Noob having trouble burning his first VCD

[hyena77]

not a videophile at all, but i'm attempting to burn a movie i downloaded into a single disc VCD with Nero 6.0.0.19. the file is MPEG...right-clicking on the filename within windows media player:
Video codec: ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder

this is supposedly 700MB (but Nero says it's 734MB which confuses me) and i'm thinking that should fit onto 1 CD with the help of a bit of overburn. BUT this is where i'm stuck. when i drag and drop the movie in Nero and start the burn (simulation so far), it'll bring up this new window where it's "encoding video" and i notice in the top right it reports the size as now being 864MB 98:18.19. now how come the size grew so large? is it due to it being encoded into VCD format? how can i keep it under 800MB so i can fit it onto 1 CD? would using a different encoding program like TMPGENC solve my problem?

[Craig Tucker]

Standard VCD is approx 10MB / minute. The size of the source file has no bearing on the final size of the encoded mpeg. It is the length of the movie that determines the size of the mpeg. And I would reccomend you use TMPGEnc to encode regardless. Nero is a crap encoder.

[hyena77]

so i guess i have no way around this 1-disc VCD eh? i just didn't want to have to go thru the trouble of splitting a movie. does anyone recommend a movie splitter program?

[Gazorgan]

Research kvcd . It's not 100% compatable with most players, but you can get more on a disk that pure VCD.

I would also suggest you look at DVD2SVCD. If your player supports SVCD, you will be much happier than working in VCDs. The program requires an encoder, but TMPGEnc has a 30 day free trial. It's fairly simple to use, but you have the ability to get very complex with a little effort.

[§kipTracer65]

is it possible that this file is an avi file, you say the ffdshow video codec is mpeg4 which to my knowledge is a div, xvid or other such avi file, which is a totally different ballgame

[hyena77]

yes, sorry it is indeed an avi file. so does that in any way allow me to burn the movie to 1 CD?

[MOVIEGEEK]

The audio is probably VBR MP3 which confuses TMPGEnc.Convert the audio to WAV first then import AVI to "Video source" and WAV to "Audio source".

BTW..you can fit up to 780MB on a 80min CD-R in mode 2(VCD).

[§kipTracer65]

RIGHT SO IF ITS AN AVI FILE, DO U WANT TO BE ABLE TO WATCH IT ON A STAND ALONE DVD PLAYER OR JUST BACK IT UP TO A CD? WHATS UR EXPERIENCE OF MAKING S(VCD)S THERES A FEW ROUTES U CAN TAKE?

[hyena77]

as per the properties in windows media player, the audio codec is:
MPEG Layer-3 Decoder

yes, i want to be able to watch it on my DVD player. so far the only experience i have is burning 1 other movie in Nero without any problem since it already came split into 2 parts (total size was about 950MB), so i just used 2 CDs. this current movie i'm dealing with is the first one that isn't split up. will doing what MOVIEGEEK suggested help me get under that 780MB limit? and i am using 80min CD-Rs.

[Double]

Check out this guide:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/84759.php
and just skip the Clad stuff (since you already have a *.avi), start with TMPGEnc and chose the .avi file for the source in TMPGEnc.
I have made many xVCD's with this guide, just be sure your player will support them.
-D

[hyena77]

ok thx i'll give it a try. got my fingers crossed. and thx for all your patience with this noob

[hyena77]

i followed that guide and i got the movie to fit onto just 1 CD, but when i play it in my DVD player i notice the subtitles are barely visible at the bottom. they're half cut off. and i also notice movie seems like it's been squished on each side...ie. the people are stretched/thinned out (i think that's called the aspect ratio?). maybe that was due to fitting all that data onto 1 disc? the guide said to start off using Constant bitrate with 900 bitrate which is what i had set TMPGEnc to, but it also said for better quality one can also encode with 2-pass VBR with 1150 bitrate. would that solve the problem so i can see the subtitles? thanks.

[ZippyP.]

You have a display aspect ratio problem, it has nothing to do with squishing too much data on the disk. I like your thinking though..

In TMPGEnc you need to select Full Screen (keep aspect ratio) in the video arrange method box.

[hyena77]

You have a display aspect ratio problem, it has nothing to do with squishing too much data on the disk. I like your thinking though..

In TMPGEnc you need to select Full Screen (keep aspect ratio) in the video arrange method box.

took a look at the Advanced tab in the MPEG Settings and it is already set to Full Screen for "Video arrange method". The Source aspect ratio is set to 1:1 (VGA). But in the Video tab, the "Aspect ratio" is set to 4:3 525 line (NTSC). now could that be the problem there? and if i'm playing the movie on a TV, shouldn't i need to adjust the aspect ratio? when i play it on my PC, it's fine and the subs are showing completely.

[xtreemkareem]

Most DVD players that "support" VCD don't actually support all the specs of VCD - hence even if you do the correct aspect ration and everything, due to the properties of the TV, the bottomw witll tend to be cut off. I ususally use center (custom size) for video arrange method and tweak the settings and encode and burn a test clip to see how well the aspect ratio looks on the TV and how much gets cropped off until I'm happy. If it messes up the actual display on your comuter, just watch it in Zoom player where you can adjust video pane size, aspect ratio, etc.

[hyena77]

but i'm wondering if the different aspect ratios in the Video and Advanced tabs would be causing the problem? should i set both to 4:3 525 line (NTSC)? and the Video arrange method to "Full screen" or "Full screen (keep aspect ratio)"? i'm not sure what the difference is.