AVI2DVD is a tool that will convert your AVI files into playable DVDs, VCDs, or SVCDs, or alternately convert DVDs into VCDs or SVCDs.
It will generate an ISO file that you can burn into DVD or CD media. AVI2DVD is a a front-end GUI that utilizes a number of freeware tools to do the conversion.
For the purposes of testing I converted a 700 meg Xvid-encoded AVI file into DVD format.
It took AVI2DVD 2 hours and 45 minutes to do the job, and the final product was excellent! Note that the time it takes will depend on your source file(s), your chosen settings, and the processing power of your hardware.
Note that AVI2DVD is still BETA software, and may be buggy. Having used it I can report that I have not found any problems with it so far.
Here’s what you need to know about this program:
- The program has a 5-step ‘tabbed’ interface that simplifies all the different decisions you have to make to create your DVD; very streamlined and easy for the average user to navigate.
- You can add multiple video files to for batch encoding into a single DVD.
- AVI2DVD will also create a DVD menu for you and allow you to upload an image file as a background. It will capture images from the video for you if you want to use that, and will also allow you to use your own MP3 audio track as menu background music.
- Available encoding options include de-interlacing (if your source is interlaced), setting aspect ratio, splitting across multiple CD’s/DVD’s, setting length of each DVD ‘chapter’, setting audio bitrate, converting from PAL to NTSC or vice versa. If you do not know what these settings are then leave them alone and go with the default choice.
- If your video source files has multiple audio tracks for different languages (these are rare but some actually do), you can define the language for up to three different audio tracks.
- If you are interested in including subtitles, the program supports up to three different subtitles options; you will have to provide the subtitle files in .SRT or .TXT formats. You can find subtitle files all over the internet if you need them; search Google for these.
- AVI2DVD comes with 4 free encoders that it uses to encode the DVD files. You can choose the one you want; I used the default QuEnc and it worked great, though I’ve heard good things about HCenc in terms of reliability.
- The installation process also installs all the tools, encoders, and filters that you need; you need not worry about installing any codecs or filters seperately.
Once the conversion process is finished AVI2DVD will have created an ISO file (typically called DVD_Image.iso), which is all you need. All the other files can be deleted. You can burn the resulting ISO file to DVD using most CD/DVD burning programs, with IMGburn, or DVD Decrypter. You can find instructions on how to download DVD Decrypter in the RipIt4Me posting.
I recommend this product wholeheartedly!
Version tested: 0.4.4 Beta
Go to the program download page for the latest version. The program page.
