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Last post Author Topic: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?  (Read 117328 times)

sajman99

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #125 on: March 11, 2010, 01:58 PM »
Yes, AVStoDVD has evolved to the point where the average user probably won't have much trouble. Maybe it's not as easy as DVD Flick or FAVC, but overall it's a pretty smooth experience.

Same situation with the HC encoder btw--the defaults are now satisfactory right out of the box. Maybe bump up to the best profile and put in a small bias value, but that's about it. Smooth sailing.

MerleOne

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #126 on: March 11, 2010, 02:13 PM »

I've never seen that.  Do you have "Lock Volume Exclusive Access" checked in
Tools=>Settings=>Write   (It's in the cluster of settings on the left hand side.)
...

Yes, I do, and also the option below (ignore mounted filesystems).
.merle1.

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #127 on: March 11, 2010, 07:43 PM »

I've never seen that.  Do you have "Lock Volume Exclusive Access" checked in
Tools=>Settings=>Write   (It's in the cluster of settings on the left hand side.)
...

Yes, I do, and also the option below (ignore mounted filesystems).

edit: hmm, don't know what to say to that one.  May be a case for the Imgburn forum. Let LUK have a go at it.
« Last Edit: March 11, 2010, 07:47 PM by MilesAhead »

delwoode

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #128 on: March 17, 2010, 08:29 AM »
you know dealing with video is the hardest and most frustrating thing I have ever tried on a computer.  I have tried practically every tool out there and it seems find but when you play it back on your DVD player, glitches, sound out of sync etc.   Even when you think You have it right you then take the DVD with you and try to play it on a Friends DVD player and you discover it was only ok for playing on yours! 
Out of all the progs I tried, including Tmpgenc, converttox, winavi Xilisoft dvd creator  etc etc,   only DeVeDe  created DVDs played back fine on MY DVD player, cant vouch for anyone elses.
These days however I tend to just use a device that can take my usb straight from my pc and I dont have to convert.

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #129 on: March 17, 2010, 08:57 AM »
you know dealing with video is the hardest and most frustrating thing I have ever tried on a computer.  I have tried practically every tool out there and it seems find but when you play it back on your DVD player, glitches, sound out of sync etc.   Even when you think You have it right you then take the DVD with you and try to play it on a Friends DVD player and you discover it was only ok for playing on yours! 
Out of all the progs I tried, including Tmpgenc, converttox, winavi Xilisoft dvd creator  etc etc,   only DeVeDe  created DVDs played back fine on MY DVD player, cant vouch for anyone elses.
These days however I tend to just use a device that can take my usb straight from my pc and I dont have to convert.
I agree.  Dealing with video is often an exercise in frustration.  Part of the problem is that there are tons of video software out there that are just junk after junk after junk.  What's worse is that searching for it on your own in google or forums or whatever very often leads to nonsense threads and articles that have little value.  Video software is weird that way.  It's one of the most popular categories of software, so I think a lot of people make programs just for the traffic or some quick bucks or something.
What's worse is that video is complicated.  So it's very popular and complicated.  It's like a perfect storm.  You have to wade through tons of crap to find the needle in the haystack.

Man I've been through this with video.  Playback programs, splitter programs, conversion programs, recording programs.  All those videohelp forums with their 10-year-old tutorials.  Lots of stuff about VLC, Vobsub, tmpg...most of them not too helpful.  You try things and end up with enormous files with crappy quality.  The whole video experience can be very frustrating.

delwoode

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #130 on: March 17, 2010, 10:11 AM »
yeah well put.  I am not young any more but I remember when I was a small child the TV programs would talk about us living on the moon in the year2000+
HAA nothing much has changed apart from TV sets got bigger (and tv programs got worse) and computers are used by most people, but they still cant really handle video well.

cmpm

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #131 on: April 10, 2010, 05:45 AM »
Here's WinX DVD author for free again.
Looks simple enough, it may work.

Downloaded and installed, haven't tried it yet.

http://dottech.org/freebies/15596


Innuendo

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #132 on: April 10, 2010, 09:01 AM »
Even when you think You have it right you then take the DVD with you and try to play it on a Friends DVD player and you discover it was only ok for playing on yours! 

It's been my experience that when a burned DVD will play fine on some players, but not others it is almost always a media problem. Some players have trouble reading some brands of media. When it's not a media problem then it is the burner and/or player. Some players have weaker lasers than others and then you need a good burner with a strong laser that will burn a disc that the weak-lasered player can read.

This advice is only if you have a disc that will read fine on some players, but not others. If the disc won't read on anything then it could be something else....bad media, error in the disc authoring, PEBCAK, phase of the moon, etc.

You should have been tried burning discs back in 1998. Voodoo and black magic were required to get a disc to burn properly...and there was no such thing as Burn-Proof and the like back then. One CPU usage spike & you had a coaster.

Innuendo

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #133 on: April 10, 2010, 09:09 AM »
yeah well put.  I am not young any more but I remember when I was a small child the TV programs would talk about us living on the moon in the year2000+

Space: 1999 FTW!  :Thmbsup:

HAA nothing much has changed apart from TV sets got bigger (and tv programs got worse) and computers are used by most people, but they still cant really handle video well.

Computers can handle video well. My PC handles video quite well often & there are some PCs out there that handle video very well every day. However, it's not something for novices hoping for one-click solutions.

First, you have to have the right software for the job. There's tons of software out there for video editing, conversion, and manipulation and a large percentage of it is poo. Next, once you have the right software, your settings/preferences have to be correct for the task you are trying to perform or the results are going to be disastrous.

 Finally, and depending on the task you are wishing to perform, having the right codecs installed are crucial. If you don't have the right ones or they weren't installed correctly (usually due to a dodgy installer), the results are definitely going to be less than satisfactory.

sajman99

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #134 on: April 10, 2010, 01:42 PM »
Here's WinX DVD author for free again.
Looks simple enough, it may work.

Downloaded and installed, haven't tried it yet.

http://dottech.org/freebies/15596


Looks interesting. Please let us know your opinion if you check it out.

Ashraf noted eariler versions were somewhat buggy in a review from last year. Hopefully that's no longer the case.

Also, if it's still true you cannot create an ISO but must burn to disk, then that limitation strikes me as very significant. I mean, even with 'drag and drop' DVD Flick, you have the option to create an ISO.

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #135 on: November 13, 2010, 07:55 PM »
Miles, thanks for the FAVC suggestion.  I'm using it right now.  I hope it works well.  It's one of the very few programs out there that offered a SIMPLE solution to creating a DVD from regular video files.  Man.  Why do all of them have to be so complicated?  I tried several that were wizard-like, simple solutions, but they were all buggy, slow, or couldn't handle some file or other.  FAVC is working well so far (I'm in the middle of crating my first disc).

Are there any other nice, simple solutions out there?  Here are my simple requirements:
1) Can handle conversion of multiple files at once (i.e. batch)
2) Drag/drop or similarly simple file choosing
3) Creates a menu background based on a simple image file I can easily replace
4) Simple options to choose thumbnail image, titles
5) Simple options as to whether I want a menu or not
6) Don't make me figure out a bunch of stuff about codecs, filters, technobabble
7) DON'T have audio/video syncing issues

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #136 on: November 13, 2010, 11:02 PM »
The batch requirement is usually the fly in the ointment.

I haven't experimented much with "convert from any to any" type apps. So my suggestions would be highly dependent on the input.

Another program that has easy menu creation is
SVCD2DVD. It's not free.  Around $20 last time I checked.
The menu maker is fun to use.  You can choose background image.
Just take any image and save it as .jpg 720x576. I have some fractal
flames I made that are good for backgrounds.

SVCD2DVD is ffmpeg based. I tend to favor apps that use HC encode for DVD output.  Although DVD Flick is not bad and pretty easy to use.

If your input is BluRay I recommend BD Rebuilder. It can now output standard DVD, mkv or a compressed disc structure. It's free and gives good results.

I would look on videohelp.com for "batch adapters"
I think some guy named Superman made one for HC encode.
I didn't mess around with it enough to figure it out though.

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #137 on: November 15, 2010, 08:55 AM »
Miles, I finished that FAVC dvd i was making, and it was great.  That's super easy and nice.  I love it.  I'm going to stick with that unless there's something obviously better.  I hate to get all Apple on people here, but FAVC "just works".  You pick your video files, edit the titles if you choose, and press the button.  Seriously.

Miles is all over those forums, I keep seeing your avatar.  Good stuff, thanks for all the help.

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #138 on: November 15, 2010, 12:12 PM »
Miles, I finished that FAVC dvd i was making, and it was great.  That's super easy and nice.  I love it.  I'm going to stick with that unless there's something obviously better.  I hate to get all Apple on people here, but FAVC "just works".  You pick your video files, edit the titles if you choose, and press the button.  Seriously.

Miles is all over those forums, I keep seeing your avatar.  Good stuff, thanks for all the help.

Sure thing. One proviso on FAVC, I would check the Keep box in the Working Files. I don't know why, but every now and then it doesn't finish the DVD authoring.  Sometimes I get a dvd that's a few minutes short.  So check your output. Most of the time if it's broken, you can just take the video and audio files(the .m2v and .ac3) from the Working Files and use an authoring program like DVDAuthorGui to save your work.

Seems like I'd get that maybe 1 run out of 10.  But then I tend to have worse luck than most.  Hopefully it will work for you 99% of the time. :)

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #139 on: November 15, 2010, 12:18 PM »
yes nice but i think Nero software is good for write video file in dvd

I bought Nero Burning Rom Ultra v. 6.

After awhile though, the assumptions it makes starts to get in the way if you do a lot of video and learn more about how you want to put things together. It assumes you want to take sources and get a DVD.  For example, if you just want to burn a data dvd with a bunch of .avi files on it because your DVD player can play .avi and .divx, you may find it insists on trying to convert each file to a dvd title and so tells you it can't fit them all on one disk.

There are lots of different tools and no one "best" for most things.  In fact on some forums they have rules against asking "what's the best..." because it starts too many arguments. If you keep doing it, they ban you. :)

Nothing wrong with using Nero if it fits your needs for the most part. Only thing it has some quirks that make it less likely to peacefully coexist with other burning tools. Every time I installed it the first thing I did was make sure I got rid of InCD.  Totally useless software. Just burn an erasable as if it was a CDR if you want to use erasables for data. You'll see on a lot of forums if somebody has a burning issue and they have Nero the first question asked is, "do you have InCD installed?"  Removing it is 90% of the fixes.

I liked Nero when I was burning SVCD discs. The menu tool was very easy to use and the best I knew about at the time.  It's not a bad way to start.  Trouble with video is you can mess with it for years and still not know that much about the file formats and I-frames and all the rest of it unless you are writing software that reads those files or are very heavy into using AviSynth filters or something. It's a deep subject and a pita generally. :)

« Last Edit: November 15, 2010, 12:23 PM by MilesAhead »

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #140 on: November 15, 2010, 12:20 PM »
Hmmm...no I didn't check everything in the DVD, I just played it once and checked a couple of minutes of it.  The only thing I'd change about FAVC is just to polish it up a bit.  But I can say that for a lot of software.  The good thing is that it works.  The polished programs don't work as well.  That's my only gripe with freeware.  The motivation to polish things up is not there.  I still insist that all you freeware guys should charge some minimal fee for your stuff like $5-10 to help you sustain your motivation and support.  It's so little money, it's practically freeware anyway.  Anyway...off topic.

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #141 on: November 15, 2010, 12:27 PM »
It would be nice if I could get $5.  A lot of sites you can't even put your URL in your sig unless everything on the site for download is free. If you use the Paypal donation button on a lot of sites you may see it has an email associated with it with the ID of [email protected] because the person originally thought they would be able to sell the stuff.  When you find the barriers then you try to at least get a donation here and there.

It's tough to sell software on internet unless it's something that helps get other stuff free. Like a binary news reader.  Most categories there's so much freeware, unless you have some white knight backer, you can't compete. How can you charge when the other guy gives it away?

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #142 on: November 15, 2010, 12:42 PM »
johnmarsh, I agree with Miles.  I tried all of those other programs.  Maybe not all, but a lot of them.  Nero had too many issues with the files, took too long to convert and burn without really telling you why.  It just felt very unsatisfying.
I also tried Ashampoo's offerings...their regular burning software, and the shrink n burn one.  I love Ashampoo's interface designs.  but the program was buggy and crashed a lot.  I can already see that most of the major companies have issues with a lot of the video file formats that we currently run into.  Dealing with video files, DVD stuff, codecs, etc. is a very complicated thing in the internet world.  The formats are really governed by what goes on in the pirating world.  So, whether companies like it or not, the right way to approach designing this kind of software, if you want it to work, is to be familiar with how the pirates are using it.  Hey, it's true.  By the way, this is EXACTLY why most dvd players today still do not support all of the different file types, or have very klunky support for them.  The industry does not want to make it easy to just stick in a data DVD with a bunch of avi files and play it easily.  By making it hard with all these conversion issues and complications, it makes it harder to quickly download a movie and play it on your tv.  Just FYI.
That's also probably why most of the good tools are all of these little command prompt stuff hidden away in forums.  Pirates are the ones using this stuff mostly.  But their little solutions are really effective and great.  I once tried to look into how the famous AXXO makes his videos, only to find out it's deliberatly shrouded in a mystery.  I wanted to convert my dvd's like he does because he gets really great quality with relatively small file sizes.  When i tried to convert my dvd's using default program options, my quality was horrible at similar file sizes, and I had to go to enormous file sizes to have the same quality as axxo.  So I never figured that out.  now I just copy my dvd's using makemkv, but they are uncompressed, which means I will soon need many more hard drives.
What else did I try?  Dvdlab...very nice program, but not a one-click solution.  I am keeping in mind for when I want to make some more customized dvd's.  But usually, I just want to grab some files and make a dvd quickly.  And it doesn't convert any videos, you ahve to do that before using it.
What else...TMPG stuff.  Very highly regarded for it's quality, but the program itself is pretty klunky.  Errors, bugs occur frequently.  To me, it was more of a pain than a convenience.
Anyway, I've tried dozens of programs related to all of this.  I have to say, video stuff is one of the most complicated things I've had to deal with as far as software.

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #143 on: November 15, 2010, 12:49 PM »
It would be nice if I could get $5.  A lot of sites you can't even put your URL in your sig unless everything on the site for download is free. If you use the Paypal donation button on a lot of sites you may see it has an email associated with it with the ID of [email protected] because the person originally thought they would be able to sell the stuff.  When you find the barriers then you try to at least get a donation here and there.

It's tough to sell software on internet unless it's something that helps get other stuff free. Like a binary news reader.  Most categories there's so much freeware, unless you have some white knight backer, you can't compete. How can you charge when the other guy gives it away?
Yeah, i don't know what the solution is.  It's one of my primary disagreements with the freeware community.  I understand that if you charge for it, people will turn to other free stuff.  But very very few people charge nominal fees like $5.  The lowest price for shareware, generally speaking, is about $30.  It's not expensive, but it's outside of the comfort range for most people.  If it was in the $10 range, people would just get it because it's like nothing.  And I feel it would go a long way to polish up these interfaces.  But the freeware community will fight this: not just the users, but the developers themselves.  There's a very strong belief among developers that this stuff SHOULD be free, on an ethical level.  Some of them do everything free, and also pay a lot of attention to polish and extras.  Mouser is very good example of this.  But most developers can't sustain that, and the software either dies, or remains in a raw, command-line kind of interface forever.  And users like me are tired of needing to learn cryptic commands all the time and read forums and geeky documentation just to do what feels like simple tasks.
Whoo...I'm going a little overboard here.  I need to get back to work.  I hope in a couple of years, i can think about these issues and be able to do something good about it.

sajman99

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #144 on: November 15, 2010, 02:17 PM »
@superboyac: have you tried AVStoDVD as well? And if so, what do you think about it? I ask because AVStoDVD and FAVC are the two I use.

Unlike FAVC, AVStoDVD still has an active developer who remains receptive to user comments. 

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #145 on: November 15, 2010, 02:19 PM »
@superboyac: have you tried AVStoDVD as well? And if so, what do you think about it? I ask because AVStoDVD and FAVC are the two I use.

Unlike FAVC, AVStoDVD still has an active developer who remains receptive to user comments. 
I haven't tried it yet.  I just went off Miles' suggestion so far.  I'll give that a shot next time.  It sounds good also.

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #146 on: November 15, 2010, 03:31 PM »
I used AvsToDVD myself for awhile. I ran into too many issues with audio processing crapping out.

For DVD output from a single file I got to using HCgui manually. If the audio is fine as is, such as .ac3 I just demux the audio and save the .ac3 file.  Then I do video processing with HCgui to get .m2v file. Use DVDAuthorGui to make a dvd from the .m2v and .ac3.

Only thing is you need to use a bit rate calculator to fit the output into a dvd5 or dvd9.  But it's not difficult:

http://www.videohelp.../bitrate-calculators

Many programs insist on processing the .ac3 even when you tell them not to.  Very annoying when it craps out while doing so(aften.)

If he resolved the audio issues it would be a nice app.  I think it's difficult for front ends that use aften. Seems to be something difficult to predict about it or I'm just very unlucky.
« Last Edit: November 15, 2010, 03:36 PM by MilesAhead »

superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #147 on: November 15, 2010, 03:44 PM »
Ugh...I'm trying to avoid multi step, multi software things.  I'll stick with FAVC until I have issues, then I'll probably just give up.  I don't do this that often.
I'm just surprised there aren't better one-click solutions out there.  I figure this is a very common thing people run into.  I know people always have videos on their computer, and they'd love to watch it on their regular tv, so a one click solution would be great for that.  i really liked AShampoo's attempt, if it just worked.
More programs like MakeMkv should come out.  one click, no fuss solutions.

MilesAhead

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #148 on: November 15, 2010, 05:10 PM »
Ugh...I'm trying to avoid multi step, multi software things.  I'll stick with FAVC until I have issues, then I'll probably just give up.  I don't do this that often.
I'm just surprised there aren't better one-click solutions out there.  I figure this is a very common thing people run into.  I know people always have videos on their computer, and they'd love to watch it on their regular tv, so a one click solution would be great for that.  i really liked AShampoo's attempt, if it just worked.
More programs like MakeMkv should come out.  one click, no fuss solutions.

I would say with FAVC just check the run time matches the run time of the input.
For example if you have an .avi file as source, use MediaInfo and check the run time.
If it's 1 hour 46 minutes 20 seconds, and so is the play time of the dvd, all should be well.
Move the slider of the software player to near the end of the movie to make sure you still have audio all the way through. If it passes those tests then it should be a clean conversion.

Also note that AvsToDVD has had a revision or 2 since the last time I tried it.  Maybe the audio issues have been resolved.  I tried using the setting to do audio with QuEnc to avoid the aften issue, but I got the crap outs anyway. I just gave up out of frustration.


superboyac

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Re: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file?
« Reply #149 on: November 15, 2010, 05:17 PM »
Duly noted.  Thanks Miles.