MPEG-2 to MPEG-1

[MichaelLAX]

I am looking for a reliable way to transcode some of my ReplayTV MPEG-2 files down to MPEG-1 so that I can burn them as VCDs.

I have been unable to install Media Pipe for MacReplayTV. I have had poor results with ffmpegx.

Any ideas?

[weraspamyfamily@aol.com]

Try getting Quicktime Pro w/ MPEG 2 Playback as well. Open your MPEG2 file in quicktime, then export to MPEG by choosing : Movie to Toast Video CD. Next, demux the mpeg2 file, then mux the AUDIO (.mp2) & the newly created mpg file from quicktime, and that should do it! Hope this helps.

[MichaelLAX]

Two Questions:

1) How do I demux and mux? I was hoping to avoid those steps...

2) I thought that Quicktime does not convert MPEG-x to MPEG-x very well; it drops the audio...

I have QT Pro and MPEG-2 add-on, so if this will work, I am very interested.

I am very happy with the MPEG-2 ReplayTV files to DVDs that I create, but just need to plug the hole for these files to VCDs.

Thanks...

[bilestyle]

Try getting Quicktime Pro w/ MPEG 2 Playback as well. Open your MPEG2 file in quicktime, then export to MPEG by choosing : Movie to Toast Video CD. Next, demux the mpeg2 file, then mux the AUDIO (.mp2) & the newly created mpg file from quicktime, and that should do it! Hope this helps.

i dont believe that the mpeg-2 decoder works with toast video cd.. i think i tried it a few times b4 and it exports but you get no video....

try ffmpegx or mediapipe

[galactica]

what kind of "results" do you get with ffmpegx?
I always do my mpeg2 to mpeg1 with ffmpegx, it always works nicely.

I do demux the audio and video (so that i only have to transcode the video alone - maybe its just me but i dont think the audio should be there during a movie only transcoding) Once that is done, the video looks as good as mpeg1 can look, remux the audio and off I go.

whats the problem you are having with ffmpegx?

[bilestyle]

i never said i had any problem w/ ffmpegx... but then again i seldom convert from mpeg-2 to mpeg-1 b/c i have a superdrive.. and thats a HUGE quality decrease.. and plus even if i didnt have a superdrive i would still burn mpeg-2 as svcd....

[galactica]

i never said i had any problem w/ ffmpegx... but then again i seldom convert from mpeg-2 to mpeg-1 b/c i have a superdrive.. and thats a HUGE quality decrease.. and plus even if i didnt have a superdrive i would still burn mpeg-2 as svcd....

my apologies bilestyle. I was actually asking the MichaelLAX what his problems were with ffmpegx.

again, my apologies.

[MichaelLAX]

Looks like Bile answered the wrong question, almost hijacked my topic and got a double apology to boot...

In any event, I am on the road, and I don't have any of my small, sample MPEG-2 files to do a test of ffmpegx. However I do have a 30 minute telecast that is about 800MB+ at MPEG-2. If I have time later, Gallactica, I will do another ffmpegx and report its results for your analysis.

Thanks for the offer, Michael

[MichaelLAX]

OK, I'm home, I made a sample 7 minute ReplayTV MPEG-2 segment and I will start to report my results and error messages from ffmpegx...

First attempt [with some personal info obscured]:

Using the VCD (NTSC) default settings; ffmpegx selects mpeg2enc mode.
I "Open" the sample file.
I "Save as" "mlbvcd" in the same folder.

I select "Encode" and get the following results in the Terminal:

"Last login: Sun Jul 20 11:04:13 on ttyp1
Welcome to Darwin!
pbpaste | sh
[Michael-XXXXXs-Computer:~] michaels_XX_XX% pbpaste | sh
Encoding started on Sun Jul 20 11:04:19 PDT 2003
INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler (version 1.7.0) is a general scaling utility for yuv frames
INFO: [yuvscaler] (C) 2001-2002 Xavier Biquard <xbiquard@free.fr>
INFO: [yuvscaler] yuvscaler -h for help, or man yuvscaler
Input #0, mpeg, from '/Users/michaels_XX_XX/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/MLB Baseball - Home Run Derby.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpegvideo, 720x480, 29.97 fps, 7413 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Output #0, yuv4mpegpipe, to 'pipe:':
Stream #0.0: Video: rawvideo, yuv420p, 352x240, 29.97 fps, q=2-31, 200 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Press [q] to stop encoding
**ERROR: [mpeg2enc] pel_aspect_ratio must be between 1 and 14 (MPEG-1)
[Michael-Lauers-Computer:~] michaels_XX_XX"


FYI: In the VCD quick preselect, the aspect ratio selected in "autosize" is VCD NTSC. Video Size is 352 X 240.

[MichaelLAX]

OK: using the same default settings for VCD in ffmpegx, but just changing the engine ("video codec") to: "ffmpeg," the Terminal reports:

"Last login: Sun Jul 20 11:20:01 on ttyp1
pbpaste | sh
Welcome to Darwin!
[Michael-XXXXXs-Computer:~] michaels_xx_xx% pbpaste | sh
Encoding started on Sun Jul 20 11:20:03 PDT 2003
Input #0, mpeg, from '/Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/MLB Baseball - Home Run Derby.mpg':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpegvideo, 720x480, 29.97 fps, 7413 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 48000 Hz, stereo, 192 kb/s
Output #0, vcd, to '/Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/mlbvcd':
Stream #0.0: Video: mpeg1video, 352x240, 2145.34 fps, q=2-15, 1150 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: mp2, 44100 Hz, stereo, 224 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
Press [q] to stop encoding
frame=11767 q=15.0 size= 19246kB time=5.5 bitrate=28744.3kbits/s
bench: utime=296.200s
Size of Fix: 0x2450
now reapplying junk-header ....
Now processing /Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/mlbvcd [1/2] ...
now reapplying junk-header ....
Now processing /Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/mlbvcd [2/2] ...
-------Done--------
(Super) VideoCD xml description created successfully as `/Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/mlbvcd.1.xml'
++ WARN: initializing libvcd 0.7.12 [darwin5.2/powerpc]
++ WARN:
++ WARN: this is the UNSTABLE development branch!
++ WARN: use only if you know what you are doing
++ WARN: see http://www.hvrlab.org/~hvr/vcdimager/ for more information
++ WARN:
(Super) VideoCD xml description created successfully as `/Users/michaels_xx_xx/Documents/DVArchive/Local_Guide/mlbvcd.2.xml'
++ WARN: initializing libvcd 0.7.12 [darwin5.2/powerpc]
++ WARN:
++ WARN: this is the UNSTABLE development branch!
++ WARN: use only if you know what you are doing
++ WARN: see http://www.hvrlab.org/~hvr/vcdimager/ for more information
++ WARN:
++ WARN: mpeg stream will be padded on the fly -- hope that's ok for you!
++ WARN: autopadding requires to insert additional 1493 zero bytes into MPEG stream (due to 1 unaligned packets of 4119 total)
Encoding completed on Sun Jul 20 11:26:49 PDT 2003

[Michael-XXXXXs-Computer:~] michaels_xx_xx%"

Now the result is the following files - the original MPEG-2 file was 182.7 MB (I guess the default split the program into two since most VCDs are of content that are about 2 hours in length; I noticed this setting, but did not want to change any defaults other than the Video Codec):

mlbvcd 18.8MB generic icon
mlbvcd-1.mpg 9.6MB QuickTime icon
mlbvcd-2.mpg 9.1MB QuickTime icon
mlbvcd.1.bin 11.3MB Stuffit icon
mlbvcd.1.cue 4KB generic icon
mlbvcd.2.bin 10.7MB Stuffit icon
mlbvcd.2.cue 4KB generic icon


The ".mpg" files open in QuickTime, but the first one's video freezes almost immediately while the audio continues. The second one has a brief burst of video and audio, and then the video and audio freezes.

When I attempt to import any of the these files into Toast to burn a VCD, Toast will only accept the ".bin" files. When I tried to drop the other files, including the ".mpg" files, into Toast, it reported: " 'mlbvicd-1.mpg' cannot be used to create a Video CD. Please use the 'Video CD' option in your MPEG encoder/multiplexer."

To save time and CDs, I then used Toast to great VCD disk images of the two ".bin" files and then used Toast to mount them one at a time. Using MacVCDX to play the resulting mounted images, gives me the same results as QuickTime: 1st one, frozen video with audio playing; 2nd one, frozen video and audio.

I tried the trick to modify ReplayTV MPEG-2s to import into PixeDV, but the results were the same; and even though I set it for only one CD, it still split it into 2 files.

[ZeroSix]

It sounds like a few different thing. 1) You might need to re-install your ffmpegX engines. I beleive that the newest version requires it anyway. 2) You should try using VLC to playback ffmpeg encoded MPEG files. I get the same problem using MacVCDX and Quicktime to playback those files. Those encoded with mpeg2enc, however are just fine.

If you are only using the MacVCDX Program, have you considered getting the Apple MPEG2 Playback component? This will enable SVCD playback on your Mac using MacVCDX and you will not have to transcode your files.

There is a very simple way to convert your MPEG 2 files to MPEG-1 files using the Toast VCD component [which ensures the highest compatibility with ALL Mac OS programs] and the terminal.

First you need to convert your MPEG file into a Divx® .avi. You must have Mplayer and Mencoder installed [most people do, but if not, go to http://mplayerosx.sf.net].

In the terminal type:

mencoder -ovc lavc -oac pcm /path/to/input.mpg -o /path/to/output.avi

Alternatively, to specifiy the input file, you can just drag your MPEG file to ther terminal window.

What this will do is generate a .AVI file that uses the lavc video library, which encodes very quickly and at a very high quality and use PCM for the sound, which is uncompressed. Your resulting .AVI should be about the same file size as the original MPEG.

Open that .AVI in Quicktime and export it to TOAST VCD.

You will have no problems with the audio, as found in other Divx® movies, and you will have no sync issues.

This method is highly recommended for compatibility reasons.

Hope this helps.

-Ø6

[galactica]

I agree with ZeroSix

if you have mpeg2 playback component you can open your .mpeg2 file directly into quicktime and export as mepg1 with toast vcd export

i have done his termainal method also before and that worked well.

Im not sure why your getting results like you are with ffmpegx. I can forward this to major if you want, but try either of the quickitme or terminal methods first and see if that works

[MichaelLAX]

Thanks to both zerosix and Galactica for their replies...

Perhaps my original post was a bit ambiguous. The end product I seek is a burned VCD that I can play on stand-alone DVD Players, not viewing on my Mac.

I do have the MPEG2 component and QTPro. I was under the impression that QT was not a reliable means of importing and then exporting MPEG files (I was told that either the audio, or the video, I forget which, would be lost). If I can just open the MPEG-2 into QTPro and Export a Toast compatible VCD MPEG-1 file, that is the trick I am looking for, and I will try it later and report back.

06: Your approach has too many steps for me; thanks...

Galactica: Yes, please forward the post, because at the end of the day I would like to know why ffmpegx is not working for me.

[galactica]

06: Your approach has too many steps for me; thanks...

you think thats a lot of steps!!
Try doing anything in dvdstudio pro or final cut pro

thats nothing!!!


i was under the assumption that only mpeg2 export looses the audio. Its been a LONG TIME since ive done anything VCD realated (i have a dvd burner) but if memory server you get a muxed mpeg file as the vcd export option with toast.

[MichaelLAX]

OK: I just tried it...

I opened the MPEG-2 file in QTPro and then went FILE to EXPORT, and selected: "MOVIE to Toast Video CD."

When I attempt to do a SAVE, I get an alert that says: "Couldn't export the movie xxxxx.mpg because there is no video track."

However the mpeg2 file plays both audio and video in the QT player....

[ZeroSix]

if you have mpeg2 playback component you can open your .mpeg2 file directly into quicktime and export as mepg1 with toast vcd export

You cannot export MPEG2 to MPEG1 in quicktime no matter what components you have. You will always get the error about the video track not being present. You could do this in Final Cut Pro [which reqires rendering the source footage -- very time consuming and disk space consuming] and then export to Toast VCD, but never in quicktime alone.

The method of converting the file to a Divx® .avi in the terminal is as easy as 1, 2, 3. There are only three steps.

1) use command in the terminal
2) open resulting .avi in Quicktime
3) export using toast VCD.

It really is quite easy and it will produce the results you are looking for with zero compatibility issues.

:P

[bilestyle]

i think the reason you may have had a problem with ffmpeg is because you used ffmpeg to convert from mpeg-2 to mpeg-1, sometimes that causes some bizarre skipping problems.. if you use the following settings for MPEG-2 to MPEG-1 (i just did a few tests and this worked fine for all of them)

video tab

video parameters:

video codec: MPEG1 [.MPG] (mpeg2enc0)
autosize: vcd NTSC
framerate: NTSC (29.97)

audio tab

audio parameters:

sampling: 44100 hz

tools tab

mpeg-1/2 post-processing:

author as VCD (optional, if you want bin/cue files)

---
thas it