DonationCoder.com Forum
Main Area and Open Discussion => General Software Discussion => Topic started by: KenR on June 18, 2009, 10:32 AM
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Hi. I have a variety of video files that I would like to put on DVD. What is the best program (features, ease of use, etc.) that will convert the file if it needs to be in a different format and then write it to DVD in a format that my DVD player will recognize and play it. The file does NOT need to be freeware. I would rather pay for better software than have less able freeware.
Thanks, Ken
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I would recommend these 2 sites for information:
http://www.videohelp.com/
videohelp has lists of tools categorized by function, also lists of DVD players with user reviews, and info not printed on the box when you buy the player. It's a bit more liberal on what is discussed.
http://forum.digital-digest.com/
digital digest has good info on burning, media, software and computing generally. On this site it's a good idea to read the rules before posting. I think they were threatened with a law suit in the past because some subjects just will not be discussed. Like if you post "I'm having a problem with DVD Shrink" the mod will just tell you "see Rule 19" and that's it. But there's lots of good info and helpful people there if you stay in the guidelines.
Myself, I prefer to burn video with Imgburn and do conversions with free software when possible. See videohelp.com for lists of DVD players that will do .divx. It can save you a lot of time. Depends what you want to do. If you need it to play on your player you may want to get a player that does .divx. If you want it to be portable and play on any DVD player, then you're talking about conversion to DVD. Again, videohelp.com has lists where you can select the video conversion from format and to format from a dropdown list and it will display the software that can do it. Most software has user comments you can read.
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For re-encoding video I like TMPGEnc:
http://www.tmpgenc.net/
For burning you can try StarBurn:
http://www.rocketdivision.com/starburn.html
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Take a look at DeVeDe. It does any encoding necessary, and lets you build a simple menu.
http://www.majorsilence.com/devede
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Another forum: www.afterdawn.com (http://www.afterdawn.com)
Avi2DVD is the name of the tool. It can create a DVD from practically any format, with quite extensive menu builder, option to add chapters and subtitles etc. Freeware. And that site has a tutorial showing you how to create a DVD with Avi2DVD (amongst a lot of other tutorials).
DeVeDe is also a tool that is recommended on AfterDawn.
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the first thing you should probably decide is what best matches what you want:
- Do you want to have control over creating title pages, chapters with menu items that link to each one with a nice label or picture, etc.
- Or do you just want to take a bunch of video files and click "go" and have it build a compatible dvd where you can play each of the video files.
Different programs tend to focus on helping you do 1 of those 2 things. The first case means more powerful flexible program that will have a higher learning curve. The second case you should be able to find a really dead simple solution.
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the first thing you should probably decide is what best matches what you want:
- Do you want to have control over creating title pages, chapters with menu items that link to each one with a nice label or picture, etc.
- Or do you just want to take a bunch of video files and click "go" and have it build a compatible dvd where you can play each of the video files.
Different programs tend to focus on helping you do 1 of those 2 things. The first case means more powerful flexible program that will have a higher learning curve. The second case you should be able to find a really dead simple solution.
-mouser
Great thoughts Mouser. So what are the best of each? :eusa_dance:
Ken :D
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For consumer level authoring of DVD menus I don't think there's anything that comes close to DVDLab (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/index.html) - it won't do encoding but they sell TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/dvdsc.html) for US$12
The DVDLab Studio version is probably the best all round version of the three DVDLab versions at US$129, I use it, (well, I actually use the Pro version because I want to mix aspect ratios on a single DVD), and considering what you can do, it is extremely simple to use.
For encoding, I've used:
(Retail versions)
MainConcept (http://www.mainconcept.com/) encoder - blindingly fast and good quality (I've only used their original MPEG2 encoder which they no longer sell, having been replaced by Reference and CODEC plugins which are ridiculously expensive). SMP capable - the more processors, the better,
CCE Trial (http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_encoders/cinema_craft_encoder_basic.cfm) version - good quality but nowhere near as fast as MainConcept (and the trial version is severely limited)
TMPGEnc (http://www.tmpgenc.net/) - good quality output but very slow compared to the above two
(Freeware)
Avidemux (http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/) - It'll take most files as an input and then you just select DVD from the Auto menu (although the latest build seems to be missing the script for that, 2.4.4 still has it though - they've changed the scripting slightly and haven't caught up I think) - good output and fast - what I mostly use these days since it lets me do some editing as well. Also SMP capable.
(AIO convert and simple menu)
WinAVI Video Converter (http://www.winavi.com/en/video-converter/video-converter.htm) - reasonable quality, fast and let's you merge clips and automatically create a menu with a button per clip - I used to use it a lot for MPEG4 to DVD but I now have a standalone that does MPEG4-ASP so don't bother with it.
So, after that lot what I basically use these days is:
DVDLab Pro almost exclusively if I have to author a DVD with/without menus;
Avidemux for basic editing and conversion;
A really old version of Sony Vegas 5.0 that I picked up cheap on ebay, (or a computer swap meet, I forget where), if I have to do any more involved editing with transformations or have to resync video/audio before conversion, (being able to see the waveform together with video makes it so much easier than just trying to listen).
For a cheap selection I'd probably recommend:
DVDLab Standard + TMPGEnc DVD Source Creator - It will let you do quality conversion and DVD authoring for US$111, (as long as you don't need the features of Studio or Pro, eg. if you need SubTitles you have to get at least Studio).
Avidemux - for basic editing and fast decent quality conversion of a variety of video formats.
I should mention there are freeware DVD authoring programs but I can't comment on them, as soon as I tried DVDLab I was sold :)
Oh yeah, for burning - always and only ImgBurn (http://www.imgburn.com/) is what I use.
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If you are looking for something simple Nero will do what you want. Ulead also sells something that is fairly powerful, but won't overwhelm with complexity.
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Hello.
Great start to the thread. Thanks for the comments folks. Hopefully a lot more members will comment.
I am a little surprised that no one has mentioned ConvertX to DVD, Video DVD Maker, or DVD Flick. All of these are encoders and writers. Do people dislike these three programs for some reason? Negative feedback about software to warn me away from problematic software is also welcome!
Again, thank you very much.
Ken
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DeVeDe is a nice program (I reviewed it in the mini-reviews section sometime ago) - it's dead simple to use, and you get a nice result at the other end.
i did quite a bit of further testing and in my case the final video quality didn't end up being very good so I reverted to DVD flick (good quality, but no menus >:().
This could have been because of the source files I was using (I had more than the program could handle, so I had to kludge them together), or because the app (apparently) converts the source into a common format before encoding (too many conversions), or simply because i didn't know what I was doing...
This isn't to say that DeVeDe isn't a good tool (it is), or that it won't work for you (only one way to find out :P), only that ultimately it fell short for me
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I am a little surprised that no one has mentioned ConvertX to DVD, Video DVD Maker, or DVD Flick.-KenR
I did actually try ConvertX to DVD way back when it first came out but I found I had much more control over the output with WinAVI so I kind of stuck with that - it might of been seriously upgraded since then though so that's one reason why I didn't mention it, (the other is I forgot :) )
Arrghh! My brain hurts!
Yes I also tried Video DVD Maker Free but again, compared to the control I had over the final product using discrete programs, (DVDLab and one of the encoders I mentioned), I never really progressed past trying it.
I also tried DVDAuthorGUI (http://download.videohelp.com/liquid217/dvdauthorgui.pl):
The gui is meant to be an easy means to create a basic DVD.
My brain must have been on holiday at that point because it drove me crazy after about 10 minutes and I gave up. Read: I couldn't do what I wanted easily and gave up.
Addendum: BTW, I have yet to see over the years since DVD players first appeared, any DVD player that won't play a straight MPEG1 or MPEG2 file directly off of a disc. So if you're not concerned with fancy menus or chapter points you can try just encoding your various clips to MPEG2 format using Avidemux and then just writing them to a DVD as files with .mpg extensions.
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I've used DVDAuthorGUI over the past few years. It's a bit different. When I used it often, I had chapter text files with the chapter times, such as 8 minutes apart, 10, 15, and just pasted the times into the chapter window. It has some quirks. Adding titles that are demuxed into video and audio is straight-forward, but you can also use .mpg files that have navpacks. As with subtitles, it looks like originally supported file types were put in first, then later additional file types were added but you have to drop the list down to see them. A bit weird until you know the other file types are there. Still, it's an easy way to author esp. if you don't care about motion menus and just want to take .mpg output from QuEnc or something similar.(another free converter btw QuEnc .. based on ffmpeg.)
On the .mpg playback, maybe players are better now at handling data DVDs but I've had players that would only play the first .mpg file in the list. After that it hangs. Maybe it's fixed in the new players. But if you have an .mpg with navpacks, it's easy to author with DVDAuthorGUI or SVCD2DVD(not free but good for some tasks, esp. taking SVCD input and authoring standard DVD from it.. not so much call for that as there used to be, and the author not being dumb added .avi to mpg conversion. The good thing about SVCD2DVD is if the mpg is good as it is, it just authors without reencoding.)
On all these converters there seems to be one or two formats that make them choke and it varies by tool. So it's a good idea to have 3 or 4. For fast it's tough to beat FAVC esp. if you have a quad core. FAVC comes with QuEnc, already mentioned, and another free converter, HC Encode.
You can set it to launch as many video converter instances as you have cores. It splits up the input file into that many pieces and encodes each piece on a core. Kicks ass... although at times you can get muxing spikes. Not sure why. Seems to work best if you only feed it one input file. The other downer is it looks like v. 1.07 is the last in the list. Haven't seen Mr Odwin around anywhere. Maybe he had to actually make some money someplace. :)
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On the .mpg playback, maybe players are better now at handling data DVDs but I've had players that would only play the first .mpg file in the list.-MilesAhead
We have a better class of cheap Chinese imports here in Australia :P
Plus I only write ISO9660/UDF format DVDs, (data and video), so the player never has to deal with foreign formats like Toilet...err...Joliet.
The only problem I've ever had is with the player not liking the DVD brand.
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I personally rely on ConvertXtoDVD from VSO to master DVD when the source is not mpeg2 and DVD compliant. A reencoding is then required. For mpeg2 and DVD compliant sources, I either use VideoRedoTVSuite or TMPGEnc 3. All those are shareware, TMPGEnc is rather expensive.
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Ken,
I have good success with Ashampoo Burning Studio 9 (http://www.ashampoo.com). It supports a wide variety of video formats. It sells for $49.99 but if you click on the "Service Letter" option on the menu bar and scroll down a bit on the new page you will see an offer where you can purchase the program for $29.99.
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Ken,
I have good success with Ashampoo Burning Studio 9 (http://www.ashampoo.com). It supports a wide variety of video formats. It sells for $49.99 but if you click on the "Service Letter" option on the menu bar and scroll down a bit on the new page you will see an offer where you can purchase the program for $29.99.
-mwfuss
mwfuss,
I have been using Burning Studio 8. I found there were video formats that it wouldn't read though. Have video formats been added from 8 to 9? When I looked at it, it looked llike the changes were elsewhere, though I forget the big change now.
Thanks, Ken
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Ken,
To be honest, I only use Burning Studio for burning audio discs, I just know from the program and the documentation that it handles a wide range of video formats.
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I probably should have mentioned this in my last post, but I'll share my solution with you. I used to run around scurrying for the best ways to put divx files on DVD & I finally got fed up one day & bought a DVD player capable of playing divx files that had a USB port on the front of it.
Now I just put my video files onto my USB flash drive & plug it into the DVD player. Saved me a crap-load of money in blank DVD discs.
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I probably should have mentioned this in my last post, but I'll share my solution with you. I used to run around scurrying for the best ways to put divx files on DVD & I finally got fed up one day & bought a DVD player capable of playing divx files that had a USB port on the front of it.
Now I just put my video files onto my USB flash drive & plug it into the DVD player. Saved me a crap-load of money in blank DVD discs.
-Innuendo
Sure, but with DVD format you also get chaptering, which is useful when you don't watch all in one session. Also, fast forward, rewind work nicely, for divx it may depend on the player.
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I probably should have mentioned this in my last post, but I'll share my solution with you. I used to run around scurrying for the best ways to put divx files on DVD & I finally got fed up one day & bought a DVD player capable of playing divx files that had a USB port on the front of it.
Now I just put my video files onto my USB flash drive & plug it into the DVD player. Saved me a crap-load of money in blank DVD discs.
-Innuendo
Cool idea Innuendo. I'll definitely use that approach when I can. :Thmbsup:
Ken
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On the .mpg playback, maybe players are better now at handling data DVDs but I've had players that would only play the first .mpg file in the list.-MilesAhead
We have a better class of cheap Chinese imports here in Australia :P
Plus I only write ISO9660/UDF format DVDs, (data and video), so the player never has to deal with foreign formats like Toilet...err...Joliet.
The only problem I've ever had is with the player not liking the DVD brand.
-4wd
Could be. Imgburn seems to do the same if I let it have its way. I haven't tried it in a long time just because of(bad pun on the way) being burned in the past. :)
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Sure, but with DVD format you also get chaptering, which is useful when you don't watch all in one session. Also, fast forward, rewind work nicely, for divx it may depend on the player.
-MerleOne
Try to get one that at least has Divx Ultra support. At least on mine, hitting the Stop button works like with a DVD instead of going back to the start of the file. Also I can FF 32x and it supports chapters and menus if the .divx has been formatted for that. .wmv still has a way to go, it will play but that's about all. So I convert with AviDemux to xvid one pass or to DVD depending on the vid.
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DVD Lab Pro! (http://www.mediachance.com/dvdlab/comparison.html) +1
If you are serious and want to make a full-featured DVD with Hollywood super effects, DVD Lab Pro by mediachance (http://www.mediachance.com/) is the only one to look at. Its extensive capabilities and feature set rival scenarist (http://www.sonic.com/products/Professional/Scenarist/quicklook.aspx) (which is the program Hollywood uses and costs around $20,000!). DVD-Lab Pro does almost as much for $245. And if you need a good video editor, they offer a package deal where you get both DVD Lab Pro and Edit Studio Pro for $299. Edit Studio Pro, which was a product offered by PureMotion (which went out of business), was recently acquired by mediachance who promptly upgraded it to version 6. This editor includes the high quality MainConcept mpeg-2 encoder which produces the DVD compliant files which are required by DVD-Lab. I agree with 4wd that the Studio version is probably the better choice if you don't need the extra bells and whistles that come with the Pro version (i.e. more than 2 audio tracks, titles with both 16:9 and 4:3 aspect etc).
About the company: - The one-man-show of mediachance, ("Oscar" is his moniker), is truly a genius and the quantity and quality of the software he has produced is amazing. His software takes complex tasks (video editing, image creation, editing and manipulation, DVD mastering, etc), and makes them very easy for the user, without sacrificing functionality. Like Jan at JGSoft (http://www.just-great-software.com/), he writes lots of quality code that is highly functional and very reasonably priced. I can't say enough good about both of these guys!
But for generating very high quality DVD mpeg-2 files (with Dolby AC3 digital audio), from any input file type, I prefer to use the TMPGenc 4.0 XPress (http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/te4xp.html) stand alone encoder. It has never let me down (and can convert anything to anything else).
However, if you want a cheaper, but still quite powerful all-in-one application that can edit the video, encode the mpeg-2 files and burn the DVD all in one whack, take a look at Magix Movie Edit Pro 15 Plus (http://www.magix.com/us/movie-edit-pro/). The latest "Plus" version runs about $90 (don't bother with the cheaper non-plus version). I've used several versions of this Magix software (10, 11, 11+ and 14+ but not yet 15) and like it very much (even though its installation process can be rather obtrusive, and the program has been known to crash on occasion.) This software is packed with LOTS of cool features including unlimited tracks, keyframe animation, excellent audio capabilities (5.1 surround), and lots of very powerful effects and transitions. MEP also features the MainConcept encoder. This is my editor of choice.
One more note: avoid Pinnacle products like the plague! Trust me on this one...
sorry about the long post - can you tell I like messing with video? :)
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All sort of comes back around to mouser's comment. If you want bells and whistles and motion menus and fancy packaging the software list is likely to be a lot different than if you just want an easy reliable compliant quality VIDEO_TS authored from a straight conversion.
OTOH if you want to take source material and actually mess with it yourself, that's another matter. That I am not into. Think the most I ever did was take some audio and put fades at the end when the end of a track was too abrupt. :)
Guess it should break down into
-- Straight Conversions
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-- Video Creation
and on from that divide
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One more thing I forgot to mention, a free video converter that you may not even know you had - I certainly didn't until a vague mention on a site stirred up long dormant memories ;D
If you have a recent ATI video card, (I have a HD4850), then there's a video converter you can download along with the latest Catalyst Control Center - the ATI Avivo Video Converter (http://ati.amd.com/technology/avivo/technology.html).
Choose a video file, choose the output format, (iPod, MPEG4, Portable Media Center, MPEG1, Super VCD, DVD, MPEG2, etc), choose the output quality, hit Start.
Results are a decent quality, (possibly a bit softer than I'd like), even though it does screw things up sometimes, (eg. PAL avi converted to NTSC MPEG even though it correctly recognised it at 25fps).
And it is fast, 349MB 48 minute 624x352 MPEG4-ASP video converted to 1.2GB, 8Mb/s 480x272(?!) DVD, (this is not a DVD compatible frame size - wth are they doing!?), in just over 5 minutes.
Then it's just a matter getting them onto a DVD, either by authoring or as files.
One thing, make sure the Catalyst Control Center is in Basic Mode or else you'll have a very hard time finding it.
Personally, I don't use because of the limited control you have over the output - if they added options for output resizing and sharpness, then I might start using it more often and get some use out of the GPU.
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I would have mentioned the ATI convertor, but I thought he was looking for a DVD authoring program rather than a video transcoder.
Oh, and to let you in on ATI's dirty little secret, their convertor doesn't use the GPU at all. When it was first released it was said it would get the ability to use the GPU at a later date. We're all still waiting for that day to come.
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I would have mentioned the ATI convertor, but I thought he was looking for a DVD authoring program rather than a video transcoder.-Innuendo
Initially it was about an enquiry about AIO types, video transcode to DVD, eg. ConvertX-to-DVD, WinAVI Video Converter, etc.
But it's kind of digressed, (as is usual here :) ), into what people think is the best as asked back here (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18835.msg168723#msg168723).
Oh, and to let you in on ATI's dirty little secret, their convertor doesn't use the GPU at all. When it was first released it was said it would get the ability to use the GPU at a later date. We're all still waiting for that day to come.
Yeah, I read all that when it first came out and to be truthful, any decent encoder will currently knock it for six, (eg. ffmpeg, which the majority of freeware is based on: Avidemux, mencoder, etc), in terms of speed/quality ratio and configuration but I thought I'd mention it just for completeness because it is one of the easiest to use and the output is still decent.
Plus it's something easy to try if you have an ATI GPU, even though it doesn't use it - I'm still searching for the mythical GPU based video encoder, there's only one that I know of and unfortunately it's expensive and nVidia only IIRC.
Edit: I found a link (http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/12/12/ati-stream-gpu-assisted-video-transcoding-meh/) that says they switched it on starting with driver 8.12 - still, the performance gains currently aren't anything that couldn't be achieved through code optimisation.
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Whe
But it's kind of digressed, (as is usual here :) ), into what people think is the best as asked back here (https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=18835.msg168723#msg168723).-4wd
I always end up using Nero for both situations. I keep meaning to find something more advanced, but it suits all my current needs in that regard.
/quoteEdit: I found a link (http://www.digital-digest.com/blog/DVDGuy/2008/12/12/ati-stream-gpu-assisted-video-transcoding-meh/) that says they switched it on starting with driver 8.12 - still, the performance gains currently aren't anything that couldn't be achieved through code optimisation.
[/quote]
I don't believe them. :) They've said they have 'switched it on' in the past and someone comes along and hacks the converter to run on some integrated graphics chipset and there's no improvement at all.
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On a related topic, if someone's looking for ways to shrink down DVD9 discs down to DVD5 for back-up purposes I have to say there's nothing better than DVD Rebuilder Pro from http://www.jdobbs.com/.
Only reason there hasn't been a new version in such a long time is because at this point the software is feature complete & bug-free. No one's been able to suggest anything that needs adding. :)
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On a related topic, if someone's looking for ways to shrink down DVD9 discs down to DVD5 for back-up purposes I have to say there's nothing better than DVD Rebuilder Pro from http://www.jdobbs.com/.
Only reason there hasn't been a new version in such a long time is because at this point the software is feature complete & bug-free. No one's been able to suggest anything that needs adding. :)
-Innuendo
Also Dobbs is busy shrinking BD dics! :)
I have DVD-RB and it's great. Esp. if you have quad core you don't mind using HC with best profile, since it runs 4 copies! I'm too stingy to shell out for the paid encoders at this point. Maybe if I get a liquid nitrogen cooled TV or something I'll think about it. :)
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I have DVD-RB and it's great. Esp. if you have quad core you don't mind using HC with best profile, since it runs 4 copies! I'm too stingy to shell out for the paid encoders at this point. Maybe if I get a liquid nitrogen cooled TV or something I'll think about it. :)-MilesAhead
If you tried any of the paid encoders you'd be very disappointed. I've tried them all and HC is equivalent or better in every situation.
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If you tried any of the paid encoders you'd be very disappointed. I've tried them all and HC is equivalent or better in every situation.
-Innuendo
I've heard good things about HC all around. I've used it quite a bit with FAVC. Just seems to be a mysterious problem muxing and authoring at the end of jobs sometimes(has something to do with FAVC not HC.) Can't figure it out. But since it looks like FAVC is no longer being developed I'll have to get in there and edit the batch files and quit once I have the audio and video output and just author with DVDAuthorGui or something. If I could get the same kind of results with FAVC I get with DVD-RB it would be great.
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I definitely agree with comments about the HC Encoder being a quality freeware encoder. For ease of use, I suppose something like DVD Flick http://www.dvdflick.net/ is good because it supports many file types, but for quality DVD Flick's encoder (ffmpeg) cannot match a HC based tool like AVStoDVD http://sourceforge.net/projects/avstodvd/, FAVC http://favcfavc.googlepages.com/, or FilmMachine http://members.home.nl/thefilmmachine/, (and DVD Rebuilder as Innuendo has recommended for DVD to DVD).
Along with other improvements, the latest version of the HC Encoder (.24 beta as I write this) has a "1 pass VBR" parameter which really saves lots of time.
@MilesAhead: I hate to hear about FAVC's possible demise. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've used FAVC with HC encoder for the last year and never had any issue with it whatsoever.
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Strange. I often get results that seem to complete ok but the authored DVD is not complete. Many times it just seems to be the .ifo files aren't updated properly. I don't understand why it happens. One of these days maybe I'll figure it out. I hope Mr Odwin is just taking a sabbatical. I don't see him responding to the usual support forum and people there pretty much assume it's no longer being developed. I hope they are wrong.
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I think Wondershare Video to DVD Burner (http://www.wonderdvd.com/wondershare-video-to-dvd-burner/#147) is the best one amoung the ones i have used,which has been working smoothy for me for 1 year. Reasons are as following:
1. Acceptable and reasonable price.
2. Easy to use and kindly interface.
3. Most pop format video supporting.(including AVI, MP4, MPG, MPEG, 3GP, WMV, ASF, RM, RMVB, DAT, MOV, FLV, MKV, M2TS, TP, etc.)
4. Fast burning speed and high compatibility.
5. Powerful video editing. (including trimming/cropping/effect setting and customizing dvd menu)
6. High quality dvd without any lossing.
7. Multiple output formats.(burn video to dvd folder or iso image)
You may have a try.
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I think Wondershare Video to DVD Burner (http://www.wonderdvd.com/wondershare-video-to-dvd-burner/#147) is the best one amoung the ones i have used...-susanzhai
I've been seeing the Wondershare products mentioned lately, but I've not yet tried any of them. Does anybody happen to know what encoder this particular software uses-- ffmpeg, hc encoder, etc.? Just thought I would ask among the DC experts before checking it out myself. For $39.95 I would hope the results would be significantly better than those produced by freeware like FAVC, AVStoDVD, etc.
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I probably should have mentioned this in my last post, but I'll share my solution with you. I used to run around scurrying for the best ways to put divx files on DVD & I finally got fed up one day & bought a DVD player capable of playing divx files that had a USB port on the front of it.
Now I just put my video files onto my USB flash drive & plug it into the DVD player. Saved me a crap-load of money in blank DVD discs.
-Innuendo
Can u recommend any good DVD Player with USB models - we have Phillips and LG here at mo.... :)
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@MilesAhead: I hate to hear about FAVC's possible demise. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've used FAVC with HC encoder for the last year and never had any issue with it whatsoever.
-sajman99
btw have you tried FAVC HC with Predictive Quantization setting? I've been using it a lot. When in a hurry I used to do QuEnc but I'm finding this a good compromise between speed and quality. The output looks almost as good as 2 pass HC but it's only a bit slower than a 1 pass. It kind of skips around taking samples, then does a 1 pass encoding. Going from low bitrate to higher such as when the input is .avi or .wmv it seems to give really good results. Esp. too if the input is 720p .avi or .wmv the output DVD looks great.
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Can u recommend any good DVD Player with USB models - we have Phillips and LG here at mo.... :)-CleverCat
I'm just using a cheapie Phillips model that I bought for less than US$50. It's only flaw is if you're playing a Divx file & the bit-rate gets ultra-high during a scene it'll stutter a bit till the bit-rates drop back down to sane levels. I run into such stuttering in probably 1 out of 100 shows/movies I watch, though.
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@MilesAhead: I hate to hear about FAVC's possible demise. Maybe I've just been lucky, but I've used FAVC with HC encoder for the last year and never had any issue with it whatsoever.
-sajman99
btw have you tried FAVC HC with Predictive Quantization setting? I've been using it a lot. When in a hurry I used to do QuEnc but I'm finding this a good compromise between speed and quality. The output looks almost as good as 2 pass HC but it's only a bit slower than a 1 pass. It kind of skips around taking samples, then does a 1 pass encoding. Going from low bitrate to higher such as when the input is .avi or .wmv it seems to give really good results. Esp. too if the input is 720p .avi or .wmv the output DVD looks great.
-MilesAhead
HC all the way. People much more knowledgeable than me over at the Doom9 forum have indicated the HC encoder produces output very closely approximating the highly regarded CCE encoder's ouput. Their informed opinion is good enough for me.
I had very good results using FAVC's predictive quantization. It saved lots of time and the results were virtually identical to 2-pass VBR. BUT the issue I had was that PQ mode was less precise in terms of file size-- often undersizing and occasionally oversizing (yikes!).
However, I haven't used FAVC for some time. AFAIK Mr. Odwin is still MIA with no new FAVC version since 1.07, and his program is getting less useful with each release of the HC encoder. I mean, HC Encoder now has its own 1-pass VBR and there was a new release just days ago with several new features. AFAIK FAVC cannot utilize any of the new HC features, including settings like AQ and LUMGAIN.
I really hope Mr. Odwin returns to update FAVC by incorporating the newest HC Encoder settings. If he does, I'll definitely be downloading as soon as possible.
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I really hope Mr. Odwin returns to update FAVC by incorporating the newest HC Encoder settings. If he does, I'll definitely be downloading as soon as possible.
I feel the same way. I sent an email to the support address on the download page. Got no bounce and no reply. It's been over a month. Looks like 1.07 is it.
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I really hope Mr. Odwin returns to update FAVC by incorporating the newest HC Encoder settings. If he does, I'll definitely be downloading as soon as possible.
I feel the same way. I sent an email to the support address on the download page. Got no bounce and no reply. It's been over a month. Looks like 1.07 is it.
-MilesAhead
Well, crud to that. And some people say no news is good news. :(
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btw sajman are you using the HC gui, batch or another gui or wrapper program with the 0.24 beta? I'm looking around for easy to use front ends. Right now I'm doing a job with AvsToDVD but it still seems to be set for HC 0.23. Have you found any nice front ends for the latest?
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MilesAhead, you can upgrade the "HCenc.exe" in the AVStoDVD folder with a newer version of HC Encoder by carefully renaming the newest version. Of course, the issue is whether the latest software is yet able to utilize the newer features/settings-- which I'm guessing is what you mean by "set for HC 0.23".
I'm sticking with the HC .24beta from May for now since the very latest HC has undocumented settings. Even the experts at Doom9 are asking questions, so I surely wouldn't know the correct config until developer Hank315 offers explanation.
As for HC wrappers etc., the only suggestion I can offer is to try this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=139277). Good Luck!
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Thanks for the info. :)
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Regarding HC GUIs, I recall considering HCbatchGUI, but FAVC is just so darn easy I never really took the time to fully explore freebird73717's creation.
http://hcbatchgui.awardspace.com HCbatchGUI home page
http://forum.videohelp.com/topic336128.html HCbatchGUI forum thread
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Can u recommend any good DVD Player with USB models - we have Phillips and LG here at mo.... :)-CleverCat
I'm just using a cheapie Phillips model that I bought for less than US$50. It's only flaw is if you're playing a Divx file & the bit-rate gets ultra-high during a scene it'll stutter a bit till the bit-rates drop back down to sane levels. I run into such stuttering in probably 1 out of 100 shows/movies I watch, though.
-Innuendo
Will it play mpeg's from usb?
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I have the Philips dvp 5990. It has the USB connector. I haven't tried .mpg files but I've played .avi and .wmv from a USB key drive. One of these days I have to reformat a 200 GB HD that I have in an enclosure to FAT32. It doesn't seem to mind the key drive being NTFS but I'm told powered external USB drives should be formatted FAT32 to get the most use out of 'em with the player.
Also this player does a better job with subs than players I've had in the past. Tonight I added idx/sub subtitles to an .avi with AviAddXSubs and it didn't bother it that there were 3 subtitles in the idx/sub set. Even my old OPPO wanted to have a single subtitle in the idx/sub that was muxed in.
Supposedly this player is UltraDivx and will do menus and chapters, but I've never created a .divx with the menus to try it out. I'm lazy and just use the file list that pops up. :)
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Thanks for info! :Thmbsup:
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Thanks for info! :Thmbsup:-CleverCat
What Miles said.
The bonus feature with Phillips DVD players is that after you get it you can punch an access code on the remote and the DVD player will become region-free allowing you to play DVDs no matter what country they were released in. That alone was worth the price of admission for me.
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Here's a good resource for what Innuendo is talking about:
http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers
Reading through those listings I found "remote hacks" that worked with all of my Philips DVD Players and my OPPO. Esp. being a fan of Asian films I was able to play a lot of DVDs I got from Hong Kong that were region 2 or 3. It's also good to get a player that can handle both PAL and NTSC. Saves doing a lot of conversions. The 5990 I mentioned can handle both formats. The only thing really missing is playing x264 or HD divx/avi/xvid .. afaik it won't play anything with res larger than 720x576 PAL or 720x480 NTSC.
Although if you have an HD avi source or some other HD format source, often DVD Flick will make a really clean looking standard DVD from it... which the player will upconvert. Not as nice as BluRay I'm sure but ok for people on a budget like myself.
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We are very limited here with different models, but looks like Phillips is the way to go!
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We have the 3360 - but doesn't say if you can use an external Hard Drive, only Flash?
Here's link http://www.consumer.philips.com/c/blu-ray-dvd/dvp3360k_98/prd/za/
On searching I've found it should be possible to use external enclosure if it's FAT32 format. :Thmbsup:
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http://www.consumer.philips.com/c/blu-ray-dvd/hdmi-1080p-divx-ultra-karaoke-dvp5996k_98/prd/za/ might be a better choice for the future, if you can afford this player.
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http://www.consumer.philips.com/c/blu-ray-dvd/hdmi-1080p-divx-ultra-karaoke-dvp5996k_98/prd/za/ might be a better choice for the future, if you can afford this player.
-Curt
Ooo...looks like that model can even play WMVs. I may have to see if I can buy one of those.
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http://www.consumer.philips.com/c/blu-ray-dvd/hdmi-1080p-divx-ultra-karaoke-dvp5996k_98/prd/za/ might be a better choice for the future, if you can afford this player.
-Curt
Hmmmmm, it looks the same as my 5990 except they made the "region free" official instead of doing the remote hack. For this and karaoke you pay double. The 5990 has upscaling 1080p HDMI connection, has USB 2.0 port and plays .wmv. Unless this player can play .mkv it looks like you are paying the penalty for not having to open the tray and enter a number sequence with the remote. It's the old "region free" gimmick, charging you for something that's already built in.
btw- the region code, once set to 0 is in non-volatile memory. You don't have to reset it just because the power goes out for a bit. Some other settings may revert to default but not that one. Set it to 0 once and forget it.
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For now the 3360 does all we need - we're not into Karaoke! ;D
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Only thing is - our PVR is using the HDMI connection?
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I haven't used one myself but I'm told you can get HDMI switches for < $30
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It should just plug into AV1 as the PVR is on AV2!
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BTW, some recent DVD players have a USB port than can read flashkeys and divx/mpeg2 files that are on it. I recently purchased one, my previous DVD player having met its EOL. I chose a LG 492H (simple DVD player with upscaling / HDMI output) and this USB port : it really solves the problem of converting/mastering DVD.
If that's really what is needed, I would vote for VSO ConvertXtoDVD, which is relatively easy to use and has a quick encoder. It's main drawback is that it insists on reencoding already DVD-compliant mpeg2 files.
I also use a lot VideoRedoTVsuite, that comes with a simple but efficient DVD masterring program, very useful when dealing only with mpeg2 content. Then there is TMPGEnc DVD AuthorsWorks 4, nice and powerful, but somewhat expensive and also activated online and locked to one computer only.
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There one here that has a Card Reader - is that better as I see cards are holding more and more GB's?
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There one here that has a Card Reader - is that better as I see cards are holding more and more GB's?
-CleverCat
Except that it is usually easier to connect a usb key to a PC than a Memory card (many formats, reader not always included). Also I suspect these DVD players can only read photos. Better double check that !
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Merle how is it for fast forward of .wmv? My Philips will play .wmv via the USB port but it doesn't seem to seek like it can with .avi .divx or DVD standard video. When I hit FF it just holds the current frame.
Also will yours play source with res higher than the standard 720x480 or 720x576? Divx was making some noises about DivxHD but I see almost no players that support it. At least not any <$300
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Merle how is it for fast forward of .wmv? My Philips will play .wmv via the USB port but it doesn't seem to seek like it can with .avi .divx or DVD standard video. When I hit FF it just holds the current frame.
Also will yours play source with res higher than the standard 720x480 or 720x576? Divx was making some noises about DivxHD but I see almost no players that support it. At least not any <$300
-MilesAhead
The instruction manual says the resolution is 720x576 for divx files. For FF for WMV, I'll have to try. I'll let you know.
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There one here that has a Card Reader - is that better as I see cards are holding more and more GB's?
-CleverCat
It has USB + Card Reader....
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Regarding the LG 492H, and WMV files : it simply doesn't read this format, so the question of FF/REW is irrelevant for this format.
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If you don't mind spending some money then:
http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/taw4.html
is very good, allows easy menu creation (and now allows you to design your own buttons etc.).
Converts most common formats, can produce DVDs in both PAL and NTSC format (as well as DivX Ultra DVDs in both formats) and has tools for creating subtitles, up to 5.1 surround sound and burning final output to disc.
I have been using this product right through since version 1 and it does produce really good quality. They also have a free trial version so you can see if you like it.
Only negative side is that your comouter has to be connected to the internet because they validate your license periodically.
Another option if you have some dosh is Sony Vegas Pro with DVD Architect (http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/vegaspro). It lets you do pretty much anything you want with video files and give complete control over building video menus etc. This is a really professional package - but you pay the price (but then you did ask for the best).
DVD Architect is available as a separate product and there are various other cheaper product packages in the Vegas range which include hobbyist versions of the tools. See http://www.sonycreativesoftware.com/moviestudiopp/compare for a comparison.
Finally Adobe do a DVD production tool called Encore. I have a copy (as part of a suite) but I have never used it so I can't really comment on how good it is. See http://www.adobe.com/products/premiere/encore/
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Regarding the LG 492H, and WMV files : it simply doesn't read this format, so the question of FF/REW is irrelevant for this format.
-MerleOne
Thanks for the info. On my 5990 I did an experiment with an enclosed drive. I put a DVD title in .mpg format on the drive after formatting to extFat. Ended up hanging my player trying to load. I don't know if it didn't like the drive format or the file format but I think I'll stick with USB Key from now on. I have a set of DVD+RW that will burn up to 8x. For DVD5 "watch once throw away" it's not bad. Also good for test burns. The Philips 5990 handles them fine.
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btw a new version of AVStoDVD was released today. Guess I'll give it another try.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVStoDVD
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I just got this DVD Creator giveaway:
follow the instructions to get download link and license key. A hotmail address works fine. Just got mine.
http://www.ghacks.net/2009/10/07/zc-dvd-creator-platinum-free-full-version/
[Edit - URL corrected, Carol Haynes]
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I just got this DVD Creator giveaway...
-MilesAhead
Thanks for the notice. Any impressions on the software--particularly regarding their self-proclaimed "world-class video encoder"-- would be greatly appreciated.
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I just got this DVD Creator giveaway...
-MilesAhead
Thanks for the notice. Any impressions on the software--particularly regarding their self-proclaimed "world-class video encoder"-- would be greatly appreciated.
-sajman99
When I give a trial I'll post anything I find out. Just noticed there's a SysInternals thingy to make a vhd from a hd so I'm trying to find out any protected environment I can make for my Vista64 that can be done in a couple of hours. I don't formally test software so anything that takes longer I might as well just rely on my image backup. A restore usually only takes 45 min. to an hour. I'll probably mess with the video by this weekend though.
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My results with ZC DVD Creator Platinum weren't very impressive. While it's a very simple one-click solution with impressive speed, there were very few customizable settings-- no encoder choices, profiles, etc. Presumably, you're supposed to sit back and trust this app to make all the critical decisions for you. Uh...in my case the output was seriously undersized resulting in noticeably sub-par video quality. Hope others had better luck with this--but I'm not keeping it.
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Thanks for the heads up. We seem to be inundated with converters that take the Nero approach. Just drag & drop the file, wait 2 hours and trust me. Esp. where I want to go from letter box to 16x9 those things are nearly always useless.
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I just tried this program again. I took it off before because I didn't understand the rationale. After reading the help in more depth I get it. It's AVStoDVD (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVStoDVD)
It takes an interesting approach. It calculates the output DVD bitrate and uses an encoding scheme based on the range. The ranges are adjustable. If the bitrate is high, it just uses QuEnc one pass CBR. If the bitrate is mid level, it uses HC Encode predictive quant one pass. If the bitrate is low, it uses HC Encode 2 pass.
The default video standard is set to PAL. If most of your stuff is NTSC you may want to change that setting, set it as default, then close and reopen the GUI just to avoid resetting it every time.
It also comes with the latest Imgburn for burning the DVDs. I haven't tried burning. I just set it to produce a VIDEO_TS folder.
I'm going to mess around with a few conversions and see how it does.
edit: I'm starting to like this app. It's open source and comes with QuEnc 0.75 alpha(I thought QuEnc stopped at 0.72 .. glad it's still being worked.) I fed it a bunch of .wmv files and it churned them out. The sources were HD. The encoding was slow, as it is when you resize down, but the results were very glossy. Looks like a keeper for the video toolbox.
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I'm going to mess around with a few conversions and see how it does...I'm starting to like this app.
-MilesAhead
I agree AVStoDVD has become a reliable freeware solution. I've just played around with the newest version for more hours than I care to admit, and I finally got excellent output with the HC encoder. I initially tried with the latest HC and got some seriously screwy results--very significant undersizing (and no idea why). In contrast, the earlier HC version from May rendered accurate output size and very nice visual results.
btw-- the HC encoder really has improved speed with the latest versions.
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I'll try the May HC then. Thanks for the tip. :Thmbsup:
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btw I'm curious. Did you have to mess around with HCenc 0.24 to use it with AVStoDVD or just copy with name change?
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btw I'm curious. Did you have to mess around with HCenc 0.24 to use it with AVStoDVD or just copy with name change?
-MilesAhead
Simply rename the new HCenc_024.exe to HCenc.exe for use in AVStoDVD's HCenc folder. AFAIK the HC.ini is completely irrelevant as AVStoDVD seems to completely ignore it and implement its own values. For example, the program uses a bias value of 60 which seems too high to me, but whatever--as long as the target output is close and looks as fantastic as it does, I'm a happy camper.
btw--I do a 2-pass VBR on pretty much everything by overriding the "auto video setup"; those are just profiles/recommedations which can be ignored per preference.
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Thanks for the skinny. I'm trying the predictive quant on my dual core now. It seems like 0.24 takes bigger samples than 0.23 but that may be my imagination. Might just be different size input files. I'm going to try a 2 pass using the lock on my quad core and see how it goes.
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ConvertX to DVD. Do not pass go, do not collect $200. It is, hands down, the absolute best dvd authoring software by a very long shot.
That is, of course, in my opinion. I know it's been mentioned, but I just figured I'd reinforce the importance that isn't just A solution, it is THE solution (in my opinion).
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Hmmmmm, I'm trying the 0.24 May beta in FAVC 1.07. The speed of FAVC is seductive but it looks like AVStoDVD is better at producing a VIDEO_TS folder with at least 4 GB in it. It may be worth sacrificing a little speed if I get consistently good output.
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Hmmmmm, I'm trying the 0.24 May beta in FAVC 1.07. The speed of FAVC is seductive but it looks like AVStoDVD is better at producing a VIDEO_TS folder with at least 4 GB in it. It may be worth sacrificing a little speed if I get consistently good output.
-MilesAhead
OK, hope you share more of your findings. I did the same DivX movie with 0.24 HC in FAVC and yielded decent results. On my dual core the speed difference was insignificant (maybe 1-3 minutes faster with FAVC), but AVStoDVD yielded a more precise output. I'm sure FAVC's custom disc size could be tweaked to avoid undersizing; it's just a matter of patience to run multiple trials and determine a consistent value.
Anyways, looks like I'll be using AVStoDVD as my first option now, but if FAVC gets updated... ;)
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I have had the best results with DVDFlick. You can create a menu or not, and it converts FAST, easy, painless. I use it to convert my camera's 720p Quicktime .mov to a DVD. Insert movie, click create. Simple or advanced however you want it. Here are just a few screenshots of some of the options. It is really incredible that this is free.
http://www.dvdflick.net/
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y0himba I have 3 versions of Flick installed. Seems like one build will like an input format better than another. Usually though, if you drag and drop a video and it takes it, it completes without error. I like flick. Just seems like some of the other apps get more out of multi-core CPUs. I hope the author updates it again. 1307 has been out for awhile.
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sajman, after substituting May beta as you suggested, in both FAVC and AVStoDVD seems like I was getting @160 fps throughput total with 4 instances of HC in FAVC and with AVStoDVD running multi-thread it was about 130 fps. So that's not too big a hit. Are there any good measures of DVD quality you can run for free? I'm thinking even though it's slower, I should run a few through the QuEnc with Trellis quant to see if I can tell a difference.
My guilty secret is I used to run 4 instances of QuEnc 0.72 single pass average quality with no Trellis just to crank stuff out at 63 fps per instance!! :)
But that was before I had divx ultra stand-alone players. No need to convert so much to DVD these days.
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@y0himba:
I agree DVD Flick is an amazing free tool, perhaps the easiest to use with its drag and drop interface. I just wish the developer still used the HC encoder like in early DVD Flick versions, but at some point he decided to switch to ffmpeg.
@MilesAhead: No idea about QuEnc--HCenc is fast enough now so I haven't played around with QuEnc at all. On my dual core machine each pass took about 25 minutes encoding a 1 hour 45 minute DivX movie. So 50 minutes plus about another 15 minutes for additional muxing to generate a fully compliant DVD in 1 hour and 5 minutes. Amazing--older versions of HC were apparently much slower.
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QuEnc is a modification of ffmpeg or is at least based on it iirc. I'm going to mess around a bit more with AVStoDVD using the default except for boosting up the bit rate of the audio. I think I fell into the trap of comparing different runs. If you have an .avi with a low bit rate and not very long duration, the output bit rate can be very high and fast to process. So I may be noticing an "easy" encode in HC running at 130 fps and comparing that with a one pass QuEnc from another run only going at 60 fps.
There's always the chance the author of AVStoDVD may be onto something doing it the way he's doing it. I know max results would be HC 2 pass, but I'm thinking he may be right or at least close on speed vs quality. Or at least I suspect it enough that I'll do some more trials with default ranges.
One thing cool about QuEnc I used to do was put a bunch of .avi files in a converter that generates an .avs script for me, so that all the bit rates and all that are calculated. Then I would just modifiy it to have a script for each title, then manually run a copy of QuEnc with each script for as many cores as I had. I think the only danger is to make sure the intermediate files don't use a common folder. I would start them going and end up with an .mpg with navpacks for each title. Then just plunk that into an authoring program like DVDAuthorGui or SVCD2DVD that accepts .mpg with navpacks.
As usual the complication is subs. Since a lot of what I watch are Asian vids with subs it can limit the choices esp. if I don't have text subs to work with.
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AVStoDVD and double layer?
Hmmmm, tried making a DVD9 tonight, but Imgburn didn't like it very much. The old "no suitable cell for a layer break" routine. Has anyone tried AVStoDVD for DVD9?
I'm using Verbatim Double Layer and it looks like AVStoDVD only knows about Dual Layer. I'm burning one now anyway with Imgburn. See if it plays.
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Keep us posted, Miles. If nothing else, you throwing yourself on this grenade may prevent the senseless death of other dual-layer DVD-R discs in the future. :)
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I got a reply from MrC, the author of AVStoDVD. His advice is just to use the latest Imgburn to manually enter an address for the layer break. (When I set the option in Imgburn 2.5 to manual instead of auto layer break selection, it popped up a box suggesting ranges where the address should be.. I entered a number in the range and it adjusted it. All I know is the disc played ok afaik.. didn't have time to play the entire 2 hours yet. But it jumped chapters from before the layer break to after and they played so I'm assuming it's ok like that.) Rereading the help file in more depth it appears the authored VIDEO_TS folder has nothing to do with DVD-DL or DVD+DL it doesn't put any layer break info.
The reason Imgburn picks up layer breaks from rips is that there's layer break info to work with or the chapters are laid out in such a way that it's easy for Imgburn to choose it. AVStoDVD doesn't put any. Trial and error with Imgburn guidance I guess is the preferred method in this case.
edit: btw I haven't tried the built in burn mechanism of AVStoDVD since the burner on my dual core actually burns double layer a lot better than the burner on my quad core. So integrating the whole operation would cost a lot of time.
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@MilesAhead: No idea about QuEnc--HCenc is fast enough now so I haven't played around with QuEnc at all. On my dual core machine each pass took about 25 minutes encoding a 1 hour 45 minute DivX movie. So 50 minutes plus about another 15 minutes for additional muxing to generate a fully compliant DVD in 1 hour and 5 minutes. Amazing--older versions of HC were apparently much slower.
-sajman99
Curiosity got the better of me. I had a job for DVD-RB. I ran it using 2 pass best profile HC 0.23 4 instances on my Quad Core. Then I substituted the May 0.24 HC beta. Any difference in processing was negligible. Then I substituted the September HC 0.24 beta. I looked at the fps and it looked about the same. However when I checked the video processing stage elapsed time it was 50 minutes instead of 55 as the previous 2 runs were.
I deleted all intermediate files between runs. It appears the September has enough of a speed advantage to make it worth the substitutions. Eventually I'll try it in FAVC. I didn't notice any qualitative difference in any of the output. Unless there's some instability I'm unaware of, it looks like the September beta is the way to go.
edit: I haven't done any comparisons yet on single instance multi-thread scenario as would be produced with AVStoDVD. I've been using the May beta, but I just changed to the Sept. HC beta. Haven't done a run with that setup yet.
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@MilesAhead: No idea about QuEnc
...
-sajman99
Just thought I'd mention it since AVStoDVD comes with QuEnc 0.75 alpha and we were substituting encoders in other tools. I read someplace on DOOM9 a note by the author of QuEnc that in the 0.75 Alpha, the option for Trellis Quant actually has nothing to do with Trellis. But it's to signify something to do with multi-threading. It's difficult to find much info but if you use Trellis Quant with QuEnc then I wouldn't plug 0.75 into other tools. Something like FAVC you might get multiple instances running multiple threads. Might end up with a kaleidoscopic video. :)
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BTW, WinX DVD author is free for a few days (until Oct. 31st).
http://www.winxdvd.com/specialoffer/oct09.htm
[I have not tried it]
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BTW, WinX DVD author is free for a few days (until Oct. 31st).
http://www.winxdvd.com/specialoffer/oct09.htm
[I have not tried it]
-MerleOne
I have the download. According to their site there's no registration required. You just have to download it from their page during the giveaway period. I haven't tried the install yet. One thing I did notice though, the ad copy says some stuff about .wmv but the spec page doesn't have .wmv in the list. Guess you have to install and try a conversion to know for sure.
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...It appears the September has enough of a speed advantage to make it worth the substitutions...
-MilesAhead
MilesAhead, I see here at DC and at Doom9 you've been quite busy lately checking out new HC builds. :) With the September beta I had significant undersizing but perhaps that issue has been fixed now. :tellme:
For the next several weeks I will have very little spare time to check any new HC builds so please allow me to say thanks for sharing your encoding trials. :Thmbsup:
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You're welcome. I tried one with the beta hank posted, but it was a dvd from a single .avi file and came in on target. I need to make a dvd with a few titles to see if FAVC comes in undersized.
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For what it may or may not be worth, Aimersoft has just released an "ultimate" version:
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AVStoDVD (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVStoDVD) updated.
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AVStoDVD (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/AVStoDVD) updated.
-MilesAhead
Cripes, both hank315 (HC encoder developer) and MrC (AVStoDVD developer) seem to have kicked it into high gear lately. Usually many months go by without any updates whatsoever, but now we have multiple updates in just the last couple months. Many thanks to these incredible guys! Only problem is I need more spare time to keep up. :)
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Talking about keeping up.. I have a lot of reading to do. I don't know what most of the settings on these things really are. I just read up on bias so now I get what you mentioned about the high bias setting. I'm doing a conversion with HC 2 pass with a bit rate @8500 and the bias is 80. It will be interesting to see how it looks compared to QuEnc one pass high quality CBR.
I wish Philips would get off the dime and come out with a cheap player that plays mkv and other formats with higher than PAL resolution. Kind of silly to size the things down just to upconvert when playing. With my setup it's too much hassle to wire directly from a PC to the HDTV. For the time being I'm stuck with a player connected to TV.
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MilesAhead, you likely already know this but I'll mention it anyways-- there is a HC .pdf in the HC miscellaneous sub-folder (though apparently not with the Oct. HC?) which provides info regarding parameters like bias, lumgain, adaptive quantization, etc.
From a logical point of view, I don't get why I should use a high bias value (say greater than 50) when performing a VBR encode. :tellme: I think the free version of DVD-RB uses a value of 20--seems more logical to me. I searched a while back and saw iirc where jdobbs (DVD-RB developer) recommended a bias value of 20.
FYI when I remarked earlier about my "seriously screwy results" with the September HC 024, I was referring to something I'd never seen before--on the 2nd pass HC was dropping bitrate like crazy (15-20% less than the 1st pass) rendering significant undersizing. I'd never seen more than a 1-2% variation between passes before, so something? was very clearly wrong. My guess is that my experience was related to the new "deadzone quantization" parameter which is now adaptive with Oct. HC, but until I have time to run multiple trials that's all it is-- a guess.
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I see. Thanks for the clarification.
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btw I did a conversion yesterday that had the said bias of 80. The source was an .mkv of an HDTV program. The duration was about 50 or 55 minutes. I converted to DVD with AVStoDVD and latest HC 2 pass. The output DVD was about 3 and a half gigs. I tell you though, when I played it upconverted to 1080i I think it was the cleanest video I ever saw on my TV.
This one scene 2 people are talking on a country road with trees and grass and it was almost like a 3D effect. You could really see separation between the actors and the background almost like you could pick them off the screen. Of course I haven't seen any Blu-Ray on my TV. But for what I'm doing that is sure nice lookin' video.
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...I think it was the cleanest video I ever saw on my TV...
-MilesAhead
Good to hear. Are you still experimenting with QuEnc or are you "sold" on HC at this point?
btw- Did you see at Doom9 where AVStoDVD developer MrC stated that HCenc is usually faster than QuEnc in multicore systems? As I noted earlier, I haven't tested QuEnc at all--but I was surprised at that comment. For some time the rap on HC has been its slow encoding speed, but I'm not at all sure if that's the case today.
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AVStoDVD launches only one instance. I don't think QuEnc has the multi-threading down yet. HC definitely has multi-threading with single instance.
In FAVC running multiple instances at similar quality and passes they are likely not that far apart. More and more it looks like HC is the converter of choice for Windows free video converters..
QuEnc was good to blow something out in pretty good quality in a hurry esp. using FAVC with multiple instances. But esp. where FAVC is no longer being developed I think HC will eclipse it unless something new happens with a QuEnc release. Even the 0.75 alpha came out in 2007 IIRC. I don't know if anything is happening with it these days.
edit: hmm, sounds like a horse race or a run for political office. I have no insider info so SEC don't call me. :)
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HCbatchGUI (http://www.videohelp.com/tools/HCbatchGUI) has been updated with October HCenc 0.24. On its home page (http://hcbatchgui.awardspace.com) the developer provides a link to a portable install which reads settings from HCbatchGUI.ini. In the advanced UI mode you can change pretty much any setting-- a tweaker's paradise.
The big question is how it compares to more well-known HC tools like FAVC and AVStoDVD. Anybody use HCbatchGUI before and care to comment on the quality of its output?
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I like DVD Architect by Sony.
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Anybody use HCbatchGUI before and care to comment on the quality of its output?
-sajman99
I tried a couple of runs with it but it just felt like it was too easy to miss a setting and start the thing going. I seem to have an easier time remembering how to set the options with AVStoDVD. Plus the help gives some hints on which sizer to use. One thing I recently realized with AVStoDVD when converting HD source down to DVD, the fps processing isn't that much slower on my dual core than my quad core. I can do the job on the dual core which runs much quieter when the cores are maxed out, and it only costs me about another hour for the conversion. Going from avi to dvd the quad core is much faster esp. when using multiple instances of the video converter. But downsizing is so slow that the percentage difference only gets you a few frames per second. It's more convenient just to put the job on the quiet machine and forget about it for a few hours.
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I would agree AVStoDVD provides a smoother overall experience than HCbatchGUI. While its nice to have the opportunity to change any setting (in the advanced GUI of HCbatchGUI), its also nice to get the ball rolling as soon as possible. HCbatchGUI reminds me of years ago when I used Gordian Knot (long before AutoGK emerged) to convert to DivX--settings galore!
Also, both AVStoDVD and the HC encoder have been updated more frequently in recent months. 8)
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What I'd like to find now is a gui that will run tsMuxer jobs in batch. tsMuxerGui is fine but it gets tedious doing the same drag & drop operation 10 or 15 times when all the params are the same. Outfile is sourcefile with different extension etc..
Or a folder mode like Popcorn MKV audio converter has would be nice.
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Thanks CWuestefeld and Shades for the recommendation of DeVeDe (http://www.majorsilence.com/devede), it was simple to use and got the job done for me.
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...DeVeDe (http://www.majorsilence.com/devede), it was simple to use and got the job done for me.-mouser
Does it (still) need Imgburn ? :tellme:
Install imgburn and it will use this instead for creating the iso which should fix some problems people are having (including me).-DeVeDe
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Does it (still) need Imgburn ? :tellme:-Curt
ImgBurn should be included on every Windows installation disc & installed by default with the OS. :)
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I agree with Innuendo's sentiments -- ImgBurn is a great burning tool, so i see it as only a good thing if DeVeDe uses that instead of re-implementing the wheel.
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I agree with Innuendo's sentiments -- ImgBurn is a great burning tool, so i see it as only a good thing if DeVeDe uses that instead of re-implementing the wheel.-mouser
I just can't resist singing the man's praises some more. The guy originally came out with DVD Decrypter which was pure, unadulterated genius. When "The Man" got him down & made him cease & desist all development on that program he didn't let that discourage him from coming back from that & writing one of the most capable burning programs in existence today.
I've got nothing but respect for Mr. Lightning UK!.
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Imgburn is indeed a great tool, but I'd like to know why, in some cases, when burning an iso file, it takes up to 10 minutes in the "creating threads" phase before starting to burn anything (XP Home SP2).
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You might want to check out BurnAware.
It works well with as the free one, or spring for the pro for $40.
http://www.burnaware.com/burnaware_free.html
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Imgburn is indeed a great tool, but I'd like to know why, in some cases, when burning an iso file, it takes up to 10 minutes in the "creating threads" phase before starting to burn anything (XP Home SP2).
-MerleOne
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.)
Sometimes if you have other burning software it will try to mess with the optical drive even when you aren't running it. If that option is checked, Imgburn should pop up an error dialog if another app is trying to access the drive also.
Other than that, problems I've had with Imgburn I could usually get around by trying a different version. I had some issues with 2.4 and stayed with 2.3.2.0 until 2.5 came out. Then it seemed to work fine with my drives.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools/ImgBurn/old-versions#download
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Imgburn is indeed a great tool, but I'd like to know why, in some cases, when burning an iso file, it takes up to 10 minutes in the "creating threads" phase before starting to burn anything (XP Home SP2).-MerleOne
I've never seen that & I've used every version of ImgBurn with XP, then Vista, and now Win7.
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In addition to Lightning UK's technical genius, he apparently has a sense of humor which is reflected by the funny/weird sayings displayed in ImgBurn.
ATM I'm seeing the words "You fool, you gave cheese to a lactose intolerant volcano god!" ;D Gotta love it! ;D
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ATM I'm seeing the words "You fool, you gave cheese to a lactose intolerant volcano god!" ;D Gotta love it! ;D-sajman99
Which, of course, is a quote from one of the most-loved video games of all time. :)
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I would agree AVStoDVD provides a smoother overall experience than HCbatchGUI.
-sajman99
You know the more I use AVStoDVD, the more I find I'm going with the defaults. When the space is totally filled in a DVD9 then 8500 kbit high quality one pass with QuEnc looks pretty good. I mean, you can't go over 9000 anyway, so how much room is there to maneuver? Maybe people demanding the max quality would make changes but it seems like the result is consistently good when going from a high bitrate/resolution source to standard DVD9.
The only change I made other than selecting spline16 resizer when downsizing resolution was to the SubtitleCreator settings. I think the default fonts are just way too large. I chopped 'em down a tad. Other than that I'm just going with it out of the box.. other than substituting the latest HC beta executable that is.
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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.
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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.)
...
-MilesAhead
Yes, I do, and also the option below (ignore mounted filesystems).
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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.)
...
-MilesAhead
Yes, I do, and also the option below (ignore mounted filesystems).
-MerleOne
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.
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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.
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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.
-delwoode
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.
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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.
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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
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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! -delwoode
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.
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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+-delwoode
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.
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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
-cmpm
Looks interesting. Please let us know your opinion if you check it out.
Ashraf noted eariler versions were somewhat buggy in a review (http://dottech.org/gotdreviews/7264) 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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
-superboyac
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. :)
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yes nice but i think Nero software is good for write video file in dvd
-johnmarsh
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. :)
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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.
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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?
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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.
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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?
-MilesAhead
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.
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@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.
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@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.
-sajman99
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.
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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.com/tools/sections/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.
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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.
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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.
-superboyac
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.
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Duly noted. Thanks Miles.
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btw on the audio sync issues.. one "trick" I use is to make sure all my stand-alone dvd players can play both PAL and NTSC. When I do a conversion I don't change the frame rate. If it's 25 fps I make a PAL dvd. Otherwise I make an NTSC dvd.