Burning AVI to play on DVD players

nd32k3 · May 13, 2006 1:21AM

Ok I have a few videos on my mac that are 300MB a piece. They are in the AVI format, and I would like to burn them to a DVD to play in a standard player. Is there a good way to do this? I have Quicktime Pro, and I tried to convert the big file to a file type that iDVD can understand (I have Tiger, but my iLife isnt up to date). But converting on quicktime took forever. It took about 2 hours to convert to an Mp4 format, and I wasnt even able to finish the one I tried to convert to mov. However the MP4 format looked absolutely terrible, and I want the quality to be as good as it is in its AVI format.

Is there anything I can do? I dont care, either converting AVI to something else in a good way, or burning AVI to a DVD directly (if possible). I just want to be able to watch those videos on a my TV rather than my computer.

k_munic · May 13, 2006 7:57AM

.avi is just a container, you can not know what's inside...

iDVD expects dv as format/codec, I would avoid any inbetween codecs (as mp4), esp lossy ones... (as mp4...)

when you hit Apple-J in QTpro, what does it say about the video-track of that specific .avi?

nd32k3 · May 13, 2006 9:31AM

I pressed Apple-J and it says "Generic MPEG-4" for the Video Track. Wouldn't MPEG-4 be able to play on DVD players if there was no the AVI container?

o4blackwrx · May 13, 2006 10:52AM

If you have Roxio Toast Titanium 7 you can take the .avi file and create a DVD that will play in any DVD Player. All you do is the following: click Video at the top -> Formats (DVD-Video) -> Add (Select the AVI) and it will automatically add it to the DVD. For about a 45 min TV Show it takes up half a DVD. You can also hit the Edit button and it will give you complete detail, as well as a preview of the quality of it. You can adjust the encoding (good, better, best) for video quality, as well as change the Menu style and when menus are generated (ie every 2 mins, 5, 10 etc..) It's really the best program out there to burn your files to a DVD. That's all I use. Hope that was some help.

A link to the product: Toast (if you click on key new features and scroll about halfway down you will see a section that says 'Download DivX videos and create DVDs with drag and drop ease. Enjoy your DivX files where they deserve to be watched on the couch instead of in front of your computer. Only Toast 7 offers one-step DivX to DVD conversion.')

k_munic · May 13, 2006 11:34AM

Quote:

Originally posted by nd32k3

Wouldn't MPEG-4 be able to play on DVD players if there was no the AVI container?

no, videoDVD uses mpeg2 as compressor.. the mp4 has to be converted from one (lossy) playback-only format to another... no high chance for good quality... give Toast 7 a try as mentioned above...

welshwiz · May 14, 2006 2:21PM

Hi

I too had the same issues with no film playing,

this is a post from another forum, this might help with the avi films

Divx beta

intel version of the AC3

Intel version of XVid

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthre...&highlight=avi

hope it helps :-)

nd32k3 · May 15, 2006 9:40AM

Thanks guys. I just purchased Toast and it looks to be what I need. I just have one question-is there any way to fit more than 3 shows onto 1 DVD? What happens if you use Video CD format instead of DVD Video? Will that not work? If not, 3 on a DVD is good enough.

Also, Im just wondering how long it takes? Does it take forever to convert like QTP did or is it quicker? Im just trying it now and it says Encoding but it doesn't look to be moving too quickly.

nd32k3 · May 15, 2006 5:45PM

Well Im not sure if I did something wrong or not, but Toast did not work.

I burned 3 episodes of a show to a blank DVD and it said there was enough space (green full bar). I burned it with Video selected (of the 4 options at the top), and I used the DVD-Video format from the left, and I dragged the 3 AVI shows to the center screen and it looked like it worked. I changed the video quality to best with automatic encoding. I then clicked the red button and it took FOREVER to encode, about 12 minutes to burn.

Then I ejected it and tried it on 4 different DVD players (1 older, 2 newer, 1 handheld DVD player) and it did not work on any of them. I then put it back in my Powerbook and it launched the DVD player and it worked there.

So am I doing something wrong or does it just not work on any of the 4 DVD players that I tested?

So frustrating.

nd32k3 · May 19, 2006 6:48PM

can anyone help?

vox barbara · May 20, 2006 12:06PM

Quote:

Originally posted by nd32k3

Well Im not sure if I did something wrong or not, but Toast did not work.

I burned 3 episodes of a show to a blank DVD and it said there was enough space (green full bar). I burned it with Video selected (of the 4 options at the top), and I used the DVD-Video format from the left, and I dragged the 3 AVI shows to the center screen and it looked like it worked. I changed the video quality to best with automatic encoding. I then clicked the red button and it took FOREVER to encode, about 12 minutes to burn.

Then I ejected it and tried it on 4 different DVD players (1 older, 2 newer, 1 handheld DVD player) and it did not work on any of them. I then put it back in my Powerbook and it launched the DVD player and it worked there.

So am I doing something wrong or does it just not work on any of the 4 DVD players that I tested?

So frustrating.

If you've burned your content as DivX Video, the said DVD players

you are using should support DivX at least.

o4blackwrx · May 20, 2006 6:03PM

Also I am assuming you were using DVD-R's correct? If you did all that, it should have worked correctly. I have burned a number of divx shows I have downloaded and put them on DVD-R in that fashion and it work correct. Yes the encoding will take forever depending on what processor and all you have.

nd32k3 · May 20, 2006 10:18PM

Yes I am using blank DVDs not a CD.

Ok I have found a solution (sort of).

When I use the program 'ffmpegx', I can convert the AVI to VIDEO_TS folder. I then can burn about 4 of them onto a DVD (Toast), that works in any DVD player. (I do have to say that the picture did look incredible, not lossy)

But I tried other ways that would hopefully work better but they did not work. I tried burning straight from AVI using Toast, and it would not play in any DVD player that I tried. I tried using DVD video mode where I could only burn 4 with no success, and I tried the DIVX mode where I could burn 12 but also no success.

Its sort of annoying to have to do it the way I am, but it is definetly better than nothing.

marky · August 27, 2010 4:29AM

I was trying to figure this out and came upon this forum and after reviewing a few threads, thought I'd give some of the advice a try.

I run an iMac OSX 10.5.8 and I also have Toast 7.0.1 - last night I tried converting an AVI copy of the movie Big Business (1987 - Bette Midler, Lily Tomlin) to DVD and it seemed to take for ever. I checked this morning and the disc was done and I tried playing it in my blue ray player and it works just fine - color and sound are great! It's just a bug that it takes so long for the conversion.

Burning AVI to play on DVD players

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