My DVD to SVCD Recipe

[rack]

What follows is my DVD to SVCD recipe for Mac OS X.

Tools Required:
OSEx
FFMpegX
Quicktime with QuickTimeMPEG2.component
Toast (though you could use Missing Media Burner)

Keep in mind:
SVCD = 40 min per disk
Quicktime requires <2GB file size

1. Rip chunks with OSEx. Chunks must be 40 minutes or less, and less than 2GB in size. Select desired title. Select chapters. Note exact time. Segment = title. Format = Elem. streams.

2. If audio stream is AC3: convert to MP2 with FFMpegX. Use MP2 preset. Select "invert" on audio tab.

3. Mux m2v file and mp2 file with FFMpegX. Select Mux as MPEG-2. Test result in Quicktime Player.

4. Encode/author SVCD with FFMpegX.
(Note: Please spare yourself the agony and don't encode SVCD on a G3...do VCD instead)
a. If you ignored advice in step 1 and time is greater than 40 minutes, be sure to use "Calc time" with time from step 1 (this will result in an XSVCD).
b. Choose "Decode with Quicktime" in the mpeg2enc options (you must have the QuickTimeMPEG2.component).
c. On the MPEG-1/2 post-processing tab, check only "Author as SVCD (XA .img)" for burning with Toast.


5. Burn two resulting .img files with Toast (1, 2).

6. If title is longer than 40 minutes, return to step one and continue with subsequent chapters (in 40 min. chunks).

7. Decide if this is worth the effort (i.e. just dump to VHS instead).

[rack]

Well... I *thought* I had a functional recipe.

I used the above steps and disk one of a two SVCD set was perfect. Disk two was a half-second out of sync. It appears to have occured in the muxing step. I give up. It's just too much blasted work.

I think something like DVD2One is the way to go. That, or just dubbing to VHS.

[major]

If the sound is consistently half-second late throughout all the movie, just enter "500" as Sync value in the options tab, then mux.

[rack]

I know I could adjust the sync by 500 ms, but then there'll just be some other issue. It's just too much of a pain in the ass. Life is too short.