SVCD with ALOT of diffferent features

[dragoncracker]

I'm working on trying to take the movie Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and make an SVCD with menus (both motion and still), English and Mandrin Audio languages, as well as English and French subtitles and chapters of course. The problem I am having is that there are no tutorials on how to do all of this to one SVCD. So far I have been following Adams Guide to making menus (http://users3.ev1.net/~CavemanLawyer/) but it doesn't cover how to include multiple audio languages and subtitles. I'm using only freeware and demo versions of tools and have been having a hard time finding other tutorials that coincide with using the same tools. I would appreciate any help anyone could give me. Thank you.

P.S. I'm planning on splitting this up into 3 SVCD's

[adam]

Hi, I did this exact project that you are doing with CTHD.

Follow my guide to add a second audio track to your SVCD. Basically, however you process your regular audio stream, just do the same for the second one. Get all your streams encoded separately, so you will have 1 video elementary stream and two audio ones. Then you can multiplex all three together in either TMPGenc or BBmpeg.
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/130151.php

As for subs that definitley makes things more complicated. If you haven't already, check the dvd player list to ensure that dvd player even supports soft encoded SVCD subs, because most don't. Your best bet is to use WinSubMux. Just follow the readme that comes with it, and you should be able to get by.

Many users have reported problems with WinSubMux created mpgs w/subs and VCDEasy. Apparantly the subs get lost along the way. Personally I never had any problems though and hopefully you won't either.

Your best alternative to WinSubMux is to use I-Author, which is a fantastic program, but is not the easiest or most reliable to use.

Your last alternative is to use Philips SVCD toolkit, but it only runs on NT and again, isn't the easiest to use.

There aren't alot of options for SVCD authoring when it comes to subtitles. If WinSubMux doesn't work, you might be out of luck. I-Author will work but it has lots of other bugs/issues that may limit what you can do with your SVCD, ie: # of mpg stills.

Maybe when I get some more time I'll add some more sections to my guide which cover this area, but its hard to find the motivation since not all that many people make SVCDs anymore, and few ever made fully interactive oness.

[dragoncracker]

Ok real quick before I get all into this and go and spend alot of time figuring out how to do it and make a tutorial on how to (maybe) does anyone know if the subtitles will play in PowerDVD? If not then are there any programs that will play them? please reply A.S.A.P.

[adam]

I am fairly certain that there are no software DVD players which will play soft encoded subtitles in a SVCD. If all you wanted was software playback then you should just make a DVD. Even if you don't have a dvd burner you can just burn on cd media and make a Mini-DVD. It won't play on any standalone dvd players but it should play in any software dvd player.

If you are looking for both hardware and software support for a soft subbed SVCD, then forget about.

[dragoncracker]

Ok thanx for that, the reason I'm making SVCD is the specs say its not as strenuous on the computer as DVD, so I'm still planning on making it and maybe if I ever get around to understanding why it won't read em and finish learning C++ I might try and fix it err sumthing. I really appreciate all of your help on this so far you have been a huge help. Also what is this I'm reading that TMPGenc has limited MPEG-2 encoding? Should I be getting TMPGenc Plus instead? also if any one has any idea why the computer won't play the SVCDs subtitles could you please post so I can understand it more and maybe work towards a fix. I woudl really apprciate it.

[RabidDog]

rather even than making an svcd, why not just go for a lower resolution DVD eg d2 352x576 or lower res 352x288, These are valid DVD resolutions and so can be used for a video stream in any dvd editor. As to svcd being "easier" on your computer, than dvd I would say the difference is minimal, if you can play one you can play the other. All your subtitles and audio stream needs are fully catered for in the Dvd spec I think. It just requires a LOT of reading of the guides. You do need the paid for version of tmpgenc for unlimited mpeg2 encoding.

[dragoncracker]

ok so I think I may have figured out what I plan on doing for a player but I want to put it on the SVCDs. I plan on using BSPlayer to do the subtitles and what not but I am having the hardest time finding out what the command line options are. If there is anyone out there who can tell me how to get a compleate list of them or where I can find a list it woudl really be appreciated.