I've found good settings for TMPGEnc DVD Author

[LisaB]

1. Patch your files to 720, not 352 -- do first header only

If you patch to 720, then you only need to do the first header -- patching to 352 requires full file, else DVD Author will crash when you try to add chapters....However, SVCD2DVDMPG is not reliable at patching full file, so stick to just first header and 720.

2. Use elementary streams output, not mpg output

There's no need to waste time with remultiplexing. When you add the video stream in DVD Author, it will automatically find the corresponding audio stream.

3. When you're setting thumbnails in the menu creation, just click on the "choose file" button...then browse to the *original* mpg (assuming you were converting from mpg and not bin). This way you can have nice, undistorted thumbnails.

4. After making the DVD folder, you only need to re-patch the *first* header in each VOB to 480 width (for SVCD's of course). I assume you can do this with SVCD2DVDMPG, but I just used DVDPatcher, since it was quick enough.

If anyone else out there has discovered any good tips for using DVD Author, please post your findings! I am hoping that eventually more menu templates will be made available for this fine program...it is the limited menu creation that is my biggest peeve with DVD Author.

Happy authoring!

[TapeWurm]

Thanks for the info! Author is a great little program and I really want to use it for my DVD authoring. It's simple but very effective for creating menus and such. My only problem is that it is not at all flexible with a few simple things that would make it great. For example, I want to add a custom start menu or grafic to all my ripped/burned DVDs. I can import the files with DVD author and then set a background pic of my choosing. But no matter what template I use, it ALWAYS has one of it's buttons in a bad place on my picture. Like the Play button is right in the middle of a key part of the pic, or what not. If only Author would allow you to drag the play or chapter buttons to different locations instead of being fixed where the template designates. Sure, you can use a template that's not so obtrusive, but it's still not exactly where I need it. Is there anyway to move the buttons around? Or possibly edit the template files? Or has anyone seen additional templates to download? My ideal template would only have a background that I choose and a play button only. Any help???

[CoolB]

I havn't tried this yet but if it's true that you do not have to re-multiplex your files before adding to TMPG Author, then it just might be easier to just use the non + version of svcd2dvdmpeg. Output your mpv and mpa files and then just add your video stream to Author and aperently it will find your audio stream? and then make your menus and chapters, ba-da-bing, ba-da-boom, output and burn!!

any one finds any easier ways to convert svcd to dvd please e-mail me. coolb70@hotmail.com

Nice program Chrissyboy, but at over $40 canadian and not being able to do all I want yet, I am going to have to wait and see what upgrades you come out with.

[CoolB]

ok, it worked, no need to re-multiplex your files with tmpgenc plus or other programs, tmpg dvd author will work with the mpv and mpa files. ok below are my detailed instructions for svcd to dvd convert, I have put a lot of work into this, if you can find a faster, easier and as reliable way, please let me know.

The way that has worked for me best so far is to rip from cd using isobuster then I use use the non+ version of svcd2dvdmpeg, followed authoring them with tmpg dvd author and I burn with nero 6 as dvd-video. I burn 6 svcd disks onto one dvd-+r/rw but this takes a little extra work.

Full and detailed directions ripped from disk. for one full svcd at a time (example, I have 6 svcd disks on one dvd, 4 are lord of the rings, 2 are tomb raider, example being do steps 1 to 3*** for lord of the rings first, then another time for tomb raider, create your final mpg's of each for tmpg author then you can combine them all into tmpg dvd author for your final steps. I hope this will make more sense as I go along, it's really not that hard once you understand it.

Software used, isobuster, svcd2dvdmpg, tmpg dvd author, nero burning rom ultra 6 and sometimes dvd-shrink.


1. Iso buster to rip the avseq01.mpg, right click on the .mpg and choose extract but filter only m2f2 mpeg frames. Repeat for as many svcd disks there are for the movie, and rename then for example to avseq01, 02, 03 ect... and move the mpg files to one folder together. Repeat if you plan on putting another movie on the dvd disk, and put those mpg files in thier own folder also.


2. Use svcd2dvdmpeg and direct the working dir to one folder containing all of your extracted .mpg files. make sure svcd is checked, in/out must be as mpg->es, horizontal res patch at 352 and 1st header, file suffixes are default and audio encoder to besweet, then start, it will output a .mpv and .mpa file to the same working dir for each mpg file within the folder. This process may take a while depending on how fast your comp is and how many files you are encoding at once in svcd2dvdmpg.


3. Open tmpg author and create new project>add file and direct it to your newly made .mpv file(s) for your first movie, adding each cd one at a time. After that is complete on the left of the screen you will see a blue link to add new track, click this and then add your next movie .mpv files, repeat this process if you are going to add more movies. When you have added all your movies, continue on to make menus(easy) and click output. The final output may seem too big to burn after this, but dvdshrink can fix this problem.


4. Burn with Nero(only tested with nero 6) or if too big for a standard dvd media then shrink with dvdshrink.
(a)burning with nero 6, just choose dvd-video, add the files you created with tmpgenc author to the video ts folder, audio ts will be empty, then burn and wait, very easy.
(b)if output is too big to burn then open dvdshrink and click open files and direct it to your folder containing your outputted files from tmpg author, choose the top .ifo file, if there are more they will be auto loaded. from here you will have the choice to change compression levels(witch I have noticed doesn't really affect quality much if any) and you may also have some old menus you could also remove, fiddle until the status bar is green and grey, then backup to where ever you wish to save the files. Once done, go back to 4(a) and follow instructions.


I made these instructions as detailed as possible so I would hopefully not miss anything. It really isn't a hard process though it can be a bit timely(maybe as much as a few hours, but it has yet to take me that long). Feel free to e-mail me back if you have any questions, coolb70@hotmail.com

Cheers and good burning!!!!
CoolB

[CoolB]

Second paragraph corrected:

Full and detailed directions ripped from disk. for one full svcd at a time (example, I have 6 svcd disks on one dvd, 4 are lord of the rings, 2 are tomb raider, example being do steps 1 and 2 for lord of the rings first, then another time for tomb raider, create your final .mpv's of each for tmpg author then you can combine them all into tmpg dvd author for your final steps. I hope this will make more sense as I go along, it's really not that hard once you understand it.

sry all, it had a few mistakes in it.

[LisaB]

coolB,

apparently you haven't been taking advantage of Author's ability to edit, cut, and/or add chapters. This is especially useful when your multi-part movies have "overlap"...you can edit out the overlap so your movie is seamless.

When you load a new source file, there is a tab for "chapter cut edit"

I like to add chapters every 5 minutes, it makes it easy to preview...

However, Author will crash if you patch to 352, and then try to add chapters (or edit or cut)....patch to 720 instead.

Also, I notice you don't repatch back to 480. Maybe your DVD player is okay with that, but many DVD players aren't, so don't be surprised if your DVD's don't work in other people's players.

The new version of author has a built in burning engine. It is fast, simple, and straightforward. I prefer it to Nero...you can burn your folder with fewer mouse clicks....

Good call on ISOBuster. It seems to be the fastest and most reliable at extracting the SVCD's.

Next, I'm going to try DVD-Lab. It accepts the SVCD resolution, so no patching needed. It will extract the source files from CD, so maybe ISOBuster is no longer needed. And it has much more flexible menus....well, all this is what I have "heard"!

[CoolB]

Thanks LisaB,

When repatching back to 480, do you mean the finalized vob files?? I havn't patched anything back to 480 and they all have played on a number of players so far, maybe I'm lucky. One thing I do notice is that most of my outputted vob files dont liek to play very well on my pc, but beautifull on both my dvd's, apex and jvc.

Your right tho, I havn't been using chapters or editing with dvd author, so far I am not intrested in any further editing, but I would like to start adding chapters, thanks for your advice. I will do some playing any find out what works best for me. I did try a burn once with the built in burning software but it didn't play on either of my dvd's and nero 6 as dvd-video is very easy and works fine for me so far, no bad disks yet.

As far as dvd-lab, I have tried it also before svcd2dvdmpeg. Unfortunatly it was only a 30 day trial, but I believe was the full software. Either way I could not get it to work for the life of me. I tied d/led svcd's, svcd's ripped of cd and both kinds patched also. I tried everything I could think of and it just kept stopping me. Even when I patched it, there were still errors I could not get by later on. Please let me know if you can get it to work and how you did it? It also seems like it could be a valuable tool if it worked right.

Cheers
CooB