many .avi's --> one DVD

[dalsquared]

Hello

I'm extremely new to this stuff (though very intrigued) and I could use some help from anyone who would be willing. I have a stack of seperate .avi files which I would like to put on DVD with a simple menu that would let me pick which to play, hopefully for use on a stand alone DVD player. They are all movies of different procedures at work that a co-worker filmed last year and (somehow) saved as .avi's, so I tried following Doom9's 'AVI to DVD' guide (at http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/avi2dvdr.htm) , but when I get to the part about merging all the files together (in Doom9's 'VirtualDub procedures' guide, at http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/virtualdub_procedures.htm) Nandub tells me it can't because "the video streams use incompatible compression types" in one case, and "the audio streams have different sampling rates" in another case. My co-worker is even less knowledgeable than I am about this stuff (and lives out of state so is generally unavailable for interogation) and doesn't seem to remember what he did when he saved these things. I found GSpot on this site and used it to look at all the different parameters in the movies and sure enough, all have different resolutions, audio and video bit rates, etc. etc. Looks a little like my co-worker was pushing buttons at random when he did whatever it was he did. All the movies play well on my computer, so somewhere in there is software that understands what's going on, but I don't. I'm sure I need to re-encode them all with the same parameters and then follow Doom9's AVI to DVD guide, but I'm having no luck at all. I've looked through the guides and through the posts, but the more I do so the more my head spins in little circles, can you point me towards the correct guide(s) to use?

Thanks in advance

Dave A.

[setarip_old]

Hi!I found GSpot on this site and used itPost a couple of screengrabs of the GSpot information for those that have differing video compression formats.

By the way, how many is a "stack"?

[CWR03]

If you're looking for something quick and simple, try one of the full versions of Roxio or Nero. Both have drag-and-drop DVD creation programs that will work with virtually any video file you can play on your PC.

[dalsquared]

Thanks for answering CWR03 & setarip_old. I've posted screen shots of GSpot for 2 of them, will do more if you think it's advisable. BTW, a 'stack' = 10 videos here, varying in length from ~20 mins. to ~40 mins. I do indeed have a full version of Roxio7 basic DVD edition, I'll try that because I am sure enough looking for something 'quick and simple'. Didn't think of that because it seemed so simple and obvious, thanks for the suggestion.

DA

[drcl]

probably if you arent to concerned about super high quality then you will find it easier to use roxio or nero.

You should consider using 2 DVDs though if they are converted to full resolution DVD by those programs as 300 minutes is a stretch for one DVD-5

[dalsquared]

No, not worried about super high quality, but it does need to be clear, something like we see on the TV (these are demonstrations after all). I tried Roxio, no dice. It doesn't seem to want to recognize the videos, just displays a big, red 'X' over the icon of the video and won't let me import any of them, although if I simply double click on the filename in program manager (outside of Roxio) it fires up and plays fine in WMP and RealPlayer. I'm confused. Yes, I'd been thinking I'd need to put them on 2 DVD's, which would be fine, but I've also got a dual-layer DVD burner which I have yet to use so thought I'd try that if I can get this business to work at all. Either way, your point is well taken, I need to figure on 2 DVD's worth of room, so I am.

[drcl]

can u upload the g-spot grabs to a imagehosting site please?

http://imageshack.us/

[nibbles]

I've put many an avi into Nero Vision, their DVD authoring tool. I can fit about four hours of xvid onto a DVD5 with very little loss in quality, and I felt that six hours of xvid on a DVD5 was acceptable in certain situations. A lot depends on the quality of the original encoding, obviously. Garbage in, garbage out. I like it a lot for basic authoring, more than I like TMPGEnc DVD Author because of the dearth of menus/buttons/music/motion in TMPGEnc. I'm sure you will find it useful if you are new.

Nero Vision from the Nero 7 Suite was buggy and did not make functional DVDs for a long time. Many people still use Nero 6.6.0.16 I think it is, the last of the 6 series because it always worked for them while 7 was being fixed.

I think Nero 7 works now for making DVDs with menus that play in standalone players and on a PC, but someone will have to second that before you believe it as I've been working on other things and haven't tested the latest Nero patch.

It's easy to use, looks good, lets you test out your menus before you burn. It's nice.
If you were really new and mentioned the words virtualdub, gspot, nandub to me, I'd
tell you straight up you did good, but you spent all your effort fiddling with much too
advanced software. Get Nero. Enjoy life again. Walk your dog. Have a picnic. It will
be finished in about 4 hours.

[CWR03]

I tried Roxio, no dice. It doesn't seem to want to recognize the videos, just displays a big, red 'X' over the icon of the video and won't let me import any of them
Did you use Roxio's DVD Builder?

[dalsquared]

Thanks for all the help and advice. In answer to these questions:

I've uploaded the images to imageshack. The links are at the bottom of this note. If these aren't adequate for some reason let me know and I'll try again.

I used Roxio's Easy Media Creator 7 Basic DVD Home, more specifically the DVD Builder part. It came with the dual layer burner I mentioned earlier. Theoretically it will burn dual layer DVD's, but I haven't made it as far as actually burning anything with it (only imgburn has actually worked for me for doing anything besides looking pretty). Unfortunately, being fought at every turn is sort of my standard experience with Roxio's software, at least so far.

Nibbles' words hit a definite chord, I have spent a lot of time fiddling with (and being fiddled with by) complex software doing things I don't really understand (which is how I came to be here in the first place, trying to understand) for something I thought would be a quick-and-easy little project, and a picnic sure does sound good about now, but I've also got to admit its starting to get a little personal now. I'll explain in a little more depth if you're interested; I'm actually a grad. student in physics finishing up my PhD and the 'work' I mentioned earlier that I'm doing this little project for is part of my dissertation research, my 'boss' is my (and several others) thesis advisor. This is a rather large project (the research) that includes a big group of young and inexperienced people (i.e. new grad. students and undergrads) using very expensive and often dangerous equipment. I'd found myself spending all day many days showing them how to do the same things over and over again, and losing a little sleep while trying to remember whether I told them to turn the right valve at the right time or not. Hence, the idea of filming procedural demonstrations that they could look at any time they needed. A former postdoc working in the lab brought a video camera into work and filmed (videoed?) the procedures, then got another job and left with the footage almost a year ago now (things proceed at an unorganized and maddeningly leisurely pace here in academia). She only sent the videos back to us a couple of weeks ago on CD's, all as seperate .avi files. And that brings me to where I am now, a little frustrated and barking at teenagers. So, yeah, Nibbles' words struck a definite chord. I looked into Nero 7 and would definitely give that a try, but they ask for a lot of money on a grad student's pay (think peanut butter and Raman noodles), which is why I've been trying to get the free software I've found (on this site mostly) to work. In principle, a grad student in physics who can struggle through quantum mechanics (and who is also doing ~complex computer programming as part of the research) ought to be able to figure out how to get a piece of &^*%#! software to work acceptably, but so far no such luck. If others can vouch for that Nero Vision software then I'll save up my nickels and pop for that, but in any case I really would like to understand how to do this and how this stuff works for myself. I've spent some time browsing around the internet and on this site, but obviously I have a lot more to go, which I'll do as I find time, another rare comodity in the life of a grad student. My apologies for the sob story, just trying to show Nibbles that his/her words were definitely heard and understood.

The screen captures of 3 of the videos:
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tpbs501de9.jpg
http://img246.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tpbs502tc5.jpg
http://img201.imageshack.us/my.php?image=tpbs503zv8.jpg

[feedback]

FAVC is the tool that may help you. Mr_Odwin a member here, who in March 06 submitted his thesis, is the author.

As DDogg so eloquently put it, FAVC is "For those that would like a braindead simple way of encoding multiple Avi files onto a standard DVD".

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=778694#post778694

A screen shot of the app. is located here.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=FAVC

A list of some other freeware and shareware tools available, if you have problems with FAVC, is located below.
http://www.videohelp.com/tools?toolsearch=&s=&orderby=Name&hits=50&convert=AVI+to+DVD&dvdauthorfeatures=&Submit=Search+or+List+tools

Lastly, Nero(buggy), Ulead VideoStudio (http://www.ulead.com/vs/runme.htm)and many others offer free trials of their software so one may try before they buy.

You should be able to save your money for more demanding University expenses using some of the above options.:)

Regards,

[drcl]

What you were trying to do (merging) with virtualdub is more easily achieved with AVIsynth.


If you havent already, install AVIsynth.
You will need to install FFDshow.

Then go to vfw config. on the codecs tab enable libavcodec for all divx and xvid FOURCCs

DVd resolution is 720 x 480. So every file needs to be resized to that. But what we do is not make a whole new file from FRAMESERVE using avisynth.



Make a simple text file in notepad. you chose the name. filename extension is AVS.

your files have different names but for clarity we have 10 files named:

01.avi
02.avi
03.avi
04.avi
05.avi
06.avi
07.avi
08.avi
09.avi
10.avi

in the text file:

a=avisource("D:\01.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
b=avisource("D:\02.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
c=avisource("D:\03.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
d=avisource("D:\04.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
e=avisource("D:\05.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
f=avisource("D:\06.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
g=avisource("D:\07.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
h=avisource("D:\08.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
i=avisource("D:\09.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)
j=avisource("D:\10.avi").lanczosresize(720,480).resampleaudio(48000)

alignedsplice(a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h,i,j)


so now if you load that AVS file into a mediaplayer or any mpeg encoder it will play all your files as one big one.

next step is making the mpeg video. try roxio if you dont want to be even more confused. idont know the software but i think you should be able to edit it as you wish.

remember your files are 4:3 aspect ratio

[dalsquared]

A million thanks, feedback and drcl. FAVC is running now (and it looks like it will be all day long, which is fine since I have a ton of work to do) and I'll try out drcl's method with avisynth after FAVC gets done. I've got a freeware program called DVDStyler that will (hopefully) insert a simple menu with buttons to each of the videos on it, but that, or Roxio, is for tomorrow. For today, again, many many thanks. I'll let you know how it comes out. Or, if you hear of a mushroom cloud rising over the southeastern US, you'll know I didn't quite get the DVD done in time. But in either case, you'll know how this project ended up. Thanks again.

DA

[nibbles]

I think my BS in Physics puts us on the same c/lambda, spending my best time in experimental cosmology or computer interfacing. So let me offer another way to look at task you're buried in. Remember what it was like when you burned your first EEPROM? That's what Nero is like. A really nice EEPROM. Now you could wire wrap a bunch of votage dividers and low pass filters and the like, reading all kinds of PNP NPN data sheets and digging out your good book of Mouser.... But you see someone just called over the intercom with a fresh pot of coffee and... well... it's a tool right? Your compter I mean? That how I always saw it, another tool in our arsenal. If I put the thing in forward and pull the trigger, well it better spin. So I tried TMPGEnc, DVDLab, DVD Styler (crapola!), trial ware, free ware, avisynth, Nero, quite a few because I like a challenge too. Avisynth is like Cohen & Tannoudji, you can't be without it once you learn you way around eigenvalues and eigenvectors. Plus it's only a simple scripting language like Bourne shell where you take the video inside that avi container of yours and run it through a series of functions that act on it, frame by frame. But that's for after you get past submitting your thesis. Nero is powerful, well thought out, and includes good looking menus buttons and themes. I only use their Nero Burning ROM and their Nero Vision programs, staying away from the other extras. In a few hours after getting it installed, you'll have a perfect DVD in NTSC or PAL, 16:9 or 4:3, with Chapters, Menu(s), Play buttons, Nice titles, background music, everything in a few dozen clicks. I never found a working Top Ramen solution to authoring a DVD, as they are too complex. Another route you could take is publish your videos on YouTube or something and just edit on the web, keep it simple. Several million bio majors aren't using Avisynth ;)

nibs

EDIT: One other thing I think we all would agree on, you'll want to get a copy of GSpot Codec Information Appliance if you don't already have it from gspot.headbands.com, the latest 2.60 and open some of your avis in it. Link to a screen shot if you want. It tells you all the details of what's in the avi. It reads only.

[numinbah]

Hi all,
I think all of the previous posts prove what a realy helpful place this is............

[dalsquared]

An update: to any of you who have been following this newbie saga... First off, it's done! Feedback's advice about using FAVC was good advice, and should have worked (I could tell from the messages it was posting) but it burped on about video #5 (of 10) and, while it kept churning away (for hours), stopped putting out usable stuff after the burp. So I went to drcl's AVISynth script (just cut and pasted what he/she wrote changing path's as needed), loaded it into VirtualDub and tried again. Once again, no dice, but this time with the error message "video framerate doesn't match" which gave me a concrete clue. So I googled that phrase and (not surprisingly) found a link to an old posting here at Doom9's forum by a newbie like me, who had precisely the same problem, along with (Lo and Behold!) a solution to that problem (at http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-93622.html)! I'd already gotten hip to gspot, so after I checked all the videos and found that they did indeed seem to have the same frame rate I followed the advice of stickyboy (the advisor in the link above) and everything worked great! Whew. I tried several of the tools you mentioned in your last missive, nibbles, and ended up downloading the shareware version of DVD-lab to make the simple little menu I had in mind, and that worked out fine. Well enough, in fact, that I'm saving up my nickels to buy the full version when the time limit on this one runs out (which will be before I sucker myself into another project like this one has been, believe me). I tried Nero (along with Roxio, which seems to be mostly just contrary) but I only have an ancient version (which was new and shiney when I bought it lo these many decades ago) and I couldn't afford the upgrade, so had to give up on it. I decided I had to use what worked, and DVD-Lab did, which I am IMMENSELY grateful for! Bottom line: After following evryone's advice and wandering around all over the forums here I stumbled on a workable solution and learned an HUGE amount in the process, the best of all possible solutions in my book. Nibbles' words are exactly true, "Avisynth is like Cohen & Tannoudji, you can't be without it once you learn you way around eigenvalues and eigenvectors" and other inscrutable eigen-stuff, too. But I'm learning and now that I've found out about Avisynth and where to go when everything is blowing up around me I'll be back after I do a LOT of reading. Thanks all.

DA

[Mr_Odwin]

An update: to any of you who have been following this newbie saga... First off, it's done! Feedback's advice about using FAVC was good advice, and should have worked (I could tell from the messages it was posting) but it burped on about video #5 (of 10) and, while it kept churning away (for hours), stopped putting out usable stuff after the burp. So I went to drcl's AVISynth script (just cut and pasted what he/she wrote changing path's as needed), loaded it into VirtualDub and tried again. Once again, no dice, but this time with the error message "video framerate doesn't match" which gave me a concrete clue. So I googled that phrase and (not surprisingly) found a link to an old posting here at Doom9's forum by a newbie like me, who had precisely the same problem, along with (Lo and Behold!) a solution to that problem (at http://forum.doom9.org/archive/index.php/t-93622.html)! I'd already gotten hip to gspot, so after I checked all the videos and found that they did indeed seem to have the same frame rate I followed the advice of stickyboy (the advisor in the link above) and everything worked great! Whew. I tried several of the tools you mentioned in your last missive, nibbles, and ended up downloading the shareware version of DVD-lab to make the simple little menu I had in mind, and that worked out fine. Well enough, in fact, that I'm saving up my nickels to buy the full version when the time limit on this one runs out (which will be before I sucker myself into another project like this one has been, believe me). I tried Nero (along with Roxio, which seems to be mostly just contrary) but I only have an ancient version (which was new and shiney when I bought it lo these many decades ago) and I couldn't afford the upgrade, so had to give up on it. I decided I had to use what worked, and DVD-Lab did, which I am IMMENSELY grateful for! Bottom line: After following evryone's advice and wandering around all over the forums here I stumbled on a workable solution and learned an HUGE amount in the process, the best of all possible solutions in my book. Nibbles' words are exactly true, "Avisynth is like Cohen & Tannoudji, you can't be without it once you learn you way around eigenvalues and eigenvectors" and other inscrutable eigen-stuff, too. But I'm learning and now that I've found out about Avisynth and where to go when everything is blowing up around me I'll be back after I do a LOT of reading. Thanks all.

DA

Any chance you could give me the details of the file that made FAVC balk? A picture of the information that GSpot provides would suffice.

[dalsquared]

Mr_Odwin

I don't exactly remember. I'm running it again now, I'll send some details and gspot screen captures when (if) it happens again. Check back this evening (~5AM Eastern Time US as I write this), should have an answer for you then.

[dalsquared]

Mr_Odwin

Well, not exactly the news I expected to report back with but after running FAVC all day on my 10 videos, with (as best I can remember) everything exactly the same as the first time, nothing happenned. Well, not exactly nothing; the first time I ran it I got 5 of the 10 videos back but nothing after the 5th (although it kept churning away for the last 5). The first 5 came out just fine; although the .iso that FAVC gave me wasn't any good (a black screen with sound) I was able to use the .mpv's of the videos and .wav's of the sound (after converting them to .ac3's using BeSweet and Doom9's guides) that FAVC left in the working directory in DVD-Lab. At about the 5th video (I think) one of the FAVC tools burped with an error message about incompatible frame rates, or something like that (i.e. something that I didn't understand) then asked me to hit a button to continue, so I did. This time around all 10 videos processed with no error messages but without any sound at all, although I saw that FAVC was processing sound at the time. Like I said, as best I remember I did everything exactly the same, I can't really explain the different results other than to think that I managed to change something along the way, but I have no idea what it was. A typical (madening :angry:) newbie error, I suppose. I'm sending along the gspot screen captures of videos #'s 4, 5, and 6, maybe you can figure out what's happening. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/5363/tpbs504ri3.jpg
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/851/tpbs505ii4.jpg
http://img100.imageshack.us/img100/1905/tpbs506ob5.jpg