I have some AVI movie files I shot with my digital camera, that I would like to put on DVD.
Anyone know of a Linux (or Windows) based free program that will do this?
I have downloaded several free Windows programs that work, but all I have been able to find are crippled trial versions that place a giant watermark in the middle of the screen or will only convert part of the file if I don’t buy the full version.
I’ve used TMPEG enc for this in the past. Now they’ve commercialized a bit more but still offer an Express version that should be able to handle MPEG2 freely up to 14 days.
Check this link : TMPGEnc 4.0 Xpress PAL DVD Elementary Stream Tutorial - TMPG
This could possibly also be a good tool (allowed evaluate period) : Konvertor
As far as I know MPEG2 is still licensed and there are no OSS tools that convert to MPEG2… but I don’t do much in this area.
Hope you find some good tools and report back 
Good luck,
Wj
edit: I see TMPEG enc now also places a lame watermark… Leaves Konvertor to test?!
edit2: After Google’n I found this : gui4ffmpeg
Might be worthwhile?
Searching on ffmpeg I have one more true OSS addition that could be of use, DVD Flick : DVD Flick
It can convert AVI, MPEG, … directly to DVD.
Cheers,
Wj
On Thu, 2008-10-23 at 19:06 +0000, foresthill wrote:
> I have some AVI movie files I shot with my digital camera, that I would
> like to put on DVD.
>
> Anyone know of a Linux (or Windows) based free program that will do
> this?
>
> I have downloaded several free Windows programs that work, but all I
> have been able to find are crippled trial versions that place a giant
> watermark in the middle of the screen or will only convert part of the
> file if I don’t buy the full version.
>
>
A lot depends on the type of video one wants to create. One with a few long clips joined together? One with many short clips? Some where in between? Applications that I typically use are:
All of which have rpms for openSUSE. A couple of URLs that I recommend you look at are:
Give a try to avidemux or devede. I use the first to make the job you need and then mandvd to author the resulting files.
Whoa! Thanks for all the replies, am simply overwhelmed with surprise and joy! As my avatar would say, “I feel happy like a little girl!” Whatever that feels like.
Magic31, I tried DVD Flick, and it looks like a wonderful program, but I keep getting audio errors, possibly due to the low bit rate of the audio from my camera (around 31 Kb/s).
I think you are right about MPEG-2 being licensed though, and that’s why people are reluctant to give away any program for free that creates MPEG-2 files, because of the licensing fees they have to pay.
I will try the other programs when I get a block of free time. I think one of them SHOULD work.
Thanks again for all the suggestions, and I hope when any of you guys ever post a question, you all get as good a response as I did when I asked mine! 
vlc from the videolan or packman repository will do it for you
I have tried about 8 different programs so far. and here are the results. None of the Linux programs appear to support mpeg2, only divx. I found two Windows programs that work but one leaves a big watermark and the other won’t convert the entire file.
I installed avidemux and it won’t even start, and there is no menu entry for it. Mencoder does not support mpeg2, and everything else has also been a complete waste of time, and most of these programs seem designed to extract video files off a DVD disc. which is not what I need.
After probably 6 hours of trying different programs, I’m about ready to just buy one.
Could someone who has actually converted an AVI file to mpeg2 please suggest a program that can successfully do the job?
Hi
ffmpeg -i inputfile.avi outputfile.wmv
ffmpeg -i outputfile.wmv -vcodec mpeg2video outputfile.mpg
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.18-0.1-default
up 7:57, 2 users, load average: 0.10, 0.08, 0.07
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 177.80
Hi
Just had another look and it may not work, can you advise the stream
outputs if you run the following;
ffmpeg -i inputfile.avi -vcodec mpeg2video outputfile.mpg
You should get some output as follows, can you post the same info;
Input #0, avi, from 'test1.avi':
Duration: 00:00:14.99, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1159 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: msmpeg4, yuv420p, 640x480, 15.00 tb(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_u8, 8000 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.18-0.1-default
up 10:14, 3 users, load average: 0.00, 0.02, 0.02
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 177.80
This very simple context-menu for KDE will satisfy most needs: → Kvm (Kde Video Menu). ffmpeg has to be installed to use it. Beside conversion into various formats it also provides the option of deinterlacing, cropping, resizing or creating thumbnails. Give it a try, it never failed for me.
Yet I don’t quite understand why Avidemux will not work for you - try starting it via the command-line and post the output.
Thats most likely because it was not completely installed (ie you are missing the gui). For avidemux you need to install both avidemux AND avidemux-gtk, … or you need to install both avidemux AND avidemux-qt.
Hi Malcolm! Here is the output from the above command:
ffmpeg -i inputfile.avi -vcodec mpeg2video outputfile.mpg
FFmpeg version SVN-r15594, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --shlibdir=/usr/lib --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --libdir=/usr/lib --enable-shared --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-libtheora --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-libxvid --enable-swscale --enable-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-vhook --enable-x11grab --enable-libschroedinger --enable-libdirac --enable-libnut --enable-libgsm --enable-libx264 --enable-libamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthreads
libavutil 49.11. 0 / 49.11. 0
libavcodec 52. 0. 0 / 52. 0. 0
libavformat 52.22. 1 / 52.22. 1
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libswscale 0. 6. 1 / 0. 6. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Oct 11 2008 11:28:35, gcc: 4.3.1 20080507 (prerelease) [gcc-4_3-branch revision 135036]
inputfile.avi: no such file or directory
Old CPU, thanks, I installed the other parts of avidemux (the name sounds very French to me).
Avidemux runs now, and right now I’m in the process of trying to figure out how it works. It looks promising though.
I still don’t know whether I have all the codecs I need, since Kaffeine is still complaining that it can’t play copy protected DVD’s.
Thanks for all the help and sorry for losing my temper a bit.
Are you sure about that?
#!/bin/sh
# http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_mencoder_divx_to_dvd
nice mencoder \
-vf crop=720,harddup \
-of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -srate 48000 -ofps 25 \
-ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:\
vrc_buf_size=1835:\
keyint=15:\
vrc_maxrate=9800:\
vbitrate=4900:\
aspect=16/9:\
acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 \
$1 -o $2
Hi
Can you change the inputfile.avi for the name of one of your avi
files
Assuming your using 32bit, you need to install libdvdcss2;
wget
http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm
su -c 'rpm -Uhv libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm'
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.18-0.1-default
up 1 day 1:00, 1 user, load average: 0.01, 0.13, 0.19
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 177.80
Malcolm, here are the results of trying to run the command with the file name specified:
ffmpeg -i MVI_3967.AVI -vcodec mpeg2video output
file.mpg
FFmpeg version SVN-r15594, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --shlibdir=/usr/lib --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --lib
dir=/usr/lib --enable-shared --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-lib
theora --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-libxvid --enable-swscale --ena
ble-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-vhook --enable-x11grab --enable-libschroeding
er --enable-libdirac --enable-libnut --enable-libgsm --enable-libx264 --enable-l
ibamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthread
s
libavutil 49.11. 0 / 49.11. 0
libavcodec 52. 0. 0 / 52. 0. 0
libavformat 52.22. 1 / 52.22. 1
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libswscale 0. 6. 1 / 0. 6. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Oct 11 2008 11:28:35, gcc: 4.3.1 20080507 (prerelease) [gcc-4_3-branc h revision 135036]
Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_3967.AVI':
Duration: 00:03:23.90, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 13103 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p, 640x480, 30.00 tb(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_u8, 11024 Hz, mono, s16, 88 kb/s
Output #0, mpeg, to 'outputfile.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 640x480, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 30.00 tb (c)
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 11024 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
[mp2 @ 0x808c0b0]Sampling rate 11024 is not allowed in mp2
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters su ch as bit_rate, rate, width or height
Here is the result of the other command:
linux-i50y:/home/kjbt # wget
wget: missing URL
Usage: wget [OPTION]... ...
Try `wget --help' for more options.
linux-i50y:/home/kjbt # http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm
bash: http://download.videolan.org/pub/libdvdcss/1.2.9/rpm/libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm: No such file or directory
linux-i50y:/home/kjbt # su -c 'rpm -Uhv libdvdcss2-1.2.9-1.i386.rpm'
Hi
So you need to workout how to convert the video mjpeg to mpeg2 and the
audio pcm_u8 to mp2
The wget command and URL are all on one line hence your errors
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
openSUSE 11.0 x86 Kernel 2.6.25.18-0.1-default
up 1 day 2:03, 1 user, load average: 1.87, 1.01, 0.42
GPU GeForce 6600 TE/6200 TE - Driver Version: 177.80
I’d like to repeat my recommendation of KVM as posted in #12. 
Still floundering here. Nothing suggested so far works.
KVM was a prime example. I went to Yast, searched for KVM, and installed it. When I go to the terminal and type KVM, nothing happens, either as regular user or as superuser. Additionally there is no menu entry for the program.
Malcolm’s CLI command gives the following result.
FFmpeg version SVN-r15594, Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Fabrice Bellard, et al.
configuration: --shlibdir=/usr/lib --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man --lib
dir=/usr/lib --enable-shared --enable-libmp3lame --enable-libvorbis --enable-lib
theora --enable-libfaad --enable-libfaac --enable-libxvid --enable-swscale --ena
ble-postproc --enable-gpl --enable-vhook --enable-x11grab --enable-libschroeding
er --enable-libdirac --enable-libnut --enable-libgsm --enable-libx264 --enable-l
ibamr-nb --enable-libamr-wb --enable-libdc1394 --enable-nonfree --enable-pthread
s
libavutil 49.11. 0 / 49.11. 0
libavcodec 52. 0. 0 / 52. 0. 0
libavformat 52.22. 1 / 52.22. 1
libavdevice 52. 1. 0 / 52. 1. 0
libswscale 0. 6. 1 / 0. 6. 1
libpostproc 51. 2. 0 / 51. 2. 0
built on Oct 11 2008 11:28:35, gcc: 4.3.1 20080507 (prerelease) [gcc-4_3-branch revision 135036]
Input #0, avi, from 'MVI_3967.AVI':
Duration: 00:03:23.90, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 13103 kb/s
Stream #0.0: Video: mjpeg, yuvj422p, 640x480, 30.00 tb(r)
Stream #0.1: Audio: pcm_u8, 11024 Hz, mono, s16, 88 kb/s
Output #0, mpeg, to 'outputfile.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 640x480, q=2-31, 200 kb/s, 30.00 tb (c)
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 11024 Hz, mono, s16, 64 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
[mp2 @ 0x808c0b0]Sampling rate 11024 is not allowed in mp2
Error while opening codec for output stream #0.1 - maybe incorrect parameters such as bit_rate, rate, width or height
One of the programs , axidemux, gave me an mpeg file but with no sound. So far, whenever I get close to generating a usable file, there some sound-related error that causes the program to crash or give me an unusable file.
The camera is a Canon Powershot A620, one of the more common models AFAIK, and I did not use any custom settings to create the video.