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Simple example

From Tovid Wiki

Contents

[edit] Terse process summary

Convert three home movies and put them on a DVD:

tovid -in ski_trip.mov -out ski_trip
tovid -in florida.mov -out florida
tovid -in recital.mov -out recital
makemenu "Steamboat Ski Weekend" "Florida Beach Vacation" "My Piano Recital" -out main_menu
makexml -menu main_menu.mpg ski_trip.mpg florida.mpg recital.mpg -out my_dvd
makedvd -burn my_dvd.xml

When everything finishes, you'll have a DVD with a simple text menu. More appealing menus are possible.

The resulting DVD menu


[edit] Dirty details

Say you've just bought a shiny new miniDV camcorder and you want to make DVDs from your footage. Well, miniDV video is not compatible with DVD players, so you'll need to convert your videos. Plus, you may want a menu to choose from the videos you've recorded and put on the DVD. And then you'll need to program the DVD's behavior and burn it to a DVD. tovid can help you!

After you capture your video (Kino is a good way), you'll have some .mov files.

[edit] Convert to .mpg

Use tovid to convert to DVD:

tovid -in ski_trip.mov -out ski_trip
tovid -in florida.mov -out florida
tovid -in recital.mov -out recital

Afterward, you'll have three DVD-compatible videos: ski_trip.mpg, florida.mpg, and recital.mpg.

[edit] Make a menu

Use makemenu to make a main menu:

makemenu "Steamboat Ski Weekend" "Florida Beach Vacation" "My Piano Recital" -out main_menu

With one command, you've just made a simple text menu called main_menu.mpg. Notice how you can use spaces and longer titles.

[edit] Write the DVD xml

Use makexml to describe the DVD's behavior:

makexml -menu main_menu.mpg ski_trip.mpg florida.mpg recital.mpg -out my_dvd

Afterward, you'll have an xml file called my_dvd.xml. Notice that the videos were given in the same order as their titles in makemenu.

[edit] Author and burn the DVD

Use makedvd to make the DVD filesystem and burn the disc:

makedvd -burn my_dvd.xml

And there you go -- a simple DVD with your home videos done in four commands! If you want better menus, they're only a few more options away.