NAME¶
movie-to-dvd - Convert a movie into a DVD compatible format
SYNOPSIS¶
movie-to-dvd [-r resolution]
[-d display] [-f method] [-a aspect]
[-A src_aspect] [-m mode] [-c audio_codec]
[-q quality] [-Q bitrate] [-o output_dir] [-M] [-b] [-O
options] movie [movie ...]
DESCRIPTION¶
This program takes one or more movie files in any format that
mplayer
understands and converts them into a DVD compatible format. This program
automatically scales the movies so that they will appear full-screen when
viewed on a television set in combination with a standalone DVD player.
Normally, the program produces two files for each input file, one for video
and one for audio, but there is an option to make the program produce finished
(multiplexed) VOB files for you. The program takes care of framerate changes
and audio adjustment.
Nearly everything is done automatically: the program can determine the value of
all the needed parameters automatically, except for the destination video
type, which is either NTSC or PAL. Therefore, the only option that you usually
specify is the
-m option.
OPTIONS¶
The following options are available:
- -r resolution
- Specify the DVD resolution. Possibilities are:
PAL: 720x576, 704x576, 352x576 and 352x288
NTSC: 720x480, 704x480, 352x480 and 352x240
- You may specify auto (which is the default for this option) for
automatic selection. If you leave out this option or specify the value
auto, you must supply a -m option to tell the system
whether you want PAL or NTSC. If you specify a value other than
auto, you may leave out the -m option, as the system will
infer which mode you want automatically.
- The value that you specify may not conflict with a specific mode that you
might set using the -m option; for example, you cannot specify
-r 720x576 and then later specify -m ntsc.
- -d display
- Specify how the video is to be fitted into the available screen size,
either letterbox (which is the default for this option), which
loses no information but may introduce black borders on either the top and
the bottom or the left and the right sides of the screen, or
panscan, which fills the entire screen but possibly chops off edges
of the video image.
- -f method
- Specify how to change the movie to adjust its framerate if necessary. You
may specify either auto, video, audio.
- video will duplicate or drop frames to adjust the framerate (which
will make the movie jerky in some situations), and will keep the audio as
it is.
- audio will adjust the pitch of the audio track so that it runs
synchronized with the movie if the movie would be played slightly faster
or slower than normal because it's new framerate is different from the
original.
- auto will make the choice for you. The choice that is made depends
on the source video and the destination parameters that you are encoding
to.
- -a aspect
- Specify either 16:9 (widescreen), 4:3 (traditional TV set)
or auto (which is the default for this option), which chooses the
correct value from the source video automatically.
- -A src_aspect
- Specify the aspect ratio of the source if it is not encoded correctly in
the source. The format is X:Y, for example 4:3 or
41:18. The numbers used may be floating point, so that you may also
use aspect ratios like 1.25:1 or 1.77:1. Or you may specify
auto (default) for automatic detection from the source.
- -m mode
- Specify either pal (European and other non-US regions), ntsc
(United States) or auto (which is the default for this option).
auto is only allowed if you specify a specific resolution using the
-r option, otherwise the system will not be able to infer which
mode you want.
- The value that you specify may not conflict with a specific resolution
that you might set using the -r option; for example, you cannot
specify -r 720x576 and then later specify -m
ntsc.
- -c audio_codec
- Specify either mp2 (two channel audio, supported by PAL DVD
players), ac3 (Dolby Digital sound, supported by all DVD players)
or auto (which is the default for this option and currently always
chooses ac3).
- According to the DVD standard, NTSC DVD players are required to support
AC3, but not MP2. PAL DVD players are required to support MP2 and
AC3.
- -q quality
- Select either low, normal (which is the default for this
option) high or a numeric bitrate (in kilobits per second).
- low encodes the video using a maximum bitrate of 3500 kilobits per
second, normal uses a maximum of 6000 kilobits per second and
high uses a maximum of 8000 kilobits per second. Specifying a
number uses that number as the maximum bitrate in kilobits per
second.
- -Q bitrate
- Select either auto (which is the default for this option) or a
numeric bitrate (in kilobits per second).
- auto automatically chooses an appropriate bitrate for the audio
output, depending on the audio output format and the number of channels.
You may also specify a numeric bitrate in kilobits per second, such as
224, 384 or 448. If you choose to override the audio bitrate, you should
probably combine this option with the -c option to override the
audio output format as well, to avoid unexpected results.
- -o output_dir
- Writes the results of the conversion into the specified directory instead
of in the same directory as where the sources are located. If you use this
option and the sources include directory names, those directories will be
removed from the source name before using the name to determine what to
call the result in the output directory.
- -M
- Multiplex the output audio and video together, which means that each
source file will be converted into a DVD-compatible .vob file. If
you do not specify this, a .m2v (which contains the video part) and
a .mp2 (for stereo audio) or .ac3 (for AC3 surround audio)
file will be generated for each input movie.
- The program movie-title(1) (which is used to create DVDs with
menus) can use both the .vob and the .m2v format, although
the default (two generated files per source) is faster because less disk
I/O is involved.
- -b
- This tells mplayer that any AVI headers that are encountered are
broken and that they should be ignored when determining the audio-video
sync delay. This activates mplayer's -nobps option (see
mplayer's manual for details).
- -O options
- You may specify any options for mplayer that are needed to decode
the movie(s) that you are converting correctly. You normally don't need to
use this option unless the source movie is broken in some respect. Be sure
to quote the options correctly so that they will appear as one string to
this option. Type the options as you would normally do to play the movie
correctly on an mplayer command line.
DIAGNOSTICS¶
If this program is called with a incorrect set of parameters, it will print a
diagnostic message telling the user what went wrong. Also, it will then print
its usage information, listing all the options and their meanings.
If the program tells you "
ERROR: Cannot find video size for
file", this means that
mplayer was unable to read the file
or the file is stored in a format that it does not understand. In this case,
movie-to-dvd will not be able to transcode the movie file for you.
- For each source file, the following information is printed:
- * Source size: widthxheight
* Source crop area: widthxheight
* Destination size: widthxheight
* Final screen size: widthxheight
* Destination aspect: width:height
This small table shows you what will be done to the source file to get to the
destination. The
source size is the frame size of the original video
source. The
source crop area is the size of the frame that will be cut
out of the original frame (usually the same size as the source, except when
panscan mode is used instead of
letterbox mode). The
destination size is the size of the zoomed/shrunk image that calculated
from the image that was cut out of the original source image. The
final
screen size is the size of the MPEG-2 frame that will be created (that is,
the destination size including any black borders). The
destination
aspect is the aspect ratio of the destination video, which is either 4:3
(traditional TV set) or 16:9 (widescreen).
While encoding the movie for you, the program will display its progress: it will
tell you how much of the movie it has already encoded (a percentage) and it
will tell you how long it will probably take to finish the encode (this is, of
course, an estimate).
EXAMPLE¶
- The command line that I use most often is:
- movie-to-dvd -m pal input_file.avi
This command line simply takes the input file (in AVI format in this case) and
converts it into two files,
input_file.mp2 (if the source has stereo
audio) or
input_file.ac3 (for surround sound) and
input_file.m2v. All the necessary conversions will be automatically
done, such as framerate adjustment, audio adjustment, frame size, etcetera.
Later, I usually combine two or more of these movies into one DVD with a nice
selection menu using
movie-title, usually in combination with
movie-make-title.
SEE ALSO¶
videotrans(1),
movie-title(1),
movie-make-title(1),
movie-make-title-simple(1),
movie-compare-dvd(1),
movie-rip-epg.data(1)
AUTHOR¶
The author is Sven Berkvens-Matthijsse (sven@berkvens.net). Please send any
project related e-mail to
videotrans@berkvens.net.
SHORTCOMINGS¶
Currently, the program does not handle subtitles at all. That is to say, it does
not support real subtitles that can be turned on and off in the DVD version of
the movie. If a subtitle file is present in the directory where your input
movie exists, and mplayer shows these subtitles when you play the movie on
your computer's display, then the subtitles will be rendered into the DVD
version as well, but you will not be able to turn them on or off. They will
then be a fixed part of the image.
Perhaps a future version of Videotrans will support proper subtitling.
BUGS¶
None known. Please report any bugs to
videotrans@berkvens.net!