burning first vcd help...

[the_shyguy]

hey well im about to burn my first vcd... i have an .avi really good quality... i was going to use nero to burn it the first time... after opening nero it says that the file wont fit on one cd... so, is there a feature in nero that will cut it and put on to 2 cd's OR do i have to split the file first and then do 2 seperate burns? AND then what should i use to split it...

also, is nero going to reduce the quality by much as apposed to say tmpgenc?

cheers
shyguy

[Vejita-sama]

First, take a look at the guides to the left under Author.

I'm a little confused about where you are in the authoring process. Do you have a VCD standard encoded MPEG1 file, or a video source that you want to encode to MPEG1?

Let us know and then we can help you better. But basically if you just have the source, then use a program like TMPGenc or CCE to encode it to MPEG1 (see the Convert section to the left). If you've got the MPEG1 file you can burn it with Nero. If it's a non-standard MPEG1 file just uncheck the 'compliation(sp)' box.

You can burn 800MB of MPEG data on an 80min CDR. Bigger than that and you'll have to spilt the MPEG file. TMPGenc can do that (freeware) as well as several other programs.

[the_shyguy]

well i just downloaded an .avi file so im not sure whether the encoding stuff has been done? i just assumed it would have been, seeing as its got picture and sound.... and nero says that you can convert avi's onto a vcd with it...

[§kipTracer65]

my advice is also look for a guide to do this right, nero sucks at encoding, and as u have a good source this would be just plain wrong, dvd2svcd is my method of choice for converting avi to vcd's with either cce or TMPGEne

[mats.hogberg]

Forget Nero for this task. Use The Three Musketeers VirtualDub (for editing/effects/subtitles) TMPGEnc (to encode) and VCDEasy (to author/burn). Read a few guides (provided left under CONVERT) on AVI to VCD conversion.

/Mats

[the_shyguy]

cheers for the response ppl... can i just use virtualdub and TMPGEnc and then burn it with nero? or does that make no sense?

[Hardcoreruss]

No that makes perfect sense. Mats is a fan of VCDEASY I prefer nero, does not matter what you use to burn just personal preferences.

[mats.hogberg]

I often burn with Nero (that's what it's made for, and admittedly good at), but I never use it to author stuff, or any other task that may have to be done before the data is actually written to the media. On all accounts there are better, specialized, and mostly free applications for these tasks.

/Mats

[mats.hogberg]

can i just use virtualdub and TMPGEnc and then burn it

You're missing one step in the process - It has to be authored before it can be burned. Here's where VCDEasy comes in. Nero claims to have that capability, and I'm sure some versions actually pulls it off, but VCDEasy is much more flexible and creates really compliant output every time (and doesn't go off reencoding your material without asking, if it finds it out of specs).

/Mats

[the_shyguy]

ah okay... well for interests sake i have nero5 burning rom... would this be good enough?

im trying to keep things free at the moment, but even TMPGEnc seems to have a limit until you buy it... and after looking at vcdeasy that was the same...??

[teegee420]

Nero 5 can burn VCD's and TMPGEnc is completely free for creating mpeg-1 video. Only mpeg-2 encoding is time limited.

[the_shyguy]

oekey doekey...

well i just burnt the first vcd... heres my problems...

1. the pciture quality is a little less then the original avi, but not noticeable on my tv.
2. the picture transition isnt 100%, every coupleof seconds the frame seems to pause for like a millisecond (most noticeable when the screen is panning left to right) its not heaps in your face, but me being a perfectionist, i would like to get it 100% smooth.
3. while encoding it with tmpgenc i used the preview function, and while in that mode i dragged the bar along to skip the intro. i think i dragged it further then what it had already encoded and in the final vcd there is a point around that time where it seems to jump a couple of frames?

note: when encoding it i set it to PAL. the fps is 23.976... plus i think my tv displays NTSC in black and white...

o and i basically followed this step by step:
https://www.videohelp.com/divxtovcd#audio
but using nero to burn...

shyguy

[§kipTracer65]

this is why i choose to use dvd2svcd to author and encode with tmpgenc or cce, when i feed tmpgenc an avi file, i some thime get that weirdness on my vcd's, mind u its only my standalone and not my dads player that i shows up on, mine being a generic cheap 1, so i use dvd2svcd, ( which is free ) if u cant tell im a fan of it. anyways, i c your converting the frames rate? from 23.967 ntsc to pal 25 fps, that could be your issue

[mats.hogberg]

1. the pciture quality is a little less then the original avi, but not noticeable on my tv.

To be expected. VCD is low quality. The benefit is that it's a standard, and that you get reasonably much on a regular CD-R.

2. the picture transition isnt 100%, every coupleof seconds the frame seems to pause for like a millisecond

Definately a byproduct of frame rate conversion. You either keep the source frame rate, or change the frame rate of the source AVI (which involves making the audio track shorter when going 23.976 to 25 fps)

while encoding it with tmpgenc i used the preview function, and while in that mode i dragged the bar along to skip the intro

Don't touch TMPGEnc while it's encoding. If you want to skip intros and outros, use the Source Range feature before you start encoding.
There is a free version of VCDEasy available, and TMPGEnc is limited only when it comes to encoding to m2v (SVCD and DVD). If you stick to VCD, you can use it withot limits.

/Mats

[the_shyguy]

okay cool...

well i will have a play with it again...

on a guide it said what fps = format... it said 23.970 = NTSCfilm... mine was 23.976, so would that be NTSCfilm? do you just round off or what?

if i convert my avi file to 25fps first (so i can make a PAL) will it reduce the quality of the AVI? and what tool is a good one for doing that?

also, i saw a tool called lametool? a sound engine that can be added to tmpgenc... firstly i couldnt find the .exe file for that tool to add into tmpgenc, but secondly, does it make that much of a diff to the sound quality, as apposed to just using the standard tmpgenc one?

cheers for all the help here ppl

shyguy

[mats.hogberg]

if i convert my avi file to 25fps first (so i can make a PAL) will it reduce the quality of the AVI? and what tool is a good one for doing that?

The FPS is just a flag in the AVI that you most easily change with AVIFrate. The video data is not touched at all, so there's no quality impact. It only means that the AVI will play back slightly faster.
However, this only affects the video as far as TMPGEnc is concerned, so before you change the FPS, extract the audio track (use VirtualDub) and convert to WAV.
Then, using WavWorks, make the audio track correspondingly shorter (WavWorks has a preset for 23.976 to 25 FPS) then use this new wav as audio source for TMPGEnc.

also, i saw a tool called lametool?

tooLame is the tool, and it is better than TMPGEncs audio encoder at producing the best mp2 audio. To me, it's overkill, but to others it makes the whole world...

/Mats

[the_shyguy]

cheers for the help mats.hogberg!

ive got the avifrate program...

but can you suggest another good wav editor... i dont have the java runtime environment installed and based on past experiences i really dont want to install it again... ive got nero wav editor but i cant see any straight forward functions for changing the fps...

[xtreemkareem]

Are you playing the VCD back on a PAL TV? The black and white thing sounds like playing back PAL on an NTSC TV. If your TV is PAL, then yea, you woul load the PAL template, but that may cause jerkiness. If you have Nero 5, you can use that both to author and burn your VCD using Nero Wave Editor (included) you can do the audio speedup you want to do.

[the_shyguy]

hey... yeah its cos my tv wont display ntsc in color and it wont convert it to pal as some other tvs will.....

had a go with the avifrate program... it definitely speeds it up alot going from ntsc to pal, when you compare it to the original audio...

is that really the only thing you can do? and just have to live with it going a bit faster?

also, with the audio... i cant figure out how to speed up the wav with nero wav editor... it onyl shows a percentage and beats per second function...

is there any other free good wav editor?

[mats.hogberg]

There's GoldWave, which has a free trial. It has a TimeWarp function that can be used to shorten the audio track without changing the pitch. But believe me - WavWorks rocks for this task. Much faster and easier than GoldWave. And Suns Java VM really is very well behaved.

/Mats

[the_shyguy]

hmmm... cheers... im going to have a look around for another wav editor... otherwise i might have to bite the bullet and install jvm...

cheers for your help