DeVeDe, a video DVD creator

Current version: 2.6

Before sending a bug, please read the FAQ. (thanks).

What is it?

DeVeDe is a program that allows you to create a video DVD from an MPEG, AVI, MOV... video file, suitable for home DVD players. DeVeDe uses Mplayer, Mencoder, DVDAuthor and VCDimager, so you can use any video playable with Mplayer.

DISCLAIMER

This software is distributed as is, under the GPL license (v2 or later), and without warranty of any kind. Use it at your own risk. Press here to read the GPLv2 license.

Installing DeVeDe

To install DeVeDe, first you must ensure you have Mplayer, Mencoder, DVDAuthor and VCDimager in your system. You need Python 2.4, PyGTK and PyGlade too. Then, just run the install.sh script as root. It will copy all the files at the right place. It should even create an entry in your Gnome/KDE/freedesktop-compatible-windowmanager menu.

Description of the interface

When you launch DeVeDe, it will show you this window, asking what kind of disk you want to create. You can choose between:

Video DVD: a classic video DVD, like the ones you rent in your videoclub or buy in your video shop.
VideoCD: a CD with CBR MPEG-1 video at a resolution of 352x240 pixels (352x288 with PAL), a fixed bitrate of 1152 kbits/second for video and 224 kbits/second for audio. The quality is comparable to analog VHS, and a CD can contain as much compressed audio/video than uncompressed audio (this is, a 80-minutes CD can contain about 80 minutes of compressed video/audio). Is compatible with all DVD players, but video quality is medium-bad.
Super VideoCD: a CD with VBR MPEG-2 video at a resolution of 480x480 pixels (480x576 with PAL) and video bitrates between 500 and 2600 kbits/second. The quality is comparable to LaserDisc, and a 80-minutes CD can contain about 60 minutes con compressed video/audio (more if you reduce the bitrate, but with less quality). Is compatible with a lot of DVD players, but maybe there is one very cheap which doesn't support it. Video quality is good.
CVD (China Video Disk): identical to Super VideoCD, but with a resolution of 352x480 pixels (352x576 with PAL). Offers less artifacts with same bitrate, but image is a bit less sharper than Super VideoCD. Is compatible with a lot of DVD players, but maybe there is one very cheap which doesn't support it.

Of course you aren't limited to theses options, since you can choose, if you want, another resolution for your CD/DVD. This allows you to create Super VideoCDs with a resolution of 352x240 (or 352x288 for PAL), which is a very good compromise if you want to store a lot of video in a single CD. I don't recomend to use other resolutions with VideoCDs, because CBR MPEG-1 is very limited. Choose the Super VideoCD or CVD option (which uses VBR MPEG-2) and use there the resolution you want.

After choosing the kind of disk you want, you will see the main interface:

A DVD is divided in Titles and Chapters. Each title is a film on its own, and, when played, you have to choose the one you want to see. Into each title you can add as many files you want, and cut them in chapters to allow an easy search.

In VideoCDs, Super VideoCDs and CVDs there's no title concept, so that frame won't be visible when you choose to create one of them.

In the screenshot, we see that there are two titles, and at title two we have two files. The files in a title will be played one after another, so they will be treated as a single film. So if you only want to create a DVD with one single film from multiple files, you have to put all of them in a single title. Your player will merge all in a single film.

The File info box contains all the information about the selected file: desired audio an video rate, original size, FPS and length in seconds. It has the estimated size in Mbytes, but have in mind that is an estimation, so the final size can be lower.

The Disk usage shows the percentage of the DVD currently used. You can occupy more than the 100% because it's based in an estimation, so the final size can (and probably will) be lower than the espected. You can choose the CD/DVD size too. Have in mind another thing: a 700MB CD can contain 80 minutes of compressed audio/video, which, at 1152 kbps are about 800MB. This means that, when the media is a CD, you MUST use the bar to know how many disc space you are using, and no the estimated size of the files, because you can put up to 800MB of compressed video in a 700MB CD, or about 720MB in a 650MB CD.

Now, the Action block allows you to choose what do you want to create. The first option,Only convert film files to compliant MPEG files takes each file and converts it to a DVD-compliant MPEG-PS file, or to VCD, SVCD or CVD-compliant MPEG-PS. You can choose a generic name, being the default name "movie", so the files will have names like movie_XX_YY.mpg, being XX the title, and YY the file position into the title. An example: if you have two titles, and two files in the first title and three files at the second title, you will get five files: movie_01_01.mpg, movie_01_02.mpg, movie_02_01.mpg, movie_02_02.mpg and movie_02_03.mpg. This option is specially usefull when you want to create DVD menus with other program like DVD Styler, Q DVD Author or PoliDori. Of course, with VCD, SVCD or CVD, the title number will be always "01".

The second option, Create disk structure, is visible only when you create a DVD. It creates the MPEG files and then uses DVDAuthor to create the DVD tree structure. After that, it erases the MPEG files. You can use this option to create the folder and files for a DVD and use your own DVD recording program to create the ISO image and burn it into a DVD.

The third option, (second if you are creating a VCD, SVCD or CVD), Create an ISO or BIN/CUE image, ready to burn to a disk, converts the files to MPEG, creates the DVD tree if needed and, using MKISOFS, creates the ISO file, erasing then the MPEG and DVD tree to free disk space. With CD media, it converts the files to MPEG and uses VCDImager to create a BIN/CUE image, ready to be burned to a CD. Use this option to create a disk image ready to be burned to a CD/DVD with a program like GnomeBaker or K3b.

Finally, the option Erase temporary files allows to choose if you want DeVeDe to erase the temporary files as soon as they are needed no more. Selecting it, DeVeDe will need only about twice the final disk space, but if you don't mark it, you will need about three times the final disk space, but you will have all the temporary files.

To add a new file you have two options: first, you can drag and drop one or more files into the main window, so DeVeDe will give them some fine default values; or you can choose the "Add" button, so you will see this window:

First you choose the file you want to add (you can do it by drag and drop in this window too). After doing it, you can see its properties at the File info block. You can then choose the new audio an video rate, unless you are creating a VCD (theses have a fixed data rate). Remember that bigger rates will give you more quality, but bigger file size too.

By default, if the video will be reescaled to a width of 720 pixels, DeVeDe will put 5001Mbps; but if the final width is 352, DeVeDe will put 2001Mbps by default if final height is 288 (PAL) or 240 (NTSC), or 3001Mbps if final height is 576 (PAL) or 480 (NTSC). Of course you can change this value to the one you want in order to have more quality or more playing time.

Then, you can choose if you want to put the whole file, or only the first or the second half. This is specially usefull when creating VCDs: you can cut a long film in two disks if it's too long to fit in a single disk. But if the length of the film is less than 60 seconds, you won't be able to choose them.

Remember that this option is applied to each file, so if you put two files in a xCD and choose in both the first half, you will have a xCD with the first half of the first file followed by the first half of the second file.

Finally, you can choose if you want to create a PAL/SECAM or a NTSC DVD. DeVeDe will remember the last option you used, even between sessions, so you can choose it once and forget it.

Maybe you ask why I put this option here and not in the main window. The answer is: because this way you can create hybrid DVDs, with some films in PAL/SECAM format and others in NTSC. What is the utility of this? Simply: modern TV sets and DVD players can play both formats, so if you manually choose the one that fits better the original framerate of the file, you will have an smoother video. This is: if the original file has 24 or 25 fps, select PAL, and if it has 30 fps, select NTSC. Of course you can force one of them and DeVeDe will adjust the framerate to 25 or 30 fps, ensuring that the DVD will have the rigth framerate and will play fine in all TV sets, but maybe the motion is not as smooth as it could be.

There's a Preview button that converts some seconds (you can choose how many), allowing you to check the audio/video quality and the audio sync. It will create the temporary file by default at /var/tmp, but you can choose other place if you preffer.

Is possible that the preview doesn't play smoothly. This is because the program has a reduced priority. Don't worry about that, just keep your attention in the picture/sound quality and in the audio sync.

Finally there's an expansor named Advanced options. If you expand it, you will see that there are four tabs with new options, not needed normally but which can give much more control to advanced users:

In the Video options tab you have:

Final size: allows you to change the final resolution. A bigger resolution will give you sharper pictures, but will need more bitrate to avoid the horrible MPEG artifacs. If you choose Default, DeVeDe will choose automagically the best resolution, based in the original video resolution and the disk format you wanted. For Video DVD, DeVeDe will use resolutions of 352x288 for PAL/SECAM, or 352x240 for NTSC, if the video's resolution is smaller or equal than that. If not, it will jump to 352x480 (NTSC) or 352x576 (PAL) if this way the video fits. If not, it will use 720x576 for PAL/SECAM or 720x480 for NTSC. For VCD, SuperVCD or CVD, DeVeDe will use, as default, the standard resolution of each format. If the video rate is 5001, 3001 or 2001, it will choose a new videorate automatically too.
Scaling mode: here you can choose the expand method to use when the aspect ratio of the original file is not 4/3. The first method is the preferred, and consists in adding the classic black bars up and down. It has the advantage of maintain the aspect ratio, so the faces will look natural. The alternative method consists in expand the film, so the faces will look enlarged. Of course, if you have a 16:9 TV you can put it to Full Screen, and enjoy a full-resolution panoramic film.

In the Quality options tab you have:

Trellis Searched Quantization: this option makes Mencoder to find the optimal encoding for each 8x8 block, giving more video quality at the cost of a little slower conversion.
MacroBlock decision algorithm: encodes each MacroBlock in all modes and chooses the best. It's slower, but gives much better picture quality and final size.
Deinterlacing: allows to apply a deinterlace algorithm to the video. Useful when creating a DVD from a TV program or TV camera. You have three different algoritms to choose.

The Audio delay box is used to adjust the audio/video sync, allowing to fix videos with audio out of sync. You can set positive or negative values.

In the Misc tab you have:

Division in chapters: available only with Video DVDs, allows you to divide the file in chapters each X minutes, so if you choose 5 minutes, you will have a chapter each 5 minutes. You can choose different intervals for each file. Is a good practice to divide files in chapters, because that allows you to easily jump to the desired part of the DVD. I hope to add this feature to CD media soon.
Special: this section contains the This file is already a DVD/xCD-suitable MPEG-PS file option. When marked, nearly all options will became insensitive because DeVeDe will not recompress that file, but will use it directly when creating the DVD/xCD structure. This option is usefull when you have some already-compressed files (Eg. when you capture a TV signal and store it directly in MPEG2-PS format), because you will not need to wait the conversion time. Of course, you can mix MPEG-PS and non-MPEG-PS files in the same disc, because DeVeDe will recompress the non-MPEG-PS files, and use directly the MPEG-PS ones.
Custom parameters: allows you to add extra parameters to Mencoder, allowing you to add subtitles, set picture quality, and much more. Remember to use '\ ' to put blank spaces. An example: -sub /home/raster/holidays\ at\ galicia.sub will render the subtitles in the file "holidays at galicia.sub". The blank spaces at the filename are put as '\ '.

After adding all the files you want, you will be prompted for a directory where DeVeDe will create all the files, and a generic name for them. The directory must have sufficient free space to hold all the temporary files (aprox. the double of the final CD/DVD size). The generic name will be used to name all the temporary files, so the MPEG files will be named as GENERICNAME_XX_YY.MPG, the DVD tree directory will be named GENERICNAME, the ISO image will be named GENERICNAME.ISO, and the BIN/CUE files will be GENERICNAME.BIN and GENERICNAME.CUE. You can't use blank spaces for this name (if you put them, will be changed to underscores).

Finally, the program will start to create the files. Remember that this is a very slow process, and can need more than two hours to be completed.

Installing DeVeDe in your Home

DeVeDe 1.1 and later can be installed in other directories, like your own home directory. This allows to use DeVeDe in machines where you don't have root access. To do so, just copy the files:

devede
devede.glade
barras.png
estira.png
devede_convert.py
devede_gtk_helper.py
devede_other.py

into a folder, and run devede.py from that directory ("barras.png" and "estira.png" are in the "pixmaps" directory).

History of versions

Version 2.6

When the video wasn't subdivided in chapters, the XML file was incorrect and DVDAuthor complained. Fixed.
Fixed a bug when the output directory was no writable.
Added translation for Portugues do Brasil
Added a FAQ.

Version 2.5

Fixed another bug with directories and/or filenames with blank spaces
Added a workaround for a bug found in very old DVD Players, that can't play fast forward between the last chapter and the end of a file.

Version 2.4A

Added translation for Czech

Version 2.4

Allows to specify that a file is already a DVD-compliant MPEG-PS file, so it won't be recompresed, but stored "as is" into the disc (usefull when you capture video from a TV capturer of other sources).
Alows to deinterlace the video.
Allows to choose the MacroBlock algorithm and use Trellis, to enhace the final picture quality.
Allows to choose the directory for the temporary file used during preview, and remembers it.
Before creating a new disc it erases the files with conflicting names in the destination directory.
Allows to cancel the process during the creation of the BIN/CUE image of a VCD, SVCD or CVD.
Added a VRC_MINRATE parameter when creating VCDs, SVCDs and CVDs, to ensure full compatibility.
Changed the video bitrate for VCDs from 1150 to 1152, and the minimum video bitrate for SVCDs and CVD from 500 to 600.
Ensures that the progress bar while converting a file is refreshed at least each two senconds.
First major code refactorization to enhace the maintenability.

Version 2.3

Removed the use of B-frames (which was added in version 2.1) because it produces problems with some DVD players.

Version 2.2

In some very inusual cases mencoder could trigger a bug with an undeclared variable. Fixed.

Version 2.1

Optimized some loops. Now DeVeDe is about 30% faster during video conversion.
Now checks that you have enought free disk space.
Allows to maintain the temporary files instead of deleting them.
Fixed a little bug with the erasing of temporary files.

Version 2.0

Now can create VideoCD, SuperVideoCD and China VideoDisks.
Allows the user to override the default resolution and use the one he wants.
Allows to pass custom commands to Mencoder, allowing to render subtitles, cut the file in chunks, select an audio stream when the file has two or more...
Allows to change the order of the files and titles.
Changed the position of some elements, making the interface a little more intuitive.
The advanced features have been grouped, so novices will see only the most important options while advanced users can have access to a lot of extra functions with just a single click.
Fixed a litle bug when a video header tells that it has an aspect ratio of 0 or 1.
Installation more compliant with FreeDesktop and Debian normatives.

Version 1.6

Added support for resolutions 352x480 (in NTSC) and 352x576 (in PAL).
Fully support for movies with aspect ratios different than 4:3 (now, with 16:9 movies it adds the right black bars to ensure that a circle IS a circle).
Fixed a bug with audio/video sync when converting a PAL video to NTSC or vice-versa.

Version 1.5

Now works with video files without audio track.
Transforms blank spaces in the generic filename to underscores (in previous versions, DeVeDe failed if a blank space was inserted).
Fixed the translation to Galego.
Added an uninstall script.

Version 1.4

Added Drag&Drop support.
Translatable strings (currently supports english, spanish and galego).
Set a default video rate based on the final resolution.
Shows the elapsed time used to create de DVD.

Version 1.3

Added fully support for PAL/SECAM and NTSC. Now the user can choose the kind of disc to create.
Added support for more resolutions (352x288/352x240), so DVDs made from low-resolution videos will have better quality.
Now DeVeDe scales the video or resamples the audio if needed, so the conversion is a litle faster (not much faster, but faster anyway).
Some minor bugfixes.

Version 1.2

Now DeVeDe REALLY creates a NTSC DVD when the framerate is 30fps (that was the original intention, but due to a litle bug it didn't work before).

Version 1.1

Allows to adjust the audio delay, to ensure perfect audio/video sync.
Added a Preview button, to check the video quality and the audio sync without converting all the files.
Now DeVeDe reduces a litle its priority when launched, allowing to continue working with the computer without speed penalties.
Now checks if you have write permissions at the destination directory.
Fixed the install script; now doesn't supposes that install is at /usr/bin.
Interface much more compliant with the Gnome HIG.

Version 1.02b

Due to the hurry to fix an error, I packed an incorrect version in the .tar.bz2. Fixed here.

Version 1.02

With some specific files DeVeDe failed. Fixed in this version.
Now DeVeDe can be installed in the home directory.

Version 1.01

Fixed a little problem with MPlayer and pipes

Version 1.0

First public version

Contacting the author

This program has been created by Sergio Costas (Raster Software Vigo).

http://www.rastersoft.com

e-mail: raster@rastersoft.com