[Novalug] Video converter

Richard Ertel richard.ertel@gmail.com
Tue Oct 6 16:38:36 EDT 2009


here's the details of the all-on-one program that i personally use (
ConvertXtoDVD, in windows xp, price now is $50, i don't think i paid
that much when i bought it and i don't think i'd buy it now for that
much, actually...):

- open program
- put blank dvd in drive
- drag video files into program window
- change options, like menu item name, for example (optional)
- click "convert"

wait a while and a dvd pops out. it's VERY easy, assuming that your
needs allow you to have all the options set and saved.

please don't anyone take this message as an advertisement for the
product, but rather as an example of functionality that i, personally,
think is good and should be blatantly copied to an open source
front-end for multiple open-source applications.

On Tue, Oct 6, 2009 at 16:23, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith@ieee.org> wrote:
> Okay, replace "idiot" with "too silly to the point of a-hole."
> I apologize regardless, I just found this stuff over 5 years ago
> on Freshmeat and have been using what I use since.
>
> I typically have a workflow with a high-quality, "source" video
> which I always encode into the end-desired format -- H.262,
> MPEG-2, DivX, etc... and then I use the appropriate solution
> to package it for the device (iPod, DVD Menu, etc...).  So I
> might end up using a couple different programs, but it is very
> "seemless" because the GUI programs are all working on the
> same tree.
>
> Just like when I do photoediting, I don't edit from JPEG, I edit
> from RAW, and then put to whatever end-format I want (be it
> various JPEG, PDF with other things, etc...  I might use a few
> different programs to do a few things (although see my new,
> recent post on asking what others are using for their workflow).
>
> The problem with many DVD authoring programs is that they
> will not always encode to a quality that viable, and sometimes
> fetches the wrong source file from previous editing.  I had to
> correct some videos done by my family who were wondering
> why the video quality came out so bad -- some product they
> got at Best Buy (cannot remember).
>
> I set them up with Handbrake with a pre-made option sets to
> do the encoding and then they took those resulting files and put
> them to iPod, DVD, all under Windows.  I don't understand the
> number of programs that convert to DivX, then back to MPEG-2
> for DVD, without maintaining the "lossless" source.
>
> I don't see how the all-in-one program is any more seemless here,
> but I'm not familiar with some of the Windows programs that some
> are using.  So my ignorance does apply, and that's part of why
> I apologized.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: John Franklin <franklin@elfie.org>
>
> On Oct 6, 2009, at 2:35 PM, Bryan J. Smith wrote:
>> Okay, because I'm the idiot here ... let me point out that was 1 search.
>> I was thinking that people could "follow my lead" and do more searches.
>> I was merely pointing to FreshMeat, with an example.
>
> You're not an idiot.  The problem with your post is that was a bad example of an "add GUI" search.  A lot of us (myself included) have done searches for authoring apps like that and in more places with no good answers.
>
> No, I don't consider a DVD authoring program that can't figure out what kind of video it was handed thus requiring a second application for transcoding to be a good solution.  It's reasonable if I want to hand-optimize the video, but not if I just want a quick DVD for grandma / presentation / whatever.  IMHO, an excellent authoring app would include a transcoder with easy, common options for quick authoring and the ability to hand tweak every encoder option.
>
> jf
> --John Franklin
> franklin@elfie.org
> ICBM: 39º 01' 58.4"N 77º 24' 49.6"W Z+84m
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