plz plz help im stupid

21st Dec 2003 05:34 #1

suki691

Guest

hi i am so confused i think my head is going to explode , all i want to do is put a 3 disk vcd/svcd onto a dvd-r i dont want menus or nothing just the film on dvdr (i dont want to improve the picture but i dont want to lose any quality either) now i thought it would be easy however i look into it and i find i have to do so many things to get this onto dvd it makes my head spin i have only just started this and am very new is there not a program that just says point me to the mpeg/mpegs and i will just transfer them to a dvd-r for u so that they play in my dvd player??.

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21st Dec 2003 11:58 #2

Callan

Member

Originally Posted by suki691

hi i am so confused i think my head is going to explode , all i want to do is put a 3 disk vcd/svcd onto a dvd-r i dont want menus or nothing just the film on dvdr (i dont want to improve the picture but i dont want to lose any quality either) now i thought it would be easy however i look into it and i find i have to do so many things to get this onto dvd it makes my head spin i have only just started this and am very new is there not a program that just says point me to the mpeg/mpegs and i will just transfer them to a dvd-r for u so that they play in my dvd player??.

Hi Suki!

Your head is going to burst for real if you want to get a proper DVD out of a set of VCDs or SVCDs without using SVCD2DVD!

Unless you buy another standalone DVD player which plays loose MPEGs in sequence, you will have to do some 'authoring' as it is called. All 'authoring' does is making it easy for any standalone DVD player to play your movie: in a way, it just makes a sort of program for the DVD player to execute according to the rules the manufacturers of DVD players have agreed on.

That is the way it is. It cannot be helped or made more simple. One needs clay and fire, and some skill, to make a pot. Magic wands are hard to come by.

First, you don't tell which OS you use. I have WinMe, and I am told that Win98SE is okay, too. And, of course, Windows XP. Don't try it with Windows 95, and I am not sure about Win98 first edition. DOS and Linux, of course, are out. I am not sure about MACs either.

I take it you have installed SVCD2DVD properly, that is, first Microsoft's Dotnetfx.exe, then SVCD2DVD. If you really want it all automated as much as possible, also install CopyToDVD.

If I understand your panicky text rightly, you have one movie recorded as VCD or SVCD, so on two to three VCDs or four to six SVCDs. You want to have it all on one DVD where it plays from start to finish without interruption, so you don't need to get up one or more times to change discs, and the quality is not made worse, as it is with most (much more expensive) authoring programs because they change the resolution and re-encode the MPEGs.

It would not be a bad idea to print out this guide so you can read it while you work.

Step 1.
Get the MPEGs off the (S)VCDs with VCDGear, naming them in sequence: 1.mpg, 2.mpg, 3.mpg, etc. If you already have them on your harddisk, rename them in the same manner. First 1.mpg, then 2.mpg, then 3.mpg.

Step 2.
Make a new Folder -preferably called something simple like 'C:\!Source' or 'D:\!Source' as the case may be- on a drive or partition with at least three times the space your MPEGs take. So if your 1 hour and 45 minute movie consists of 3 VCDs, that is probably ca. 1.5 Gb (1536 Mb) altogether. So you need a drive with, say, 5 Gb free space. If you only have one drive, it's C:\!Source and you need only 3 Gb extra free space. IF the original MPEGs are already there.

(I call it !Source, with an exclamation mark in front, so it will be at or near the top of a list and so more easily found.)

Step 3.
Move your MPEGs in sequence to this new folder. So, first 1.mpg, then 2.mpg, then 3.mpg, and so forth.

Step 4.
Start up SVCD2DVD.

Step 5.
Click Configuration -top left- and make sure everything including FFmpeg is unchecked, and there is a dot in front of bbDMUX and Mplex. Click Save at the bottom.

This is the safest, but also the slowest setup. When you have more experience and confidence, you may experiment with other settings.

Step 6.
Click on the Folder icon to the right of 'Folders-Source:' and in the window which appears navigate to C:\!Source or whatever you have called your new Folder in Step 2. Click the Folder name so it is selected.
Click OK at the bottom. C:\!Source appears in the first line after Source:, and in the second line after DVD fldr:. That's okay.

Step 7.
Make sure that under 'Output stream type' there is a dot in front of 'Author DVD Folders'. Only if you have installed CopyToDVD, you put a check mark before 'Burn' as well.

Nothing else needs to be changed here.

Step 8.
At the bottom there are Tabs. Click on the one named 'Files'.
Make sure that the MPEGs are in sequence:
1.mpg
2.mpg
3.mpg
If they are not, you have not followed the advice in Step 3. Which is a bad start, but not fatal.

Step 9.
Click on the Tab named 'Author'.
In the window on the left, click on the + in the square in front of VTS.
If you have done as told, you will see a list in sequence top to bottom:
1.mpg
2.mpg
3.mpg

If it is not in sequence, say:
2.mpg
3.mpg
1.mpg
drag the last one to the top.
If you don't get it right first time, click on Reset/Update (at the bottom of the window) and try again.

Step 10.
On the right there is a tiny empty window under 'Chapters'. Click on the small triangle to the right and choose 'Every 5 mins'. Or 'Every 15 mins'.
This is not necessary, but it may make it easier to move back and ahead when playing your DVD.

Step 11.
As you have only one movie, you don't need a Menu. So you can skip the 'Menu' Tab.
(It is a bit wasteful, though. One DVD disc can contain 4.3 Gb of stuff. So you might have two or three (S)VCD movies on it. Don't worry about this now. You can try it later. One step at a time.)

Step 12.
Just to make sure you have done everything right according to this guide, check the Tabs 'Settings' and 'Author' again.
Click on the Tab 'Log' and you get an empty window. That is as it should be.
Click Start at its bottom.

If you are not using Windows XP, you'll see a number of empty, black windows popping up one after the other. Don't worry, that is as it should be. In any case, little lines reporting progress start appearing in the empty window.

Step 13.
After a while, the whole log file will appear in Notepad, so you can save it if you so wish. If it looks incomprehensible, though, don't worry. It's for technicians, really. Close the window.

Step 14.
If CopyToDVD was installed and you have checked 'Burn' on the Settings Tab (Step 7), this program will pop up all by itself and demand that you place an empty (re)writable DVD disc into your DVD Burner.
When you've done so and closed the tray, it'll tell you when it's finished by way of a lady with a sexy voice saying: "Your CD is ready." Don't worry. It is your DVD which pops out.

The first time it is maybe safer to use a rewritable disc, just to test things out. CopyToDVD will say that it is formatting it, but that is okay as well. It is quickly done and then it starts burning in earnest. But do check out first if your DVD Player can cope with rewritables. Some can't.

If you don't have CopyToDVD installed, you will have to use your regular DVD burning program. Make sure you select a special mode called something like 'DVD-Video'. Do NOT use DATA Disc or ISO or anything else.

By the way, the VIDEO_TS folder is inside the !Source Folder.

Step 15.
Take out your DVD, making sure you hold it by the hole in the middle, and don't touch the side that it was recorded on. Stick it into your DVD Player, grab your remote and enjoy. Put on the TV first, though, if you haven't already..

If it all works as expected, you may now delete '!Source' Folder. And make a new, empty one for next time.

This is it. It does not come easier. In fact, other authoring programs would drive you stark raving mad even before you started.

I wish you success.

Callan

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21st Dec 2003 17:18 #3

freshie

Member

What a wonderful person.
I know what I'm doing in SVCD2DVD, but I don't think I could have spelled it out so eloquently, nor had the patience.

It's people like you who helped people like me when I was still a newb.

Thanks for all of us who were at one time too shy to say it.

Cheers