Author Topic: What is best program to create a DVD from any video file? (Read 165,649 times)

MilesAhead · « **Reply #75 on:** October 10, 2009, 07:58 PM »

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #76 on:** October 10, 2009, 09:06 PM »

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

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.

sajman99 · « **Reply #77 on:** October 12, 2009, 07:23 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 10, 2009, 09:06 PM

I'm going to mess around with a few conversions and see how it does...I'm starting to like this app.

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #78 on:** October 12, 2009, 07:32 PM »

I'll try the May HC then. Thanks for the tip.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #79 on:** October 12, 2009, 11:22 PM »

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?

sajman99 · « **Reply #80 on:** October 13, 2009, 01:10 AM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 12, 2009, 11:22 PM

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?

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #81 on:** October 13, 2009, 01:17 AM »

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.

Kamel · « **Reply #82 on:** October 13, 2009, 01:18 AM »

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).

MilesAhead · « **Reply #83 on:** October 13, 2009, 03:02 AM »

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.

sajman99 · « **Reply #84 on:** October 13, 2009, 09:19 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 13, 2009, 03:02 AM

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.

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...

y0himba · « **Reply #85 on:** October 13, 2009, 09:50 PM »

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/

MilesAhead · « **Reply #86 on:** October 13, 2009, 10:10 PM »

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #87 on:** October 13, 2009, 10:18 PM »

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.

sajman99 · « **Reply #88 on:** October 13, 2009, 10:52 PM »

@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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #89 on:** October 14, 2009, 08:11 PM »

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #90 on:** October 16, 2009, 01:24 AM »

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.

Innuendo · « **Reply #91 on:** October 16, 2009, 04:23 PM »

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #92 on:** October 16, 2009, 10:16 PM »

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #93 on:** October 20, 2009, 12:48 AM »

Quote from: sajman99 on October 13, 2009, 10:52 PM

@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.

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #94 on:** October 22, 2009, 02:58 AM »

Quote from: sajman99 on October 13, 2009, 10:52 PM

@MilesAhead: No idea about QuEnc
...

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.

MerleOne · « **Reply #95 on:** October 22, 2009, 09:08 AM »

BTW, WinX DVD author is free for a few days (until Oct. 31st).
http://www.winxdvd.com/specialoffer/oct09.htm

MilesAhead · « **Reply #96 on:** October 22, 2009, 08:16 PM »

Quote from: MerleOne on October 22, 2009, 09:08 AM

BTW, WinX DVD author is free for a few days (until Oct. 31st).
http://www.winxdvd.com/specialoffer/oct09.htm

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.

sajman99 · « **Reply #97 on:** October 23, 2009, 06:49 PM »

Quote from: MilesAhead on October 20, 2009, 12:48 AM

...It appears the September has enough of a speed advantage to make it worth the substitutions...

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.

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.

MilesAhead · « **Reply #98 on:** October 23, 2009, 07:12 PM »

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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