DVD Shrink for VCDs??? Question for the experts.

[n8wheel]

Alright, I recently bought a DVD burner and my days of struggling with VCDs are over. But one lingering question bothers me.

If DVD Shrink (or similar type program) can compress a 2-layer DVD from 100% original size to 60% original in 30 minutes with no appreciable loss of quality...

why can't the same be done with VCDs?

I used to capture VHS to MPEG-2 6Mbs, then TMPGenc down to MPEG-1 vbr around 2300 kbs. The whole process would take hours and there was no way to assure that the final product would optimally fill the VCD.

Why did no one ever create a simple program to take that MPEG-2 file and ACCURATELY downsize it to VCD size?

Are there tremendoes technical hurdles that I am not aware of?

[bugster]

The technical hurdles of what you suggest should be no more than what Dvdshrink (and others) achieve. However, 2 or 3 years ago, many VCD enthusiasts would capture to huffy or mjpeg avi and encode to mpeg-1 from there. Few people would capture direct to mpeg-2 as the quality of real-time software mpeg-2 encoders was too poor and HW encoders too expensive.

Basically, too few people would have a need for such a program to make it worthwhile producing one.

[bottle-necked]

used to capture VHS to MPEG-2 6Mbs, then TMPGenc down to MPEG-1 vbr around 2300 kbs. The whole process would take hours and there was no way to assure that the final product would optimally fill the VCD.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't VCD 1150 CBR? A standard VCD is about 65 minutes for 700MB CDR. That looks pretty cut and dry to me.

What I don't understand is why you would first capture to MPEG2 6MB then convert to a non-standard MPEG1, then probably try to create a VCD, which any authorizing program would convert this again to legal VCD.(?) Doesn't that loose about all your initial quality?

Why not just capture to MPEG1 'legal VCD' then authorize the video. You already know that 60-65 minutes is what it takes to fill a CDR.

I'm lost I guess. I just don't understand.

[wulf109]

I have used DVD Shrink and DVD2ONE to create SVCD's. It involves demuxing,converting the audio to mp2,and then muxing. The results are excellent but the high bitrate that results may be a problem for some DVD players.