Problems with DivX Avi to VCD

[luvxpn]

I'm relatively new to converting avi to vcd. I've done a couple and haven't had any problem until now.

I've tried several times to convert and burn a copy of The Lion King which I downloaded. I'm using the Newbie Guide authored by Newgen. The problem I'm having is finding the right Video Format so that it will fit on my TV screen correctly. I've tried several formats and nothing seems to work...352x240, 252x480, even 480x480. Every time, the picture is too small or not centered on my screen. Also, the sound is very choppy.

The AVI I downloaded was in Divx format
The Video Format was 560X288...looked like wide screen.
The FPS was 29.971.

I first extracted the audio using Virtualdub
Then, Encoded using TMPGE (single disk template)
Then burned using Nero.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks

[Stinky]

Open TMPGEnc hit Load and find and double click on the VideoCD(NTSC) template -- your video is 29.97fps - thats NTSC

then pull your divx into TMPGEnc and if you extracted the audio already to WAV (which is always a good idea) then drag that in also

now hit settings - on the "advanced" tab - make sure your "Source Aspect Range" 1:1 -- why ? that resolution of the divx is non-standard so we let TMPGEnc do the resizing for us (thats 100% normal for a DivX rip)

next make sure 'Video Arrange Method' is "Full Screen (Keep Aspect Ratio)" that makes the video fit into 352x240 (NTSC resolution) without distorting it but fitting it to your TV -- if your DivX is 'sorta-widescreen' as that resolution of 560x288 is then your output WILL have black boarders to keep the same resolution but fit it into your TV (you don't want to watch a movie that looks like it went through a funhouse mirror)

That should do it - if your DivX is a full movie then you may want to use the Source Range option to split the move in half.

Find the very end of the move (use the scroll bar) then hit "set end frame" -- take that number divide it by two and put that into your "Start Frame" number -- hit ok on everything and then select File-Add current project to batch ... give it a name like LionKingVCD2.mpg (remember we just did the end half of the film)

now go back into settings-advanced-source range ... take your start range number and move it over to your end frame number and make the start frame 0 (zero) ... now hit ok and then add this one to batch also but name it LionKingVCD1.mpg

then hit run on the batch window (not the main TMPGEnc window)

come back in a few hours and you will have two VCD's -- disk1 and disk 2

disk 1: start frame:0 end frame 99876
disk 2: start frame: 99876 end frame: 199694

the above is just an EXAMPLE do NOT use those numbers :-)

did I lose you on any step? print this out - follow it step by step - if you get stuck let me know

[Stinky]

PS --- if I neglected to say it - "don't use the TMPGEnc 'wizard' " -- it's good but it isn't perfect ... learn TMPGEnc manually as in the above instructions

[luvxpn]

Thanks for the tip Stinky...I'll give it a try and let you know how it turns out for me.

PS....any ideas about the choppy sound? It's not constantly choppy, but most of the time it is. I'm using a Pioneer DV-C503 player. Everything else I have seems to sound fine.

Thanks again.

[Stinky]

Choppy sound?

not enough info to go on :-)

Johnny5 Need Input!!

ok - sorry, have had a few beers.

Is the sound choppy: when you play the AVI, after it's converted, in the final MPEG or on your standalone DVD player??

[Stinky]

When you exported the audio from VirtualDub what options did you select ? did you downsample? were you sure to put audio on "full processing mode" ?

[luvxpn]

The choppiness doesn't appear to happen when played on my computer, only on my standalone player (pioneer DV-C503).

Also, full processing mode was selected during Virtual Dub Audio Extration. Stinky...you asked if I downsampled. I'm not sure what that means...didn't see that as an option anywhere.

[Stinky]

Ok I have a pioneer and it works fine(but it's not that model) but maybe yours can not handle a high bitrate for audio or the audio in TMPGEnc is set too high and you didn't notice -- go to settings-audio tab - the bitrate is usually 224 but you can lower that to 192 or 160 or even to 128 to see if that helps -- also maybe look into useing TooLAME as your external audio encoder.

you download it here:
http://www.doom9.org/Soft21/Audio/toolame-02i.zip

you download it to a directory then go into TMPGEnc-Options-Environmental Settings-External Tool and browse to TooLAME.exe

if your audio bitrate is locked - find your TMPEnc template VideoCD (NTSC).mcf open it in wordpd or any text editor (NOT WORD) and change these lines:

MPEG.Audio.BitRate = 224000
MPEG.Audio.BitRate_ReadOnly = True

to:

MPEG.Audio.BitRate = 224000
MPEG.Audio.BitRate_ReadOnly = False

then save it - and re-load that template - no you can change the birate to lower than 224

[Stinky]

ps if you didn't downsample then lets not bother going over it :-)

[luvxpn]

I re-encoded it using the parameters you suggested (full screen-keep aspect ratio). That seemed to do the trick. It also took care of the choppy audio I was complaining about.

Just one more thing. I had expected to see a full screen format when played on the tv, but it ended up being the wide screen format that the AVI had originally started out with. Is it possible to re-format it so that it fits a full screen? If not, that's ok...looks fine just the way it is.

Thanks for all your help Stinky.

[Stinky]

Glad you made progress

you are geting the widescreen because the DivX is widescreen

you can make if full screen but you will lose both parts of the left and right of the movie

in the industry thats called "pan and scan" becaue they use TV resolution on widescreen movies but they "pan and scan" so you don't miss any action - if you were to do it yourself there would be times in the movie where you probalby wouldnt see the person on the screen talking or doing something (imagine a guy holding up a bank but all you see is the teller holding up her hands in the air - the meat of the movie would be in and out of the picture all the time

forcing it to keep fit is as a full screen image would result in a fun house mirror effect - everyone all streatched out - or like I said cutting out the left and right half of the movie

If you really REALLY must get it in full screen (which I am telling you that you will not be happy with) let me know and I'll type up how it's done