DVD-multi VCDs can not avoid reencoding video, any ideas?

[Paramedic]

I'm fairly accomplished with VCDs, capturing and encoding. I have a number of VCD episodes of shows that I've captured and am looking to combine them into multi-volume DVD-Rs. My equipment is listed below.

When I use Ulead DVD MF 2 I get through the process just fine. The added files are mpgs. 352X240 44.1K audio and are set to VCD standard. I have also burned these as VCDs directly with Nero and no reconversion requested/needed. Everything plays just fine.

I've gone through the steps outlined in the guide and no matter what I do, I end up with the program stating "converting video" which takes about 2-4 hours depending on the size of the disc. Is this correct? Or am I missing a setting.

Here's the steps I've taken.

First off, all are VCD format mpgs (NTSC) and when I add them they insert just fine. When I go to burn, they have to "convert video"

Before I forget, I have set the preferences to use MPEG audio at a bitrate of 224 and have checked the box "Do not convert compliant mpeg files" which I thought would have solved the problem, but no luck. Also, here is a sample of the info for one of the files so you can see if I'm missing something.....

File Format: NTSC VCD

Video type: MPEG-1 Video (Is MPEG-2 required even for multi VCD?)
Attributes: 24 bits, 352 x 240
Frame Rate: 29.970 frames per second
Data Rate: 1150 kbps

Audio type: MPEG Audio Layer 2
Attributes: 44100 Hz, 16 bit stereo
Layer: 2
Bit Rate: 224 kbps

Tried the TMPGEnc technique, have demultiplexed, reconverted the audio to 48000 and remultiplexed just fine. Videos work OK, insert them into Ulead and the info shows them as MPEG VCD 352X240 48000 audio stream, but still same thing "converting video" taking the same length of time (2-4 hours) before burning.

The end products that I get are just fine. Everything comes out great, but there is a large quantity of these that I'm wanting to do and I'd love to omit the 2-4 hour process if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions. Hopefully my description has been clear enough for you to see what I've done so far.

Equipment: (Primary)
XPPro, Athlon 2.1G, 1024 DDR, 360G HD, AIW 7500, Toshiba DVD-R SD-R5002, Virtualdub (capture prog uncomp or Huffy codec), Main Concept MPEG Encoder conversion to VCD, Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 (authoring)

[Cecilio]

This sounds like an easy question.
all you have to do is extract the audio and convert it to 48000 khz and remux the 48000 khz audio with the same original video and then you shouldnt have any problems.

[Paramedic]

Hmmm, did a little more investigating and found a partial answer. When Ulead converts, it does convert them to MPEG-2 files. So if it must be, it must be, but is there any way to avoid this (just burn them as MPEG-1)?? I also am not so sure if the MPEG-2 files (more SVCD in nature) will play in the player at my friend's house.

Thanks again.

[Paramedic]

Cecilio,

Thanks for the tip. I have done that before without success (mentioned in the demux/TMPGEnc/remux/etc). Granted, they both work, but even with the audio at 48000 it still insists on reconverting the video.

Paramedic