Pre-encode material for DVD

[mcarvin]

I have a collection of videos in AVI and MPEG format that I'd like to put on DVD for a Christmas gift. I'd also like to save some time tomorrow and pre-encode them to a DVD-friendly format. I have variety of encoding tools at my disposal, but I'd like to stick with FFMpegX if possible

I guess my question(s): Is it worth the time to let these files encode overnight, then build the DVDs tomorrow and Friday or not. If so, then what would be the best way to do it - make m2v and aac files?

 

[Bear]

I know that for iDVD, once you layout the video for the DVD, it will pre-encode much of the DVD in the background.

So maybe you just need to check what the software you plan to use actually does.

 

[mcarvin]

I know that for iDVD, once you layout the video for the DVD, it will pre-encode much of the DVD in the background.

So maybe you just need to check what the software you plan to use actually does.

I'm trying to keep it to a couple of DVDs, so I'm working with Sizzle to make the disc images, then Popcorn to compress them to a DVD5.

 

[WinterMute]

The simple way is to let iDVD encode them in the background or as part of the build, it takes longer, but it'll be compatible.

DVD uses MPEG2 video and AIFF 48Khz audio, iDVD requires "muxed" files, i.e. audio and video in one file. DVD Studio Pro requires de-muxed files, i.e. separate audio and video files.

Both systems will accept a bunch of files for input and encode them internally, but you'll get better looking results from Cleaner 6 or Compressor.

 

[mcarvin]

Thanks for the good looks guys. Looks like I'll just let iDVD handle things - less brainpower, time and effort on my part, which I kind of guess is the whole idea behind iLife.

I hate overcomplicating things.