Divx to Dvd, how many files can you fit?

VikingCrown · Post by **VikingCrown** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:45 pm

Hello, I recently got MF4, and i have been trying to place several TV episodes that I recorded and converted to Divx files (for the sake of file size) and get them on a DVD. When I start placing them into the program, It seems that I can only get 2 episodes onto each DVD disc. The Divx files are approx 350MB each, some of the particulars on the files are:

Filetype: AVI
Duration: 42:22
Aspect Ratio: 1.8095(38.21)
Size: Wide Screen(16:9)
Video Stream: mpeg4, 608X336, 23.98 fps
Audio Stream: mp3, 4800Hz Stereo, 129 kb/s

What I want to know is can I fit a minimum of 3 episodes preferably 4 onto 1 DVD with menus? If so how can I accomplish this? Thanks in advance for any help!!!!!

~Brian

TubaDad · Post by **TubaDad** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 1:53 pm

I believe the biggest part of your problem is that the DVD format is set and you can not change the fact that it uses MPEG2. Even if your files are compressed with Divx, it is going to re-render the files into MPEG2 to be DVD compliant. There are ways to get more on to a DVD, like lowering the bit rate. I can't give you a full answer because I have never used MF, but hopefully this helps to understand the problem you are encountering.

Also, there are more and more set top DVD players that will recognize and play Divx files, but I don't have one of those either so I can not tell you the formatting to accomplish that either.

Hope that helped a little bit.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:19 pm

The conversion is based on TIME.
Take the time of your divx movies.
Use the built in Templates or create a custom template.

Divx files are hard to convert because they are highly compressed and complex files.
I use a Norcent dvd/divx player I picked up at "6th Avenue Electronics" for $38.00 to play them.
Great little device & can browse a cd/dvd for other video content and formats.

Personnally to me converting a divx file to dvd is very unreliable.
The fastest method is to output from your video cards TV out to
another recording device and re-capture the footage.
That will eliminate any video/audio sync problems.

Hope this helps,

MD

VikingCrown · Post by **VikingCrown** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 2:34 pm

maddrummer,

I've seen the divx players that are available, but i'd rather not clutter my tv area with another electronics component, so I think that I am going to stick with the conversion to DVD for now. But if this becomes too much of a hassle, i'll just consider it an excuse to buy another gadget

I'm not familiar with the templates, is there a guide or a faq about these templates that I can reference, or can someone give me a quick rundown on how to set up a template to do what i'm looking to do. Also if all my shows are about 42 min in length, what would the max ammount be that i could fit onto a dvd-5.

I thought of something else, it looks like it is possible to output to an iso file. If I were to output to an iso file for a dvd-9, and then run the resulting iso file through dvd shrink to fit it onto a dvd-5 would that totally destroy the quality of my recordings?

again, thanks for all the fast responses, this is a very good forum!!!!

TubaDad · Post by **TubaDad** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 3:33 pm

Actually, you have touched on something with DVDShrink. I have, on several occasions, output to folders and then ran DVDShrink against the folders to create a new folder set before burning. I always use folders so that I can check the DVD with WinDVD or PowerDVD before I burn it. I like to be able to see the menus and video before it goes on disc.

You will of course lose some quality, but depending on the quality of your starting videos you may not even notice.

For the templates, I have customized a couple of them. When your are in the "Create Disc" mode the "settings and options" and "Project settings" are on the bottom left of the screen. You can customize and modify in those two options to create what you need.

Since I usually create projects in the 60-90 minute range I have created 6000 bit rate templates and they work very well.

Since you are going to be converting as you are creating the disc (or folders) you will take a while rendering the project, but it will come out in the end.

Good Luck and let us know how it comes out.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:16 pm

A good "rule-of-thumb" is 90 minutes per DVD. You can get that with TubaDad's suggested 6000k bitrate and Dolby AC3 audio. This bitrate is typical of commercal DVDs (The DVD spec allows bitrates up to about 9800k, audio & video combined)

When you squeeze more than 2 hours on a (single-layer) DVD, you start to see the video-quality degrade. You'll have to judge for yourself... There are lots of variables including the quality of the source video, the quality of your TV, and how critical you are.

The DVD standard does not set a fixed level of compression -

Higher bitrate = higher quality = lower compression = less playing time.
Lower bitrate = lower quality = higher compression = more playing time.

Using compressed audio allows more room for more video or higher-quality video. If you live in the USA (or another NTSC country), your player must play LPCM (uncompressed) and Dolby AC3 audio. If you live in a PAL country, your player must play LPCM and MPEG-2 audio. (Players are not required to play MP3 audio.) Don't worry, if you choose one of the templates, your audio & video will be DVD-standard compliant.

A Bitrate Calculator may help.

I haven't tried DivX, but lots of posters here have had lots of problems trying to make DVDs from them. DivX is MPEG-4 and DVDs are MPEG-2. These are both lossy compression techniques. You cannot convert between them without some quality loss. And, you cannot decode & re-code, or re-compress the same format without quality loss.

I have had acceptable results with DVDshrink when using a small amount of additional compression. But, I try to use the "correct" bitrate in the first place, because I "know" the extra re-compression step degrades the video... even if I don't notice the difference.

For best results, capture to AVI/DV (which is much less lossy). If you're editing, leave it in AVI format. Convert to MPEG-2 once as the last step before burning.

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:24 pm

Make sure to install the latest update 4.04.

I would especially do as TubaDad says and in the burning stage create dvd folders first before burning to dvd.
I would also suggest creating a dvd compliant mpeg2 file (use the export feature of MF4, 3rd icon down on the left) and importing that file before going on to the menuing and burning stage. Any errors will show up in the exporting process (saves time). Delete the original divx file from the timeline and import the new created dvd compliant file.

After creation then check the dvd movie by choosing "Play from dvd folder" using the ulead dvd player/windvd or powerdvd.

Many divx files will experience audio/sync problems. If there is an audio sync problem you will see it playing back the dvd folder using the software players (saves dvd's). Simply skip to the end of the movie and check the sync. You must do this from a VIDEO_TS folder NOT playing the mpeg2 file directly. Playing the Mpeg2 file directly doesn't mean it will end up in sync. So you must create dvd folders to check for any syncing errors. If the Mpeg2 files doesn't play correctly forget creating anything. All I can say then is good luck and buy the player

The framerate of your divx file is 23.98 and for NTSC must be converted to 29.97fps or PAL 25fps.
Try to record the original source video if possible at the same framerate and only stereo audio. The audio file looks convertable in your video.
5.1 audio tracks aren't compatible to convert.

Hope this helps,

MD

TubaDad · Post by **TubaDad** » Tue Jan 10, 2006 8:46 pm

Yea, what they said.

Actually, my apologies for the directions I gave. I forgot we were talking about MF and my directions to find the templates were referencing VS, oops

. I knew there was a good reason that I shouldn't stray like that. At least the information was useful and something that MD and Doug could expand on.

tyamada · Post by **tyamada** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 1:37 am

VikingCrown:

You might want to take a look at this post, http://phpbb.ulead.com.tw/EN/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Even though he discusses HD video he has found DVD players that will play DIVX files.

I have a Tshobia DVD player that claims to play DIVX/MPEG4 files, the only problem is it will only play them if they are on a 74 min CD, doesn't support DVD disks

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:05 am

When I saw the Norcent dvd player in 6th Avenue I wanted to play with it. Like a toy. Neat not having to turn the computer on to watch some
plain mpeg2 files or vcd/svcd's burn to dvd using the directory mode.

Not the best dvd player or remote control unit.

For $38.00 it plays dixv,vcd,svcd,avi(depends),dv-avi,mpeg1, mpeg2, mpeg4.

You can put the unit into directory mode and go through the folders of
a dvd or cd and play the many supported video files including many
supported audio files, even audio s/pdif out.

I can put many hours of divx movies on 1 dvd.
Like I said it's a toy, I'll only use divx for special purpose things.
Still can't beat Mpeg2 reiiability.

MD

VikingCrown · Post by **VikingCrown** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 4:07 pm

Ok, so last night I started converting the divx files int mpeg2 compliant files. I changed the vbr setting from 7000 to 4000, and then i also left the dolby digital audio, but changed it down to 192 from whatever the preset was. When the first 4 had finished converting, I didn't have any audio from 2 of the resulting mpeg files. The display in MF4 said something like "no output bframe lag . . . something" So does anyone know a way to get the 2 files that show this message to convert correctly? Or am I going to need to browse bit-torrent sites to get someone elses copy of the file and see if that one works instead?

maddrummer3301 · Post by **maddrummer3301** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:20 pm

Original Post:
>>Hello, I recently got MF4, and i have been trying to place several TV episodes that I recorded and converted to Divx files (for the sake of file size) and get them on a DVD.

>>So does anyone know a way to get the 2 files that show this message to convert correctly? Or am I going to need to browse
>>bit-torrent sites to get someone elses copy of the file and see if that one works instead?

What are the odds of that?

MD

VikingCrown · Post by **VikingCrown** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 6:28 pm

They were the first 2 episodes that I turned into divx files before I really figured out all the proper settings for optimal results. So I guess there was something that I did initially that may have messed up the files a bit. They still play fine as divx files with the audio and everything, so now i'm just trying to find a way to fix my rookie mistakes.

DVDDoug · Post by **DVDDoug** » Wed Jan 11, 2006 7:48 pm

You can search the Internet for a program that can convert "DivX to MPEG" or "DivX to AVI/DV". I've had some success with a program called SUPER (Free!!!) which can convert between many different audio/video formats. (But like I said before, I haven't used DivX.)

Since your problem seems to be with the audio, you may need to look for a program that can extract the audio from your DivX file. Search for "DivX to MP3" or "DivX to WAV", and you'll probably find something that works... eventually.

This could be a long, frustrating, process... Before I solved my particular problem with SUPER and a couple of other tools, I spent about a month downloading & trying-out a ship-load of trial programs. I guess there are just too freekin' many A/V file formats, with too freekin' many variations of each format. I wish the programmers who write these programs/codecs would put lot's more effort into handling all of the variations... or that the companies wouldn't claim that the software can handle them all!