Cutting an MPEG2 with M2-Edit-File increased in size???

[TheGoldenDroid]

I have an MPEG2 video of Not Another Teen Movie and it's about 2 GB in size (very good quality :P ) at 420x420 I believe, not sure though. The problem is I don't have a dvd writer to burn it to a dvd so I have to resort to VCD/SVCD. I've tried to split/cut the file in M2-Edit by following the how-to guide on this site and after I generate the clip, the file size is larger ( 3 GB). How is this possible?? The clip is about 35 minutes long while the movie is over 90. This confused me. Did the software do some kind of encoding? It took a couple minutes when it was generating. Any ideas?

I am under the impression that I can simply cut this video into a couple parts and burn to a cdr as a SVCD for playback in a dvd player. Am I totally wrong on this assumption?

[penamty]

I have very little experience cutting MPEG2 but maybe you should check under preferences that the option frame accurate is not selected, when cutting a file using frame accurate the file will have to be reencoded because the GOP structure will have to be rearranged depending on the place where you are cutting the file. Also make sure that the output format is the same as the original.

[therick]

no, 420x420 is not a standard resolution. I think you mean 480x480-which is, in fact the SVCD standard resolution. My suggestion would be to run the sucker through bitrate viewer and see what the resolution and bitrate are. If you get something like 480x480 and a max at or less that 2.5 MBit/s I would say that you are definitely looking at an SVCD file.

Now the best way to cut an SVCD(or any MPEG-2 file) IMO is to use BBMpeg. You can download it for free. There is a guide for it on this site. Basically demux the stream to audio and video, and let BBMpeg put it back together...it is all in the guide:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/bbmpegedit.htm

Good luck

[TheGoldenDroid]

therick, It is in fact a SVCD at 480x480.

Since I am not home, I will try penamty's suggestion first and if that don't work, I will try therick's. I want to try to avoid an additional step. I will post my result later tonight. Thanks for the suggestions.
In the meantime, has anyone used Womble MPEGVCR before?? Maybe I can try that as well.

Can someone tell me if this is correct: I can fit approximately 60 min. of SCVD onto an 80 min. cdr. I read this information somewhere and haven't dealt much with SVCD before. If this is the case, the movie should fit onto 2 cds. I always thought that around 40 min. of SVCD could fit to an 80 min. cdr.

[mikeylikesit33]

Ran into it before... It seems that a lot of the editors add in the padding.

So, you edit to cut down on size, and it's ends up being an extra 100 megs.

SOLUTION: Run your edited (Bigger) Mpeg2 through TMPGENC Multiplexer.

Padding is taken back out and your file is now the size you would expect after editing out what you don't want.

[therick]

@TheGoldenDroid - Because of VBR, the length of video you can fit onto a CD-R with MPEG-2 SVCD video varies. Basically, the only constant is that you can fit 800 MB onto a CD-R-as far as how much video that is, it could be 40 minutes, it could be 60 minutes.

I don't use TMPEGEnc to multiplex, only to de-multiplex, so I can't vouch for it's multiplexing-but I can definitely vouch for BBMPEG's and so will everyone else on this site...it multiplexes flawlessly.

[TheGoldenDroid]

ok, I've tried to use bbmpeg but kept getting errors. Is there some other guide for bbmpeg than the one mentioned in the link above? I have the 2 files (video and audio) from de-muxing but can't seem to get it back together.
I guess I will fiddle with it till I get it right. I've heard so many great things about bbmpeg. Thanks and wish me luck.

:edit: The error I was getting was when I tried to open the two seperate files in the input and output tab. Can't remember the exact words. I eventually got it working once but don't remember what i did to do it again. When it was working, I got an error when I hit start so either way I lost.

[therick]

@TheGoldenDroid- alright, we will get through the error and you will see how great BBMPEG really is! What is the error? I looked through the guide I linked you to and it looks like how I have been using BBMPEG for a while. If you could post the error that would help. Also, what is the exact size of the MPEG? If it is 1.6 GB you can fit that on to two CDs, but any more and it will take more than two. Are you getting a PTS/DTS underflow error?

[TheGoldenDroid]

ok, the file size is 1.8 GB so i'll probably make 3 disk.
Anyways, I inputed the mpg file on the left side of the program by clicking on add. I then went to Start Encoding. The program would just crash/disappear if I didnt load anything first. Should I be doing this even though it's not mentioned in the guide??

Next, i go to settings and do everything the guide does. I just hit start and I didnt get the error that did before, I'll let it run to the end and see what it will give me.

One more thing, when i clicked on Open VS and Open AS1, if i clicked on the ones that were just demuxed by tmpegc, it would ask to be overwritten. I just dont understand what's going on. I think i'm on the edge of quitting this damn program

[therick]

alright, I will walk you through what I do to cut files in BBMPEG.

1. I demux with TMPEGENc, like you and get video.m2v and sound.mp2.
2. I open up BBMPEG-I don't load the mpg into the left side of the program-I click start encoding first thing and go into settings. I think you load the mpg into the left side if you are planning on encoding, but that is not what you want, you are just multiplexing.
3. The first tab that I go into under settings is Program Stream settings. Just make sure it is SVCD (you have probably already done this, but just to hit all the bases)
4. Then I go to Input and Output settings. I load video.m2v into VS and sound.mp2 into AS1. Then I click openPS and choose the where the files are going and their names.
5. Then I double click on the audio stream and calculate how many seconds long the movie is. Then I go to the General settings tab and put that number into the final second field and make sure that 0 is in the first field. I put 800 (or if I am feeling wiley for an overburn 805) into the size in MB, click OK. And then I hit start and go get a drink.

After all this I get my two files (or sometimes three) in perfect sync and I burn them.

Again, this is probably what you are doing, the only thing I don't do that you did was loading the mpg on the initial screen in BBMPEG. This is unnecessary and may be the cause of your errors.

I have never had the VS or AS1 field give me an overwright error. Hope this helps.

[TheGoldenDroid]

ok, I followed your steps but when I try to load the VS and AS1 (even tried PS), the program crashes back to the desktop. I'm gonna do a search now and see what I come up with. The rest of your steps was pretty much the same thing I was doing. Thanks for the help and I'll post if i figure something out.

[therick]

well, shit, I don't know. I have never had BBMPEG lock up. Ever. 50+ multiplexes. Not one lock up.

Can you load the stream into bitrate viewer?

[TheGoldenDroid]

yeah, its CBR @ 2520kbps.

I just saw this thread while searching:
http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=84774&highlight=bbmpeg+crash%2A

Seems you need a patch since I'm on XP. Now if I can only find it.
Looks like I might get this proggie working after all (knock on wood).

[therick]

http://www.divx-digest.com/software/avi2mpg2.html

there you go...4th on the list at the bottom

[TheGoldenDroid]

This sucks again. Every link out there is broken. Does anyone have it? Can you pm it to me or something.

[TheGoldenDroid]

Hooray, I found it. I did a search on yahoo for it and I got it. Here is a link for anyone else:
http://www.stben.be/files/codecs_divx/bbmpeg_xp.zip

There's no stopping me now :P :P