Using ConvertXtoDVD to convert videos into DVDs

This guide is about VSO’s product called ConvertXtoDVD, nicknamed as X2D. As the name suggests, this software is designed to convert DivX, XviD, MPEG-4, AVI, WMV and MOV videos to DVD compliant format. ConvertXToDVD supports both PAL and NTSC formats and aspect ratio can be selected according to display device. There’s also support for subtitles in SubRip (SRT) and SUB&IDX formats. Chapters are also one of the key features and you’ll be able to burn your DVD project with ConvertXtoDVD. One of the great new features in X2D is menu creating: you’ll be able to create your own menus to your DVD! ConvertXToDVD doesn’t need any external codecs to work, since it uses internal codecs.

STEP 1: Configuring the Settings

First get the software: DOWNLOAD.

Options dialog is pretty straight forward. Select Options -> General to start configuring the settings. First you need to select your working directory. That’ll be the directory where ConvertXtoDVD places your ready-to-be-burned DVD files. The same directory will be used as a temporary files directory (Note: be sure to have several gigabytes of free space on the drive). If you’re seeing video preview upside down in main window, you should tick the Flip preview check box. There’s also few options about updating the software and you can change the theme if you want to.

The language tab is pretty clear as well. You just need to select the language you want to use. ConvertXtoDVD supports many different languages, so you should find your native language there. Next tab is about chapters. You can use this option to create chapter every x minute. There’s also an option to select the minium length of video where chapters will be inserted.

Menu tab contains everything about menu creation and other playback features. You’ll be able to use a custom background for your menus, you can configure fonts and number of entries on menu page. Auto start playback starts to play your movie right away when you insert the disc in your DVD player. If this option is checked main menu won’t be entered at all, even when you have one on the disc. When using Loop playback feature, your videos will be played in a loop, so that after the last video, your DVD player will jump to the first video on the disc. Sequential playback plays all your videos in specified order from the first one to the last one.

So let’s see the TV Format dialog next. There’s two options: Video Standard and TV Screen. If Video Standard is set to Automatic, X2D will apply the used standard according to your source file. If your source file’s FPS is 23.976 or 29.700, used standard will be NTSC. And if it’s 25.00, it’s PAL. However, this option gives you opportunity to make a frame rate conversion. If you want all your DVDs to be PAL or NTSC, just make one as a default Video Standard.

TV Screen option defines the aspect ratio to be used. If set to Automatic, X2D will look into source file’s aspect ratio and use the one closest to it. You can override this option just like the Video Standard option. Just set it to what ever you desire. If you have a wide screen TV, you’d choose the 16:9 (Wide screen) option. And if you own a 4:3 television the 4:3 (Full screen) is your choice.

In Burning tab you can choose if you want X2D to burn the project on DVD after successful conversion: just tick the Burn result to DVD check box. You need to remember to insert a blank DVD media in the DVD±RW drive, if you’re using this option. If Add Original Files to DVD (if possible) is checked, X2D will burn the source file (AVI, MP4, etc.) on DVD as well, if there’s enough room for it on DVD. There’s also an option to delete all temp files after burning, and you can send your burning statics to VSO’s online database. In the newer versions, there’s also option to use SAO (Session At Once) burning technique. Use this option only if you’re having problems with burning discs.

You can set your native language as Default language in Subtitle tab. After this, your DVD player will recognize your subtitle’s language as your native language. You can also use custom fonts with your subtitles. X2D has a separate editor for subtitles. Click the Text subtitles rendering options button to access it.

As you can see, there’s quite many options to tweak. You can use the Margin values to adjust the position of your subtitles. I suggest you to play around with the editor. You can find many options useful to you.

In Audio tab you need to set the language used in your video, that your standalone DVD player will recognize the correct language.There is also a feature which allows you to adjust sound level. Usually there is no need to adjust the sound level, but if you, for some reason need to boost the level, be careful with the slider. Adjusting sound level too high can cause distortions to audio.

You should check the Don’t check/fix audio discontinuities option if you do not have any problems with A/V sync in your source file. If you’re having A/V sync issues, you should not check this option.

Encoding tab offers few more options to tweak. Encoding quality/speed is the most important setting of all! If you have plenty of time, always set the quality as high as possible, which is in this case the High quality / slow encoding. If you encode at nights this is the only rational option to choose. Otherwise use the recommended setting. If you are in hurry and speed is the most important factor to you, use the Low quality / slow encoding option. Note that when you are converting from other lossily compressed formats (Divx, MPEG-4, MOV, etc.) the quality is always compromised. However the speed difference of the Medium and High Quality setting is not too great, so High Quality should be preferred as the default.

If you use ordinary DVD5 disc (4.38GB) set it as target size. DVD9 option is meant for dual-layer discs which are pretty still pretty expensive at the time of writing this article. Usually DVD5 is a good choice, even if you had a dual-layer disc to use. You could consider using DVD9 discs if you have many videos to convert or you have a very long video with high quality. Usually AVI videos are encoded at medium quality, so using DVD9 disc would be just a waste of bitrate. A DVD5 can carry over 2 hours of converted video with high quality. X2D can use Custom size when converting the video. This isn’t usually needed, but you can have some use for this option as well.

The last option is about conversion priority. If you intend to use your computer while converting, Below Normal or Lowest is recommended option to use. Otherwise X2D will use all processing power you have and using your computer will be slow. Of course if you encode at night, Normal or something higher is a good choice.

Last but not least, there’s a tab called Image Processing. If you are dealing with interlaced source and want to deinterlace it, you should check the Interleave (Recommended with DV source) check box. You should deinterlace your video when you’re using a progressive display device. For example, LCD TVs and TFT monitors are progressive displays. If you’re not sure if your source is interlaced or not, open your video to a video editor and go through it frame by frame. If you see horizontal lines in your video, it’s likely to be interlaced. For an example, look at the picture on the right.

STEP 2: Using the X2D

To add video in X2D, you need to select File -> Add Video file. After adding the file(s), X2D will show menu and video details in main window. In this step we are going to concentrate on three things:

1. Menu features
2. Subtitle and chapters options
3. Image processing features

Firstly let’s take a look at the menu options in X2D. You can easily use any background picture you want and specify fonts and sizes for your menu items. The other menu features are already explained in the first step.

Secondly, there are few nice features you might want to use with subtitles and chapters. Right click on the subtitle section and select Add Subtitle Channel. Note that valid subtitle formats are SRT (Subrip) and SUB&IDX combination, SUB file without the IDX part won’t work. X2D will automatically insert subtitles to project if you have a compatible subtitle file in the same directory as your video. The subtitle file has to be named similarly to the main video such as my_video.srt while the main video is my_video.avi.

After you have added your subtitles, you can set it as default subtitle by right clicking on the added subtitle stream.

There are similar options for chapters also. Right click on the Chapter and select Add Chapter and you will have a pop up where you can specify a chapter point.

Last but not least, there is few options regarding the Image processing.

• Fit to screen (Aspect ratio may change) discards the aspect ratio of you video and resizes straight to DVD’s native resolution. This will most likely cause significant aspect ratio errors, so use this option with caution.
• De-interleave (recommended for DV sources) option is already explained in the first step of this guide. It removes to interlacing from your video. Note that you should apply this option to videos know to be interlaced.

Now you are ready to start the conversion process, so hit Convert button and let the X2D do it’s job!

STEP 3: Burning the DVD

If you didn’t use the Burn result to DVD option to burn the DVD, you need to burn it manually. Browse Action -> Burn DVD. Then X2D asks the source folder, which is the VIDEO_TS folder found in your working directory. Just insert a blank DVD media in your drive and burning should start automatically in 15 seconds. That’s it, now it’s time to enjoy your just converted DVD video!