After reading a few guides, and a lot of trial and error, I’ve found this script I wrote works pefect every time, just supply you xvid file with the script and it’ll create the vobs.

You need tcmplex, transcode, and dvdauthor.

#!/bin/bash FILE=$1 NEWFILE=`basename $FILE avi`vob rm out.* transcode -i $FILE \ -y ffmpeg \ --export_prof dvd-pal \ --export_asr 3 \ -o out \ -D0 \ -m out.ac3 \ -J modfps=clonetype=3 \ --export_fps 25 tcmplex -o $NEWFILE -i out.m2v -p out.ac3 -m d

Then to create the dvd structure, do this: # Do this to add titles: dvdauthor -o dvd/ -t thevob.vob # Do this once you've finished adding titles to finish up the disc. dvdauthor -o dvd/ -T

To burn, I found growisofs kept going funny on me, so I made ISO images first and then just burnt those off with cdrecord/nautilus cd burner. mkisofs -input-charset default -dvd-video -o disc1.iso dvd/

[update - 3/11/06] Seems Ubuntu keeps creating iso images that won’t fit on a 4.5GB dvd, so try this if the above fails: growisofs -input-charset default -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd dvd/

All in all, it’s quite a slow process, the transcoding took a while on my celeron-m 1.4ghz, but I guess it’s not the fastest machine around!

Good luck! And remember, always make sure your input file is good before bothering.

[update - 3/11/06] I’m considering writing a cool python app that does all this crud for you as it’s a real PITA to do manually. Plus I want to learn python and python gui stuff. Plus I think people would find it useful!