Making DVD videos
a.k.a. Creating a slideshow with a sound track that plays on the TV's DVD player.
I posted a link to this page in Ubuntu Forums and got lots of hits and some positive feedback so I'm updating it. Learn more from the forum thread at:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=480314
I used Linux of course (Ubuntu 7.04). I also have mplayer, w32codecs and libdvdcss2. I don't know if they are required. Now I use mandvd and DeVeDe. Earlier I used qdvdauthor, avidemux and DeVeDe. Mandvd is a much easier way.
You'll need photos that are ready to use. Edit with the GIMP to get out red-eye. I resized the photos from Nautilus. You need a sound track that is ready to use. For private use you might be able to use something commercial that you bought. Honor copyrights both with other's photos and with other's music.
On to the How-To:
For this how-to I selected five photos from my trip to Nepal in 1978. I copied them into a new folder. I used Nautilus to resize them all to 640x480, and selected (x)In-place so it kept the original names. This size is fine for TVs, although some newer TVs can display better resolution. I took a mp3 clipped out a little piece that worked out to be 50 seconds, saved it as a wav all using Audacity. This will be a short video. :)
Steps:
1. Make a slideshow from a collections of photos.
2. Add a sound track to the slideshow (call it a video).
3. Burn the video to a DVD that plays on the TV's DVD player (and PCs).
First the easier way using mandvd:
Start mandvd. Select the destination folder. I used type PAL. Later I'll use NTSC with DeVeDe to make a DVD for the TV.
Scaled default resolution back to 704x480.
Click on option "Create a slideshow" in upper right section.
Accept "Import Folder" and selected the folder with the five Nepal photos. This did not keep the order I wanted. So check the sequence and experiment as needed.
Each photo has the letter A in a block. The default time for each photo is 1 second, transitions also 1 second. So change these things. I used time per photo 8 seconds, transition 2 seconds. I had to do this for every photo. I tried the text which does show on the photos in black often hard to read on the PC and was impossible to read on the TV. Better to set any text on the photo using the GIMP and editing that photo. Maybe mandvd has a global setting somewhere for font size, type and colors. Double click on a transition effect to apply it to the selected image. To change each photos settings use the box that says "Select picture xx" not the VCR buttons at the bottom of the thumbnail images. OK its a little un-intuitive but not hard to use. Now I can set each photos display duration and transition speed. OK. Now add sound by clicking on the "Add soundtrack" by the guitar icon. That was fast and easy. Knowing the time of the soundtrack and the time I've given the photos makes it easy to keep both the same length. Now at the bottom click on [Generate]. I left it at five frames per second. Should be fine for a slide show where nothing changes for 8 seconds at a time.
Export to DVD-RW.
Open DeVeDe. Select [Video DVD]
On the right side under Files click [+ Add]
Click on the folder to browse and find the *.vob created by mandvd.
Change to (x)NTSC then accept the other defaults and say [OK].
Click on [Forward], it asks for a target path and file name. Set them and say OK and off it goes creating an *.iso as you named it. When finished click [OK] and it closes itself, job done.
Burn the iso to a DVD.
I remember having trouble getting K3b to accept a DVD for a file smaller than 650MB so I just burned it with Nautilus, which was a lot easier anyway.
Insert the DVD in my PC and it plays with totem with sound. I used a DVD-RW.
DONE - the DVD plays in the TV's DVD player, in Linux of course and in WindowsXP with Windows Media Player. Windows didn't even whine about it not being in an MS-only format.
Want to play the video? It's 15 MB for a 50 second video.
http://www.davidandjoyce.net/help_pages/nepal50sec_mandvd.vob
My DSL took 4 minutes for Firefox to download and play the video (used totem). It may finish before you finish reading this help page.
What to download the *.iso file (14MB)?
http://www.davidandjoyce.net/help_pages/nepal50sec_mandvd_DeVeDe.iso
Burn it to a DVD and pop it in your TV's DVD player. See if this process will work for you. Read your TV-DVD's manual first to see which flavors of DVD it will accept.
Another method:
If you cannot get mandvd here is my earlier success with qdvdauthor and avidemux:
Use qdvdauthor to make a slideshow. Open qdvdauthor.
Click on the left side on [Add Slideshow]
Fill in the blanks:
default /tmp --- click [Next]
default folder will be /tmp/Unnamed
click on [Browse] and accept default of /home/david (or /home/your_user_name)
Then [Finish]
Goes back to main screen
Click on left side again on [Add Slideshow]
this time you select the slides. [Add Images]
Select from a folder – [Ctrl]+A to select all the photos in a folder. Then [Open].
Click on [Export Slideshow ...]
give it a name. Note the path is probably /home/david like above
Click [OK] and it crashes out, closing the program!!!
What! Why does it crash? Oh well continue...
Now restart the program. [No] if asked to salvage fragments of crashed session.
[Add slideshow] again. path names
[Add slideshow] a second time but rather than select slides, open the slideshow that was saved earlierby [Import Slideshow...]. Select and click on [OK]
This time rather than crash and burn it gives a popup that offers to [Generate Slideshow] but wait...
By default it makes a video in /tmp/Unnamed called slideshow.vob
But there are fields available for directory, file name and even slideshow name. It does create some unwanted files so I leave it in /tmp/Unnamed so the unwanted files get removed next boot. But I'll give it a better name like nepal50sec.vob and the title page name changed to "Nepal 1978 - 50 Second Tour". The title page is the first image that will appear in the video (10 seconds worth).
Now click on [Generate Slideshow]
It was a 20 minute process for 60 photos that display 8 seconds each maybe.
Number count looks like it stops short of the target number of steps.
Sometimes I get some error messages that “Slideshow is not finished, The SourceFileEntry will not be stored” -whatever... didn't seem to matter.
Once done close the popup ([X] or [Cancel]) and close qdvdauthor.
This *.vob will play in totem or mplayer. But since it's in /tmp it will vanish if you don't move it some place safe. It may also get written over by the next slideshow. So move it to a better place like /home/david
Reviewing file sizes. My five photos are about 150KB each (after being resized), The slide show file is only 634 bytes, which implies its nothing more than pointers (a list of photos and their location). The output video is 16.8 MB. I don't know how long it will play. Not too cool. Since I don't know how long it will play so try it. Looked like the lead-in title page was about 10 seconds, the other 5 images in 40 seconds, a total of about 50 seconds. Play this in mplayer and stop watch it if need be. Then make the sound track match exactly, add silence before and after as needed, clip as needed.
Now add sound with Avidemux
open Avidemux.
Click on the folder to open a slideshow. Find the *.vob just created.
Popup says it looks like an mpeg do you want to index it? [Yes]
Looks fine. and has the correct total time displayed.
Now from the menu select Audio -> Main Track
from the pop-up window select [External mp2/3] (or a wav?) then select the file.
No clues how long the sound track is that you've selected? I use XMMS to play the mp3 to see the time, Audacity to tweak it as needed.
Now the left most VCR button is play so try it while still in Avidemux.
OK. My sound track was too short so only half has music, oh well.
Now click on the floppy disk to Save the file. Close Avidemux.
I gave it a name with no extension, just Nepal50sec_avidemux. It plays in mplayer with sound, in totem with NO sound. Nautilus shows it as an avi file.
Test in WinXP – sound plays but not the video. Complains that it cannot download the codec it wants.
Now use DeVeDe per the above section that followed mandvd.
Once burned this DVD plays in the TV-DVD player, Linux PCs and Windows PCs just like above.
Don't be afraid to reboot when things don't work right. Avidemux was not adding sound once, but after reboot it worked fine. Maybe too many things open? Also I had trouble with mp3 that had album art saved with MusicMatch JukeBox. I just opened those mp3 with audacity, exported them as mp3 again and they were fine.
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other notes:
xvidcap --- excellent tool for making a training video. Records the desktop and the microphone, works best if limited to 800x600 max for screen size. Save as a avi(windows) to play in a WinXP machine. Drag the red square around to define the capture area, click on the red dot to start. Maybe Kino could edit the video like Audacity edits music files, I haven't done it. I used this to play a slide show and talk about each slide as it appears. This creates a narrated slide show with the user controlling the speed of the slides. Imperfect quality both video and sound. 90% capture rates etc. Worth a try though. Could use qdvdauthor to make the slide show. Then qarecord to record a narative while watching the slideshow. Then Avidemux to put the two together. DeVeDe to make the DVD for the TV.