One of the beauty of OS X is that it offers a plethora of tools to do almost everything you could want. Here's another great example: by using the tools that come out of the box (or almost) with OS X you can convert an AVI movie file to a DVD to watch on your TV.
1) Open the AVI with QuickTime Player. If you can't open it, you may need additional codecs. I suggest you get Perian which include almost every codec you may ever need. (That's the only piece you'll need).
2) From QuickTime, save the movie in .mov format.
3) Copy the .mov file to your iTunes Library. Open iTunes and just drag the files to the Library section.
4) Open iDVD, (you can create your DVD in multiple ways but here's one). Choose Magic iDVD, in the right pane, choose the Films tab, choose iTunes and select/drag the film in the left pane. Click the Burn icon on the bottom right corner. You'll probably need to adapt the Project/Properties and voilà! Pop in a blank DVD and have a good movie night.
My dear friend, the QUALITY of the image on the DVD you get this way has nothing to do with the result from the FREE (thus, nothing to worry about your wallet) ffmepgX (based on the venerable Ffmpeg). And, by the way, with ffmpegX you DON'T need to convert your AVI file to a MOV one. Of course, you can't add all the bells and whistles that are available at iDVD, but you get a better (much better) image right from your AVI file.
ReplyDeleteYes Opinion you are correct. Any conversion will degrade the quality and there is other very good and still free tools out there. I just wanted to make a point that OS X already comes with what you need. Regarding quality, I really see no difference from the AVI to the DVD, first because the avi I get are usually medium quality (ex.: 700Mb for a full size movie) and second I watch those on a medium size non-HD tv.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment, it may point some readers in an other good direction.
how long is the length of time it averagely takes to burn the dvd
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous,
ReplyDeleteI can't say how long it takes as I usually go and do something else, and of course it will depend on your hardware. I did notice that if you setup a complex project with iDVD and your AVI file has scene index (for example) the overall process is pretty long. So in short it depends...
What if the movie is too long (91 mins)? How can I adjust it to allow iDVD?
ReplyDeleteCarlos,
ReplyDeleteI guess you want to copy it to a CD instead of a DVD. That's indeed a limit of iDVD. In Project/Info (or maybe properties) you can lower the quality but only to predefined settings, it won't adapt to your media.
If you are copying to a DVD, than just try the different quality setting. The lowest (still good enough) will fit your movie in about half the space of a single layer DVD.
If that won't do it for you, you may want to check the first comment from Opinion where he gives you some alternatives.
Great post.
ReplyDeleteI tried this but when I played the DVD on my DVD player, it played the sound fine but all it displayed was a light green screen. After 20 minutes it finally plays the video. I've tried recreating the DVD twice and still the same problem. Any help appreciated.
Brad,
ReplyDeleteI've burned lots of DVDs that way and never got that green screen. Is the mov file OK? I would try with another movie if you have one to rule out the file as an issue.
If someone has had this issue before let's hope they post something here.
The mov file works fine. In iDVD, the preview even works. However, once I burn it to DVD and try to play it on my DVD player, it displays green for the first few minutes.
ReplyDeleteI'll try with a different mov file and let you know how it goes. Thanks for your help.
Ended up working with multiple other videos. No idea why it wasn't working for the one. Thanks for your help and again for a great post - worked great!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat if I save the file as a HD 480p in quicktime under format tab will that hurt anything or does it have to be a .mov file. I'm using the new quicktime 10 if that matters.
ReplyDeleteGood question, I think your not limited to mov format. Check this discussion at Apple for some answer: http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=122593
ReplyDeleteThanks you for great tips. Still, I cant figure out how to change the properties. Think the file is to big to be burned or something.. :-)
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteOnce you have added your film from the right pane to the left side (Drop Movies Here), go to the Project menu (in the application menu bar, top of the screen), then chose the first one (I believe it's Project Information ... or something similar). From there you will have different options like PAL (if you're in Europe) or NTSC (if you're in the Americas) (look this up to know which one to use) and different quality settings.
By changing the quality settings (the lowest is still very good for me), you'll be able to burn you're movie.
Note that unless it's a short movie, you'll need a DVD (not a CD).
Good luck.
It worked! Thanks so much! :)
ReplyDeleteLooks like I need QuickTime Pro to 'Save As'
ReplyDeletewhy afford for quicktime pro, many of freeware out there can do that job.
DeletePaul
yup anonymous is right time -we need quicktime pro... i wonder if there's any other quick way?
ReplyDeleteFor TheCorporateHousewifeMom and Anonymous, you should be able to "Export ..." (or export for Web, I didn't try this one). It doesn't explicitly tell you that it's going to create a .mov file but that's what it does and that's what you copy to the DVD. Works for me without the Pro version ...
ReplyDeleteThanks you for great tips. i have one question, can the output dvd movies keep in original quality of my avi files?
ReplyDeleteThat would surely be a definite solution of your avi to DVD conversion and worth downloading as your search was a software that didn't cost you money :)
ReplyDeleteBut would you actually consider and rely upon these tools for your old precious memory videos like wedding video or your baby videos.
I have always been seen people even I go for these software for converting my random collection videos, but when it comes to our priceless memory videos none of us can dare to convert them by own. At least I would go for some professional Video conversion specialist and their services are worth for it.
All you have to do is if you're on a Mac, right click on the avi movie file, click get info and where the name of it ends in .avi change it to .mov and then close that window, re-click on the file (as long as it ends in .mov now) and click burn to disc. Done!
ReplyDeleteNice post,thanks for sharing!And there also is a post that will show you the more most comprehensive solutions to convert AVI to DVD:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.leawo.org/tutorial/avi-to-dvd.html