SVCD & DivX to DVD - many problems

[rfn]

Hi!

For some time I have tried to convert my SVCD movies to DVD and burn it with my SuperDrive. Unfortunately I always run into problems, sometimes the applications spits out erros I don't understand and other times things are just not in sync.

My source material is a movie in SVCD format, split into 3 CD's. I have joined them together with MPEGPowerTool which seems to work ok. The resulting file plays back fine in QuickTime Player and VLC and is in sync.

I have then tried to make the HexEdit trick to make my standalone DVD player believe that the files are the correct size, but with no luck. The movie is played back with what seems the correct height but with half the width so it's stretched a lot. When I burn one of the SVCD files on a CD it plays back just fine, just a little bit misaligned though.

In my last attempt I have tried to transcode the MPEG file to full DVD resolution with ffmpegX by sing the hirate DVD (PAL) preset and turning off the VOB Letterbox. That resulted in an out-of-sync DVD-movie The audio seemed to be 1/2 second out of sync all the way through so I tried to multiplex it with MissingMpegTools and delay the video with 500 ms; that helped but it's not quite there yet and it also mysteriously split the MPEG movie into two files when multiplexing them?!?

All in all it seems like the tools for doing this kind of work on Mac OS X are not quite there yet. I'm sure that they are very powerfull and the guys that make them are quite clearly very skilled, but we need easier to use tools! The biggest problem - in my eyes - is the sync issue. Why is it so hard to make movies in sync? I have previously made DivX movies on Windows and I never had sync problems, but I would like to be able to keep this on the Mac.

Does anyone have an easier way of making good DVD's out of DivX AVI's and SVCD's? If there's no easier way then I would settle with a solution that at least works!

While writing this I have just tried to make a DVD with Sizzle by using the *.m2v and *.mp2 files that ffmpegX made during the process of making the DVD. This was out of sync too, so it seems like something strange happened when the original file was demultiplexed. Any ideas?

I'll appreciate any help...

Regards,
René Frej Nielsen

[ZeroSix]

Do you have DVD Studio Pro?

[rfn]

Well, let's just say that I have access to it

[rfn]

I've been testing something again, but no real success. My problems are sync and segmentation fault.

I have 3 SVCD MPEG's which I join into one file with MPEGPowerTool. I then try to author a DVD by transcoding with ffmpegX. This _does_ give me a DVD but it's out of sync, since the audio lags behind 1/2 second.

I then tried to take the *.mv2 and *.mp2 file which ffmpegX created in the process and author them with Sizzle 0.1, but there's still the same sync error.

Then I multiplexed the two files with MissingMpegTools, selecting DVD as the target and offsetting the video 1/2 second, and soon after I got a DVD muxed and transcoded MPEG file that plays back in sync. Unfortunately it also split the file into two files. If I try to author a DVD folder with MissingMpegTools it gives me a segmentation fault but if try do it with only the second MPEG file then it works fine. Whenever the first file is involved it gives me a segmentation fault, but the file seems just fine when played back and I just muxed it as DVD!

This is insane! My starting point is a perfectly sync SVCD MPEG and now I have a perfectly sync DVD MPEG but I can't author it without loosing the sync. I have read in this forum that some had this working so it would be nice with some input which could help make the last step.