الثلاثاء، 27 أبريل 2010

How to burn a video to a DVD

Here is a quick and easy guide to turning any video file from your computer into a playable DVD format.

Install the DVD Flick Program

The free, open-source program DVD Flick is one convenient way to author DVDs. Log on to the Internet, download the program, and it will do most of the work for you.

Creating DVDs accessible via your everyday DVD player requires encoding the associated video files in MPEG2 format. DVD Flick will facilitate all the needed transcoding of any AVI, MPG, MOV, or WMV files into MPEG2. After it does this, the program also authors the information and burns the DVD at the same time.

Project Settings Configuration

The simple, built-in interface for DVD Flick includes seven toolbar buttons; through which one can add videos to the DVD project. This step discusses the settings contained in the interface.

The default option for the ‘Project Settings’ button works for most straightforward DVD projects.

The ‘General’ button permits the user to establish the target media’s size – which basically means the capacity of the DVD. If the target media is a standard DVD, the recommended default is at 4.3Gb. The other options for target media size include CD-R, Dual-Layer DVD, Mini-DVD, or any size of your choice.

The ‘Video’ button determines the authoring of media based on your DVD player. The formats are PAL or NTSC. For US-based users, the format is NTSC. The larger part of Asia and Europe utilize the PAL format.

Set Encoding Quality

Encoding quality may be set in the drop-down panel for ‘Encoding Profile’. You can increase or reduce video quality by checking or disabling the ‘Second Encoding Pass’ option. Reducing video quality can hasten the encoding cycle by eliminating the second encoding pass.

Note that the ‘Burning’ button allows setting the options for your end product. If you do not have a DVD at hand for immediate burning, this feature permits you to make an ISO image for later transfer to DVD.

Entitle your DVD

As mentioned earlier, DVD Flick can add virtually all video types to the project. Access the folder containing the video files, then drag and drop those into the program. A yellow counter within the application depicts the amount of space used. How much video can fit on a single playable DVD varies widely, so it is best to observe the available space.

The default file order in the DVD depends on the order they are dragged and dropped. Choose the video and open the ‘Edit Title’ option, which allows you to:

Add chapters per video file;

Change how chapters are made;

Create chapter points anywhere in the video;

and Establish a number of chapters in each title.

More experienced users may also append subtitles audio tracks via the ‘Edit Title’ menu.

Create the DVD Itself

Select the target directory wherein the transcoded files will be stored. Set all options necessary. Activate ‘Create DVD’. This will take a fair amount of time as transcoding consumes memory and may reduce CPU performance. You can also check the option stating ‘Shutdown When Complete’ if you wish to turn off the computer once the burning is complete.