[SWLUG] WMV to DVD

[Steve Anderson]

On 06/01/2008, Foeh Mannay <swlug at wormtail.co.uk> wrote:

> I've been using "dvdstyler" for what I'm working on, it allows you to
> create menus and all sorts of other stuff too, but should (he says,
> having never actually tried it) do what you want. It also lets you
> either burn direct to DVD or create an ISO image for later (or multiple)
> burning. It doesn't seem to pick up .WMV files directly, but you should
> be able to find a few apps that will do conversion to MPEG - may be
> worth researching what the 'right' format is for DVD to save double
> conversions. For what it's worth, I use ffmpeg for doing video
> conversion, but that's to convert stuff to an iPod compatible format
> rather than to burn to DVD.

I'd been waiting to get in front of a computer (rather than trying to
reply using Google Mail on my phone) to mention DVD Styler. It's a
fabulous program that ties together a bunch of command line tools that
I would never be able to remember the syntax of =)

I've been messing around with DVD format stuff for far too long. This
is the mencoder line I use to convert things downloaded from BBC
iPlayer to a DVD-friendly MPEG file, so that I can watch it without
Windows being involved:

/usr/bin/mencoder -oac lavc -ovc lavc -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd
-ofps 25 -vf scale=720:576,harddup -lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg2video:trell:mbd=2:vrc_maxrate=6000:vrc_buf_size=1835:vbitrate=4000:keyint=15:acodec=ac3:abitrate=128:aspect=16/9
-o OUTPUT.mpg INPUT.wmv

I cobbled this line together from a whole bunch of sources, but it
does a good job of the WMV files that we've been talking about, and
allows about three hours on a DVD5. I run the WMV files through this
and then get DVD Styler to put a basic menu on the front so that I can
find what I want. (Obviously the DRM has been magicked away by this
point!)

HTH

Steve
-- 
Irregular Shed - http://www.twindx.com
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