MPEG to DVD

[GlynJones]

Hello all,
I have got a few MPEG files that I want to put onto a DVD with menu's.

The MPEG files originally came from my "Window Media Center 2005" (sorry, I know but it does it's job well). These are then converted to standard MPEG2 files. If I then put them onto a DVD in windows the audio goes out of sync with the video.

What I would like to do is use my Powermac Dual 2.0 but want to know the best way to do this. All the MPEG files need to be edited to remove the rubbish at the beginning and end. I reall need to make sure the audio keeps in sync with the video. I am running Tiger with iLife 05.

I have tried to drop these into iMovie but I need the Quicktime Codec which I don't mind purchasing as long as I know what I want to do can be achieved.

Thanks for any help given.

Glyn.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

I think Toast Titanium 7 can do this for you. It's a bit expensive, but a pretty essential piece of software on any Mac with a (DVD) burner.

I've made a couple of DVDs with menus from an assorted selection of different video file types. Only limitation I've encountered is that it doesn't like to mix PAL and NTSC clips on one disk (but this might have been fixed in version 7).

Not sure about the sync problem, though. You might have to convert it first. Do you have QuickTime Pro?

 

[GlynJones]

Not sure about the sync problem, though. You might have to convert it first. Do you have QuickTime Pro?

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunatly I don't have QuickTime Pro is it any good for what I want to do?

 

[robx2]

This sounds like a classic video conversion nightmare. We can probably figure it out with more info...

Windows Media Center uses a lot of proprietary formats (of course). Were these recorded TV programs, files downloaded from the web, or brought in from a camcorder? If it's recorded TV, getting it into an editable format can be tricky.

A solution might be a MAC program called MPEG Streamclip (http://www.alfanet.it/squared5/mpegstreamclip.html)... although it does require the $20 MPEG-2 Quicktime plugin. It allows you to do rough edits (basic ins and outs) and will pretty much spit it back out in any format. However, I haven't been really pleased with its performance in Tiger.

Also, videohelp.com is a pretty amazing resource for guides to encoding and conversion.

 

[GlynJones]

Windows Media Center uses a lot of proprietary formats (of course). Were these recorded TV programs, files downloaded from the web, or brought in from a camcorder? If it's recorded TV, getting it into an editable format can be tricky.

Yes, they are all recorded TV programs then using a user built piece of software to remove the proprietry format. The resulting file plays fine only losing sync when converted to DVD. I guess its to do with the different rate between MPEG format and DVD format as I am sure they are different.

A solution might be a MAC program called MPEG Streamclip ... although it does require the $20 MPEG-2 Quicktime plugin.

Yes, I was thinking of trying this and buying the MPEG-2 Quicktime plugin. Would I be better to strip out the audio and video then load that into iMovie? If so what formats would be best for both so as not to lose any picture or sound quality.

Thanks for the reply's so far.

Glyn.

 

[robx2]

Does the audio gradually drift out of sync, i.e. is it pretty much in sync in the beginning then gets worse and worse as time progresses?

In my experience, this is usually due to NTSC (aka American TV) running at 29.97 frames per second, then being converted somewhere along the line to 30 fps. Usually doesn't matter in short pieces, but in a half-hour or an hour piece it gets pretty bad.

Check your settings along the line and make sure that 29.97 isn't changing to 30 or vice versa.

I might get booted from these forums... but I have to say that your freeware and shareware options for converting video files (especially mpeg and avis) are much more extensive on the PC. We use a program at work that works perfectly. I'll check when I go in later today cuz I can't find it on the web right now.

 

[strydr]

Don't know if you've already looked into it, but FFMPEGX is a great app for video conversion. I just ripped episode 2 of Lost for a friend who missed it because of the Adelphia snafu. Converted it from MPEG2 to Video_ts, then burned it as a DVD with Roxio Popcorn. The issue with the sound missing is called Demuxing. FFMPEGX will take care of this, and should give you plenty of options for encoding to iMovie of DVD Studio pro.

 

[robx2]

FFMPEGX does look like a good option. On the windows side, TMPGEnc also handles almost everything you can throw at it. http://www.tmpgenc.net/e_main.html

The program that we use on MCE at work actually just allows you to edit DVR-MS files (the MCE proprietary standard) and export them as DVR-MS or WMV. So it would allow you to cut off the front and back ends. It's called dCut and is available at http://www.inseattle.org/~dan/Dcut.htm.

 

[GlynJones]

Thanks all,

I bought the quicktime plug-in last night and downloaded MPEG Streamclip.

Tried to convert my mpeg to AVI and got a 30 gig file .

Anyone know what the best format is for editing in iMovie before writing to a DVD.

Thanks.

Glyn.