Fixing out of sync audio in SVCDs

[WarriorSolo]

I've got a couple of SVCD MPG files of TV shows and the like that I want to convert to VCD. I have tried to use TMPGEnc to convert them and some of the MPGs have audio that is skewed off by a couple of seconds. How would be the best way for me to change/edit the movie so that the audio is resynced? I tried using a tip I found about changing TMPGEnc, Seeings, Advanced, selecting the Source Range, and playing with that, and it hasn't made any real difference for me. The audio still doesn't sync up. Anyone with any suggestions, please let me know. I'd like to become more of an expert on some of this stuff and I'm starting to learn the basics, but it is a slow process.

Thanks in advance,
WarriorSolo

[poopyhead]

why would you wanna convert SVCD to VCD? SVCD is a much better quality version than VCD? if your dvd player can't support SVCD, i suggest you just spend some $$ on a dvd player that does support SVCDs cuz VCDs are on their way out...

APEX dvd players have mp3 and SVCD support for as low as $65

[WarriorSolo]

The reason that I want to convert the SVCDs to VCD is because of the following reasons:

1. I don't have a DVD-RAM drive, so I am limited to 80 Min CDs, which won't work for an 800+ Meg SVCD episode.
2. The quality of VCD's is more than fine for me.
3. I don't want to have to split a single episode onto two CDs and waste part of the space on the CD's.

Do you have any suggestions at all? I'm more concerned about the sound being off by a slight shift than I am by the whole size issue. I can use TMPGEnc to convert the SVCD into VCD, but the audio is what worries me the most.

Thanks,
WarriorSolo

[fantomlord]

did you encode the original SVCDs yourself?
if you did, you might want to just encode again(from source), and lower your bitrate and/or use VBR, because TV shows shouldn't be more than like 47 minutes or so w/o commercials, and that can easily fit on one CD with good quality SVCD encoding.

[WarriorSolo]

The files that I have downloaded I did NOT encode myself. I don't have the equiptment for really doing much video capture yet. My video capture card is an ATI All in Wonder Raedon 7500 64 Meg AGP. I am just starting to scratch the surface of what I can do with it.

Any suggestions?

TIA,
WarriorSolo

[oldfart13]

If you have a decent (PIII or 4 or equivalent AMD) you should be able to cap in full DVD spec 720x480 Mpeg-2 or SVCD spec 480x480 Mpeg-2 with no frame drops. Stinkie's Tool will mod the registry for you so other cap rates are possible. The out of sync problem occurs with a lot of Mpeg-2 caps. I have an ADS Instant DVD Mpeg-2 encoder and it happens a lot. You would have to strip the audio out of the out of sync portion then remux it with the length padded or edited to the same length as the video file. This can be done in TMPGenc or other editors. I've found that most audio may be out of sync if the capper edited the finished Mpeg-2. That's just a problem for Mpeg-2 as AVI, DV AVI and Mpeg-1 can easily be edited. Good luck...

[Chuck Roulette]

I agree that converting a SVCD to VCD is not a great idea for quality loss reasons. Don't get fooled by the size of the SVCD. I burn 850+mg SVCDs onto standard 80 min CDRs all the time. I use Nero 5.+ and change the overburning limit to 92 minutes (no particular reason for 92, but it works). When you go to burn the SVCD it will prompt you asking if you want to overburn. Answer YES and let Nero do it's thing. Also, once you exceed 825mg or so you will get an error at the end of the burning process. Just ignore it, the SVCD will work fine. I wouldn't go much over 850mg though.

FYI: To set the overburning feature in Nero go to: File>Preferences>Expert Features. Check the "Enable overburning disk at once..." and set the amount of time to 92 or above.

Hope this helps!

[WarriorSolo]

To: Chuck Roulette

To be perfectly honest, I have never even thought of trying the overburning like that. And it apparently works fine for you since you've been doing it 'all the time'. If that is the case, then I think I have that problem figured out. I've been using Adaptec Easy CD Creator to do the burning, but I guess I will give Nero a shot. Nothing against Nero, just never tried to use it. I'll do that.

Now I just need to start working with and learning how to resync the audio for some of the SVCDs that I do have.

Thanks for all the help and advice, everyone!!
WarriorSolo

[Chuck Roulette]

I may have a suggestion to your audio synch problem too. I ran into a similar problem when "backing up" the X-Files DVDs. When I ripped them I would always get the AC3 files with some type of offset (from -200+ to -600+). What I do is convert the AC3 to a WAV then encode my SVCD with the offset WAV file. When the SVCD was complete I would use the MPEG Tools in TMPGEnc to DeMultiplex the file. The I take the *.mp2 (the audio file) and use GoldWAVE to and "trim" off the offset, save it as a *.WAV file, and use TMPGEnc to convert it back to a *.mp2 file. From there I just use TMEPGEnc MPEG tools to Multiplex the video (*.m1v) and the audio (*.mp2) files back together. Sounds like a shitload of work, but once you do it a couple of times it's not that big of a deal and it works great. As you can tell this only works if the audio in the original SVCD is delayed. If the audio is ahead of the video then this won't do you any good. There a lot of great "how-to's" here and a lot of helpful people. I've learned TONS here. Hope this helps.