Best Programe To Convert .avi But I Would Like . . .

[agsnowdon]

Hi all

I hope you can hope?

I have a number of .avi files from a certian drama series and would love to be able to convert them so I can watch them on my dvd player and have a basic menu at the begning so I could choose which episode to watch.

I know I can hook my note book up to my tv which I have done and this setup is great, but I'd like to be able to give these dvd's to my father to watch!

If anyone knows of any programes free or not and could give me a description on how to do it I would be very gratefull!!!!!

THANKS

Ash

[Tywais]

I personally like Nero Vision (Version 7 Premium) and can probably find a copy at your favorite 'outlet'. It is very complete. You can add your clips into the program and then have it automatically create Chapters based on each clip or manually create the chapters. It will then convert the .avi clips, chapter it and produce the DVD files or write directly to DVD writer. Quite easy and reasonably fast.

[agsnowdon]

I personally like Nero Vision (Version 7 Premium) and can probably find a copy at your favorite 'outlet'. It is very complete. You can add your clips into the program and then have it automatically create Chapters based on each clip or manually create the chapters. It will then convert the .avi clips, chapter it and produce the DVD files or write directly to DVD writer. Quite easy and reasonably fast.

Is it self explanitary?

[Tywais]

I personally like Nero Vision (Version 7 Premium) and can probably find a copy at your favorite 'outlet'. It is very complete. You can add your clips into the program and then have it automatically create Chapters based on each clip or manually create the chapters. It will then convert the .avi clips, chapter it and produce the DVD files or write directly to DVD writer. Quite easy and reasonably fast.

Is it self explanitary?

Nearly any program that converts from one media format to another and creates the DVD structures including chaptering will have some learning curve. I think this one is the easiest in that it does it all in one program rather then having to learn 2 or 3 programs to do the same job.

I would say reasonably self-explanatory.

[Plus]

I use DVDLab Pro for "authoring" - it's free to download.

"Authoring" means making DVD out of your video clips. It supports avi but it does not support any tinkering with the video itself, apart from converting it into audio and video streams suitable for DVD. You can create any kind of menu you want, I think they are very proud of their menu handling features, and you can also add subtitles.

There's a learning curve because DVDs have very complex structure but I manage to work with it even without Help file that I somehow didn't get with my original download.

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/software2.htm

this page lists tons of DVD software, most of it free.

[lomatopo]

I use Sonic MyDVD v. 6.0.2, which is also contained in Sonic RecordNow! Deluxe v. 7.0. Zero learning curve. Much easier to understand and use, for this specific application, than Nero 6 or 7, both of which I have. I created a DVD with the four Wallace & Gromit short subjects 1 minute after installing the software. (Burning the DVD took ~ 45 minutes.) You can design and create custom menus, or choose from templates.

[Tywais]

I use Sonic MyDVD v. 6.0.2, which is also contained in Sonic RecordNow! Deluxe v. 7.0. Zero learning curve. Much easier to understand and use, for this specific application, than Nero 6 or 7, both of which I have. I created a DVD with the four Wallace & Gromit short subjects 1 minute after installing the software. (Burning the DVD took ~ 45 minutes.) You can design and create custom menus, or choose from templates.

I have to agree with you lomatopo about it being the easiest for his specific application. I've used Sonic MyDVD to make over a hundred DVDs. I only recently switched to Nero Vision 7 and just prefer the larger feature set and flexibility, but not as easy to use as Sonic. So to the OP I change my recommendation due to the fact you don't want to have to fiddle with the program.

The only problem I had with Sonic is that when I play the DVD in my standalone player, fast moving scenes (such as fast moving car moving left to right) jump, that is they have a slight hesitation about once a second. Have you seen that problem?

[agsnowdon]

I use Sonic MyDVD v. 6.0.2, which is also contained in Sonic RecordNow! Deluxe v. 7.0. Zero learning curve. Much easier to understand and use, for this specific application, than Nero 6 or 7, both of which I have. I created a DVD with the four Wallace & Gromit short subjects 1 minute after installing the software. (Burning the DVD took ~ 45 minutes.) You can design and create custom menus, or choose from templates.

I have to agree with you lomatopo about it being the easiest for his specific application. I've used Sonic MyDVD to make over a hundred DVDs. I only recently switched to Nero Vision 7 and just prefer the larger feature set and flexibility, but not as easy to use as Sonic. So to the OP I change my recommendation due to the fact you don't want to have to fiddle with the program.

The only problem I had with Sonic is that when I play the DVD in my standalone player, fast moving scenes (such as fast moving car moving left to right) jump, that is they have a slight hesitation about once a second. Have you seen that problem?

Thanks guys I shall see if I can get both and try them out, have you heard of speed dvd creator?

I have this but find it wans to convert the same number of frames whether its a 300mb clip or 600mb clip.

Any light on why this happens?

[JustAnotherFarang]

I personally use Blaze Media Pro to convert and enhance movies that I download, it is excellent and produces remarkable results. Although its not free, you can download a trial version from the official website and if you are a clever boy, go to a keygen site and install a working exe which removes the trial limitations

PM me if you want further info on how to do this

JAF

[smacko]

www.vcdhelp.com has everything you need

Edited January 16, 2006 by smacko

[Jockstar]

I've been using DVD Santa the last few days that i got as a bittorrent. Seems to work fine but does take a bit longer than others to convert. But i never used it to burn the DVD i used Nero for that. Since some of these shows are longer than a standard DVD-r/+r then you may have to use DVD Shrink to reduce the size. I think you can also use Shrink to make menus.