From AVI to DVD Video

So, here i am, stucked with several avi files, and i need to burn these files as DVD videos for my parent's friends. And i've never before done this kind of thing on a linux pc.

After doing some research, here are the steps i took to make this work :

1. Convertion from AVI files to MPEG files
We need to convert the AVI files to MPEG files, and i use mplayer for this. Here's my example script of convert.sh (NOTE : please aware that the vcodec parameter is too long for a good view, so i truncate it into several lines. So the lines ending with 4016: actually continues to keyint=12 without a new line, and line that ends with cbp: continues to mv0: without a new line)

mencoder -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd:tsaf -ovc lavc -oac lavc -vf harddup -srate 48000 -af lavcresample=48000 -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:vrc_maxrate=9800:vstrict=0:vbitrate=4016:
keyint=12:aspect=16/9:trell:mbd=2:precmp=2:subcmp=2:cmp=2:dia=-10:predia=-10:cbp:
mv0:vqmin=1:lmin=1:dc=10:acodec=ac3:abitrate=192 -ofps 30000/1001 $1.avi -o $1.mpeg

So in my case i would do this command for my opening.avi file to get an output file of opening.mpeg

$ ./convert.sh opening

The output of this step is MPEG file[s]

2. Make a DVD filesystem
In this step i use the dvdauthor software to achieve this. Here's an example script of mine (makedvd.sh) :

dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T
dvdauthor -o dvd/ $1.mpeg
dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T

If you want to split the mpeg file into chapters every 15 minutes, we can modify the script into this (my video is only 2 hours duration, so it ends with 2:00:00):

dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T
dvdauthor -o dvd/ -t -c 0:00:00,0:15:00,0:30:00,0:45:00,1:00:00,1:15:00,1:30:00,1:45:00,2:00:00 $1.mpeg
dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T

Here's an example of command i'd issue for my opening.mpeg :

$ ./makedvd.sh opening

Wait a minute ! What if i have several mpeg files and would like to make them into one DVD filesystem ?
Dont worry ! In this case, you should make an XML file like this :

<dvdauthor>
 <vmgm />
 <titleset>
   <titles>
     <pgc>
       <vob file="myfile1.mpeg" 
         chapters="0:00:00,0:15:00,0:30:00,0:45:00,1:00:00" 
       />
       <vob file="myfile2.mpeg" 
         chapters="0:00:00,0:15:00,0:30:00,0:45:00,1:00:00" 
       />
     </pgc>
   </titles>
 </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

And then to make a DVD filesystem based on this XML file with the command :

$ dvdauthor -o dvd -x input.xml

The output of this step is a directory named dvd that contains the DVD filesystem

3. Make a DVD ISO image
Okay, now i have the dvd directory, ready to be made into a burnable DVD ISO image. All i have to do is this :

$ genisoimage -dvd-video -v -o mymovie.iso dvd

The output of this step is a DVD ISO image.

4. Play the DVD ISO image
This step is optional, but i like making sure of things before burning it onto a DVD-R. In this step, i just need to issue this command :

$ mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device mymovie.iso

If i want to play specific chapters that i've made during step 2, i'd use this command :

$ mplayer dvd://1 -chapter 2 -dvd-device mymovie.iso


5. Burn the DVD ISO image
Okay, you've tested the ISO file and everything is like you wanted. Now you can proceed to burn the DVD ISO image. I use K3b for this. Just fire the application, choose from menu, Tools -> Burn DVD ISO Image

References that help me achieve this :
http://www.lynchconsulting.com.au/blog/index.cfm/2007/12/24/HOWTO-Create-DVDs-on-Ubuntu
http://dvdauthor.sourceforge.net/doc/examples.html
http://radagast.bglug.ca/linux/dvd_authoring/dvd_authoring.html
http://forums.fedoraforum.org/archive/index.php/t-160869.html
http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Multimedia/Video/dvdauthor-8198.shtml