New Improved Easy Mac DVD->VCD

[tgpo]

New Improved Easy Mac DVD->VCD

Description: This New and Improved guide will help you to quickly turn a DVD to VCD using all Mac software.

For the most updated guides visit http://homepage.mac.com/tgpo


Version History:
1.1 Screenshots added
Rewrite for Yade and mm2c Programs
Inclusion of QT Mutator Information

1.0 Initial Guide Released


Required Tools:
1. Yade -- For DVD Extraction *Note YADE will not work under OS X
2. mAC3dec 1.5.1 -- For ac3 to aiff sound conversion
3. MM2C -- For m2v to mov conversion. Download at http://homepage.mac.com/linux/
4.QT Mutator -- For audio & video sync
5. Roxio Toast -- For VCD burning
6. Quicktime Pro, Adobe Premire, Final Cut Pro -- Anything that can merge Audio & Video together

Step One
1. Place the DVD in the DVD drive. Close Apple DVD player if it opens.
2. Open YADE. If will automaticaly read the DVD. Find the Track desired and click on it once.
3. Next click File, Save Streams. It will take about an hour or so depending on CPU speed.


Step Two
1. Next open mAC2dec. Drag your .ac3 file to the window. Using the options shown in the picture and click start.


Step Three
1. Next open mm2c. Drag your .m2v file into the window. Next click on the quicktime button. Use the settings as needed. For DVD Movies usually the fps should 23.976.


2. Click okay. Next click on transform. Use the settings as shown below.


3. Once you have all that finished click convert.

Step Four
1. Using your software of choice merge the audio and video files. Make sure to sync the beginning of the movie.
2. Save your newly merged .mov

*If the audio for the entire movie is in sync skip to step six otherwise goto step five*

Step Five
1. Open QT Mutator. Click File, Open and double-click your movie.
2. Click on the video track. *Shown as 1. in picture.
3. Next add or subtract duration units. Add units if the video precedes the audio, and subtract units if the video drags behind the audio. *Shown as 2. in picture.


4. Once the video is in sync click save.

Step Six
1. Next Using Quicktime Pro, or whatever Video editing software you use and cut the .mov into segments that are less than 80min in length and save.
2. Open Toast. Under the Other button click Video CD .
3. Drag your movie segment into toast and allow it to convert it to VCD format.
4. Then insert a blank CD and click Record.

Enjoy. Hope this is helpful to all Mac users.

-TGPO

[sheffie]

Hey tgpo,

Thanks for the new mac guide--it is exactly what I have been looking for. I do have a couple of "newbie" questions.

I successfully converted both the video and audio tracks, however, there were two audio tracks instead of just one. I merged the video with the first audio track using quicktime pro and tried to add the second audio track. When I added the second track, it threw the sync off (of course). But, it also created what seem to be gaps in the video portion--in other words the video starts, then has some blank space and then starts again all the while as the audio runs. Can I fix this problem using mutator? If so, how? In the future, is there a way to merge the two separate audio files into one and then merge that single file into the video?

Again, thanks for your help.

[tgpo]

Usually when you rip the DVD there are two or even more audio tracks. The first track is usually the one you want and the only one you need to mess with. Instead of merging the two audio files try only using the first one. Then use Mutator to sync. I'm not sure if using Quicktime Pro you can add a second audio layer, but programs like Premire will allow for a second audio layer then when you export it will merge the two into one layer.

[sheffie]

Thanks! I will give it a shot.

[InvinciblePoleFighter]

Hi, im having a little trouble with synching the sound...
first of all i followed the steps in your first Easy Mac DVD-> VCD at http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=83368 . everything was working out fine, until i tried to synch the audio. the video track is 2:04:24 and the sound file is 1:39:01 so there was obviously something wrong. so i found this guide and i tried using quicktime mutator. i changed the duration and i pressed play, and the audio was right in synch with the movie! i was pumped, but then i scrolled to the middle of the movie, and it was way off. i dont understand how the audio could be off in the middle and end if its on at the start. its perfect pitch and tempo and everything at the start. i havent watched through the whole thing to see when the sound begins to fall behind. maybe i'll do that now, anything you can explain about this will be helpful, thanks!

-ps. i didnt try this version of your guide because i couldnt find a place to download YADE

[sheffie]

Has anyone figured out the audio/video sync problem?????? I am having the same problem, ie. I am extracting the video and audio and they are different lengths by as much as 25 or 30 minutes. When I finally get the beginning of the movie in sync with the sound (using mutator) I find that it is way off later in the movie.Does anyone have a clue as to how this can be fixed? How bout setting both to the time length that the movie is said to be on the DVD? Any help would be appreciated.

[tgpo]

Once you get the begining in sync you then have to change the duration of the video track. This can be done in Mutator as well. Just click on the video track then change the duration under the track menu.

[sheffie]

OK--Here is the problem i am having with qt mutator. I can get the beginning of the movie "in sync" (now, there's a band that really sucks) simply by using quicktime. When I merge the two as scaled, the beginning audio and video are good. However, as the movie progresses, the video and audio get out of sync. When I change the duration of the video to get the whole movie synced, it will work for the early part of the movie but as the movie progresses, it gets out of line again. In fact, it ends up going in the other direction--video precedes audio early in the movie and later just the opposite is the case. It seems to me that if the length of the audio and video are exact and the two begin at the same time (in sync) then the rest of the movie should be good. That, however, is not the case. SOOOOO, what's a poor boy to do, 'cept .......?

[tgpo]

Never use add scaled in Quicktime Pro. It messes with the audio, which you don't want to do. Just use the Add command.

[Tolly]

okay, i am using most the steps in this process just as a guide to put a DVD into a .mov format. but the resulting .mov file is much too large, is there any way i can decrease the size? or, better yet, is there any way i can rip the dvd into a format like avi or mpg that will also be readable on a PC? ANY help or suggestions are greatly appreciated.

[tgpo]

Just follow the same steps from my guide, but instead of using the Motion Jpeg codec use one that has more compression. Sorenson Video works nicely, as does the new MPEG-4 codec. PC's with Quicktime 6 can view MPEG-4 encoded movies!

[tgpo]

btw, Quicktime Pro is able to export to avi format.

[Tolly]

thanks TGPO, i was unaware pc can view same mpeg 4, thats just what i was looking for. as for exporting to avi, i think it increases the size of the file too much and doesnt produce good quality video. im gonna have to go with mpeg 4!

[locus]

I have followed these directions and can still not produce a synced .mov - When i add the audio track to the video track (qt 6 pro) I make sure that the cursor is at the very beginning (i use "add" not "add scaled"). i will use qt mutator to sync the beginning by increasing/decreasing the duration units of the video track. So the beginning is synced - although 20 minutes later, maybe less - the .mov starts to become out of sync again - i try to fix that by increasing/decreasing video track duration units and then the beginning is out of sync. arghhh.

[stomper]

Any tips on what settings to use for creating a SVCD instead of VCD?

[icarus83]

I am having the same problems as everyone else on this message board, but I think I may have found the problem (although not the solution at this point). When the audio is encoded, it is encoded at a different frame rate than the video. In the case of a recent movie, it ripped at 38.2813 fps, whereas the video was at 24 fps. I tried to translate the audio to a different framerate (possibly a more standard one?), but I am having problems with QT Mutator. It seems to crash any time I make individual track adjustments. The only adjustment that seems to work is the offset tweak. I'm running Jaguar, so I don't think that there should be any compatibility problems, but... nonetheless, it crashes whenever I try to adjust the framerate. If anyone knows how to change the framerate without crashing QT, I'd love to know. Thanks.

[ikado]

i've just ripped a movie (harry potter) and there was no sync problems... but there's a problem to sync audio/video.

i mean:

i converted video to mpeg1 and audio to aiff and merged them in quicktime pro.

first trap: the video track contained a trailer at the end of the movie but the audio tracks was separated. so i had to cut about 4-5 min at the end of the video track, guided by the correspondent trailer audio track.

second trap: after doing this, the video track still was about 13 sec larger than the audio one... it's because AUDIO STARTS 13 SEC LATER!!! so i moved the player triangle to 13 sec and added the audio track. PERFECT SYNC !!

I DIDN'T NEED TO SCALE IT, didn't need qt mutator, didn't need anything but quicktime pro!!

conclusion: NO SYNC PROBLEMS, after dealing with traps. check again your movies and be sure there is no trap like this.

[zantor]

Could you explain why you need to encode the .m2v as a Motion Jpeg A - after all the VCD is going to end up as MPEG1? And does Sorenson provide a better (more efficient/better quality) encoder for MPEG1 - or what are the options at all?

Also wouldn't you recommend using OSeX to rip (works with OSX, surprisingly) and ffmpegx which takes the .vob and deals with it completely?

questions, questions....

[tgpo]

Could you explain why you need to encode the .m2v as a Motion Jpeg A - after all the VCD is going to end up as MPEG1? And does Sorenson provide a better (more efficient/better quality) encoder for MPEG1 - or what are the options at all

I use the Motion JPEG A codec to encode the .m2v to .mov. I do this so I can edit and manipulate, plus add sound to my movie before I encode to MPEG 1. I looked at Sorenson and it created too much noise and blockiness for my standards, so I went with Motion Jpeg A, which cut the file size in half and retained much of the quality.

Also wouldn't you recommend using OSeX to rip (works with OSX, surprisingly) and ffmpegx which takes the .vob and deals with it completely?

I wrote this guide for OS 9, thus I did not use OSeX. And also at that time ffmpegX had not been created yet.

[Cheriebabe]

Hi I live in Australia and have never heard of this sofware called Yade

Does anyone use it, know where I can down load it etc?

[Joe337]

Hi,
I'm running OS 9.2 with G3 Beige 266mhz processor and clocked at 300mhz.I have 384megs ram with a hard drive of
20GB. "Using the New Improved Easy Mac DVD->VCD" Can I make copy's of dvd's to Vcd's with this set-up or do I need to upgrade system?
Thank You, for your help!

[galactica]

You can, but you will probably see the sequal to the movie hit DVD before you finish the 1st one.

Then again, most are OSX apps, so I would say there is a way but not following this method (unless all apps are OS9 also)

sorry.

[galactica]

Hi I live in Australia and have never heard of this sofware called Yade

Does anyone use it, know where I can down load it etc?

http://www.opuscc.com/download/FTP/yade.sit
Enjoy

[tgpo]

Actually this whole things was done in OS 9. You can download all the tools from my website http://homepage.mac.com/tgpo

[JesterXL]

Ummmm... I need some help, I just bought quicktime pro so that I could use this guide. The price was horrible for me, I don't know how they expect ppl to afford their software So anyway, I was really pumped, everthing was finally going to work (since ffmpeg provided such horrible audio quality that I couldn't tell what was happening, and forty-two provided me with a 1.5-3 second sync problem with every DVD in my collection) and I couldn't figure out how to merge the audio and video. I tried the add command, but it just added a text clipping at the bottom of the movie, and I tried dropping the file at the beeginning of the movie, which worked, but got rid of all the video, so I tried dropping it at the end of the movie and nothing happened... (well, I got a nice little shaded part in the little box that tells you how far along the movie is) I am just about ready to kill someone, spending all that money for nothing. PLEASE HELP.

[JesterXL]

ok, nevermind, I figured it all out with quicktime pro, but when I went to run mutator, I found thatthe audio stops before the video ends, so I was having a hell of a time, and I finally just stopped trying, and I an going to try to find a different method (If there even is a method I haven't tried)