Creating a DVD

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This article should help you create a playable DVD of your recordings.

Much of its contents come from Archiving_Recordings_to_DVD, which I found very helpful, but a little out-of-date.

In July/August 2013 I updated to MythTV version 0.25.2-15.

This article describes an approach that works really easily. Here are the steps:

  1. Using MythWeb, find your recording. Then, click "Direct Download" to download a playable MPEG file.
  2. Run avidemux2 and break the file into programs or chapters if you want.
  3. Run dvdauthor to create a DVD compatible file structure.
  4. Run growisofs to burn the DVD.

Download the MPEG

Using MythWeb, find the program you want to burn to DVD. Look for the Direct Download button next to the program thumbnail.

Click the "Direct Download" button and your browser will start saving the MPEG file to your hard disk.

Break the file into parts

If you are only burning a single program and you don't want to have seekable chapters, you can skip this section.

Start avidemux2 and open your MPEG file.

To create a part of your MPEG download, find the beginning of the segment to cut, then:

  • Click the "Previous keyframe" button (<<) to make sure your cut is on keyframe.
  • Click twice on "A" when you are at the beginning of the segment you want to save.
  • Then find the end of the segment, click "Next keyframe" (>>) and click "B".
  • Note: If you do not cut on keyframes, you may have audio sync problems.

Now save the MPEG segment you've identified above:

  • Set Video to "Copy".
  • Set Audio to "Copy".
  • Set Format to "MPEG-PS".
  • Save file as 1.mpg.
  • Repeat the above steps, and save as 2.mpg, then 3.mpg and so on.

Ensure you don't create too much data to fit on your DVD disc. Aim for less than 4GB per disc.

Use dvdauthor to create a DVD format

As at August 2013, dvdauthor seems to require an environment variable set to specify the video format.

Here's how:

  export VIDEO_FORMAT=NTSC

or

  export VIDEO_FORMAT=PAL

Build an XML file as follows:

<dvdauthor>
 <vmgm>
 </vmgm>
 <titleset>
  <titles>
    <pgc>
      <vob file="1.mpg" />
    </pgc>
    <pgc>
      <vob file="2.mpg" />
    </pgc>
  </titles>
 </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

This creates two programs (so next/prev buttons work) from two MPEG files called 1.mpg and 2.mpg. There is also a way to identify chapters within a program. The official name for a program is "title".

Save the above XML as "dvd.xml". Then, to build the DVD folder for burning:

dvdauthor -x dvd.xml -o DVD

Run growisofs

Put a blank DVD in your drive and write the video by running

growisofs -Z /dev/scd0 -dvd-video DVD

or you can create an image if you want to make multiple copies:

mkisofs -dvd-video -o dvd.img DVD

Be sure and check the DVD in a player and then delete all the files you created in this process.