Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
course..

	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..

	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Ray Olszewski]

Hal MacArgle wrote:
> 	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
> information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
> some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
> DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
> burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
> course..
> 
> 	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
> accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
> MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
> 
> 	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
> 

How did you use the Google site? I searched there on "vob create" and 
got, with one intervening step, to a Sourceforge project called 
"Videotrans" that says it is "a set of scripts that converts a movie 
file in any format that mplayer understands (AVI, etc) to a DVD 
compatible VOB file, including all the necessary conversions. Further, 
an automatic DVD menu generator is provided."

I cannot say how good this project is ... I've never tried to convert 
any of my home video to standard DVD format (and it's not in the Debian 
archive, which it why it is new to me) ... but it certainly is not a 
Windows response. (I did see some of them, BTW, referencing WINE.)

An entry in this thread by "redbeard" --

http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/gaming-games-multimedia-entertainment/52379-mpeg-dvd-vob-format-conversion.html

-- was how I found it (this thread was what the Google search itself 
returned, near the top). His description makes it sound pretty 
functional. Other messages in this thread mention a couple of other 
possibilities too.

Perhaps if you give videotrans a test run, you can tell us how good it 
actually is?

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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Conway S. Smith]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Ray Olszewski wrote:
> Hal MacArgle wrote:
> 
>>	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
>>information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
>>some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
>>DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
>>burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
>>course..
>>
>>	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
>>accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
>>MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
>>
>>	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
>>
> 
> 
> How did you use the Google site? I searched there on "vob create" and 
> got, with one intervening step, to a Sourceforge project called 
> "Videotrans" that says it is "a set of scripts that converts a movie 
> file in any format that mplayer understands (AVI, etc) to a DVD 
> compatible VOB file, including all the necessary conversions. Further, 
> an automatic DVD menu generator is provided."
> 

My search was "DVD author" (sans quotes), which found
http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net & http://qdvdauthor.sourceforge.net (Qt
frontend to the former).  They looked pretty promising.

Good luck.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Stephen Samuel]

I've used dvdauthor.  It creates the directory structure, then
you burn it onto the DVD with k3b.

Ray Olszewski wrote:

> Hal MacArgle wrote:
>
>>     Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
>> information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
>> some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
>> DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
>> burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
>> course..
>>
>>     Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
>> accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
>> MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
>>
>>     Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
>>
>
> How did you use the Google site? I searched there on "vob create" and 
> got, with one intervening step, to a Sourceforge project called 
> "Videotrans" that says it is "a set of scripts that converts a movie 
> file in any format that mplayer understands (AVI, etc) to a DVD 
> compatible VOB file, including all the necessary conversions. Further, 
> an automatic DVD menu generator is provided."
>
> I cannot say how good this project is ... I've never tried to convert 
> any of my home video to standard DVD format (and it's not in the 
> Debian archive, which it why it is new to me) ... but it certainly is 
> not a Windows response. (I did see some of them, BTW, referencing WINE.)
>
> An entry in this thread by "redbeard" --
>
> http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/gaming-games-multimedia-entertainment/52379-mpeg-dvd-vob-format-conversion.html 
>
>
> -- was how I found it (this thread was what the Google search itself 
> returned, near the top). His description makes it sound pretty 
> functional. Other messages in this thread mention a couple of other 
> possibilities too.
>
> Perhaps if you give videotrans a test run, you can tell us how good it 
> actually is?

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tovid - videotrans ? (was Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??)

[chuck gelm]

I would also like to convert some .avi (and other formats) so they can be
viewed on a DVD player.  I tried 'videotran' that Ray found.  The spiel
on http://videotrans.sourceforge.net/

 I downloaded the source and that was only the beginning of a
wild goose chase.

.../videotrans-1.4.1... only a 85K .tar.gz however
./configure halted with an error that ffmpeg was required.

 I obtained ffmpeg and ./configure && make && make install

.../videotrans-1.4.1/./configure complained that mpegtools was required

I obtained mpegtools, ./configure && make && make install

.../videotrans-1.4.1/./configure complained that spumux was required and 
spumux was part of dvdauthor.

 I obtained dvdauthor and ./configure, but dvdauthor halted on error 
that libdvdread (-devel)
 was required and did not mention where it could be found.
I give up.

 I found 'tovid' and am off on this path:
http://tovid.berlios.de//en/index.html

"tovid is a collection of video disc authoring tools; it can help you 
create your own DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs for playback on your home DVD 
player. It has a command-line interface 
<http://tovid.berlios.de//en/cli.html> as well as a graphical frontend 
<http://tovid.berlios.de//en/gui.html>. tovid is free software 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software>."

:-|  Chuck


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Re: tovid - videotrans ? (was Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??)

[Hal MacArgle]

On 02-27, chuck gelm wrote:
> I would also like to convert some .avi (and other formats) so they can be
> viewed on a DVD player.  I tried 'videotran' that Ray found.  The spiel
> on http://videotrans.sourceforge.net/
> 
> I downloaded the source and that was only the beginning of a
> wild goose chase.
> 
> ../videotrans-1.4.1... only a 85K .tar.gz however
> ./configure halted with an error that ffmpeg was required.
> 
> I obtained ffmpeg and ./configure && make && make install
> 
> ../videotrans-1.4.1/./configure complained that mpegtools was required
> 
> I obtained mpegtools, ./configure && make && make install
> 
> ../videotrans-1.4.1/./configure complained that spumux was required and 
> spumux was part of dvdauthor.
> 
> I obtained dvdauthor and ./configure, but dvdauthor halted on error 
> that libdvdread (-devel)
> was required and did not mention where it could be found.
> I give up.
> 
> I found 'tovid' and am off on this path:
> http://tovid.berlios.de//en/index.html
> 
> "tovid is a collection of video disc authoring tools; it can help you 
> create your own DVDs, VCDs, and SVCDs for playback on your home DVD 
> player. It has a command-line interface 
> <http://tovid.berlios.de//en/cli.html> as well as a graphical frontend 
> <http://tovid.berlios.de//en/gui.html>. tovid is free software 
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software>."
> 
> :-|  Chuck

	Thanks Chuck for saving me a lot of leg work.. I suspect, not
really knowing, that dvdauthor would be a big stumbler because it's a
very powerful program and we only need a, probably, small part of
it..

	Correct me if I'm wrong but I am beginning to see why it's
not __easy__... The .avi file/s/ are viewable by themselves but the
kicker is to get them on a DVD blank in iso9660 format, for one, plus
into the various video_ts--.vob files plus .ifo and .bup files. etc..
For kicks I tried a Win98 scheme and it tought me something, mainly
that you need much more storage than suspected because it writes
everything to a temp file; not simply file direct to DVD... Bottom
line with my Duron 1.3M with 512M memory, in a Win98SE partition it
took almost 3 hours to do the deed, most of the time "converting"
"rather than "burning," with a DVD+RW 2.4X blank.. I bought some 8X
blanks to see if that speeds things up a mite; suspect not that
much... (Plextor PX-708A unit)

	I'm guessing that the various routines with Linux; each
operation is broken down into bits and pieces.. Actually that's what
we do with CD burning anyway, eh?? Please edit any mistakes above.
<grin> And, oh yes, the burned DVD views fine on an old standalone
DVD player, that we use for viewing commercial movies..

	Update: I just found, buried in my shack, a 3 page txt copy of
an article by Chris Stoddard; "DVD Authoring." I haven't a clue where
I fetched it from.. It goes into some good details, some of which may
not be needed for newer drives.. Worth a look see, maybe?

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.

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Re: tovid - videotrans ? (was Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??)

[Ray Olszewski]

Hal MacArgle wrote:
[...]
> 	Update: I just found, buried in my shack, a 3 page txt copy of
> an article by Chris Stoddard; "DVD Authoring." I haven't a clue where
> I fetched it from.. It goes into some good details, some of which may
> not be needed for newer drives.. Worth a look see, maybe?
> 

http://linuxgazette.net/issue83/stoddard.html

It's dated 2002, which is a bit old. But then, so is your system, so it 
might be useful for advice on doing DVD burning with a system that is, 
by today's standards, a bit light on CPU power and RAM (and maybe HD 
space; i don't recall if you said).

As I skim through it, the one thing I realize that might be an issue for 
you is the codec your .avi files use. .avi is a container type (for 
combining video and audio), not a specification of how the video itself 
is encoded. These days, .avi *typically* means mpeg4 (aka DivX) video, 
but I doubr that was true for stuff encoded with strwamer (the vidcap 
application Stoddardf discusses). So you may have to do different 
transcoding to get from your video to the mpeg2 that DVDs expect.

Other parts look quite up to date. growisofs remains the current 
free-software standard for writing data DVDs, for example ... it's kind 
of a combination of mkisofs and cdrecord for DVDs. So while you won't 
find all the answers here, you should find it helpful.

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Re: tovid - videotrans ? (was Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??)

[Hal MacArgle]

On 02-28, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> 
> http://linuxgazette.net/issue83/stoddard.html
> 
> It's dated 2002, which is a bit old. But then, so is your system, so it 
> might be useful for advice on doing DVD burning with a system that is, 
> by today's standards, a bit light on CPU power and RAM (and maybe HD 
> space; i don't recall if you said).

	The HD seems to not be a problem in that I have a 40gB for
the O/S's and temp files plus a 60gB just for the data... Chuck has
discovered that a tremendous amount of time is spent for the
"conversion" to DVD/VOB.. The learning curve flattens, but not a
happy one... :^).. Funny no one, heretofore, has mentioned this that
I've seen.. Chucks CPU is a 2gHz Athlon; mine a 1.3gHz Duron.. I have
512mB DRAM and he over 700..

	Thanks to all for the help..

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: tovid - videotrans ? (was Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??)

[chuck gelm]

Hal MacArgle wrote:

> <snip>
>
>
>	Thanks Chuck for saving me a lot of leg work.. I suspect, not
>really knowing, that dvdauthor would be a big stumbler because it's a
>very powerful program and we only need a, probably, small part of
>it..
>
>	Correct me if I'm wrong but I am beginning to see why it's
>not __easy__... The .avi file/s/ are viewable by themselves but the
>kicker is to get them on a DVD blank in iso9660 format, for one, plus
>  
>
I can create an iso9660 DVD without much difficulty.
I used 'growisofs'. 
This cannot be viewed on my DVD player, however. :-(

I revisited 'videotrans ./configure' after aquiring the items
required by 'tovid'.  Videotrans then 'configure'd, 'make'd, and 'make 
install'd.
 :-)
It creates folders AUDIO_TS and VIDEO_TS.
However, the 'man' page leaves me lost at the last step:

'a_command_to_burn_a_dvd_from dvd_directory'.  :-|

So, what is the command?
---
My 2 GHz Athlon takes over 40 minutes per 350 MB .avi,
so compare this file size and time to your own. :-|

Please show your commands that resulted in a viewable DVD.
Especially your 'a_command_to_burn_a_dvd_from dvd_directory'.

Regards, Chuck

p.s. Perhaps we should take this off list or to a videotrans/tovid list.?!

>into the various video_ts--.vob files plus .ifo and .bup files. etc..
>For kicks I tried a Win98 scheme and it tought me something, mainly
>that you need much more storage than suspected because it writes
>everything to a temp file; not simply file direct to DVD... Bottom
>line with my Duron 1.3M with 512M memory, in a Win98SE partition it
>took almost 3 hours to do the deed, most of the time "converting"
>"rather than "burning," with a DVD+RW 2.4X blank.. I bought some 8X
>blanks to see if that speeds things up a mite; suspect not that
>much... (Plextor PX-708A unit)
>
>	I'm guessing that the various routines with Linux; each
>operation is broken down into bits and pieces.. Actually that's what
>we do with CD burning anyway, eh?? Please edit any mistakes above.
><grin> And, oh yes, the burned DVD views fine on an old standalone
>DVD player, that we use for viewing commercial movies..
>
>	Update: I just found, buried in my shack, a 3 page txt copy of
>an article by Chris Stoddard; "DVD Authoring." I haven't a clue where
>I fetched it from.. It goes into some good details, some of which may
>not be needed for newer drives.. Worth a look see, maybe?
>
>  
>

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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Artūras Moskvinas]

>	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
>information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
>some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
>DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
>burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
>course..
>
>	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
>accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
>MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
>
>	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
>
>  
>
http://mightylegends.zapto.org/dvd/any2vob/

You'll also need dvdauthor to make dvd structure from VOB.

Arturas M.


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Videotrans ... Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[chuck gelm]

Hal MacArgle wrote:

>	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
>information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
>some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
>DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
>burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
>course..
>
>	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
>accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
>MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
>
>	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
>  
>
Hal et allia:

 I converted three (3) .avi files and burned them to DVD and can
play them on my DVD player.  Text menu also! :-)
I installed videotrans and stumbled through enough required
additional project installations to get it to work.  Thus:

#!/bin/sh
# create a DVD-player for .avi movies

movie-to-dvd -m ntsc -d letterbox -a 4:3 CloseToHomeS01E08.avi 
CloseToHomeS01E09.avi CloseToHomeS01E10.avi

movie-make-title-simple -o title -m ntsc -n none

movie-title -T 2x2 -c none -o title.vob -t title CloseToHomeS01E08.m2v 
CloseToHomeS01E09.m2v CloseToHomeS01E10.m2v

dvdauthor -o dvd_directory -x title.vob-dvdauthor.xml

growisofs -dvd-video -Z /dev/dvd dvd_directory

#end

 There is some word wrapping in my display while entering this note.
The commands are double spaced, so if you see consecutive lines,
there was 'word wrap' and not a newline.  ;-)

HTH, Chuck



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Re: Videotrans ... Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

On 03-01, chuck gelm wrote:
> 
> I converted three (3) .avi files and burned them to DVD and can
> play them on my DVD player.  Text menu also! :-)
> I installed videotrans and stumbled through enough required
> additional project installations to get it to work.  Thus:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> # create a DVD-player for .avi movies
> 
> movie-to-dvd -m ntsc -d letterbox -a 4:3 CloseToHomeS01E08.avi 
> CloseToHomeS01E09.avi CloseToHomeS01E10.avi
> 
> movie-make-title-simple -o title -m ntsc -n none
> 
> movie-title -T 2x2 -c none -o title.vob -t title CloseToHomeS01E08.m2v 
> CloseToHomeS01E09.m2v CloseToHomeS01E10.m2v
> 
> dvdauthor -o dvd_directory -x title.vob-dvdauthor.xml
> 
> growisofs -dvd-video -Z /dev/dvd dvd_directory
> 
> #end
> 
> There is some word wrapping in my display while entering this note.
> The commands are double spaced, so if you see consecutive lines,
> there was 'word wrap' and not a newline.  ;-)
> 
> HTH, Chuck

	That's fantastic Chuck; a Mini-HOWTO tutorial of what's
involved for the deed.. I can see now why GUI front ends are so
popular, eh?

	We now have the step-by-step involved.. Great work..

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

On 03-01, chuck gelm wrote:
> Hal et allia:
> 
> I converted three (3) .avi files and burned them to DVD and can
> play them on my DVD player.  Text menu also! :-)
> I installed videotrans and stumbled through enough required
> additional project installations to get it to work.  Thus:
> 
> #!/bin/sh
> # create a DVD-player for .avi movies
> 
> movie-to-dvd -m ntsc -d letterbox -a 4:3 CloseToHomeS01E08.avi 
> CloseToHomeS01E09.avi CloseToHomeS01E10.avi
> 
> movie-make-title-simple -o title -m ntsc -n none
> 
> movie-title -T 2x2 -c none -o title.vob -t title CloseToHomeS01E08.m2v 
> CloseToHomeS01E09.m2v CloseToHomeS01E10.m2v
> 
> dvdauthor -o dvd_directory -x title.vob-dvdauthor.xml
> 
> growisofs -dvd-video -Z /dev/dvd dvd_directory
> 
> #end
> 
> There is some word wrapping in my display while entering this note.
> The commands are double spaced, so if you see consecutive lines,
> there was 'word wrap' and not a newline.  ;-)
> 
> HTH, Chuck

	Greetings: Helped immensely in that I am now, routinely,
burning DVD's from tapes; which spawns more questions.. Of course.

	Typically using xawtv, and a BT878 card, to grab a 50 minute
total analogue tape to an avi file and then following the above to
burn the final DVD on either DVD+R or DVD+RW blanks I notice one
thing:

The burn "shading" on the blank is only 1/3 the width of the surface
and; mounting the DVD reports less than 1gB in length.. It's obvious
that something is crunching the data more than, what, "normal." I
note the blanks list four different Modes from "HQ" as 60 minutes on
a 4.7gB disc thru "EP" 240 minutes each disc, but I see no reference
to select these modes, that I can find... I would like to burn the
best quality; closer to the original if possible..

	With everything else the same, TV set; monitor etc, the view
quality of the original VHS tape is better than the view of the DVD
copy, so something is happening, somewhere /or/ I'm doing something
wrong... (The blanks I'm using are not white box but so called prime)

	I'm learning but, obviously, have a long way to go. <grin>
TIA.

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[chuck]

Hal MacArgle wrote:

>On 03-01, chuck gelm wrote:
>  
>
>>Hal et allia:
>>
>>I converted three (3) .avi files and burned them to DVD and can
>>play them on my DVD player.  Text menu also! :-)
>>I installed videotrans and stumbled through enough required
>>additional project installations to get it to work.  Thus:
>>
>>#!/bin/sh
>># create a DVD-player for .avi movies
>>
>>movie-to-dvd -m ntsc -d letterbox -a 4:3 CloseToHomeS01E08.avi 
>>CloseToHomeS01E09.avi CloseToHomeS01E10.avi
>>
>>movie-make-title-simple -o title -m ntsc -n none
>>
>>movie-title -T 2x2 -c none -o title.vob -t title CloseToHomeS01E08.m2v 
>>CloseToHomeS01E09.m2v CloseToHomeS01E10.m2v
>>
>>dvdauthor -o dvd_directory -x title.vob-dvdauthor.xml
>>
>>growisofs -dvd-video -Z /dev/dvd dvd_directory
>>
>>#end
>>
>>There is some word wrapping in my display while entering this note.
>>The commands are double spaced, so if you see consecutive lines,
>>there was 'word wrap' and not a newline.  ;-)
>>
>>HTH, Chuck
>>    
>>
>
>	Greetings: Helped immensely in that I am now, routinely,
>burning DVD's from tapes; which spawns more questions.. Of course.
>
>	Typically using xawtv, and a BT878 card, to grab a 50 minute
>total analogue tape to an avi file and then following the above to
>burn the final DVD on either DVD+R or DVD+RW blanks I notice one
>thing:
>
>The burn "shading" on the blank is only 1/3 the width of the surface
>and; mounting the DVD reports less than 1gB in length.. It's obvious
>that something is crunching the data more than, what, "normal." I
>note the blanks list four different Modes from "HQ" as 60 minutes on
>a 4.7gB disc thru "EP" 240 minutes each disc, but I see no reference
>to select these modes, that I can find... I would like to burn the
>best quality; closer to the original if possible..
>
>	With everything else the same, TV set; monitor etc, the view
>quality of the original VHS tape is better than the view of the DVD
>copy, so something is happening, somewhere /or/ I'm doing something
>wrong... (The blanks I'm using are not white box but so called prime)
>
>	I'm learning but, obviously, have a long way to go. <grin>
>TIA.
>  
>
Hi, Hal:

 I don't know about the quality of VHS->.avi, but to create a higher 
quality DVD from an .avi:
  man movie-to-dvd ( -q ["low","normal","high",N] ).
where, in kilobits per second, low=3500, normal=6000, high=8000, N=user 
supplied number.

So, if the distortion occurs in the VHS -> .AVI, this may be no help.  :-|

HTH, Chuck


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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Ray Olszewski]

chuck wrote:
> Hal MacArgle wrote:
> 
>> On 03-01, chuck gelm wrote:
>>  
>>
>>> Hal et allia:
>>>
>>> I converted three (3) .avi files and burned them to DVD and can
>>> play them on my DVD player.  Text menu also! :-)
>>> I installed videotrans and stumbled through enough required
>>> additional project installations to get it to work.  Thus:
>>>
>>> #!/bin/sh
>>> # create a DVD-player for .avi movies
>>>
>>> movie-to-dvd -m ntsc -d letterbox -a 4:3 CloseToHomeS01E08.avi 
>>> CloseToHomeS01E09.avi CloseToHomeS01E10.avi
>>>
>>> movie-make-title-simple -o title -m ntsc -n none
>>>
>>> movie-title -T 2x2 -c none -o title.vob -t title 
>>> CloseToHomeS01E08.m2v CloseToHomeS01E09.m2v CloseToHomeS01E10.m2v
>>>
>>> dvdauthor -o dvd_directory -x title.vob-dvdauthor.xml
>>>
>>> growisofs -dvd-video -Z /dev/dvd dvd_directory
>>>
>>> #end
>>>
>>> There is some word wrapping in my display while entering this note.
>>> The commands are double spaced, so if you see consecutive lines,
>>> there was 'word wrap' and not a newline.  ;-)
>>>
>>> HTH, Chuck
>>>   
>>
>>
>>     Greetings: Helped immensely in that I am now, routinely,
>> burning DVD's from tapes; which spawns more questions.. Of course.
>>
>>     Typically using xawtv, and a BT878 card, to grab a 50 minute
>> total analogue tape to an avi file and then following the above to
>> burn the final DVD on either DVD+R or DVD+RW blanks I notice one
>> thing:
>>
>> The burn "shading" on the blank is only 1/3 the width of the surface
>> and; mounting the DVD reports less than 1gB in length.. It's obvious
>> that something is crunching the data more than, what, "normal." I
>> note the blanks list four different Modes from "HQ" as 60 minutes on
>> a 4.7gB disc thru "EP" 240 minutes each disc, but I see no reference
>> to select these modes, that I can find... I would like to burn the
>> best quality; closer to the original if possible..
>>
>>     With everything else the same, TV set; monitor etc, the view
>> quality of the original VHS tape is better than the view of the DVD
>> copy, so something is happening, somewhere /or/ I'm doing something
>> wrong... (The blanks I'm using are not white box but so called prime)
>>
>>     I'm learning but, obviously, have a long way to go. <grin>
>> TIA.
>>  
>>
> Hi, Hal:
> 
> I don't know about the quality of VHS->.avi, but to create a higher 
> quality DVD from an .avi:
>  man movie-to-dvd ( -q ["low","normal","high",N] ).
> where, in kilobits per second, low=3500, normal=6000, high=8000, N=user 
> supplied number.
> 
> So, if the distortion occurs in the VHS -> .AVI, this may be no help.  :-|
> 
> HTH, Chuck

Hal -- What resolution are you capturing the tape at? With what I recall 
of your equipment, I'm betting on 320x240. This is way below the 
resolution (640x480 or 720x480) of "real" DVDs and could account for the 
  size differences you are seeing. With this spproach, you are not 
deinterlacing the full image you see on videotape, which can account for 
the visible quality degredation (something I also see here, and that I 
don't know what to do about it without a faster CPU that can capture at 
640x480 deinterlaced). Finally, you may be capturing at too low a 
bitrate for the conversion to DVD to do much.

I don't capture here with xawtv; I use mencoder (I didn't even remember 
that xawtv had a capture mode, and I don't see one mentioned in the man 
page I have for it). But if you want to explore possibilities on that 
end, please post again with the details of your xawtv capture settings, 
including what "top" tells you about CPU use during a capture (so we get 
an idea of you have the power to run at higher-quality settings in real 
time).

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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

On 03-16, Ray Olszewski wrote:


> Hal -- What resolution are you capturing the tape at? With what I recall 
> of your equipment, I'm betting on 320x240. This is way below the 
> resolution (640x480 or 720x480) of "real" DVDs and could account for the 
>  size differences you are seeing. With this spproach, you are not 
> deinterlacing the full image you see on videotape, which can account for 
> the visible quality degredation (something I also see here, and that I 
> don't know what to do about it without a faster CPU that can capture at 
> 640x480 deinterlaced). Finally, you may be capturing at too low a 
> bitrate for the conversion to DVD to do much.

	Xawtv reports 384x288 16 bpp 12.000fps whilst recording.. I'm
presuming this is automatic as, so far, I haven't found a way to try
and adjust it upwards.. The 12fps is strange, again to me, as I
thought it had to be 29?, near 30, for NTSC.. I have lots to
learn..<g>




> I don't capture here with xawtv; I use mencoder (I didn't even remember 
> that xawtv had a capture mode, and I don't see one mentioned in the man 
> page I have for it). But if you want to explore possibilities on that 
> end, please post again with the details of your xawtv capture settings, 
> including what "top" tells you about CPU use during a capture (so we get 
> an idea of you have the power to run at higher-quality settings in real 
> time).

	I didn't know that mencoder would grab streaming video and
when I man mencoder I get mplayer's man text.. Most of the acronyms
are strange to me too.. I've purchased two books on multimedia, sight
unseen, and they are both "click this, click that," Fooey.. <grin>

	Running tops whilst recording I get average loads around 0.11
and CPU SYS around 3.7%.. Even that doesn't sound right to me... I
have 512mB SDRAM and a 1gB swap partition, never, seemingly, used...

	Xawtv doesn't have many actual settings except I have to
change the PAL default to NTSC, of course and enter the input jack in
the rc file.. I use both composite1 or SVideo... Merely invoking
xawtv in an xterm and right clicking on the blue video window, I can
click on capture /or/ use the shortcut, thence select AVI, thence
enter a single filename & click on the record bar, a toggle.. The
picture disappears during recording; a small inconvenience so far
using the sound as a reference, and I get a running red text report
of what's going on.. So far I don't know what most of them are.. Ugh.

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

On 03-18, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> OK, Hal. I'm still not really up to speed on xawtv, but I've offered a 
> few thoughts below that you might find helpful, along with some (I hope 
> more helpful) info on getting started with mencoder, if you want to try 
> that route.


	Yes I do and will, thanks, but first I tried 'streamer' a CLI
scheme from the xawtv team and was able to select 20 fps with an
occasional dropped frame.. I think one of my biggest problems is not
learning, but un-learning 30 years as a Motion Picture Sound Man;
analogue and vacuum tubes only... <grin> In other words when I hear
"15fps" that means under cranking to me; speeded up motion.. Not the
same as digital of course.. I can't seem to find a "table" or other
tutorials that correlate what to expect "fps" and "resolution"
compared to CPU speed and HD access, if that's the right word.. Both
the HD's are UDMA 100's but are they "running" that fast??




> Hal MacArgle wrote:
> >On 03-16, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> >
> >
> >
> >>Hal -- What resolution are you capturing the tape at? With what I recall 
> >>of your equipment, I'm betting on 320x240. This is way below the 
> >>resolution (640x480 or 720x480) of "real" DVDs and could account for the 
> >>size differences you are seeing. With this spproach, you are not 
> >>deinterlacing the full image you see on videotape, which can account for 
> >>the visible quality degredation (something I also see here, and that I 
> >>don't know what to do about it without a faster CPU that can capture at 
> >>640x480 deinterlaced). Finally, you may be capturing at too low a 
> >>bitrate for the conversion to DVD to do much.
> >
> >
> >	Xawtv reports 384x288 16 bpp 12.000fps whilst recording.. I'm
> >presuming this is automatic as, so far, I haven't found a way to try
> >and adjust it upwards.. The 12fps is strange, again to me, as I
> >thought it had to be 29?, near 30, for NTSC.. I have lots to
> >learn..<g>
> 
> 384x288x25 fps is the PAL standard. 24 fps is the standard for movie 
> film. From these settings, I'm guessing that your config file isn't 
> fully adapting your instance of xawtv to ntsc. NTSC is 29.97 fps 
> (actually sort of double that, but interlaced so there are only 29.97 
> full frames sent) ... some apps treat this as 30, but careful ones use 
> the right value.

	Silent movies were 16-18 fps of course but I'm not sure the
comparision holds much water here with digital in the mix.. I note
that, once the files are convered to vob's, they will be
29.97fps/NTSC. Xawtv allows selecting various fps's but not
resolution, which stays at 384x288 or 320x240.. Maybe that's a VHS
"standard?"




> If you are really capturing at 12 fps, this should lead to awful, 
> stilted motion in your videos. It's about the rate that most cartoons 
> (like the Simpsons) animate at.

	All I've done, so far, look OK even on a 27" TV, except when
there's a fast pan involved and the TV scan lines predominate.. More
learning...




> >>I don't capture here with xawtv; I use mencoder (I didn't even remember 
> >>that xawtv had a capture mode, and I don't see one mentioned in the man 
> >>page I have for it). But if you want to explore possibilities on that 
> >>end, please post again with the details of your xawtv capture settings, 
> >>including what "top" tells you about CPU use during a capture (so we get 
> >>an idea of you have the power to run at higher-quality settings in real 
> >>time).
> >
> >
> >	I didn't know that mencoder would grab streaming video and
> >when I man mencoder I get mplayer's man text.. Most of the acronyms
> >are strange to me too.. I've purchased two books on multimedia, sight
> >unseen, and they are both "click this, click that," Fooey.. <grin>
> 
> mencoder/mplayer's man page is almost useless. Searching for information 
> via Google, then experimenting a bit to tweak the recipes you find, is 
> more productive.
> 
> Here is the perl script I use to run mencoder in VCR-capture mode. You 
> can do this from the command line, but I prefer (a) the way I set up the 
> arguments and (b) the easier readability of a long string of options set 
> up in the incremental fashion I use. Your taste many vary, of course.

	I will try mencoder when I get some time.. Thanks again..

<snipped>




> Reported load is meaningless in this context. For CPU use, you want to 
> look at the combination of user + system, not just SYS (most cpu use 
> will be in user, not system, when capturing). Using a 1.7 GHz Celeron 
> here, and capturing using settings similar to those above (but capturing 
> from broadcast TV, not tape), I usually see about 30-35& combined CPU 
> load. This is high enough that I can't go up to 640x480 capture, which 
> would roughly quadrouple the CPU load so lead to significant frame-drop 
> losses.
> 
> One thought ... is it possible that you are capruring without encoding? 
> That would keep CPU use low, but it would create immense files ... on 
> the order of 2 MB/sec for the capture settings you report (320 x 240 x 
> 16bits x 12fps).

	Xawtv does capture sans encoding but Streamer does.. The avi
files of the former are at least 3-5 times larger.. I don't know, yet,
what Videotrans or Tovid does with the Streamer files yet.. Either
are viewable interleaved picture and sound on the computer...




> >	Xawtv doesn't have many actual settings except I have to
> >change the PAL default to NTSC, of course and enter the input jack in
> >the rc file.. I use both composite1 or SVideo... Merely invoking
> >xawtv in an xterm and right clicking on the blue video window, I can
> >click on capture /or/ use the shortcut, thence select AVI, thence
> >enter a single filename & click on the record bar, a toggle.. The
> >picture disappears during recording; a small inconvenience so far
> >using the sound as a reference, and I get a running red text report
> >of what's going on.. So far I don't know what most of them are.. Ugh.
> >
> 
> Yeah, now that you write all of this, I do remember trying to use xawtv 
> in capture mode, way back when (4 years ago or thereabouts). I found it 
> unsatisfactory, but I really do not recall why ... codec problems, 
> maybe? For awhile I used a cl program called "vcr" until mencoder 
> settled down to the point where I decided it was better and switched to it.
> 
> You could also look at MythTV. It's more "TiVo-like" in its style, by 
> which I mean best suited for timeshifting TV watching. But its 
> supporters have made it usable for many other things too, and you may 
> find its style of onscreen interaction and community support more to 
> your liking than either xawtv or mencoder.

	For the present I only need a storage media for backing up
VHS tapes that'll view on a stand alone DVD player.. We're getting
there with plenty of help, eh?? Main Actor is another one for, what,
$199 a pop?? It takes time...




> Of course, this all just considers the capture half of your problem. I 
> don't burn DVDs here (except for iso9660 data DVDs), so I can't offer 
> any advice on that part.

	For now, capturing is the weak link.. Preparing and burning
the DVD covered nicely by Chucks script as well as using the very
much supported Tovid route... Before bttw, when I was using an ATI
All In Wonder, that was, and continues to be, the big problem with
those cards too according to the Gatos list server.. I bought two
books on Multi-Media, neither covering any of this.. :^(... <grin>

	Appreciate!!

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

On 03-16, chuck wrote:
> I don't know about the quality of VHS->.avi, but to create a higher 
> quality DVD from an .avi:
>  man movie-to-dvd ( -q ["low","normal","high",N] ).
> where, in kilobits per second, low=3500, normal=6000, high=8000, N=user 
> supplied number.
> 
> So, if the distortion occurs in the VHS -> .AVI, this may be no help.  :-|

	Greetings and; Appreciate!! Ray has a suggestion about VHS to
the box that I'll get to ASAP..

	Meanwhile while I've read the RTFM's I also RTWFM's; Read The
Wrong Fine Manuals... <grin> Default is "normal" so I've re-done
using high to see what happens.. I'll need considerably more burn
time and space..

	Thanks again for "finding" that for me.. I'm scheduled for a
brain transplant next week.. Duh... <grin>

-- 

    Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
.
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Re: Convert .avi to .vob/Linux only??

[Hal MacArgle]

> Greetings; Ray, Conway, Stephen and Artures--Appreciate!!. This is
> going to take some time; see below..
> 
> 
> On 02-24, Ray Olszewski wrote:
> > Hal MacArgle wrote:
> > >	Greetings; I just spent two hours trying to find software or
> > >information converting video .avi files to .vob, in order to burn
> > >some personal .avi files to a DVD that's playable on a stand alone
> > >DVD player.. I have the files in .avi format and a Plextor DVD
> > >burner, etc.. MPlayer lets me view them on the computer monitor of
> > >course..
> > >
> > >	Interesting in that this is the first time I've noticed when
> > >accessing www.google.com/linux, that I get linked to 100% of the
> > >MSWindows stuff.. I gave up..
> > >
> > >	Anyone have any suggestions?? TIA..
> > >
> > 
> > How did you use the Google site? I searched there on "vob create" and 
> > got, with one intervening step, to a Sourceforge project called 
> > "Videotrans" that says it is "a set of scripts that converts a movie 
> > file in any format that mplayer understands (AVI, etc) to a DVD 
> > compatible VOB file, including all the necessary conversions. Further, 
> > an automatic DVD menu generator is provided."
> 
> 	I searched for 'convert .avi to .vob' on/ google.com/linux..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > I cannot say how good this project is ... I've never tried to convert 
> > any of my home video to standard DVD format (and it's not in the Debian 
> > archive, which it why it is new to me) ... but it certainly is not a 
> > Windows response. (I did see some of them, BTW, referencing WINE.)
> > 
> > An entry in this thread by "redbeard" --
> > 
> > http://www.linuxforums.org/forum/gaming-games-multimedia-entertainment/52379-mpeg-dvd-vob-format-conversion.html
> > 
> > -- was how I found it (this thread was what the Google search itself 
> > returned, near the top). His description makes it sound pretty 
> > functional. Other messages in this thread mention a couple of other 
> > possibilities too.
> 
> 	I will try that site but it looks like I've got a long run
> ahead of me.. <grin>
> 
> 
> 
> 
> > Perhaps if you give videotrans a test run, you can tell us how good it 
> > actually is?
> 
> 	I fetched videotrans-1.4.0 from SF and configure balked right
> off the bat requiring ffmpeg, which I had on another machine so I
> installed it (trial because I dont know which version.) Configure
> balked again requiring mpeg2enc, which I don't have.. Thought I'd
> better peruse the configure file and sure enough needed a bunch more;
> png2yuv, jpeg2yuv, dvdauthor's spumux which, in turn needs qt, which
> I have and imagemagicks convert which I have.. Of course mplayer 1.0,
> pre7, try2 is needed and that in turn, when I installed it, needed no
> less than 8 libs; 7 easy and 1 hard to find.. Bottom line, I'm going
> to need so many libraries there wont be enough room on the HD for the
> video files.. <grin>  Plenty of learning power there and a lot of
> time, for me... Get to work. :^).. A far cry from running CP/M on a
> Commodore 128, eh?? I may be pushing my envelope..
> 
> -- 
> 
>     Hal - in Terra Alta, WV/US - Slackware GNU/Linux 10.1   (2.4.29)
> .
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