svcd-vcd

Got this off of http://forum.cdrsoft.cc/index.php?referrerid=1 from Chickeman. I am not taking credit for this in any way... I hope this helps. I have used info from this guy before and he knows his stuff on this subject. So Thanks to Chickenman......

How to convert SVCD to VCD
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For those unfortunate people that have found their DVD Player will play VCD's fine but will not play SVCD's, then there are 2 options available. One option is to buy another SVCD compatable player and the other is to convert your SVCD's to VCD's. The later is the cheaper option which I describe here.

I have described 2 methods of doing this conversion, the first is very easy and simple and should be very familular to a those that do normal DVD to VCD conversions using the DVD2AVI/TMPGenc method. The second method can be a bit more complicated, however, the quality of the final VCD is a little better than using first method. The choice is yours.

The process here re-encodes the SVCD to VCD so expect a drop in quality. TMPGEnc is the best encoder to retain the best quality, but the act of re-encoding a SVCD will always drop quality when converting to a VCD. The quality of the VCD will be a bit lower than if the VCD was made directly from the DVD that the SVCD was originally made from.

There are some cheap and dirty tricks about that try and trick your DVD Player thinking your SVCD is a VCD, like burning then as a Non-Compliant VCD, or de- and re-muxing as a MPEG1 and burning as a Non-complant VCD. These tricks rarely work and make very non-standard CD's. I do not recommend these options.

Software you will need:

1. DVD2AVI 1.76 ONLY + its VFP Plugin. Do NOT use ver 1.8x (d/l from _http://arbor.ee.ntu.edu.tw/~jackei/dvd2avi/ )
2. TMPGEnc Plus 2.58 or later (d/l from _http://www.tmpgenc.net/ )
3. Isobuster 1.1 or later (d/l from _http://www.isobuster.com )
4. Nero 5.5.x (d/l latest fully functional demo from _http://www.ahead.de )
5. MPEG-2 Plugin for TMPGenc

Okay, you have all the software, plenty of HD space, so lets get into it.

Step 1: Getting Ready.

1. Install TMPGEnc to it own folder.
2. Copy DVD2AVI.EXE and DVD2AVI.VFP to the same folder where you installed TMPGEnc. NOTE: Its essential that DVD2AVI.VFP be in the TMPGEnc folder.
3. Copy the MPEG-2 Plugin to your TMPGEnc folder. [For Method 2 only]
4. Install Isobuster.
5. Install Nero.

Step 2: Preparing your SVCD mpeg file.

1. On your SVCD disk, there is a large file normally called AVSEQ01.MPG in the MPEG2 or MPEGAV folder. This is NOT a true MPG file and needs to be converted and copied to your HD. This can be done in the one step.
2. Run Isobuster and right click on the AVSEQ01.MPG file. Select "Extract but filter only M2F2 mpeg frames". Give a file name, such as disk1.mpg, and click OK. In a few minutes you will have a proper MPG file on your HD.
3. Ignore this step if you have downloaded a SVCD mpg file from the internet as it should already be in the correct format.

Step 3: Video & Audio Files

METHOD 1

1. Run DVD2AVI. Click on FILE, click OPEN and then browse to your Disk1.MPG file. You will need to select All Files (*.*) for File Type to see your MPG file, select your MPG file then click Open and OK.

2. The DVD2AVI window will now expand to the size of the movie frame size, it will be tall and distorted, don't worry this is normal. Hit F5 key and the movie will start playing (no sound though!) ESC will stop it. An Information Box will pop up. Remember the value in the Aspect Ratio box, normally 4:3 (could be 16:9) Also, remember the Video Type of your movie, be it PAL, NTSC or FILM. NTSC and FILM only differ in their Frame Rate, 29.97 or 23.976 fps. The Audio Format will also describe the audio track that has been selected, normally MPEG.

3. For FILM video type ONLY, click on Video and tick Field Operation. Select Forced Film. Select None for all other formats.

4. Click on Audio. For Track Number, select Track 1. Click Audio again and for Channel Format, select Auto Select. Click Audio again and set MPEG Audio to Demux. Click on Audio again and for 48 -> 44.1KHz select Off (TMPGEnc does a better conversion of 48 to 44.1 and is quicker. Most SVCD have 44.1 audio already). All other settings in Audio are irrelevant for SVCD so leave them at default. Leave everything in Video set to default. You will only need to do all this once as all settings are saved to a file for next time you use the program.

5. Click on File and then Save Project (not Save AVI). Browse to your directory, give the file a name (no extension needed) and hit Save. This will only take a few minutes.

6. You should now have 2 files saved to your hard drive, a *.D2V file (approx. 100 Kb) and a *.MPA file (approx. 100 Mb to 200 Mb). These two files should be similar to (for example):
gladiator.d2v
gladiator MPEG T01 2_0ch 192Kbps 48KHz.mpa

7. Do NOT delete or move your *.MPG file yet as the *.D2V file is only a pointer to it and not an encoded Video file.

METHOD 2

1. Run TMPGEnc and select Options / Environmetal Settings / VFAPI Plug-in and make sure that MPEG-2 VIDEO Plug-in is ticked. If it is not there, you have not copied it to your TMPGEnc folder. Then click OK.

2. Now select File / MPEG Tools / Simple De-Multiplex. For Input Browse to your Disk1.mpg file. The Video and Audio output names will automatically be entered, change their names/folder if you wish but do not change the extensions. Click Run and a few minutes later you will have generated the 2 new files, one for Video (*.m2v) and one for the Audio (*.mp2).

3. If your still running an early version of TMPGEnc, I suggest you upgrade to the latest. Otherwise you will have to convert the audio file (*.mp2) to a WAV file. If TMPGEnc will not accept your *.mp2 audio file (next step), load it into your favorite Audio Editor (these all work well - GoldWave 4.26, Sound Forge 6 or WinAMP 2.x) and save out as a WAV set to 16bit, 44.1KHz, Stereo.

4. You can now delete your original Disk1.mpg file if you need the HD space.

Step 4: Conversion.

1. Run TMPGEnc. Click File, New Project then OK. This will clear out all settings that may have been there and set it ready to start a fresh conversion.

2. Click the Video Source Browse button and select your *.D2V or *.m2v file, then click the Audio Source Browse button and select your *.MPA, *.mp2 or *.WAV file depending if you used Method 1 or Method 2. Change the Output File name if you wish.

3. The bottom Task line of TMPGEnc will now tell you the type of movie you just load in, so click Load and from the TMPGEnc/Templates folder, select the appropriate VideoCD template for your PAL, NTSC or FILM movie and click Open. For example, for a PAL movie, select VideoCD(PAL).mcf

4. Click Setting and under Video tab change the Motion Search Precision to Highest Quality (Very Slow). This will give a significantly better quality picture than any of the other selections. However, if your processor is less than 900MHz, then select the High Quality (Slow) setting as encoding will now be much quicker, but expect a greater fall in picture quality.

5. Click the Advanced tab. Check that the Source Aspect Ratio is set to 4:3 for either PAL or NTSC depending on your movie type. Make sure Video Arrange Method is set at Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio).

6. Click the GOP Structure tab and change the GOP structure to read 1 4 2 for PAL and 1 5 2 for NTSC or FILM.

7. Click the Audio Tab and click the Settings button, tick Change Volume box then hit the Normalize button. Leave at default 100 and click OK. It will now search through the audio stream and suggest a final %. Select OK. If it suggests 100, then disable this action as the Audio have already been Normalized.

8. Do not change any of the other settings, leave at their default. Hit OK.

9. Click on Options and then Task Priority. Change to When Active - High Priority. This will help to speed up the conversion a bit.

10. We are now ready to start the conversion, so hit the Encode button. All the hard work is done, now we just have to wait for it to finish.

11. Let it run for 4-5 min and then note the Remaining Time. This is approx. how long its going to take to complete the conversion process. This will vary depending on your computers processors speed, hard drive speed, etc. and the length of the movie. Most movies can be converted in 2 to 6 hours with a "reasonable" late model computer. So let it do its conversion while your asleep, at school or at work. That's the bit I like the best!

12. Click on Option, then Preview Option, select No Preview. Again, this can help speed up the conversion. Then turn off the monitor and go to bed, school or work.

13. Wake up Neo! It should now be finished and you will have a large *.MPG file on your hard drive (approx. 10meg / minute of movie).

14. Now play the new mpeg file with Windows Media Player (or any other VCD playing software, such as WinDVD) to see if it is okay, checking for Video & Audio synchronization (lip-sync) near start and end of the movie. You have now made your first VideoCD file from a SuperVCD. Easy, wasn't it!

15. If all is well, you can safely delete your original AVSEQ01.MPG file now if you need the Hard Drive space.

16. Repeat all the above for Disk2 (and Disk3 if there is one), preferably using the Batch process described in Note 2 at the bottom of this Tutorial.

Step 5: Burning.

1. There are a few programs that can burn a VCD disk. These include Nero, Easy CD Cre(m)ator, WinOnCD, NTI and others. Nero is by far the easiest to use and is very stable for VCD's, so thats what I describe here. Refer to the Help section within the other programs on how to use them if you prefer.

2. If you wish to add Chapters and/or pictures (such as Change CD pic at end of Disk 1) to your movies, then you need to use VCDEasy for this ( from _http://www.vcdeasy.org ). Again, refer to the "DVD to VCD using DVD2SVCD" tutorial on how to do that.

3. Run Nero. Click the VideoCD tab, select Create Standard Compliant CD. In ISO tab, select only ISO Level 2 and ISO9660, all others un-ticked. In Volume Descriptor tab, enter a Volume Label, such as THE_GLADIATOR_1 for disk 1 of the Gladiator. Click on New and then drag & drop the Disk1.mpg file from the right window (your HD) to the large left window (the VCD disk). Nero will check through the mpeg file to confirm that it is a compliant VCD file. After it finishes checking the file, all should be well, (if not do NOT continue, but check back over your steps as you have missed something) click the Burn Button. Select the Write Speed to be 4x maximum for older 8x or 12x burners. Select 8x or 12x for late model 24x or faster burners. Make sure Disk-At-Once is selected and Finalize CD is ticked. Then click Write and sit back and watch your first VCD disk being burnt. The excitement builds!

4. When the burning is finished, label the CD with felt pen and rush to your DVD player to check it out. If all is okay, repeat this for the second or third disks remembering to change the Volume Label. Refer to Nero's Help for further info and clarification on how to use Nero.

5. Use only good quality scratch resistant CDR's. Some DVD stand alone players will only read from CDRW's, then burn to CDRW's instead. Burning at greater then 4x speed (older burners) or 12x (never burners) can also make them unreadable by many players, particularly the PSX. Try different brands of CDR(W)'s if having playback problems.

6. You have now produced your first playable fully compliant VCD made from your SVCD. I hope it was worth all the fuss.

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NOTE 1: Some people have reported problems when they playback their VCD on their DVD Player, they can get a momentary video speed-up to catch up with the audio, from time to time (common on XMS, Hiteker & Apex DVD Players) or no Fast Forward or Rewind (common on Phillips DVD players). The problem lies with TMPGEnc not making the MPG file with the correct Packet size. This can be solved by using M1-Edit or M2-Edit to Repacketize or Transcode (in their Tools tab) the MPG file prior to burning. Playback will now be faultless and fully functional.

NOTE 2: If you have a number of conversions to do or a few small ones, etc. its a good idea to set each up as above in TMPGEnc, then click on File and then Save Project. Do this for each conversion. Click on File then Batch Mode and Add each Project in. You can drag & drop them to change their order of processing if you wish. When ready, click Run. This takes you back to the main screen and you will note there is now an option (top right) to allow you to Shut Down After Finish Encoding. Click this box and go to sleep, school or work. Older AT type motherboards will not shut down completely though. You can add or remove projects once encoding has started as well. You must have the TMPGEnc.vfp file in your TMPGEnc folder or the Project/Batch mode will not work.

ChickenMan (c)2002