Fastest MiniDVD Conversion For Macs Or PC's

[Vintageman]

Also I don't think the main movie, audio and one subtitlle will give you a problem but a full DVD ( menus and everything ) might. Although if the movie is under 4.7gb you can experiement and maybe you can fit it all at 1800mb miniDVD. But the original tutorial was for 2 CD's so if you stick to 1400mb and make precise cuts you should have no problems.

[Vintageman]

Also AntnyMD is right. Use the older version of DVD Shrink with Windows 98. That's what I used on my versions. Don't know if that makes a difference but when your trouble shooting a new technique everything counts.

[Vintageman]

Wulf109 it might help in our test if you mention your DVD Player by name. i have a Norcent and a JVC and the CD's worked perfect on the Norcent but my JVC doesn't recognize CDVD so I demuxed the files and converted just the audio to mp2 and mplex them as XSVCD and burned it to CD's and it played perfect. Also because the video has a higher bit rate the picture is so much better. You should check the DVD player page at this site there very helpful at telling you what your DVD Player can read. One thing I forgot to mention is that you can burn these to DVD's ( I did 3 on 1 DVD ) and it should play fine on all DVD Players.

[thoughton]

Hmm, okay I seem to have hit some kind of barrier. I tried again with the 6GB movie, AC3 6ch english, variable ratio, movie only mode, but this time I set the user variable to 1090MB (because I was going 300MB over when I set it to 1390). But when DVD2OneX finished, the VIDEO_TS folder was 1.7 megs again! Since it was the same size when I specified 1390MB and 1090MB I assume DVD2OneX is refusing to allow compression beyond a certain point.

However after reading through ShockTroops Windows tutorial again and the way he kept re-processing his file, I decided to try running DVD2OneX on the 1.7meg file, this time when I set it to 1390MB it appears to work (the new final VIDEO_TS is 1.35gig in Get Info). However the quality isn't so hot. It's comparable to SVCD (perhaps a little better in high movement scenes), but in dark scenes there are some fairly obvious macroblocks (not as good as SVCD, but a lot better than most VCDs).

I'm starting to think that this movie is indeed too long (and/or has too many high motion scenes?). I'll try again with a different movie and see if I can get it to 1390 in one swoop and see what happens to quality then.

Cheers,

[thoughton]

PS I haven't actually got to the DVDShrink part of the process yet, so that cant be my problem. But can anyone please tell me what version of DVDShrink you have running on Win98? Thanks!

[Vintageman]

thoughton what movie are you talking about? I compressed a 7gb movie with no problem.

[Vintageman]

PS: make sure you have the latest version of DVD2One.

[AntnyMD]

DVD Shrink version 2.3

[thoughton]

Vintageman, the 6gig movie is Terminator 3. I'm using DVD2OneX 1.2.1 which I think is the latest (?). Will double check that this evening. I will also try this technique with a different movie.

AntnyMD, thanks for the DVDShrink info. I was trying to use 3.0 beta. I'm at work at the moment so not tested yet.

Thanks guys

[Vintageman]

OK I just got Terminator 3. I will try myself when I get home. Maybe there is a limit with certain movies. Will let you know my results tomorrow.

[Vintageman]

OK just did terminator 3 and yes the technique does have it's limit. I don't think it's the file size ( I did Down With Love which is 7gb ) but the type of movie. Terminator 3 has alot of night shots and it seems to need better compression to make them look good ( by the way my version of T3 came out to 1.62gb ) where as Down With Love which has hardly any night shots came out perfect at 1400mb. So if your film is a night shot film I would stick with 2100mb and make it a 3 disk CDVD to get great quality but if it's a day shot or brightly lit movie I think 1400mb will work just fine regardless of movie size. Try it yourself and let me know your results. By the way if you stick to 2100mb you can fit 2 great quality movies on 1 DVDR.

[AntnyMD]

Last night I tried Goldfinger at 2199mb. The quality sucked. I think you're right about films with many darkly lit scenes.

[thoughton]

Good to hear it's not just me

FWIW I also tried Wayne's World last night and it came out to about 1.8GB.

I'm still going to try this on some long movies though and see what happens. I'm just not satisfied with 4 disc SVCDs! If I could squash it onto 3 with this method and keep a similar quality then I'd be happy

Cheers,

[Vintageman]

thoughton try them at 2100mb. Like I said they should be better than the 1600 or 1800mb where getting at a setting of 1400 and you can fit them on 3 CD's. And like I mentioned I did Down With Love (7GB ) at 1400 and it came out perfect. At 2100 you can fit 2 movies (only) on a DVDR.

[Vintageman]

Just did T3 at 2100mb. It came out to 2.05gb and it looks great. No blockeness. So it's safe to say that for intense night movies 2100mb should do the job. If it's a well lit movie ( like Down With Love ) you can get away with 1400mb. And so it's safe to say this is the best method for speed ( about 2 hours max ) and the quality ( if 2100mb ) is excellent.

[thoughton]

Will give that a try Vintageman, thanks for the advice.

Now what we need is some kinda of dark/not dark sticker on the front of the DVD! I wonder if the movie companies would go along with that...

Heh I'm now curious how well Pitch Black will fare.

Anyway thanks again, I'll give it a try this weekend. My current obsession is turning all my DivXs into something that will play on the new standalone we got (and I already hate the 'File size exceeded before split-point' problem in ffmpegX! haha)

[cng_pce]

Hey guys, this is what I suggest for PC (not Mac, sorry ) users:

If CDVDs/MiniDVDs do not work in your player, you should transcode the movie (in DVD2One) without audio - this will give you better quality, since AC3 channels take up quite a bit of space (usually more than a .MP2). But, in order to calculate the output size for DVD2One, you first extract the AC3 audio (with DVD2AVI or something), and then convert it to .MP2 with a program such as HeadAC3he or BeSweet. Once the conversion is finished, take note of the filesize of your .MP2 file, then subtract it either from 1400 (2 CDs) or 2100 (3 CDs), and use your calculated answer in DVD2One's output size thing NOTE: Do NOT split the files with DVDShrink, this isn't needed in my short 'tutorial' . Once DVD2One is finished, extract the M2V from the .VOB files (with VOBEdit), and mux your .MP2 audio with the video in a program such as TMPGEnc or BBMpeg, and you are also able to split the resulting MPEG (into 2 or 3 CDs) with these programs too. By doing this method, you should be able to squeeze a bit more bitrate into your video when transcoding with DVD2One. I haven't tried this myself, but it makes sense when you think about it


Oh, one more thing, this will produce an xSVCD, therefore, if you intend to mux (the video and audio) as a SVCD, you can use these values instead:

1600 (2 CDs - use instead of 1400) or 2400 (3 CDs - use instead of 2100)

..then finally burn them in Ahead Nero or VCDEasy as a SVCD. Of course, this will give you even more extra bitrate (better quality) due to the larger file size. Once again, I have not tried this yet, but I am looking forward to doing so, so if anyone gets the chance to try it before me, please comment, or tell me if my idea is completely rubbish, and will not work

One final note, I have no idea how VOBEdit works yet, but I've read numerous times that it can extract MPEGs from .VOB files. Can someone please inform me if it extracts it as one big M2V file, or multiple M2Vs (since there are multiple .VOB files after DVD2One has finished its work)? But this is the deal --> if it DOES extract it as one big M2V file, you can easily mux the audio with the video now, and don't need to read on. However, if it extracts multiple M2V files, just merge them together first with BBMpeg or something. Then finally, mux the audio with the video (which is now one big file), then split it into 2 or 3 CDs; whichever you prefer.

I do realize this is all over the place, sorry about that, but I still think it would be quicker than doing things the old fashioned way --> CCE 3/4-pass VBR

[Vintageman]

Yeah I mentioned authoring as XSVCD earlier in this post and yes you do get a little extra space. But I noticed that 2100mb will leave you with a 2.05gb file every time and the quality is great so that might be the standard for great quality with this format. And as I said before you can fit 2 movies on 1 DVDR with great quality.

[Vintageman]

OK I've decided to go 2 movies in 1 DVDR with this. The quality is great at 2100mb ( so far T3, Xmen 2 and Down With Love ) and with the join feature of DVD2One is great. I use the seamless feature with DVD2One because then you can go forward to the next movie with chapters without having to wait for 1st movie to finish. Or if you want you can always go 3 CD's per movie.

[stmdk]

Using DVD Shrink, I would not compress more than 3 times. The quality really takes a nose dive after that. If you must compress any more, increase the number of discs instead or simply go to a double feature DVD instead.

Each time you compress, the compression performance will decrease. You might get a movie to compress to 40% of it's size on the first pass, but only 30% on the second, decreasing each time.

I normally do not use the deep analysis for the first pass but you should on every additional compression pass to improve the quality.

The bit rate is going to vary. Oddly, in some cases I have found some movies that have a bit rate over 9800kbps as the original! Your player compatibility is going to be the real factor in this case.

In no way do I want to imply that ALL movies will be worth doing this to. I have found that the average movie will work. However for larger movies I usually go with a double feature DVD by shrinking two movies enough to fit on a single DVD. It's up to you really. I don't like going over 2 CDR's. 3 CDR's will give you 2100mb but you can accomplish the same thing by putting two movies onto a single DVD instead.

My main purpose was to have movies better than VCD quality on the same number of discs. Making VCD's just doesn't make sense to me anymore. What I found was that I often ended up with a movie at or better than SVCD, at a better cost of discs.

Another way of doing this all was brought to my attention by another user. You could also use DVD decrypter and IMGtool.

[Vintageman]

Thanks stmdk. You were the original inspiration for the Mac version. Question though why not use DVD2One? It lets you set the amount of compression ( so you don't have to do multiple reauthors ) and the quality is just as good and a bit faster ( with just one reauthor ). I also do 2 movies to DVDR at 2200mb each now. The quality truly is good and I agree I can't see myself doing XSVCD or SVCD anymore it's a waste. If I do 2 movies with DVD2One and then join them in DVD2One I'm done in about 4 hours ( with burning included ). Beats 6 to 10 hours for 1 SVCD ( without burning ).

[wulf109]

There is a program called Rejig which is very good at creating XSVCD's. It specializes in making m2v streams from vob files. It has a 2-pass mode which produces excellent results and allows you to set the output size in MB's. It will also demux the ac3 audio and will even correct the audio delay if needed. As another poster said demux the ac3 audio,convert to mp2 with Headache. This gives you the size of the mp2 stream,subtract that from 780MB's:example 780MB-60MB mp2=720MB's fon the m2v stream. Set Rejig in 2-pass mode and set the size to 720MB's.
Remux the m2v and mp2 into SVCD stream with TMPEG and burn it.
Hands down the best looking XSVCD you'll ever see.

[Vintageman]

Yeah I'm sure it probably is but at a cost of about 6 hours minimum just to do the video. You can get similar results with Cleaner or Bitvice again with a cost in time. This technique without a doubt is the best for the time it takes.

[wulf109]

Rejig is a transcoder like DVD2ONE,it takes 4-5 minutes to convert 45 minutes of video. You can convert from rip to burn in 30 minutes a 45 minute TV episode.

[Vintageman]

Hey wulf109 that rejig is based on DVD Remaster code and it's free. Who's dumb idea at DVD Remaster was that! I can't see anybody paying for the Mac version when the PC version is free. I think I can see a note from DVD remaster saying stop! So go get the program while it's still free.

[bilestyle]

I really think that this method is going to replace any VCD or SVCD method once people catch on to the quality. And it's so much faster and better quality who wouldn't want to convert them to this method. I think AVI will still be around for single CD conversion but I'm not gonna waste 6 to 12 hours to convert a DVD to any form of S(VCD) when I can get better quality in about 2 hours. I think Shock Troop has created a new standard. Beats even KVCD.

i honestly dont see a process (whether its faster or not) that has that many steps AND requires users to emulate pcs (which i refuse to do for video editing/processing, i dont care how much quicker it is) replacing SVCD/XSVCD for me

[Vintageman]

Hey bilestyle what ever rocks you baby. There are people that still enjoy vinyl over CD. Your opinion is based on platform and not time so by all means do your thing. I'm a Mac man myself but when you've done as many conversions with as many different techniques as I have you begin to appreciate time cutting techniques. Besides if you decide to put two movies on 1 DVDR you can keep it all Mac and don't have to do any more steps than if you were makng a XSVCD with several hours to spare.

[stmdk]

vintageman- I've just never used DVD2ONE that much. I have a disc that is packed with every DVD/VCD/SVCD program around. It huge! I can't keep up with them all. I also can't keep count of how many of the cheaper programs have nearly or succesfully crashed my systems.

Does DVD2ONE have menu making capabilities? I like to make new menus for my double DVD's. Normally I rip them with DVDShrink and then throw them into Tmpeg DVD Author.

Currently I use the following software 9/10 times.

DVDx
DVD Shrink
DVD Decrypter
Tmpeg & DVD Author

I also use some capture software for my TV Tuner. I've used nanodub which totally screws up every time for TV Capture. I just found a really nice freeware program called FLYCAP that works amazingly well for AVI caps. Trying out a copy of WinVCR right now on a test movie to see how well that works for direct mpeg 1/2 capture.

[Vintageman]

stmdk no DVD2One can't produce new menus. I can't give you much advice on a PC platform ( I have a Mac ) but I do know that DVD2One is both PC and Mac so that's why I say it would be easier from the point of view that you only have to reauthor once to get around the ball park that you want. But it does have a join feature that is really cool cause you can rip your 2 movies at about 2200mb and join them to burn on 1 DVDR. You can also use that feature to join your 2 disc DVD's and then you can reauthor for one DVDR.

PS: If your 2 disc DVD's already have menus the join feature will keep them and also if you want you can keep the transition seamless.

[bilestyle]

Hey bilestyle what ever rocks you baby. There are people that still enjoy vinyl over CD. Your opinion is based on platform and not time so by all means do your thing. I'm a Mac man myself but when you've done as many conversions with as many different techniques as I have you begin to appreciate time cutting techniques. Besides if you decide to put two movies on 1 DVDR you can keep it all Mac and don't have to do any more steps than if you were makng a XSVCD with several hours to spare.

dude trust me-- i've done enough coding and converting and teaching and writing tutorials to make anyones head spin... i have appreciation for time splitting tasks, but i've NEVER done ANYTHING on the pc, if always done it on the mac, too many people earlier in the game b4 we had even 1/100th of the tools now had trouble even getting shit in sync let alone anything else on the mac, i helped discover alot of the processes, and write some of the software that made alot of shit that wasnt possible on the macs, possible..instead of doing what was easier, the path of least resistance, (ANYTHING involving emulation) its that kind of dedication that makes things progress instead of regress. on top of that i have no desire to put more than one dvd movie on one dvd, you may say u dont see the quality decline that much, but for me, that kind of stuff is VERY noticable, i've used dvd2one to compress a 7.4 gig dvd to a 4.3 and i noticed a BIG difference.. or even a 5-6 gig dvd to 4.3 gigs the difference is noticable.. i wont even begin to use it for anything else.. then again i have no real vested interest in mindvd.