simple way of getting Divx on a VCD ?

[caipirina]

Hi people .. i looked around .. but what I found usually starts at DVD -> VCD ...

so .. i have a bunch of nice DiVx files i'd love to have on VCD .. or SVCD .. or heck, even DVDR ... but how ?

is there a more recent tutorial on that ??

thanks

P

[square]

i use ffmpegx to convert divx/avi's to vcd/svcd. just open the file and select the vcd or svcd preset. see the ffmpwgx forum for more help with the app.

[qshartle]

Do you want them to play in ur dvd player?, or just back them up?



Q

[caipirina]

just to watch it on my DVD player ...

while I DO use my iBook to play those files directly on the TV .. i want to have the option of having those movies on VCD .. to not have to lug around the computer ...

thanks so far .. will give ffmpegx a shot .. downlaoded it (hopefully)

P

[Dyno]

Well, the simplest process I came across for converting AVI-->VCD was as follows, and requires Toast Titanium, Mencoder, the 3iVX Quicktime Codec and VCD Builder.

****Initial preparations (only done once)*****

1. Create a symbolic link ('sudo ln -s' in the terminal) from /usr/bin to /Applications/MEncoder.app/Contents/Resources/mencoder (so you can use it from the command line), or copy the mencoder binary from the MEncoder.app bundle to /usr/bin ('sudo cp /the/binary /to/this/folder')
2. Type 'rehash' in the terminal (this makes mencoder available after creating the link (or after copying the binary)

****Conversion****

3. 'cd' to the directory containing your .avi file
4. type

mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm <sourcefilename> -o <outputfilename>

substituting the source and output filenames for those in "<>" (don't forget the -o).
This converts the .mp3 audio to .pcm audio so Quicktime player can play the audio along with the video once the conversion is finished.
(You can also substitute DiVX Doctor for the previous steps if you want to simplify the process a bit, but I find that DiVX Doctor will sometimes barf on files that the mencoder process handles just fine.)
5. Now just open the output file from mencoder in Quicktime Player and export it with the Toast VCD option and you're done with the conversion.
6. You can use VCD Builder if you wish to create a custom VCD with menus, or you can just use Toast to author and burn the VCD... it's your call.

This is just about the simplest process that I've come across... though if you undestand FFMpegX enough you can do it all straight through there... but I've had sync issues on occassion due to the nonstandard framerates used by a lot of PC encoders... the Toast VCD extension has worked flawlessly for me on everything.

HTH

[caipirina]

Thanks .. I will surely try .. even though I am not very experienced with terminal typing stuff I always get square eyes when I see missing media burner, or now ffmpegX opening up a window and typing stuff with invisible fingers

I am trying to get into FFmpegX .. but so far ran into many little issues for which I would love to just quickly hop online to look for a solution ... fact is that I can only get online pretty much once a day in the early morning hours ... thus is life in friggin Fiji ...

well .. at least some new ideas to toy with ... again, THANKs

[Dyno]

Glad to help... or add to the confusion.

If you need any help getting things set up just reply back to this thread... I'm monitoring it regularly.