AVI video to DVD

case_sensitive

Hi,

I've got a load of TV shows in AVI format that I want to burn to DVDs playable in a set-top DVD player. Tried to put it together in iDVD, but it only takes iMovie format files, and iMovie will not work with clips longer than 9.5 mins (2GB AV). Any suggestions of what I should use?
I tried DVD Studio pro 2, but it's horrifically slow on my G4 (iLamp 20" 1.25Ghz 768MB RAM), takes about an hour to import 4 x 23 min clips, and 8 or 9 to convert to workable format.

I already have:
iLife '04 ('05 is in the post)
Toast Titanium

Any suggestions?

Clank

Can you not just use Toast Titanium and click the video tab and drag and drop them in there??
If not my only other guess would be to create a disc image of them all then use Roxio's Popcorn to burn the disc image(you can use Toast aswell though)

case_sensitive

Ah..
Once I ran the avis through DivX Doctor (making standalone .movs), they can indeed be dropped in Toast!
Yay!
I'm a recent switcher, and only finding my way, thanks a million, I've tried so many complicated ways, the obvious one seemed to improbably easy. Guess I'm just used to my Wintel PCs :->

case_sensitive

Yeah, well, that was posted before the job was actually finished.. My iLamp 1.25Ghz took, and I'm not kidding here, about 10 hours to expand 2 x 42 min AVIs to a DVD. There has got to be a better way, outside of buying a Dual 2.7GHz PM..

deevey

you could always ...re-record the footage to a DV cam (if you have one) from the and then re-import via FC or IDVD it'll only take about 3 hours :P

.... if you have the codecs installed .. somtimes Final cut will let you import the files .. exporting them to DVD format still takes hours .. i dont belive there is a easy way to get Divx movies to DVD even with windoze it'll take forever to render.

The quickest way to do it ... is to just record direct to a DVD recorder (not burner) it'll be worth the extra 200 quid (dunnes stores - yamada)... assuming your time is worth money of course .. hehe, it'll at least be realtime...

case_sensitive

Hmmm, I have a DVD recorder with FW input in the post from Jes.de, so maybe that's not as silly an idea as it sounds. Can FCP output to firewire (as in back to the camera from whence it came in DV)?
How about a plug-in to back up to DV tape :-> Used to have a thing that did it to VHS on my Amiga...
It's insane that I can decode the AVIs in realtime to watch them, but expanding them to DVD takes hours, something's not right there. Might find a prog that blows up AVI-packaged files to raw DV in the meantime.
Or just buy the bloody TV shows on DVD when they come out..

deevey

well if you have a DVD recorder the easiest solution is simply to use the video out and sound out on the mac straight to the aux RCA connections on the DVD recorder ..

rca-rca
minijack - rca ..

tis all you should need to record your tv shows direct from your mac in realtime.. you could even que a few of them in quicktime / mplayer so you can just leave 6 - 8hours recording at a go overnight or whatever.

The idea of using a DV cam at all was if you didnt have a DVD recorder..

.. no point dicking round with DV cams + firewire + FCP if you dont need to.

P.S. quicktime pro will convert AVI - DV (once you can play the movie in QT).. if you really wanna go that route at any point .. maybe for editing purposes ?.. hope you have lots of HD space ..

case_sensitive

Hmm, I do have QT Pro, tried to download new version from Apple, and it seems that I have Pro (thought I had vanilla), so I couldn't/didn't do update.
I have about 180GB now, sticking another 300 in when I get paid next (well OneTouch II FW 300GB disk into Mac, 180GB into OneTouch case), so should be good for the few seasons of West Wing I have (I have the bought DVDs too, but they just released 5 a few days ago, and I've got HDTV of Series 6 up to 2nd last ep!).
Mind you, the RCA - DVD+R seems like a plan alright, better get that min-DVI to video out off Ebay so..

Still, begs the question about why it's so slow to convert AVI to DV..