Multiple VCDs in one DVD

[vid_n000b]

Hello guys!

Not sure if this is posted before here or not. Is there a way to burn multiple VCDs in one blank DVD and be able to play it in a DVD player? For example, i have 4 movies in VCDs (2 VCDs each movie) and i want to burn them as VCD in one DVD and be able to play in the DVD player.

Any help would be highly appreciated

Regards

[CogoSWSDS]

You will have to convert the audio from 44.1kHz to 48kHz, and re-author as a DVD, but yes, it can be done. 352x240 MPEG-1 is a valid DVD resolution.

CogoSWSDS

[vid_n000b]

You will have to convert the audio from 44.1kHz to 48kHz, and re-author as a DVD, but yes, it can be done. 352x240 MPEG-1 is a valid DVD resolution.

CogoSWSDS

Thanks for your reply CogoSWSDS. Can you suggest the tools/guide which does this for me ?

[MOVIEGEEK]

Use IsoBuster to rip:
https://forum.videohelp.com/topic141726.html

Freeware:
DVDFlick

Payware:
TDA
NVE
Ulead DVD MovieFactory

[sikoone]

You have GOT to try Svcd2dvd. It will do all of the steps for you and it will do it very very fast. It will let you create a menu and to put it bluntly, the program is amazing at what it does. It's not free but it will be/was money well spent. Try the demo, you won't regret it.

[wulf109]

Tmpeg Author wil do it. Just load the dat files and it will convert the audio and create burnable DVD files.

[vid_n000b]

Thanks guys for the reply. This may be a dumb question to you guys. My real concern is "Can i create one DVD from 4 VCD movies ?" In other words, If the 4 movies take 10-12 hrs to complete can i burn them in one DVD ?

[sikoone]

Thanks guys for the reply. This may be a dumb question to you guys. My real concern is "Can i create one DVD from 4 VCD movies ?" In other words, If the 4 movies take 10-12 hrs to complete can i burn them in one DVD ?

With Svcd2dvd i've taken 4 separate movies and combined them onto 1 dvd. The total playback time of the movies was probably 6-8 hrs. You can probably fit more but then the quality will really suffer. As far as time to complete the project on a 2.5 p4, it took maybe 45 min to a hour. The reason it's so fast is the program only converts the audio to a compliant file, if i'm correct. It patches the vcd files so that the dvd players believe it to be the correct resolution for a compliant dvd. Trust me, try the program you won't regret it.

[jman98]

Thanks guys for the reply. This may be a dumb question to you guys. My real concern is "Can i create one DVD from 4 VCD movies ?" In other words, If the 4 movies take 10-12 hrs to complete can i burn them in one DVD ?

According to my bitrate calculator, you can get 440 minutes (7 hours and 20 minutes for those too lazy to do the math) of VCD video on a single layer DVD disc. So you could potentially put 4 VCD movies on a single DVD disc. You don't need to convert the video at all, you just need something that will let you author a DVD from it like TDA or DVDLab Pro or even Scenarist. You do have to convert the audio though.

I've done this a few times and it's a royal pain. If you think you'll do this a lot and you have problems (long story, but I've often had weird video problems when trying to author the DVDs) I agree that SVCD2DVD is well worth the money.

[AlanHK]

Thanks guys for the reply. This may be a dumb question to you guys. My real concern is "Can i create one DVD from 4 VCD movies ?" In other words, If the 4 movies take 10-12 hrs to complete can i burn them in one DVD ?

Not quite.

When you convert a VCD video to DVD format, the video is unchanged, the audio is resampled.
So the file size is exactly the same.

VCD video files come to close to 10 MB/minute. So a VCD, using a 700 MB CDR, can hold about 70 minutes.
A DVD can hold about 4.6 GB; thus about 460 minutes VCD video, almost 8 hours.

see https://www.videohelp.com/vcd

If you have TV episode VCDs, each about 45 minutes, you can comfortably fit 10 per DVD. The quality is exactly the same.

You can use the old free version of SVCD2DVDMPG to convert VCD video to DVD. Reauthor with, eg, GuiforDVDAuthor.
Don't use authoring apps that try to convert the MPEG1 to MPEG2. It will take a long time and give lower quality.

[mats.hogberg]

If the 4 movies take 10-12 hrs to complete can i burn them in one DVD ?

On a dual layer DVD-R yes. On a single layer no.

/Mats

[ricardouk]

Since most of the players will playback mpg videos just burned on dvd my advice is to extract the videos with isobuster and burn the videos "as they are" on a dvd with imgburn.

Most dvd players will show a very simple menu where you can choose the videos.

i dont see why the need to resample the audio, yeah its dvd compliant but 99% of dvd players play vcd(44100)

just extract and burn them, no need to turn something easy in something complicated.

[AlanHK]

i dont see why the need to resample the audio, yeah its dvd compliant but 99% of dvd players play vcd(44100) just extract and burn them, no need to turn something easy in something complicated.

Because audio resampling is a one-click operation and takes a few minutes. Then I can use a normal DVD authoring app and make menus, set chapter points.

If I just drop the unmodified VCD mpegs, I get a plain file listing as a menu; the time display is wrong, no chapters, fast forward is limited to 3x.

If these are parts of a movie I can use an MPEG editor to make them continuous.

If you don't care about any of that, why not just play the VCDs as-is.

It's worth it to me to spend the extra 10 minutes.

[ricardouk]

AlanHK you're right in some points but not that right on others (i think)

1- I for example use vcd format to convert youtube flv videos, svcd or dvd is not worth as it cant do anything to improve the quality. I use tmpgenc to convert to vcd and burn all mpg on dvd, no need to upsample the audio, or menus or chapter points.

Also i have a few vcd movies around a never had a limit of FW the video, if the movie on each cd is about 45 minutes, i can ffw the video very quickly on those 45 minutes.

Like i said if i had 4 vcd i would burn as they were, upon inserting the video i get a simple menu with the names of the videos, select one and thats it.

im not saying my method is the correct one, it works for me without complications.

[AlanHK]

AlanHK you're right in some points but not that right on others (i think)

It depends on the player.

When you're using a format that's out of spec, there is no way to tell if it will work at all, or what features will be supported. You may have luck and it's all good, someone else may not be able to play it at all. If you spend 5 minutes to make the conversion you get a disk that is almost guaranteed to work.

If you only care how it looks on your player, fine.

I use tmpgenc to convert to vcd and burn all mpg on dvd, no need to upsample the audio, or menus or chapter points.

Actually, if you're using TMPGenc, you can just specify 48k audio when you export it. It would take no more time than you use already.

Possibly, it may be doing that automatically.
If not click Setting/Audio/Sample frequency.
Or not, if you insist.

[jman98]

i dont see why the need to resample the audio, yeah its dvd compliant but 99% of dvd players play vcd(44100)

If you lived in the USA, you might be surprised how many players sold here don't play them. Most will, but certainly not all and nothing even close to 99%. Anyway, we talked about resampling the audio to make a compliant DVD. I don't know of any DVD authoring program that will let you use 44.1 KHz audio without re-encoding it.

Based on the followups, there is an option that ricardouk is hinting about, but not really explaining very well. IF and ONLY IF you have a standalone DVD player that can play Divx files, it should be possible to burn your VCD compliant files as is to DVDs as data discs and play them in what I call "file play mode" like you do with Divx. My old Philips DVP-642 player can do this. There is no need for conversion. You simply have a data disc that the player can play. When the video plays, the clock gets all screwy and the time codes are completely wrong, but my player can play VCD format files on DVD with no conversion if I burn them as a data discs.

[ricardouk]

It depends on the player.

When you're using a format that's out of spec, there is no way to tell if it will work at all, or what features will be supported. You may have luck and it's all good, someone else may not be able to play it at all.

true, like i said it works for me with no problems, in the last 10 years i probably bought/used 5 dvd players(toshiba,philips,denver and 2 other cheap ones i cant remeber their name) and never had a problem

Actually, if you're using TMPGenc, you can just specify 48k audio when you export it. It would take no more time than you use already.

yes its true but a few years ago i didnt know about modifying the templates, and the old ones stiil work today, but you're right.

If you lived in the USA, you might be surprised how many players sold here don't play them. Most will, but certainly not all and nothing even close to 99%.

Wasnt aware of that as i live in Pal "land".

Based on the followups, there is an option that ricardouk is hinting about, but not really explaining very well. IF and ONLY IF you have a standalone DVD player that can play Divx files, it should be possible to burn your VCD compliant files as is to DVDs as data discs and play them in what I call "file play mode"

Thats what im talking about, sorry if i wasnt more clear before, but i doesnt have to be a divx sap player, as long as it plays vcd

[mats.hogberg]

FWIW, one of my players (DivX capable) refuse to play .mpg files (doesn't list them) but if I change the extension to .vob the player picks them up and plays them without problem!

/Mats

[guns1inger]

I have a Pioneer DVDR that won't play mpg files. Must try the VOB trick on it.

[Midzuki]

ricardouk wrote:

jman98 wrote:

If you lived in the USA, you might be surprised how many players sold here don't play them. Most will, but certainly not all and nothing even close to 99%.

Wasnt aware of that as i live in Pal "land".

mats.hogberg wrote:

FWIW, one of my players (DivX capable) refuse to play .mpg files (doesn't list them) but if I change the extension to .vob the player picks them up and plays them without problem!

Very interesting. Thanks for that.

[KBeee]

FWIW, one of my players (DivX capable) refuse to play .mpg files (doesn't list them) but if I change the extension to .vob the player picks them up and plays them without problem!

/Mats

And my Samsung won't play *.mpg's unless I rename them to *.avi

[MOVIEGEEK]

Most dvd players will show a very simple menu where you can choose the videos.

i dont see why the need to resample the audio, yeah its dvd compliant but 99% of dvd players play vcd(44100)

just extract and burn them, no need to turn something easy in something complicated.

I wouldn't say most.I know Apex,Cyberhome,Philips,Mintek and OPPO support DVD-ISO.
These brands will not support DVD-ISO:Toshiba,Sony and Panasonic.
No HD player supports VCD or DVD-ISO so authoring a DVD-Video is the best way.

[jimdagys]

You said,"You can use the old free version of SVCD2DVDMPG to convert VCD video to DVD. Reauthor with, eg, GuiforDVDAuthor.
Don't use authoring apps that try to convert the MPEG1 to MPEG2. It will take a long time and give lower quality."
Can you briefly tell me how to use SVCD2DVDMPG to put several VCDs on a DVD? After I use SVCD2DVDMPG, do I get several mpeg1 files (corresponding to each VCD)? Can these mpeg1 files put directly into GuiforDVDAuthor to make the DVD?

[AlanHK]

Can you briefly tell me how to use SVCD2DVDMPG to put several VCDs on a DVD? After I use SVCD2DVDMPG, do I get several mpeg1 files (corresponding to each VCD)? Can these mpeg1 files put directly into GuiforDVDAuthor to make the DVD?

See https://www.videohelp.com/tools/SVCD2DVDMPG
it has links to some guides:
http://www.svcd2dvd.com/Help/GettingStarted.aspx
Baldrick's guide: https://forum.videohelp.com/topic159399.html


I'd do it slightly differently, but refer to these for details.

1) get the files off the VCD.
Use ISObuster or VCDGear (use "dat -> MPEG" setting) to get MPEG1.

Rename each mpeg file to something sensible, with the same suffix.

(You can edit these in TMPGenc or MPEG-VCR, or just use as-is.)

2) in SVCD2DVDMPG select input MPEG, and output ES (elementary streams, separate video and audio files)

Select your working folder.
Then "START".

It will process your VCD video files and produce a new set of mpv (video) and mpa (audio) files compatible with DVD format.

3) Authoring
Delete or hide away the original VCD files.
In GfD, Settings/Project/General Settings, choose either PAL or NTSC, as your VCDs.
Now select the folder where you have your newly converted files as Source folder.

You should see a list of the mpv files. Grab one of these and drop it on the menu screen (default blue) on the right.
A window should pop up listing the specs of the video and audio files.
If the mpa file has the same prefix as the mpv, it should be listed here already as the audio file. If not, click the folder button next to the audio to find and select it.
Chapters: You can't use the visual chapter editor with MPEG1, but you can edit the list of chapter times as text, or just select how many you want equally spaced.
Click "OK".

You can format the menu text (default the filename), font, colours, and change the background to an image, or video, if you want.

Add as many video files as you want. The bottom of the screen has an estimate of the total file size.

Save the project as a GFD file.

Click "Create DVD" to make the VOB fileset.

Burn, eg ImgBurn.

[jimdagys]

Thanks for the clear directions. I don't have to do this (put multiple VCDs on one DVD) now, put it is always nice to have a clear recipe that I can get quick access, in case I have to do this in future. But I am curious, what does SVCD2DVDMPG actually do? I mean, if I have several VCDs, I can extract out the mpeg1 (using, for example Isobuster as you suggested). Then, couldn't I just input the mpeg1 into TmpgEnc and select "tools" and separate the mpeg1 into video and audio, and then use Gui For DVD Author? Where is it necessary to use SVCD2DVDMPG?

[AlanHK]

Thanks for the clear directions. I don't have to do this (put multiple VCDs on one DVD) now, put it is always nice to have a clear recipe that I can get quick access, in case I have to do this in future. But I am curious, what does SVCD2DVDMPG actually do? I mean, if I have several VCDs, I can extract out the mpeg1 (using, for example Isobuster as you suggested). Then, couldn't I just input the mpeg1 into TmpgEnc and select "tools" and separate the mpeg1 into video and audio, and then use Gui For DVD Author? Where is it necessary to use SVCD2DVDMPG?

It does a few things:
1) demuxes to audio and video
2) resamples audio to DVD standard 48k. (VCD uses 44100)
3) patches the video file headers to make them more acceptable to DVD authoring apps -- GfD doesn't need this, but many other authoring apps will reject the video otherwise, as they only expect MPEG2 video.

You can do 1 & 2 in TMPGEnc if you prefer, and 3 can be omitted if you're using GfD.
Also in TMPGEnc you can edit the video, though take care as it seems to easily get out of sync.

[mats.hogberg]

TMPGEnc DVD Author will import VCD specs mpg and let you author them as Video DVD. The audio upsampling is taken care of automatically to make it DVD compliant. IMO, TDA is the easiest way to author VCD mpg as DVD.

/Mats

[AlanHK]

IMO, TDA is the easiest way to author VCD mpg as DVD.

Easy, but not free.