Converting a video file to DVD with ffmpeg

February 22, 2009

There are many GUI programs that allow you to convert avi/divx/xvid files into DVD format, such as DeVeDe, but I somehow prefer to use command line tools. I know, I’m just weird like that!

There are 3 basic steps in creating a simple DVD:

  1. Convert the video files
  2. create the DVD structure
  3. Burn the DVD

So, to convert a file to a DVD compatible format use something like:

ffmpeg -i "non dvd format input video.avi" -y -target pal-dvd -sameq -aspect 16:9 output.mpg

Next we need to create the DVD structure. We’ll use dvdauthor for this.
Rather than pass eveything into dvdauthor via the command line, it’s easier to put the settings into an xml file.

Read More