AVI -- MPG -- VCD : Pretty Simple Question

[mikewg]

Hey all, I'm still pretty new to this but I've been playing with tons of different stuff and everything's working great so far, thanks again for all the help. Now, question time...

Okay let me present my scenerio to you. I want to capture a 2-hour show from my VHS. When I capture to AVI, the most I can capture is about 20 minutes because of the 4 Gig file size limit. So I capture 6 different 20 minute segments, each into its own AVI file. Then let's say I edit out whatever, commercial breaks, etc. End result is I have six 15 minute AVI files, and for arguments sake, let's say each one is 3 Gigs.

Now I want to convert these to one long MPG file. What I've been doing is converting each MPG file, resulting in six 100 meg MPG files using TMPGEnc. (They're usually larger but for arguments sake let's say 100 meg). Then I join those six files using TMPGEnc... problem is, that new 600 Meg file is no long VCD compliant, even though the six files I joined were each VCD compliant. So then I have to run that 600 Meg file again through TMPGEnc with VCD settings to make the file VCD compliant.

I've heard that rerunning the MPG file thorugh TMPGEnc the second time will cause some quality loss... and I'm sure there has to be a way to take the six AVI files and convert them directly to one giant MPG. I can't join the AVI files because the result would be 15 Gigs... and my system has a 4 Gig limit. Can someone please make a recommendation to me what I should try to do next after gathering my 6 AVI files to get this to convert to MPG correctly? Thanks so much everyone!

Mike

[robcolts]

If you are using Nero create your VCD, just include all 6 files as your content to make the VCD, this shouldn't impact on the continuity much and keeps your quality.

Robcolts

[mikewg]

Good point, thanks, I forgot to mention something. I want all the files to be one long MPG because I'm making chapters/entry points/whatever they're called. And that requires you to have an MPG that is one long continuous file. Burning them as seperate tracks works fine, but it won't work for what I'm trying to do with it. Any other suggestions?

[Truman]

Capture in multisegment capture mode (VirtualDub or AVI_IO)
Frameserve the segmented avi's with VirualDub or Avisynth to TMPG and convert to MPEG.

[mikewg]

So let me get this straight... what you're saying I need to do it...

Open and join the six AVI files in VirtualDub. Then save those files together as a video.vdr.avi file, then frameserve that to TMPGEnc to retain everything as one file? Or am I making six different video.vdr.avi files?

[jtoops]

If you still have your six commerical free segments,
download AVISynth. Create a avisynth script (named
"combine.avs&quot that contains a line that looks similar to:
AVISource("part1.avi&quot + AVISource("part2.avi&quot + ... +
AVISource("part6.avi&quot

Open the script with TMPGEnc. To it, it should look like
one large avi file. I use this process with LSX-Mpeg.

[speedy]

What you're probably forgetting to do is load the VCD or SVCD template when you create the initial MPG files in TMPGEnc. You do that in ADDITION to setting filters and other things. If you do, using the MPEG tools "add" feature TMPGEnc should correctly make a VCD or SVCD compliant file.
Works for me.

For example a VCD for NTSC format should show the following at the bottom of TMPGEnc:

Video-CD NTSC (MPEG-1 352x240 29.97fps CBR 1150kbps, Layer-2 44100Hz 224kbps)

[mikewg]

JTOOPS - I'll try that program, it sounds promising. Thanks!

Speedy - No, I hadn't forgotten that. It's weird... I'll have three different MPG files that are all 100% VCD compliant... then I'll make sure the current project settings are for the same VCD profile... add the three files together, then boom... no longer VCD compliant. I don't get it... but I'll try this AVISynth program and see what happens.

[Shabubu]

Also remember to choose video CD system in the TMPGEnc cut and join dialog.