Brad’s Life

This is primarily for my own future reference as I try to archive to disc some of my favorite TV shows, but if anyone else stumbles across it and it helps, more power to you. I assembled these commands from various online resources, and this has been the set of steps most consistently successful for me. YMMV. I also included spots along the way where you can delete source files to free up space for those, like me, who didn’t think ahead about really wanting to stick with linux and now have a painfully small ext partition to work with.

STEP ONE - Convert the movies to mpg

First collect all files in a folder ON AN EXT formatted drive, move to that folder in a terminal window, and enter the following (I use half-dvd to fit more episodes per disc since I don’t have a top-notch display anyway, for better quality use “-dvd” in its place):

tovid-batch -half-dvd -ntsc -infiles *.avi

STEP TWO - Prepare a menu file

You can now delete all source files (the *.avi files). Now, make a menu:

makemenu title1.mpg title2.mpg title3.mpg -out menu

*NOTE - do not put an extension on the end of the “menu” outfile name

STEP THREE - Make the XML file

Now, make the xml file that will tie it all together:

makexml -menu menu.mpg title1.mpg title2.mpg title3.mpg mydvd

*NOTE - again, do not put an extension on the outfile name

STEP FOUR - Author the dvd file system

Use the xml file to make the DVD:

makedvd -image mydvd.xml

STEP FIVE - Burn the ISO

You can delete all files except the newly created ISO file. Now use your favorite dvd burning software (such as GnomeBaker) to burn the newly created ISO file to a disc! GnomeBaker is pretty much a cakewalk, so I’m going to skip the instructions there.

FOR MORE DETAIL/REFERENCE

For more options and information on all the above commands, check out Tovid Manual Pages