Converting AVI file to VCD/SVCD?

[VWguy]

Hi,

I recently downloaded a DVDrip of the movie Spiderman.

The zip contained a "CD1" file and a "CD2" file, both of which were AVI files.

I'm having problems figuring out how to burn them to VCD/SVCD.

Each file is approximately 715mb, which means they can't be burned directly to CD.

I converted one of the files to an "SVCD mpeg" and it came out to be almost 1.5gb. So THAT won't fit either.

I tried letting Nero convert the file itself and I lost a LOT of quality and I also lost the widescreen setting - everything was squished.

I'd prefer to keep this movie to two disks if possible.

Any suggestions?

Let me know if I've left anything out!

Thanks.

[Guyver]

Your best bet is using DVD2SVCD which is also capable of converting AVI's to SVCD, VCD or CVD.

You can grab it and a guide on how to use it from Doom9's site.
I would advise you to create a CVD however instead off a SVCD if your player can handle the format since you want to keep the movie on only two discs. (CVD = SVCD with 352x480/576 instead of 480x480/576)

[mats.hogberg]

Never let Nero do anything except burn stuff on a CD.

• Check the lengths of the 2 AVIs.
  Take the largest value (in hours, minutes and seconds) and use this in a bitrate calculator set for VCD calculations, and (depending on calculator) set it to 1 CD of your prefered size/836117100 bytes/816521 kB/797 MB
  Somewhere, you'll now see the bitrate that lets you fit a movie of this length onto this CD. You can trade video bitrate for audio bitrate, but don't go below 128 kbps for audio as it wont sound good.
  Start TMPGEnc, and cancel the wizard.
  Select your AVI as video source. TMPGEnc will automatically select the same AVI as audio source (if it's able to read the audio info - if not, you're in for some more advanced editing, like extracting the audio to WAV first).
  Click on settings.
  On the video tab, set width to 352, height to 288/240 (PAL/NTSC)
  Stream type MPEG-1 Video
  Frame rate 25/23.976 (PAL/NTSC)
  Aspect Ratio 1:1
  Rate control mode CBR
  Bitrate: Enter value from bitrate calculator
  Motion search precision: Your choice - the better, the longer encoding time.
  Audio tab: Stream type MPEG 1 layer II, bitrate as per bitrate calc value
  System tab MPEG-1 Video-CD (non-standard)

I've probably forgotten some settings, but these are the most important. This will squish the wide screen into a 4:3 format, but if you select 16:9 on your wide screen TV, it will hopefully take on the correct proportions (if it was 16:9 in the first place).

This will give you a start at creating as good end results as possible. When it comes to bitrate, don't go below 1000 kbps video using this method - it will not look good, and not below 128 kbps audio. (These values are of subjective nature - what's acceptable in one persons eyes/ears is horrible in the others - I'm not going to argue about it)
If it still wont fit on a 80 min CD, try a 90 (or even 99 if your system can handle it) min.
If that still wont do, you simply have to split the movie over more CD's.

If you're still with me - There's no "point-and-click" way to achieving great results - as true for VCD's as anything else.
/Mats
PS! I converted Spiderman to 2 XVCD's myself, and it looks OK (but not excellent) split on 2 80 min CD's DS

[VWguy]

I've probably forgotten some settings, but these are the most important. This will squish the wide screen into a 4:3 format, but if you select 16:9 on your wide screen TV, it will hopefully take on the correct proportions (if it was 16:9 in the first place).

Ok. What if the original AVI is widescreen (16:9) and I want to maintain the 16:9 aspect ratio through the conversion... is it possible?

If you're still with me - There's no "point-and-click" way to achieving great results - as true for VCD's as anything else.

Yep, I followed it perfectly. I have a decent amount of knowledge, I've converted a bunch of stuff already, but these AVIs had me stumped.

So, what's my best bet here for maintaining an optimum amount of quality from the original, yet staying on two disks? XVCD? CVD? VCD?

Thanks.

[Guyver]

I've converted the movie to CVD myself(2 cd's) and it looks pretty good

xvcd at regulair vcd resolution will also give you very good quality because of the extra bitrate you'll give it compared to normal VCD.

[DJRumpy]

I converted this one to DVD a month ago. I'm assuming you've got the same DivX rip. The easiest method, when you get these in multiple parts, is to first rejoin them into one. Use VirtualDub to do this.
In VDub, set both Audio, and Video to direct stream copy.

FILE | OPEN Select the first part of your movie
FILE | APPEND AVI SEGMENT select your second part
FILE | SAVE AVI

This will give you a complete movie, which is easier to work on, and easier to split later on.

Your audio may be a bit screwed up from this. Use FILE | SAVE AS WAV. Save it either as a .WAV, or you can just give it the proper extension right there (My Spiderman rip had .AC3 sound). If it's AC3, use AC3Fix.exe to repair it. For some reason, VDub causes a corrupt frame problem when extracting AC3 sound this way. You'll get Sync problems if you skip this step.

Encode your movie using the encoder and templates of your choice, and convert your audio to the format of your choice. Multiplex them using MPEG tools in TMPGenc. Split to the necessary number of disks.