HOWTO: Make DVD Videos Using Tovid: The Video Disc Authoring Suite

[ubuntuman001]

This guide is based on this thread, but it is clearer and more-beginner oriented, I hope.

So here are the steps to take if you want to have a dvd movie, that's playable in a home dvd player, and created from a video file on your computer, using tovid: the video disc authoring suite.

By the way, the terminal is in Applications > Accessories > Terminal. If you copy something from firefox, you can just click your middle mouse button (wheel) in the terminal to paste it.

The tovid suite should work on any architecture (i386, amd64, PPC, etc.) and any desktop environment (Gnome, Kde, Xfce, etc.). The guide assumes that you already have a video file saved on your computer, that you own a dvd burner, and that you have a blank dvd.

tovid will accept many different types of video formats for your initial video. In fact, whatever formats the programs mplayer and ffmpeg support, tovid supports. There are very few formats it doesn't support, but you'll probably have one of the more common ones, so there's nothing to worry.

Also, please know that for the program tovid to work optimally, it's good to have at least 20 GB of free space, so that it can author and encode the video smoothly.

Before you do anything, you will want to have the universe/multiverse repositories enabled (only for edgy and older), so go here.

- - - - -

Installation

To install tovid, use the instructions on this page: http://tovid.wikia.com/wiki/Installing_tovid/Ubuntu

If you don't see any tovid menu entries under Applications > Sound & Video, refresh the gnome panels:

killall gnome-panel

- - - - -

There are 2 ways to use tovid: through a GUI (graphical user interface), or through a CLI (command line interface). Choose whatever floats your boat.

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Using a GUI:

If you like to do things the GUI way, you have three options. You can use the tovid GUI, the todisc GUI, or binks' tovidwiz GUI. (The tovid GUI is written in wxpython, a python oriented gui toolkit, and it will convert video to your desired format, and optionally can make text menus. The todisc GUI is written in tkinter, also a python oriented gui toolkit (tkinter is actually part of python), and it will also convert video to your desired format, and optionally can make thumbnail menus. binks' tovidwiz GUI is a simple step by step GUI that allows you to convert your video and optionally make a text menu and/or add subtitles.)

1) To use the tovid GUI, open it in your applications menu, and choose all of the options you want. (If it's not in the menus, try this command in a terminal: tovidgui) Good guide on using the tovid GUI: here

2) To use the todisc GUI, again just open it in your applications menu, and choose all of the options you want. (If it's not in the menus, try this command in a terminal: todiscgui)

3) To use binks' tovidwiz GUI, go here. Thanks binks!

OR

Using a CLI:

If you desire the command line way, you have two options: the actual tovid script or the todisc script. (todisc is a script included in the tovid suite; it uses the tovid script to encode the video file, but it has more advanced menu making capabilities, I recommend you try it)

1) tovid example: You have an avi file named foo in your home directory, and you live in the Eastern Hemisphere (not Japan, they use NTSC), and you have a widescreen TV. You would simply type in a terminal:

tovid -wide -pal -in foo.avi -out foo_encoded

The -wide command tells tovid to make it widescreen, the -pal command tells tovid to make it PAL format (more info on correct format here), the -in file is the original, and the -out is the final product. Simple huh? For a more comprehensive guide, type in a terminal man tovid, or you can look at the manpages online here. If you're getting an error when trying tovid from the command-line, try this. If anyone would like me to guide them with the tovid command line, I can give you the right commands if you give me your continent, and your tv's aspect ratio. You can post here or PM me, I don't care. For more information, look here. Good guides on using tovid CLI: here and here

2) todisc example: You have 3 videos, File1.mpg, File2.mpg, and File3.mpg. You want the menu to have titles Episode 1, Episode 2, and Episode 3. You want the dvd to be called Season_one. Your command would be:

todisc -files File1.mpg File2.mpg File3.mpg \
 -titles "Episode 1" "Episode 2" "Episode 3" \
-out Season_one

For more information, look here.
Good guide on using todisc CLI: here
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Once it is finished encoding, you could try to burn the video to a dvd using the Burn tab in the GUI, but it has never worked for me, so it'll probably never work for you, so just minimize tovid (you dont want to close it, just in case if the encoding output is needed for support.) Then open a terminal and paste (this is just an example; replace the italic words accordingly):

makexml -menu Menu.mpg \foo1.mpg foo2.mpg foo3.mpg \
 -out MyDisc

That created an xml file, which in this case would be called: MyDisc.xml
Now, you have to burn to a dvd, using this command (again, replacing the italic word with your actual file name):

makedvd -burn MyDisc.xml

When it's finished, you'll have a dvd that's playable on your computer and on all (or most) dvd players!

If you wish to make more dvd's using this guide, you'll have to delete the dvd folder that was created, and move any completed files to your completed folder, or delete it if you wish (usually the tovid-encoded movie and some menu files). These should be moved from the encoding directory so that tovid can encode anew with a fresh place, no left-over trash, so that it doesn't run into space problems or errors.

CREDITS: I got most of the ideas for this tutorial from openmind; thank you tovid devs for all your awesome work.

Official tovid website (installation/info/guides): here.

Official tovid forums (bug reports and general info/help): here.

Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for anything related to this howto. Be aware of the laws in your country. Also, tovid is not developed by me, so if you ask me why it didn't work for you, and I don't know, submit bugs here.

[boywondr16]

Erik,

Following your HOWTO to the letter, but I'm getting this when I type the command make:

make: command not found

Paging back up, here's the output I got from ./configure:

checking for a BSD-compatible install... /usr/bin/install -c
checking whether build environment is sane... yes
checking for gawk... gawk
checking whether make sets $(MAKE)... no
configure: Checking for required core dependencies...
checking for grep... ok
checking for sed... ok
checking for md5sum... ok
checking for mplayer... ok
checking for mencoder... ok
checking for mplex... ok
checking for mpeg2enc... ok
checking for yuvfps... ok
checking for yuvdenoise... ok
checking for ppmtoy4m... ok
checking for mp2enc... ok
checking for ffmpeg... ok
checking for sox... ok
configure: Checking for optional dependencies...
configure: Checking for ImageMagick...
checking for composite... ok
checking for convert... ok
configure: Checking for dvd tools...
checking for spumux... ok
checking for dvdauthor... ok
checking for growisofs... ok
checking for mkisofs... ok
configure: Checking for vcd tools...
checking for vcdxbuild... ok
checking for cdrdao... ok
configure: Checking for transcode...
checking for tcprobe... ok
checking for tcrequant... ok
configure: creating ./config.status
config.status: creating Makefile
config.status: creating src/Makefile
config.status: creating src/tovid-init.sh
config.status: creating setuplib.py
configure:

From there it gives me the list of dependencies met, etc. Why is the make file not being created? Do I need to run as superuser?

[ubuntuman001]

boywondr16, did you install the packages build-essential and checkinstall?

oops! forgot to add that in my howto! i'll edit my howto right now. Pay close attention to step 1

[boywondr16]

Originally Posted by erik1397 boywondr16, did you install the packages build-essential and checkinstall?

<slaps forehead>

Thanks.

[justinflavin]

excellent guide - i was always wondering how i could do this, but i got lost in page after page of tovid technical and dvd authoring information.

[ubuntuman001]

Originally Posted by boywondr16 <slaps forehead> Thanks.

Your're welcome!

[ubuntuman001]

Originally Posted by justinflavin excellent guide - i was always wondering how i could do this, but i got lost in page after page of tovid technical and dvd authoring information.

Why thank you!

[squidward_tentacles]

Hello, first off great tutorial...really straightforward and easy to follow. However when I attempted to run: tovidgui I recieved the following output:

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/local/bin/tovidgui", line 33, in ?
from libtovid import TDL,Parse, Project
ImportError: No module named libtovid

As I am really new at this, I have no idea what went wrong, I tried removing the parse argument, and still recieved the exact same error message, thinking this was not the problem , I gedited it back in.....I have no idea how to proceed, any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

[squidward_tentacles]

PS I did make sure all the dependancies were installed before begining, and it DOES seem to work w/out the GUI, aka if I enter just "tovid", however as a recent convert from windows, I am a bit bewildered as how to run programs entirely from the command prompt, a GUI interface is highly desired. Well thanks in advance for your help

[QUASAR_FREAK]

Originally Posted by squidward_tentacles Hello, first off great tutorial...really straightforward and easy to follow. However when I attempted to run: tovidgui I recieved the following output: Traceback (most recent call last): File "/usr/local/bin/tovidgui", line 33, in ? from libtovid import TDL,Parse, Project ImportError: No module named libtovid As I am really new at this, I have no idea what went wrong, I tried removing the parse argument, and still recieved the exact same error message, thinking this was not the problem , I gedited it back in.....I have no idea how to proceed, any help would be greatly appreciated, Thanks

Same problem here =/