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divx/avi to dvd/mpeg2: (tech_notes#14)

with subtitles and obviously using free software on GNU/Linux...

1] Using mencoder with subtitles specified a la:

/usr/bin/mencoder -of mpeg -mpegopts format=dvd -srate 48000 -ofps 25 -ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg2video:vrc_buf_size=1835:keyint=15:vrc_maxrate=9800:vbitrate=9800:acodec=ac3:aspect=4/3:abitrate=192 thefilm.avi -o test.mpeg2 -sub thesubtitles.srt -font ~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf -subfont-text-scale 3

breaks aspect with dvdauthor: unknown mpeg2 aspect ratio 1

results in DVD image with an incorrect aspect

note also the subfont.ttf as in previous attempts we couldn't scale the font

font can also be specified in ~/.mplayer/mencoder.conf:

font=~/.mplayer/subfont.ttf

Encoding to mpeg2 using ffmpeg works fine with dvdauthor and aspect but using spumux to add subtitles doesn't work - spumux 0.6.13 and darcs version result in drastic memory leaks.

2] Clumsy fix uses two passes:

mencoder thefilm.avi -ovc lavc -oac lavc -lavcopts aspect=4/3 -sub thesubtitles.srt -subfont-text-scale 3 -o outputfilm.avi

## then:

ffmpeg -i outputfilm.avi -target pal-dvd -aspect 4:3 test.mpeg2

## and then the usual processing with dvdauthor

/usr/bin/dvdauthor -o ~/dvd -x ~/structure.xml

mkisofs -dvd-video -o test.iso ~/dvd/

##finally

growisofs -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=test.iso

for extra good measure dvdauthor's structure.xml:

<dvdauthor>
  <vmgm>
<menus>
<video format="pal" aspect="4:3" />
</menus>
</vmgm>
  <titleset>
    <titles>
      <pgc>
        <vob file="~/test.mpeg2"/>
      </pgc>
    </titles>
  </titleset>
</dvdauthor>