Could someone plase explain to me......

[marcopolo1]

OK, so with all these different video formats, could someone tell me what can be done with the various formats and which medium they can be placed onto.

eg, Mpeg, which I presume is .mpg. Am I right in saying the only way these can be played on DVD players is to convert using a DVD authoring tool to create a proper DVD file structure.

Then there's VCD, etc ,etc

Oh and by the way, I use Cucusoft conversion utility and then Sonic as this tells you whether it can fit on the DVD medium unlike Nero that does all the converion and then tells you if it can fit.

Cheers

Mark

[Hardcoreruss]

MPEG 2 is for SVCD or DVD

MPEG 1 is VCD

All of the above CAN be played on a dvd player if the player supports it

[teegee420]

Here's a little more info to get you started. The .mpg extension is an mpeg, yes. However they literally come in all shapes and sizes. For one thing, there are 2 different types of compression, mpeg 1 and mpeg 2.

Mpeg-1 is what you will find in VCD's. They are encoded at a bitrate of 1,150 kbps and allow you to fit about 80 minutes of video(with sound) on a 700mb cd-rom. Another type of video disc is KVCD or XVCD. These are pretty much non-standard VCD's that can have better looking and longer videos due to different bitrates, resolutions and GOP structures. The only problem is that since they stray from the VCD standard, there's less of a chance that your DVD player will be able to play them.

Mpeg-2 is the type of compression you find in SVCD's and DVD's. SVCD's can hold up to 45 minutes of good quality(not great, and by great I mean DVD quality)video on a 700mb cd-r. These mpegs are usually encoded using a bitrate in the neighborhood of 2,000-2,500kbps. DVD bitrates can range anywhere from 3,000kbps to 10,000(guys, correct me if I'm wrong). And yes, you will need some kind of DVD authoring program to create a DVD wth the proper file structure.

Yet another type of compression is mpeg-4. There are quite a few different mpeg-4 compressors. Among the more popular ones are Divx and Xvid. There is only a limited number of DVD players that support these types of files so you mainly see them played on computers. A two disc Xvid movie that's around two hours long can look very nice if converted from a DVD source. If you want to find out if your DVD player is compatible with (S)(X)VCD's or Divx/Xvid, click on the DVD Players button on the left side of this page.

Now there's a lot I haven't mentioned such as variable bitrates and relative resolutions for each type of mpeg. You'll learn more about those once you start running your own encodes. Read as much info as you can in the guides section and post in the appropriate forum if you get stuck. There are plenty of people that can help you out. Good luck.

[Hardcoreruss]

Yep, what he said

[marcopolo1]

Are there any good conversion applications apart from Sonic for converting, testing A/V prior to this, I don't like TMPGEnc.

Cheers

Mark

[Craig Tucker]

Are there any good conversion applications apart from Sonic for converting, testing A/V prior to this, I don't like TMPGEnc.

Cheers

Mark

Take your pick
Although I would still reccommend TMPGEnc, it is one of the best encoders out there, quality and feature wise, and it won't break the bank. Why dont you like it ?

[marcopolo1]

Craig, probably because there's so much to it, I just want to be able to select a video file (with audio) and get it converted without all the hustle and bustle. If I have a problem along the way, then I'll use another tool, eg audio/video sync problems.

Mark

[teegee420]

I would suggest you stick with TMPGEnc as well but I can understand your reluctance to jump in head first. There are few programs that can beat TMPGEnc's output quality but there are probably better options in terms of usability. Why don't you describe the kinds of encoding and conversions you would like to perform?

[marcopolo1]

I suppose it really depends on the file I have, but I do have an avi film, well at least a .avi extension, I used dvdit to encode it straight to a DVD, the quality was ok, but about 3/4 way through, the sync goes, even though the original file is ok. So this time I will try encoding it first to mpeg2, using cucusoft and then using dvdit.

[wgamer]

kudos teegee : a crisp and concise intro to mpegs

'cough' BTW could u tell me which is better cvd or kvcd?

[vitualis]

'cough' BTW could u tell me which is better cvd or kvcd?

Firstly, don't hijack threads. If you have a new question, start a new topic.

Secondly, I suggest that you do a search of the forums as this has been discussed to death before.

BTW, since "KVCD" is a nebulous term used to describe the various templates and encoding methods created by "kwag", you are talking about an apple vs. oranges comparison. It would depend on exactly which method you are talking about.

Regards.

[ZippyP.]

but about 3/4 way through, the sync goes, even though the original file is ok.

You've got bad frames, even though you can play the avi OK they will cause problems when converting. I always scan the file and remove bad frames before doing anything else. Link below.