miniDVD Authoring.

[andyfenna]

Last night I finally got working a miniDVD with 5.1 DD with my stand alone sharp 740H. I thought I would share my experience.

First of all I had 2 divX's both where 700mb each and had 5.1 DD Sound files. So I extracted the audio using virtual dub and corrected using ac3fix to give me 2 complete ac3 files. Next needed to know what bitrate the ac3 files where so I loaded the ac3 files up in tmpgenc in mpeg tools under multiplex. This told me that the ac3 files where 384kbps or some thing like. Next I needed to know what bitrate I need to encode the divx's so that they will fit onto 1 cd-r So I loaded each divx in virtual dub to find out the length of the video each video was 42min long. So then I loaded up dvtool and clicked on bitrate calculator entered the video length selected the audio bitrate and the size of the CD in my case it was 700mb this give a a bitrate of 1813. Next I loaded up tmpgenc and selected video 1 as the video and no audio and selected (video only ES). In the setting I set the stream type to MPEG2, the framerate to 29.97, the size of the video was 720x480, the bitrate was 1813kbps and it was in NSTC. It took 1 1/2 hours to complete. Nexted I loaded up dvdlab I imported the ac3 file and the created mv2 file. I created a simple text button and assigned the button to the movie. Nexted I clicked compile DVD and when it started compiling I clicked automatically write to CD. I inserted a CD into my CD-RW and left it for 1/2 an hour came back to find my CD draw open and the movie successfully wrote. I ran downstains and turned on my amp, dvd player and TV put in the CD and it worked all in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound. So I then did the same for the second CD it that also worked.

I then started to think, what if I downloaded a xvid that is only in one part? will I have to split and convert the xvid file up in 2 using Virtual Dub AC3 Mod then extract the audio seperatetly (I have tried this and when you split the file it converts the audio into PCM uncompressed Audio) then calculate the video bitrate and encode the xvid in tmpgenc. What will I have to do?

[andyfenna]

I now have come to a problem. can somebody put me out of my missery. I have one xvid file which is 700mb. I want to split the file up in 2 and create 2 mindvd's with ac3 audio. Heres what I have done:

1) Split the file up in 2 using virtualdub.
2) Extracted the wav audio from each file using virtuladub each wav was in 2 channels @ 41000hz
3) Converted the wav's into 2.0 ac3 files @ 224kbps 48000hz using besweet
4) Encoded the avi's into mp2 file at the appropriate bitrate to fit on a cd using tmpgenc.
5) Imported the ac3's and mp2's in to dvdlab
6) Compliled a minidvd in dvdlab
7) Burned VIDEO_TS & AUDIO_TS folders in nero

When I came to play the mindvd on my standalone player the vidoe was playing and not the sound and on my amp it say dolby digital. Even though I can play a 5.1 384kbps ac3 mindvd on it. I then played the mindvd on my pc and the sound worked.

Can dvdlad accept wav audio? do I need to encode the wav's into ac3 files? if I encode the wav's in to 5.1 384kbps ac3 will it play?

Can somebody take the time to help me I'll appriate it. thank-you

[Gees]

andy - I don't think many of us are making miniDVDs at all. Because of the space limitations, I'd imagine.

So, you may get few responses. I think it is probably the least used area. I rarely see questions about them.

Have you tried searches on this site for any other miniDVD makers? Perhaps looking for any other existing threads will be your best bet.

added: Only 2 pages of results for "miniDVD"


Good luck.

[andydd]

I used to make miniDVDS a while back. If you go to www.area450.com i think my guide is still there somewhere.

I never had much success with em, my player Afreey could play em but often jumped n frooze. Thanks god for affordable DVD burners.

There should be no difference in building a miniDVD n a DVD, excpet the size limitations.

[andyfenna]

FYI: I actually got the audio to work, the problem was besweet.exe. If I created a ac3 file using besweet my standalone DVD player did not play the audio even though on my av reciever it said dolby digital. Then I read a post on here explaining that besweet does not actually work on certian dvd playerds. DAM. So I encoded my wav files using Sonic Foundry Soft Encode and guess what HAY PRESTO. It worked.

Also I have got a dvd burner which is really really really slow and eats up a lot of disk space therefore I prefer using a cd burner because:

1) In the time it takes you to rip, encode and burn a dvd I can have 10 cd's written.

2) For the cost of a signle dvd-r I can buy 10 cd's.

3) I can get the same sound and a little less video quality split over 2 cd's.

4) I don't need as much space on my hard drive to create minidvd's and once I have created one I can deleve the dvdvolume directory and start on a new one.

5) You author a minidvd in the same way as you would a normal dvd but you would reduce the video bitrate so that it would fit on a cd-r

However, if I had a faster dvd burner, more disk space, and the price of a dvd-r was the same as a cd-r then I would probably go the dvd route as you can fit about 3 movies on per dvd

Each has there good and bad points but for the time being I am going to stay with mindvd's

Thank-you for your time