How do you convert .avi files to viewable DVDs

July 8, 2005 11:20 PM

How do I covert .avi/.wmv/.rm files to video_ts or vob dvd files that can be burned and watched on a conventional dvd player?

I have a new Powerbook, run Tiger, and have a growing number of large files to burn. I have downloaded many recent apps including ffmpegX, DVD2oneX, MPEG2 Works, Sizzle, DivX 5.2.1, and compiler tools mencoder, mplayer and mplex. I also have Final Cut Pro 4, but all I want is an easy conversion program. Some are in development on Sourceforge, but what can I use now?

posted by Toolshed to computers & internet (9 comments total)

this might work for you. vlc is available for macosx... but instead of the scale factor he's given, you need to use something else.

i have successfully used this flow to make a DVD from an HDTV broadcast. i used DVD Studio pro to mux the files and author the disc though.

this stuff is not pretty. i dont know of a turnkey transcoding solution.
posted by joeblough at 1:02 AM on July 9, 2005

AVI is pretty simple to transcode ("convert" isn't really the proper word here) to MPEG2 for burning to DVD under Windows. TMPGEnc, for example, can do it quite handily. On the Mac, however, I'm not sure if there are any encoding apps that can read AVI...

WMV and RM you'd have some difficulty with, even under Windows.
posted by neckro23 at 2:54 AM on July 9, 2005

Check out 3ivx.com . You can convert .AVI to .mov and from there it's a snap on a Mac.
posted by realcountrymusic at 4:18 AM on July 9, 2005

Real easy?

Avi (divx) can be dropped into iDVD and you're done. IF you have the divx component. After that, things get very, very murky.

WMV and RM have difficulties because they're tied to their properitary formats.

To handle WMV like any other Quicktime component, you can pay for Flip4Mac and you're back off it iDVD.

btw, for 'easy' you'll end up in iDVD 4 to utilize better QT mpeg2 technology to get the item under the 4.3 Gig barrier.

And that will be more of the issue/problem.

I'll also suggest the phillips 642 dvd player which happens to play divx files. There's also the norcent which is about $45.
posted by filmgeek at 4:47 AM on July 9, 2005

For any PC users that may find this question - or if you have access to a PC - I use Diko. One-click DivX to DVD. Works great.
posted by blag at 5:11 AM on July 9, 2005

ffmpegX is about as easy as it gets. Here's a guide on their site that steps you through making a DVD. It should handle AVIs and WMVs with no problem (as long as the WMVs aren't DRMed). You probably won't be able to process .rm with it, as it's proprietary. mencoder/transcode (part of ffmpegX, from what I recall) would work with .rm on an Intel-based system, as it can use the Windows RealPlayer .DLL files, but I'm not sure if there's a solution on non-Intel CPUs. So, uh, wait until those Intel Macs come out for that.
posted by zsazsa at 6:34 AM on July 9, 2005

These comments, all helpful and informative, bear out what I've been experiencing--this isn't a self-evident process. I've seen stand-alone conversion, or trancoding (thank you neckro23), apps in development at Sourceforge but am too amateurish to dabble in that. I'm going to keep listening all day and report back for those interested in the result. I like the simple idea of buying a Divx DVD playeral a lot--it's simple and involves spending money. Many thanks.
posted by Toolshed at 9:57 AM on July 9, 2005

I've used ffmpegx for all my transcoding needs on OS X. It seems to work just fine. For making a DVD video out of AVI files, I found that the latest version of Toast seems to do it quite easily, if you don't care about making fancy menus. If you do, then iDVD should work as long as you convert your videos to Quicktime format first.
posted by odinsdream at 10:23 AM on July 9, 2005

yeah, i gave up on authoring DVDs about 9 months ago... which is when i built an HTPC running myth. i just transcode everything to mpeg4 avi with mencoder and watch the avis with mplayer.

if i hadnt done the HTPC thing i'd be all over the .avi playing DVD players.

i always had audio/video sync problems using iDVD. of course that was a couple of years ago and from the sound of the answers here it looks like iDVD now Just Works for .avi->DVD.
posted by joeblough at 11:07 PM on July 10, 2005