FAVC requires you to download and install AviSynth and Net 2.0 as well, but they are free and there are links to them at the FAVC site. http://favcfavc.googlepages.com/ I believe AVStoDVD is complete in and of itself.

Converting to proper widescreen should be handled by the encoder (hopefully). These are free programs, and are basically user interfaces for existing programs, so they don't have really fine control on some of the encoding options. They are built for people who don't have a lot of experience using mpeg encoders, and so may not be as complete as some commercial high-end programs.

[jolly_rulz]

Cheers Kerry this is really appreciated
Can u list these high end programs.. I'd like to look into them..and am just curious of what there called..if I know of any of them
Do u use any of the high end programmes..as u obviously know ur stuff? this will be my last question to u pall
cheers

[Kerry56]

The two programs I use for conversion and authoring are ProCoder and DVDLab Pro. They would be considered slightly higher on the scale than most consumer grade programs, but not really professional level.

Other prosumer grade programs would be the MainConcept Reference program for conversions, and maybe Sony Vegas Pro for video editing and authoring.

I'm not really familiar with the professional level software, but I know that Sonic Scenarist is regarded as a top authoring program.

[jolly_rulz]

Kerry Ive got hold of a copy of Procoder 3..i sort of understand the programme...for the output file what PAL preset should i use?
u know where it gives u the option for the aspect ratio ..if i set it to 16:9 will it encode it to run in widescreen then?
the quality/speed options..which 1 shud i use?
Do I use closed GOP?
And for audio stream type..which is the best option?
Is there any other settings I should change?? cheers

Im gonna get ma hands on a copy of the authoring software later
cheers kerry

[Kerry56]

If your avi is widescreen, then yes, use the 16:9 setting in ProCoder. Its just a flag for the dvd player and doesn't affect the encoding though. I use the mpeg2 Mastering Quality and use closed GOP's because DVDLab Pro grumps at me if I don't. Closed GOP's isn't absolutely necessary.
I always raise minimum bitrate to 500 or so in the variable bitrate settings.

Audio settings....use if exists works. You'll get pcm audio output, which you can use directly in a dvd authoring program or convert to ac3 in the authoring program if you want to save space. You can also convert pcm to ac3 with something like ffmpeggui.

I have had some problem .mkv files where the audio caused problems, and so had to demux them first and just encode the video separately.
And I've run into some high def .mkv files that wouldn't run in ProCoder and had to make a script in AviSynth to import them. Not normally a problem though.

[jolly_rulz]

How long does it take u 2 burn a .avi intro dvd mastering quality...ive just gone to convert a 700mb file on my slow computer...and its converting in .015x realtime and is going to take 12 hours...how long does it take 4 u?

[Kerry56]

ProCoder is not known for its speed. Good quality, but not as fast as HCenc or CCE, probably faster than TMPGenc.

On my Core2Duo machine I can convert an avi that size in about 40 minutes or maybe slightly less.

If your machine is that slow, you will probably need to upgrade hardware for encoding tasks. In the meantime, try the Fast Mpeg encoding setting in ProCoder. Or use HCenc in FAVC. The Quenc encoder that is included with FAVC is supposedly faster than HC, but at a slight cost to quality in output.

Nothing matches CCE for speed, but it is outrageously expensive and not particularly easy to use. CCE Basic is reasonably priced, and just as fast, but only allows two passes of encoding...not a problem for me or most people. Just never liked the interface.

[jolly_rulz]

After seeing this ...Im going to upgrade for sure lol
12 hours tho...my computer isnt that slow..i was coding the sound in pcm?? does that make it longer?

[Kerry56]

Encoding time depends on speed of your cpu for the most part. You can help things by having sufficient ram and using two fast hard drives. Have your source on one hard drive and encode to the other.

The audio encoding isn't doing much to slow things down. Its the second pass in ProCoder that slows the process down, but that is true of any encoder doing multiple passes.

You should try FAVC, use the HCenc encoder and set it to use Predictive Quantization and see what your encoding times look like in it.