How to convert multiple formats to DVD with WinAVI

This guide will demonstrate how to use WinAVI to convert several supported formats (including avi, asf, mov, rm, wmv, swf etc..) to DVD. WinAVI is a simple program to use and produces quite nice quality. It is also pretty fast encoding. This method is very easy and is recommended to new users, but some pro's might be surprised about how well this program performs also for certain tasks. WinAVI will leave you with DVD files (vob, bup, ifo etc.) but you can also choose to output to MPEG if you want to author with another program before you burn.

Introduction & Requirements

WinAVI - Download and install a trial, if you like it, then buy it.

Make sure you have the proper codecs installed for your source files (DivX, XviD etc.). You will also need to have enough hard drive space for the output files. Assuming you are making a DVD, then make sure you have at least 4.5GB.

Introducing WinAVI

As you can see, WinAVI is quite a nice and colorful program to look at. The Menu button pops up the programs menu which you can use if you wish to perform tasks like skin change or get technical support. The Web button loads winavi.com in your default web browser. Now you can see that there are several other buttons below the top bar.

WinAVI can do more than convert multiple formats to DVD. On the main screen here you already see the option to convert to WMV, AVI and RM as well. There are two extra buttons also, one to burn disc now which will load Nero Express and one for batch encoding. However the button we are looking for is the big DVD button. So click it.

Select your source file

After you click the DVD button, you will have to browse for your source file (the file you want to convert to DVD). When you find it, select it and click Open. WinAVI can open many formats including avi, asf, mov, rm, wmv, swf and rmvb. In my case I am opening an AVI file (DivX file).

Select Output Directory and Format

The next thing the program needs you to do is to select an Output Directory and Output Format. Make your directory something easy to remember (it's good to have a common folder for video output). The output format can be changed to MPEG2 if you want, just make sure you select 48000hz sampling frequency for audio later. I will leave DVD set but instead of clicking OK we must click Advanced and make a few adjustments.

Advanced Options

These options are quite easy to understand. Under Output Settings you have two main choices, Constant Video Quality or Constant Video Size. If you are converting an entire movie then you are better off with the second options, Constant Video Size. Under constant video size your number of discs should be set to one and disc capacity should be left at 4300MB. Even though technically a DVDR can hold more data than that, it's a good practice because you often run into problems when you burn a disc to absolute maximum capacity.

Set chapter length means automatic chapters every set number of seconds. You can untick this option if you do not want chapters or change the amount of seconds to suit you. Target format is best left on AUTO but if you require PAL or NTSC format then it should be fine to select them here, WinAVI does a pretty good job at encoding to a different format. Aspect ratio is probably best kept on auto too, but if you'd like to pick between 4:3 and 16:9 yourself, it's ok.

Preference should be set to By quality. Even though this is slower than the other option, By Speed, it is better option overall because it produces much better quality. Audio Birate lets you choose the birate of your output AC3. 192kb/s is usually fine, or you can sacrifice that tiny bit of video quality for 224kb/s if you really want to, although there wont be much of a difference. Enable DirectAC3 needs to be checked. Now there are also some small extra options that might be useful, click the Encode tab to see.tions that might be useful, click the Encode tab to see.

Advanced Options - 2

Here are some more options you can mess with. Picture clip has four editable percentages which you can use to alter the parts of the video that are outputted from the top, bottom, right and left if you know what you are doing (don't change these values unless you know). Source target rate is best left on AUTO unless you know how to manually adjust this. Source aspect ratio is set to AUTO by default, but I'd recommend setting it yourself if you know the source Aspect Ratio of your file (although not technically; 4:3 would refer to full screen video whereas 16:9 would be widescreen, but as I said, that's not technically correct).

Adjust height should be left alone also just like Picture clip unless you know what you are doing (if you mess too much with those two options, you could end up with a terrible output). Soften picture does exactly what it says through the use of a filter so if you require it, then tick it and Make upside-down picture also does exactly that but in most cases you won't need this. That's about all the options we can pick covered. There is only one thing left for WinAVI to do and that is to Encode it. Click OK and then click OK again to begin the encoding.

Encoding

There are also some options you can change whilst encoding is in progress. The preview window may be open by default, although I do advise you to untick the option (unless it's absolutely necessary you have it on) as it might slightly speed up the encoding process and it will be on less task your computer has to deal with. Real time refurbishing the preview in my opinion should never be ticked, this will slow down your encoding dramatically, just to facilitate more for the preview.

Shut down the computer after all work has been done has an obvious use. This can be very useful if you let your computer encode while you sleep or while you are at work/school etc. WinAVI generally doesn't all that long to encode, but it does depend on your computer of course. Now all you have left to do is burn your resulting DVD files.

Burning to DVDR

While there is a burn button on WinAVI, it is not that useful if you do not have Nero Express installed. It's a good practice to burn it yourself anyway. If you have Nero Burning Rom then I suggest you use that. You can find a guide for it on AfterDawn here. If you do not have Nero Burning Rom and you would like to burn using free programs then I would suggest you use Folder2Iso and DVD Decrypter to burn. Find a guide for that here.

Finally

Now you should be able to use WinAVI to convert formats to DVD. If you have any questions or problems, please visit our Discussion Forums for help.

Other guides that may help

Conversion Guides

How to Convert DivX to DVDR with DVD2SVCD
How to Convert DivX to DVDR with DVD2SVCD (D2SRoBa Method)
How to Convert multiple files types to DVD with DVDSanta
Convert a DivX or XviD AVI to DVD
VSO DivxToDVD guide

Authoring Guides

Basic TMPGEnc DVD Author Guide
Advanced TMPGEnc DVD Author Guide
DVD-lab : A look at inexpensive DVD authoring software

Burning Guides

Burning pre-authored DVD-Video using Nero
How to burn a DVD folder with DVD Decrypter
How to burn a DVD-img or DVD folder to DVD with DVDSanta

We have plenty more guides in our Guide Section so check it out. If you have problems understanding some terms used on this site, then please visit our Glossary Section.

Version History

v1.0 -- 3rd May, 2005, First version online (Dela)