AVI to DVD?

AVI (Audio Video Interleave) are a video format that was introduced by Microsoft in the ‘90s. Since then it got famous for its excellent audio and video quality. It is still popular today. You can find it easily around the internet. It is compatible with most video software and media players so it is kind of universal.

I had a bunch of AVI video files. They were taking up big spaces so I thought of writing them to a DVD, that way I can watch it on my TV and my HDD (Hard Disk Drive) will get some free space. So, I wrote some of the DVD files to a DVD and to check the DVD I inserted it into the DVD player. The DVD ran fine but the DVD player could not play any of the videos. To check if the DVD player is right I played some DVD movies which played just fine. I then inserted the DVD in my DVD ROM and played the individual AVI files, they played smoothly as well. Then what was I doing wrong?

I went to internet and after some researching I got the reasons. You cannot just burn some AVI videos into a DV and play them through a DVD player. You have to convert convert avi to dvd format first. This is true not only for AVI; it is true for all video formats. DVDs use VOB (Video Objects) video format. Now, if you just convert AVI to DVD and burn it into a DVD, still it won’t play. There is a certain, predefined DVD structure that you will have to follow to make it playable in DVD.

Aside VOB files, there are IFO (Information) and BUP (Backup) files in a DVD. IFO files hold all the information about the video, its titles, sequence, chapter start and end points, audio information and subtitles etc. BUP files are backup of those IFO files. To make the DVD play in DVD player you will have to make those files as well. I don’t know if it is possible to make those file manually but I am sure if it was possible, it would be complex and no one would want to convert avi to dvd.

So I searched for alternatives, if there is a tool that can do those tasks, or in easy word, make a DVD out of my AVI files. DVD Creator by Wondershare was the tool that I found and it served my purpose very well. The great thing about this tool is besides converting videos to DV format it actually lets you make a complete professional DVD. What I mean is that there are a lot of free DVD templates from which you can choose and customize the DVD menu as you wish. You can add background music and pictures also to give it a complete personal touch. After all is done, you can check if everything is okay before burning by previewing the DVD. Then you can burn your files into a DVD in top speed, right from this tool.