HOWTO Create DVD's from AVI's on Ubuntu
To create simple DVD's (i.e. with no title menu's) you need the following software:
- mplayer
- videotrans
- libxvidcore4
- dvdauthor
- mkisofs
To install all this use:
$ sudo apt-get install mplayer videotrans dvdauthor mkisofs libxvidcore4
Here are the simple steps to format a video for DVD:
First, make sure you can view the video using mplayer:
$ mplayer MyMovie.avi
Then we convert if to DVD mpeg format:
$ movie-to-dvd -m pal MyMovie.avi
This will create two files: MyMovie.m2v and MyMovie.ac3 which we need to merge back together:
$ mplex -f 8 -o MyMovie.mpg MyMovie.m2v MyMovie.ac3
Format the video for DVD:
$ dvdauthor -o dvd/ -t MyMovie.mpg
Create a title page for it:
$ dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T
Create an ISO image to burn to dvd:
$ mkisofs -dvd-video -v -o MyMovie.iso dvd
Then right click on the ISO in the file browser (Nautilus) and select "Write to Disc" and you have a DVD that will play in you normal DVD player.
References:
- http://videotrans.sourceforge.net/movie-to-dvd.1.html
- http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Create_a_DVD:Filesystem
- http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=117709
mplayer MyMovie.avi
mencoder -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ovc lavc -oac lavc \
-vf harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 \ #format sound
-lavcopts \
vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vstrict=0:\ #dvd specs
vbitrate=8000:keyint=12:aspect=16/9:\ #tweakable dvd specs
trell:mbd=2:precmp=2:subcmp=2:cmp=2:dia=-10:\ #hi-qual options
predia=-10:cbp:mv0:vqmin=1:lmin=1:dc=10:\
acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -ofps 30000/1001 \ #sound specs
MyMovie.avi -o MyMovie.mpeg
dvdauthor -o dvd/ -t MyMovie.mpg
etc.
Yes, I know it looks a little complicated, but not really. (See the #comments above. The only thing you can tweak is the vbitrate: less for lo-quality, max=9800; and the aspect ratio). I just cut and pasted from the official mencoder documentation. I use that command to convert a high-quality avi (widescreen) to a high-quality DVD (widescreen) video. (For fullscreen, change 16/9 to 4/3.) It's also for NTSM. It gives me really awesome quality DVD videos (assuming the original AVI is also hi-quality.)
I'm not sure what the dvdauthor -o dvd/ does (since I don't use it directly), but it might be possible to eliminate that step as well since the resulting mpeg is already dvd-player ready.
I did notice though, that "apt get" ought to have a hyphen in between: "apt-get"...
I put it before the -o at the end.
Gil
The method explained in the post though worked beautifully!
Thanks!
PS: The longest time is taken in the "movie-to-dvd" step. For people in North America (check wiki page), they might want to use "ntsc" instead of "pal"