VCD/SVCD to DVD

[Beelzebub]

Hi guys I have been following this guide to convert my svcd movies to dvd http://www.dvd-guides.com/guides.php?category=othertodvd&name=tmpegencvcdtodvd but every once in a while the second part of a movie seems to go out of sync what could be causing it to go out of sync?

[ChrissyBoy]

I suspect the "Open sequence files as a movie option" ultimatly joins the source mpgs to one big mpg. I would not join the mpgs as this may lead to AV sync. Instead let your authoring software join them or even split them over multiple titlesets.

[Capmaster]

VCD is MPEG-1. MPEG uses time stamps in the file called PTS values. Some editing apps are what's called "frame accurate" and preserve the timing by only editing at certain points, like for example, the "I" frame.

Others will cut anywhere. Same with conversion programs. Some are sloppier than others when it comes to preserving certain aspects of the original.

Converting from MPEG-1 to MPEG-2 means your resolution will change, your bitrates will change, and the whole compression algorithm will be different. You may or may not be going from CBR to VBR. The only way it could be more "worst-case" is if you were also changing from PAL to NTSC. There's 3:2:2 pulldown, dropping frames and fields, interpolating fields and frames, inverting field order ....the list goes on.

My point is that there are many places where errors can creep in. The longer the video, the better the chance the error will develop into something that's unacceptable. This is especially true when editing or converting MPEG. It's also the reason many members prefer to do all their editing in .AVI and only convert to MPEG just prior to authoring the DVD.

My advice is to do a forum search here for threads on sync issues and see which software apps are being recommended. There are several that are cheap or even free

[reboot]

every once in a while the second part of a movie seems to go out of sync

Do you mean the original is in two parts (on two (or more) disks)?
If so, I would let your authoring app do the joining, and not attempt it with something else.
You could join them with something like Womble, but you still may end up with audio out of sync.

[Beelzebub]

every once in a while the second part of a movie seems to go out of sync

Do you mean the original is in two parts (on two (or more) disks)?
If so, I would let your authoring app do the joining, and not attempt it with something else.
You could join them with something like Womble, but you still may end up with audio out of sync.

Thanks for the replies guys... Yeah svcd are split so I use to label cd 1 Video1.mpg and Video2.mpg like it says in that tuttorial and durring the conversion it would merge them but I have noticed some movies on the second part which would had been CD2 go out of sync, So I should just convert 1 by one then let TMPGenc authoring software take care of joining the movies? Also when I'm about to convert if I do one by one instead of letting the conversion merge them where it ask how much of they dvd I want to use would I use like 50% instead of 99.00%? Because if I do each conversion 1 by 1 of the mpg files when its done with it and I let it take 99.99% of disk space they will be about 4gigs each so I'm guessing I would give them 50% each instead?

[reboot]

Exactly. Unless you have some superior editing software (Sony SoundForge with mpeg plugin) to get the audio/video all in sync, just encode separately, and join in tmpgenc DVD Author (or whatever you author with).
I do about 90% of my work with two part files. (Don't ask why, ok?) and joining has always been an issue. I have had some success with joining avi in virtualdub, but the output is not consistent. Even frameserving doesn't solve it. Joining mpegs CAN work, if you use something like Womble. You can then load the product into Goldwave and use timewarp to get it in sync (if you have such software, and know how to use it).
In the end, I encode each video separately, rip audio, transcode to 48khz AC3, then import into dvdlab to author and burn. I have had far better success with audio sync using AC3 than PCM or some VBR .MPx

Edit to answer YOUR edit: Use the bitrate calculator. Input the total time of both parts, leave about 5% for authoring overhead, and you will know the approximate bitrate to encode at. I would start at about 47%.

[Beelzebub]

Great reply thanks by the way I use TMPGenc Authoring software is there something better you recommend? I'm happy with that one but if theres something you recommend that's better I'm willing to look into it! Thanks again!

[reboot]

DVDLab.
MUCH better, in just about every way imaginable.
www.mediachance.com

[MysticE]

I've always had problems joining with TMPGenc almost always sync problems on the second part... gave up.

VCDGear is a great program for fixing mpeg's and extracting from bin/cue files. I then stack them in MainConcept for the final conversion and merge. The results are quite nice.