Avi

[sebsage]

Could I burn the VCD as an avi? Becuase one of my videos, is 695 Megabytes. And it's .avi
Making it a MPEG would very likely double the size. So must I convert it forcing it to maybe 4 CDs?

[Conquest10]

no.

[Conquest10]

you may want to read this:
https://www.videohelp.com/vcd

[sebsage]

Will Nero Burner convert it for me? And just a quick side question, Xbox has no compatibility with VCDs. I have the DVD Remote for it.

[FulciLives]

Will Nero Burner convert it for me? And just a quick side question, Xbox has no compatibility with VCDs. I have the DVD Remote for it.

I am pretty sure that Nero Burner will not convert it for you. Nero is just a burning/copying program. Nothing more nothing less.

Some authoring software packages will do the conversion for you. The very popular Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 (MSRP of about $50 USD) will do the conversion for you if you import an avi file.

However, the VCD format is very easy to configure using TMPGEnc and it is the most popular mpeg1/mpeg2 encoder. One it is very easy to use and two it is fairly cheap. You can download a trial version for free and use it up to 30 days. After 30 days you will not be able to use it for mpeg2 encoding until you pay for it but I think it will still do mpeg1 (which is what VCD uses) even after the lock out period.

The running time of the video you are encoding (more so than the current avi size) will determine if you need 1 or 2 CD-R discs in the end.

I suggest you try the guide on this site (or the doom9 website) on how to encode mpeg1/VCD using TMPGEnc. If you think that is "too" much for YOU then you might want to try Ulead DVD MovieFactory 2 as I have used it to make both VCD and DVD discs without any problems. In other words it is very user friendly and works very well. Plus it will convert your avi file for you into a VCD with very little input from you in terms of settings etc.

By the way, you could use NERO to just copy the avi file to a CD-R disc but no stand alone DVD player can play an avi file so the CD-R disc you make MUST be played on your computer using your CD or DVD drive. If the avi file is DivX 4.x or 5.x and if it is encoded wihout any of the Pro features (excluding bidirectional encoding which is allowed) then you will be able to play it on a stand alone DVD player that supports the DivX codec. However right now there is only one such model available although I hear there should be a few more models comming out either late this year or very early next year.

But if you want to make a VCD disc (which most stand alone DVD players can play) then you will have to convert it to a mpeg1 file and burn to a CD-R as a VCD (you just can't simply copy the mpeg1 file to a CD-R as it has to be in a special VCD format for the stand alone DVD player to be able to play it back ... though there are a few ... very very very few ... stand alone DVD players that can play back a "raw" unprocessed mpeg1 file straight from a CD-R disc).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

RELATED LINKS:
Ulead Website

[sebsage]

Ok, I got a movie:

Avi
695 Megabytes
Part 1

I need to convert it using TMPG, I know it fine.
The size will double, so including Part2, my movie on a VCD will be at least 4 discs.

Correct?

[wee haggis]

Make it a XVCD
https://www.videohelp.com/tmpgencxvcd.htm

[FulciLives]

Ok, I got a movie:

Avi
695 Megabytes
Part 1

I need to convert it using TMPG, I know it fine.
The size will double, so including Part2, my movie on a VCD will be at least 4 discs.

Correct?

As I said the size of the VCD is based mostly on the running time of the video file and not what size it is now as a AVI type file.

I'm not 100% positive about this but a VCD should hold about 1 hour (120 minutes) of video with audio. That's a rough approximation. It might be more but probably not much more than maybe 70 minutes give or take.

Maybe someone else can confirm the EXACT size of a VCD but I think I am pretty close.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Conquest10]

at vcd specs, an 800 MB disc can hold roughly 80 minutes.

[sebsage]

Ah, ok.
What files are required for XVCD? Is it really better?

[wee haggis]

Follow the instructions on the link I provided and it should be quite straight forward.
I've been doing XVCD for almost 2 years now and I'm at over 200 movies and counting (90% are good quality).
I use a combination of Virtualdub,TMPGEnc and VCDEasy (the odd time I use Goldwave ,vcdgear and Headac3he).
This combination of free tools (and a time tested TMPGEnc template )give me results that I'm satisfied with .
Is it DVD quality?...well,of course not but I find it quite acceptable.
I also use the TMPGEnc bitrate calculator which I find it very accurate.
I've found that when using 2 cdr's, if a movie is longer than 1hr 50mins the bitrate settings tend to produce a "not so good" quality movie.
So, I would then step up to 3 cdr's (this would also depend on whether its a high action movie or a slow moving drama).
It goes without saying that a very important factor is the quality of the original source and i do a Video scan with Virtualdub and short test encodes before I commit to encoding the whole movie.
Generally for me an average movie takes about 3 hours to encode.
I split the movie during the encode process by using the Source Range function and then use the Save Project and Batch Encode functions .