Newbie: directions to VCD->DVD guide & software sugg

[hulkamania]

I just purchased a LG GSA 4040B. ($189 CDN) I bought it thinking I could transfer my 200+ VCD library to DVD and then only have 25-30 DVD's.

If anyone can direct me to a guide, or tell me if I am even able to do this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Also, some useful software suggestions would be nice. I have no idea what will work well for DVD's.

Thanks!

[xcool]

Use VCDGear or ISOBuster (freeware) to rip the VCD .dat or .bin to mpg, then use TMPGEnc DVD Author or DVDLab (trialware) to author the DVD as 1 mpg per title. Should be able to do 8 to 10 VCDs on 1 DVD.

Beware there is a bug in TMPGEnc DVD Author when one tries to author long mpg files as chapters, sometimes it freezes during playback. It is best to author mpg files as titles, and pick "play next track after finishes" setting for the menu.

[ZippyP.]

Should be able to do 8 to 10 VCDs on 1 DVD.

Don't think so, a VCD is 800 MB, a DVD is 4.3 GB. You can get 4-5 VCD's on a DVD.

There's lots of guides for VCD on DVD, like here.. For maximum compatibility the audio needs to be changed as the sampling rate spec. for VCD is 44.1 KHz vs. 48.1 KHz for DVD. The MP2-VCD audio is not NTSC-DVD compatible as well, although it is for PAL. Many people prefer to leave the audio as is and have no problems, it really depends on your DVD player and how compatible you want your videos to be.

Good luck.

[xcool]

Ooops, ZippyP you are right that if "a VCD is 800 MB, a DVD is 4.3 GB. You can get 4-5 VCD's on a DVD", I can do 8 to 10 VCDs on 1 DVD because my TV series VCDs are 400 to 500 MB.

If you use TMPGEnc DVD Author, it automatically re-encode the audio to 48.1khz if the audio is 44.1khz, which is why I use TMPGEnc DVD most of the time now. Also for VCDGear, use "Correct MPEG Error" if converting from VCD .dat.

[hulkamania]

So if I've got the mpeg files saved on my HD, how do I get them onto DVD and watch them as a VCD? I have the whole second season of 24 that I really want to watch.

I've downloaded most of the programs suggested.

[ZippyP.]

So if I've got the mpeg files saved on my HD, how do I get them onto DVD and watch them as a VCD?

Go to the "Guides" section on the left hand side of this page, select the format conversion box and select VCD to DVD from the list, select search for guides, a list of guides for doing what you want will appear, pick a guide.

[hulkamania]

I used TMPGEnc Plus to rip an mpeg..... I'm not really sure what exactly I did, but now instead of it being 490megs, it's now 1.3 gigs.