Can I burn an .avi file to a DVD?

[ebvt]

I downloaded an .avi file to my hard drive and it plays flawlessly on the computer. Is there a way to burn that to a DVD to watch with a DVD player?

ebvt

[ElCuervo]

Many, maybe even most these days, DVD players will play a .avi file if you just burn it straight to a CD or DVD. It is worth at least one try.

There are also tools like DeVeDe in the repositories that will transcode .avi files to the more "regular" .vob files and create a video DVD. Takes a while, and IMO not worth it if you can do the above.

[ebvt]

Thanks, ElCuervo
I'll try it tonight

ebvt

[ebvt]

Unfortunately, the resulting disk played neither on the computer nor on my rather ancient dvd player. So I will dabble with the suggested alternate method.

Thanks again,
ebvt

[besonian]

To successfully burn an .avi file to CD I think you have to burn it as an ordinary data file, not as any sort of video file. But perhaps that's what ElCuervo meant and what you did anyway. But if you didn't, try it. It's worked many times for me.

[ebvt]

Thanks Besonian, what I did was I right-clicked the avi file and chose actions>create file project with k3b and then clicked on the burn button that showed up. Was that ok?

ebvt

[smcs_steve]

ebvt ,
Just burn it as a data project (K3B>> More Actions>> New Data Project ).  Choose a lower speed for a more reliable burn.
>Steve

[everge48]

I downloaded an .avi file to my hard drive and it plays flawlessly on the computer. Is there a way to burn that to a DVD to watch with a DVD player?
ebvt

DeVeDe

[Was_Just19]

I downloaded an .avi file to my hard drive and it plays flawlessly on the computer. Is there a way to burn that to a DVD to watch with a DVD player?

ebvt

Yes there are many apps to do this in the repository.

I suggest DVDStyler .....

[ebvt]

Nothing has worked so far. After a couple hours DeVeDe resulted in "Error: Conversion failed; it seems a bug of SPUMUX". I googled that error code, but workarounds are way above my pay grade! Will check out DVDStyler next.

ebvt

[Was_Just19]

Nothing has worked so far. After a couple hours DeVeDe resulted in "Error: Conversion failed; it seems a bug of SPUMUX". I googled that error code, but workarounds are way above my pay grade! Will check out DVDStyler next.

ebvt

Can you install MediaInfo and let us know what the details of the .avi file are?

[daniel]

The first step to convert a AVI to MPEG/VOB is to known the specific details of the AVI.
To get this information use MediaInfo_GUI, search in the synaptic.
The second step is to known, what files of MPEG/VOB is default. A good place to read more is
http://forum.doom9.org/
Or you use avidemux, on the reiter auto >  Optical-Disc > DVD, it will set the values for a default DVD-Movie  
Good luck  
  

EDIT:

Nothing has worked so far. After a couple hours DeVeDe resulted in "Error: Conversion failed; it seems a bug of SPUMUX". I googled that error code, but workarounds are way above my pay grade! Will check out DVDStyler next.

ebvt

Can you install MediaInfo and let us know what the details of the .avi file are?

or what JohnBoy wrote (i'm slowly   )

[ebvt]

Leiche, ich werde langsam schreiben - habe die info, was soll ich damit anfangen?  Ooops, I forgot I am on an english board...
Here's what's on the mediainfo:

General
AVI: 699MiB, 1H 59 min                                            Writing library:Virtual Dub build 29963/release
1Video stream: MPEG-4 Visual (XViD)
1 Audio stream MPEG Audio (MP3)
 
Video
681Kbps 640*480 (4:3),at 29.970 fps, MPEG-4 Visual (XViD) (Advanced Simple@L5) (BVOP)

Audio
128 Kbps, 44.1 KHz, 2 channels, MPEG Audio (MP3) (Version 1) (Layer 3) (joint stereo/MS stereo)

Any suggestions anybody? I feel like at fish out of water!

ebvt

[ElCuervo]

Nothing has worked so far. After a couple hours DeVeDe resulted in "Error: Conversion failed; it seems a bug of SPUMUX". I googled that error code, but workarounds are way above my pay grade! Will check out DVDStyler next.

ebvt

I told you, not really worth it to me most of the time, and for reasons just like that: it is very CPU-intensive to transcode video, and if your processor is one of the older ones, sometimes it just grinds away for hours, gets very hot, and finally fails.

The fact that you couldn't even view the first video you burned to disk on your PC suggests that your burn was incorrect for whatever reason. If it is done correctly, it is essentially just a copy of the file from one medium to another, and therefore should have no effect on the computer's ability to read it. Try opening K3b, start a new data project, and then just drag and drop the file to the lower right side box. It should then burn a workable copy, both for PC and DVD player.

BTW, less than 700MB will also make a CD that plays in my set-top DVD players - much cheaper for experimentation that DVDs.

[Was_Just19]

I would drop it into DVDStyler, choose a menu with Play button - or not if you wish.

Set the defaults for you location .....  Europe is  PAL; North America NTSC .....  use AC3 audio.

Set it to produce an ISO, but not burn the DVD.

You can then play the completed ISO using VLC or other player to see if it was successful, before using K3b to burn the ISO to a DVD.

An alternative, if you wished to use it, is to do the following ....

Use Avidemux .....  drag & drop the avi file into it.
Set the output of Avidemux to  

VIDEO       MPEG-2
AUDIO       AC3
FORMAT    MPEG-PS (A+V)

That will produce a video file (.mpg) which when fed into DVDStyler will take very little time to create the ISO for you DVD.
You will be able to view the file first to see if it is as you would want it.

You might be best advised to do a short portion of the file and check that before doing the whole lot.

There are many different adjustments that can be made to such video files, so it is almost impossible to advise what might be best for that particular file.

If it does not look right in your tests, then tell us, and ask what might best be done.

Good luck.

regards.