Need help conv. AVI->SVCD w/the DVD2SVCD package

[SVCDummy]

Firstly, I am soooo new at this, I've only had a DVD player for 3 days now. I instantly wanted to start converting my music video downloads to play on the stand-alone DVD player. In my first 24hrs of ownership I ripped one of my brothers DVD's and made a great pair of SVCDs out of it using DVD2SVCD package.

I was so impressed that I started trying to get my .AVI music videos to convert with the same package. The package is way simple to use and it made great qaulity SVCDs of the DVD. Simple to use was the key for me! There is a setting under the "Misc." tab labeled "AVI2SVCD" so I thought... kewl, I'm in! Then reality struck.

I selected this optional AVI2SVCD configuration of the program and it started to run. Shortly into the conversion "BeSweet.exe" generates an error and continues along it's happy way. The Video conversion then begins (and in my case took 6 hrs for a 42 min clip) until it begins to re-assemble the video and audio streams. At this point "bbMPEG" generates and error that stops the process. It says "Unable to read from Encoded_audio_1.mp2" If you let the script continue from this point it ultimately generats no MPG files and you've just wasted a lot of time.

Has anyone else run into this?!? Is there a work around? I like the idea of using a 'complete' package like this one but I would like to find one that works or find how to make this one work. As a newbie here I really am lost when trying to figure out how to seperate the streams and put them back together again. I tried it for a while and made about a dozen coasters in my cd burner that either have no audio, way out of sync audio or completely scrambled crap! I don't know enough about the process to figure out where I might be going wrong or what I need to know to start debugging.

Please help! I love how easy this program is to use and if it is only a matter of fixing a script file or a template of some sort I am game. I am NOT a computer newbie just a Multi-Media one considering I only threw out my old VHSvcr 3 days ago! I've been writing user interfaces for years but nothing prepared me for AV type work and I am truely lost.

btw - I've tried this on 4 different machines at my house and ALL have the same results. (2 - 1ghz Duron's, 1 - 1.2ghz celeron, and 1 - 950mhz P3) I even tried un-encoding the audio portion of the avi file first with the "decompress" program that comes with the AVI2VCD program thinking this would eliminate the crashes, but it didn't.

If there is not a way to get this particular program to work then I need a pointer to something (hopefully) as easy.

Thanx.

btw - to the moderator... this board rox! I've never seen a subject board so well maintained and on target!

[SVCDummy]

Oh yeah, I should tell you that I was at least informed enough to make sure the avi files played in the Windows media player with teh DivX 3.11 codec installed.

Thanx

[mrbass]

get 1.0.8 build 1 and check the divx3 to divx4 conversion...should help

[SVCDummy]

Thanks! - I had not even checked for a newer version of DVD2SVCD over the past 3 days 'cause I had been so engrossed in making the 1.0.7 build 4 work, but alas... it was buggy. I just downloaded the newer cut and started a conversion that I will let run through the night. So far so good. I've passed the first error point with no errors reported.

I'll post back the results in the morning. Thanx again mrbass :P

[mrbass]

even if it does work your lucky. AVI2SVCD is still very much beta part of the entire program. Although it's progressing slowly but surely. Obviously his emphasis is on DVD rips not AVI.

[SVCDummy]

Well, good news and bad news. I was able to successfully convert a downloaded cartoon movie but not a music video and an AVI rip of a DVD movie. The cartoon (Atlantis) went very well but the other two both gwt hung up in the BeSweet conversion part of the process. They both just sit there spinning their wheels and processing no frames.

You were right mrbass... the software seems very preliminary.

Does anyone know of another tool this simple to use (DVD2SVCD in the AVI2SVCD mode)!?!?

I am far to new at this to know where to begin. That is why I liked this package. AVI2VCD makes ..well...ok quality vcd's but it doesn't help you with how to split up the target files to equal portions like this program does. So I wound up making a low vcd quality set of CD's that yuo had to get up and change the CD in the last 5 minutes of the movie (just a real bummer of a spot to change CD's)

I prefer the SVCD quality renderings by far! Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[mrbass]

you could try dvdx 1.8a but don't be expecting near the quality results with it's built in recorder.