Create Self-Booting Movie CDs
Pages: 1, 2

Once you've compiled and installed transcode, you can run the tcprobe utility on your newly created temp.avi:

tcprobe -i temp.avi

The following example output shows the kind of information that you should receive:

$ tcprobe -i temp.avi

[tcprobe] RIFF data, AVI video

[avilib] V: 29.970 fps, codec=DIVX, frames=135989, width=720, height=480

[avilib] A: 48000 Hz, format=0x2000, bits=16, channels=2, bitrate=448 kbps,

[avilib] 9076 chunks, 254128000 bytes, CBR

[tcprobe] summary for temp.avi, (*) = not default, 0 = not detected

import frame size: -g 720x480 [720x576] (*)

frame rate: -f 29.970 [25.000] frc=4 (*)

audio track: -a 0 [0] -e 48000,16,2 [48000,16,2] -n 0x2000 [0x2000]

bitrate=448 kbps

length: 135989 frames, frame_time=33 msec, duration=1:15:37.504

Transcode includes a utility called avisplit for splitting AVI files into chunks of a maximum size. This example command breaks temp.avi into chunks no larger than 640MB apiece:

avisplit -s 640 -i temp.avi

In this case, it creates two files, temp.avi-0000 and temp.avi-0001. Remember to check them out by playing little snippets at different points in the movie, say at the beginning and end of each file.

Creating the ISO

At this point you're now ready to create the self-booting movie ISO. It'll take several utilities to do this, but that's where K3b comes in.

The first thing to do is to ensure that K3b sees all the requisite utilities, as seen in Figure 1. Launch the program, go to the Settings menu item, and click on the Configure option. You won't need all of the utilities listed here, but you'll certainly require those listed at the beginning of this article.

Figure 1. The K3b configuration window

Figure 2 shows a snapshot of a new eMoviX project. Choose the eMoviX project that suits the medium to which you are burning. You may have a DVD burner, but be sure to select a CD project if the recording medium is a CD-R.

Figure 2. Creating a new eMoviX project

Using K3b is a fairly intuitive process. When you run the program, you'll first see three panes. The top right one shows the files, defaulting to your home directory. From this pane you can navigate to the AVI files. Now drag and drop the first ISO image into the bottom pane. You can bring up the Burn window by clicking on the Burn icon, selecting Project -> Burn from the menu, or pressing Ctrl-B to start the burn process. The Burn window, as shown in Figure 3, provides you the opportunity to fill out the information to include on your CD as well as how the movie should start and what should happen when it finishes. Take a minute to tab through all the options. It's pretty cool what eMoviX can do.

Figure 3. The K3b burn window

I don't change much of anything except for the volume description and whether I want the system to eject the CD or shut down the system after the movie ends. When you're satisfied with your options, click on the Burn button to begin the burn process.

That's it, folks! Repeat the process for the next images until you have completed burning your CD movie.

Using the CDs

Put the first CD in your disc tray and boot the machine. The CD's isolinux OS will take care of the rest. Notice that you can interrupt the boot process to the CD's BusyBox shell.

Caveats

They're aren't any!

One More Trick

I like using an image from the movie as my label for the CD jewel case. I use Mplayer to screen-capture an image:

mplayer dvd:// -ss 00:10:00 -vo jpeg

This example command will begin screen-capturing several frames per second, beginning 10 minutes into the movie. You will end up with a collection of numbered JPEG images in the directory where you invoked Mplayer. Press Ctrl-C as soon as you've collected enough images to choose from.

Now load them into your favorite graphics package. I use display from the imageMagick graphics suite because I can load them all with one command:

display *.jpg

Select the one you would like to use, print it, fold the paper, and you're done.

Robert Bernier is the PostgreSQL business intelligence analyst for SRA America, a subsidiary of Software Research America (SRA).

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