Tovid simplifies VCD, SVCD, and DVD authoring through a user-friendly GUI and utility suite. It streamlines the process, making it more efficient and less strenuous.
The tovid suite is a powerful software package consisting of various components, each specialized for a different task. All of the components are written in plain-text scripting languages, making customization and patching extremely straightforward. Additionally, the whole suite is released under the GNU General Public License, ensuring its open-source availability.
Originally developed in May 2004, tovid began as a simple one-line script for changing video formats to VCD. The development came from the need to convert and encode video, which became more pressing after purchasing a DVD-RW drive. There were few reliable tools that could convert videos to specific formats while being compliant with a particular bitrate, frame rate, resolution, and encoding format. This was particularly challenging for formats like VCD, SVCD, and DVD, which are required to be in MPEG format and have predetermined specifications. Most of the freely available authoring programs had serious limitations when it came to converting videos and even required videos to be compliant with the target format.
After using ffmpeg and transcode, the developer chooses to employ mplayer and mjpegtools. Mplayer was not particularly well-suited to encoding video to MPEG format, but it was the most robust video player available for the Linux platform, capable of playing almost any video format. The utilities included with mjpegtools were perfect for obtaining MPEG format within the appropriate parameters. By combining them, the developer created a video converter that could take any video and convert it to VCD format. With continued use, the developer amassed a small collection of conversion scripts with names like todvd, tovcd, and tosvcd.
The developer sought greater flexibility and decided to create a script that would allow the choice of output formats. After posting the script in the LinuxAnswers section, there was positive feedback from other users, which prompted the idea of creating a SourceForge.net project. With each release of the software, new features and bugfixes have been added based on feedback from users and the developer's own experience.
In the latest release, several bugs in ffmpeg and other issues have been resolved. The update includes a new feature to specify a desired output size and an interactive switch menu for live thumbnail previews in todisc menus. The quick-menu todisc feature also enhances the rendering speed for users. Overall, tovid suite is an excellent choice for easy video conversion and encoding, and its continued development under the GNU General Public License promises the potential for even more improvements in the future.
Originally developed in May 2004, tovid began as a simple one-line script for changing video formats to VCD. The development came from the need to convert and encode video, which became more pressing after purchasing a DVD-RW drive. There were few reliable tools that could convert videos to specific formats while being compliant with a particular bitrate, frame rate, resolution, and encoding format. This was particularly challenging for formats like VCD, SVCD, and DVD, which are required to be in MPEG format and have predetermined specifications. Most of the freely available authoring programs had serious limitations when it came to converting videos and even required videos to be compliant with the target format.
After using ffmpeg and transcode, the developer chooses to employ mplayer and mjpegtools. Mplayer was not particularly well-suited to encoding video to MPEG format, but it was the most robust video player available for the Linux platform, capable of playing almost any video format. The utilities included with mjpegtools were perfect for obtaining MPEG format within the appropriate parameters. By combining them, the developer created a video converter that could take any video and convert it to VCD format. With continued use, the developer amassed a small collection of conversion scripts with names like todvd, tovcd, and tosvcd.
The developer sought greater flexibility and decided to create a script that would allow the choice of output formats. After posting the script in the LinuxAnswers section, there was positive feedback from other users, which prompted the idea of creating a SourceForge.net project. With each release of the software, new features and bugfixes have been added based on feedback from users and the developer's own experience.
In the latest release, several bugs in ffmpeg and other issues have been resolved. The update includes a new feature to specify a desired output size and an interactive switch menu for live thumbnail previews in todisc menus. The quick-menu todisc feature also enhances the rendering speed for users. Overall, tovid suite is an excellent choice for easy video conversion and encoding, and its continued development under the GNU General Public License promises the potential for even more improvements in the future.
What's New
Version 0.31: N/A