My MPEG's wont burn! How do I fix 'em?

[supertoom]

I have a concert in MPEG1 splitted into 23 files and now I want to burn it as VCD (they should fit on two CD's). But everything I try causes problem...

If I drop the first 12 files onto Toast 6 it tells me the running time is 1:02:42 which is fine and when I click burn it starts to re-encode the files... it takes about two hours and then it burnes the CD. When I play the VCD in my DVD-player the audio skips/cracks every 10th second. No good.

If i try with Toast 5 it wont accept the MPEG's. I run the files through VCDgearX to make them work with Toast. That makes the files much bigger so 12 files will not longer fit on one CD...

I've also tried to build a VCD image (.toc/.img and .bin/.cue) with vcdtoolsX and MissingMpegTools but the image is to big to fit on one CD (around 801 mb). Toast can't overburn so I try with MissingMediaBurner and Firestarter but both gives an error. (Something about a que sheet error which is a Superdrive problem I think).

I've also joined all files (12) into one big MPEG-file, fixed it with VCDgearX and burned it with Toast 5 (then it will fit!) but the result on my TV is a shrinked picture in the upper left corner...

Can anyone tell me how I do to fit all my MPEGs on two CD's?? I could always split all the files over 3 CD's but that is a waste when I know it will fit on two.

Something is wrong with the MPEG as Toast 6 always want to re-encode them and I don't have the time to wait for 2 hours. Especially when the result on the TV is bad... it would be nice to be able to burn it with Toast 5 (all the files joined is about 700 mb and fits) but how do I fix the MPEG's so Toast accept them and don't shrink the picture?? VCDgearX is no good.

btw... this is the info about the MPEG:

Mpeg 1 System File [Video/Audio]
Muxrate : 1.60 Mbps
Estimated Duration: 01:02:49.55s
Aspect ratio 1/1 (VGA)
Size [352 x 272] 29.97 fps 1.35 Mbps
Audio : Mpeg 1 layer 2
192 kbps 48000 Hz
Stereo, No emphasis

can anyone help? thanks.

[terryj]

aaah, welcome.

Toast 6 only accepts files in QT compatiable format.
This means both audio and video.
Toast 5, written under a stricter set of parameters,
even more so only accepts files that are 100% QT compatible.

The problem has become that since the advent of QT 6, and several new
codecs on market ( 3ivx D 4.5, DIVX 5, xvid) people tend to forget
that the CODECS are doing the work of making the files play
ok in QT, when in actuality, they are not QT compatible files.

Your best bet is demux the files ( if you have the original
before splitting it, this would be best to use).
After demuxing the files, rejoin them in QT PRO 6.
Since you are a legacy Toast user, you can then export out of QT PRO 6
to MPEG-1, and then you will have a TOAST compatible MPEG-1 file.
You can also split the file in QT PRO, so that each MPEG it makes will
comfortably fit on to two ( split at 700 MB) or three cds ( split at 450 MB).

You can then either drag and drop your MPEG-1's on to Toast 6
window and it will leave the files unchanged. Or you can author
in a much better program, such as VCDBuilder 1.1, and then burn in
Toast.

[supertoom]

ok, thanks, I'm going to try this.

but the whole procedure (demux/mux in QT/save as MPEG) isn't that the same as letting Toast 6 re-encode? Will it take the same amount of time?

And onther thing... when opening up a MPEG in QT adn then export it again, don't I lose quality by doing that? I don't like the whole re-encode bit.... like decode a MP3 to AIFF and then save it as MP3 again... but maybe it's not working like that in this case?

[supertoom]

ok just tried it with QT6, but it's not possible to do Edit -> Copy on the sound track (.mp2). so no luck with muxing with QT.

then I tried to mux the two files with ffmpegx, but when I try to mux as a VCD I get this error:

**ERROR: [mplex] Too many frame drops -exiting

and as a MPEG-1 this:

**ERROR: [mplex] Sequence split detected 3 but no following sequence found...

[Frobozz]

I suppose someone will tell me this doesn't matter, but your MPEGs are way out of spec for VCD. According to this site the spec for NTSC VCD is

Video
1150 kbps
352 X 240
29.97 fps

Audio
44.1 khz
224 kb/s fixed

So it's no wonder Toast is having to re-encode the mpegs.

Your audio problem may be related to the need to downsample the 48 khz to 44.1. I don't know if Toast did that or left it alone. You'd have to look at the MPEGAV file in QuickTime's Get Info to see what you ended up with. I suspect that's where your sound glitch is originating.

Such a mess. Demuxing, resampling, reencoding, remuxing. Ugh.

[supertoom]

I checked a .DAT file on the bad VCD and it looks like Toast re-sampled the audio down to 44.1 khz.

back to the demuxed files... I can't find a way to downsample the audio-file to 44.1. If I open it up in QT and try to Export it again with a lower sample rate, that option isn't there. I just have two options, some Movie to movie... and Movie to QuickTime... (not sure what these options are called in english).

Then I used MoreMissingTools to export the mp2 to wav (with a lower sample rate). The wav works fine when I try to copy the track and add it to the video. But the wav is uncompressed, but the wav itself is 650 mb, so that won't fit.

this means I have to re-encode the wav back to mp2 which means I'm going to lose quality.... plus I can't find a way to do this. QT can't do it and ffmpegx just chimes like it's done but it gives no file.

(btw, just to test I tried to export this way to big file (with the added WAV) to a MPEG, but that option isn't there in the export menu... do I need some codec to export to MPEG?)

this is getting boring.... it's always like this with those damn MPEG's...


ok... I also tried the bad VCD in my Mac, and the cd-player sounded very strange and then after a while the CD showed up. The DAT-files played fine in QT without any sound glitches... maybe this is caused by bad burning. When i instert the CD in my stand-alone DVD it won't accept it for the first three times and then it will, but whith sound glitches. But this is very strange, I've never had any problems before, the DVD used to swallow everything and I've never had any burning problems with my superdrive. All the problems starts when Toast want to re-encode... (which to me sounds like i'm losing quality?).

well, well.... I'll let Toast do a new try, and see if it helps.

[terryj]

ok, thanks, I'm going to try this.

but the whole procedure (demux/mux in QT/save as MPEG) isn't that the same as letting Toast 6 re-encode? Will it take the same amount of time?

Yes, and yes, but the diffrence is you will get everything into QT Compatible spec, and then Toast should accept everything as Gospel,
and just create the menu structure.

And onther thing... when opening up a MPEG in QT adn then export it again, don't I lose quality by doing that? I don't like the whole re-encode bit.... like decode a MP3 to AIFF and then save it as MP3 again... but maybe it's not working like that in this case?

No, when you demuxed the file, it held the quality. When you go to remux it, it will recompress, but the quality should be intact.

Also, sorry you will have to take your audio file and export out
of QT to AIFF, and under options, make sure it is 16 bit, stereo,
and uncompressed at 44.1 khz. Then open the AIFF, and add scaled the
video to the audio, then export to TOAST VIDEO CD ( MPEG-1) to remux.
Sorry, sometimes I get ahead of myself....

[terryj]

I checked a .DAT file on the bad VCD and it looks like Toast re-sampled the audio down to 44.1 khz.

back to the demuxed files... I can't find a way to downsample the audio-file to 44.1. If I open it up in QT and try to Export it again with a lower sample rate, that option isn't there. I just have two options, some Movie to movie... and Movie to QuickTime... (not sure what these options are called in english).

On the audio? Are you sure?
sounds like something isn't quite right....
This is just the audio, no video right...?
I have seen this happen on two types of files,
(1) Video with no audio, and (2) a muxed mpg that still wasn't properly
split.

Make sure you do not see ANY video on the Quicktime file you have selected. You should click play, and all you see is a black arrow
moving across the bar, and NO VIDEO. Sound yes, but NO VIDEO.

With this file selected, go to Window-->Show Movie Info,
and post back what it says. I believe your stream still isn't demuxed.

[supertoom]

On the audio? Are you sure?
sounds like something isn't quite right....
This is just the audio, no video right...?
I have seen this happen on two types of files,
(1) Video with no audio, and (2) a muxed mpg that still wasn't properly
split.

Make sure you do not see ANY video on the Quicktime file you have selected. You should click play, and all you see is a black arrow
moving across the bar, and NO VIDEO. Sound yes, but NO VIDEO.

With this file selected, go to Window-->Show Movie Info,
and post back what it says. I believe your stream still isn't demuxed.

No, it's just audio. The show info says it's "Format: MPEG1 Audio". Nothing about the sample rate so I open it up with MPEG Info to see what it says and this is what it gives:

Audio : Mpeg 1 layer 2
Estimated Duration: 01:02:48.84s
192 kbps 48000 Hz
Frame size: 578 bytes
Stereo, No emphasis, copy

I tried to burn the disc again on 1x speed to see if the sound glitches remained, and they did. But this time I saved the Toast converted files. This is the info I get on the audio files with MPEG Info:

Audio : Mpeg 1 layer 2
Estimated Duration: 05:15.95s
224 kbps 44100 Hz
Frame size: 731 bytes
Stereo, No emphasis, copy

So Toast has donwsampled the files, and they sound perfect on my Mac but skips on my DVD...

And it's the same with the Toast audio, they can't be exported to AIFF or anything else in QT.

[supertoom]

Yes! finally it works! I took the converted demuxed Toast 6 files and muxed them with MissingMpegTools and dropped them onto Toast 5 which now accepted them and burned em without any problems. And my DVD plays them without any glitches.

So what I have to do with the second disc is to drop all the MPEG's on Toast 6, let it re-encode the files, waaaaait, burn it on a CD-RW (there is no way to let Toast 6 re-encode and not burn, is there?). If there is any sound glitches on this disc too I have to take the demuxed Toast 6 files, mux them and then burn with Toast 5. And then it should play fine in my DVD.

finally...

[terryj]

No, it's just audio. The show info says it's "Format: MPEG1 Audio". Nothing about the sample rate so I open it up with MPEG Info to see what it says and this is what it gives:

Audio : Mpeg 1 layer 2
Estimated Duration: 01:02:48.84s
192 kbps 48000 Hz
Frame size: 578 bytes
Stereo, No emphasis, copy

And it's the same with the Toast audio, they can't be exported to AIFF or anything else in QT.

IT's MPEG Audio, and QT sees that as a muxed file, otherwise it would be more specific.
You'll need to demux the audio. Use mAC3dec, from versiontracker.
This will generate the proper AIFF file, for add scaling.

[supertoom]

mAC3dec dind't work, it didn't like the mp2 files at all (I could just find an old version, maybe that's why) but I used MoreMissingTools to convert it to a WAV-file instead, that should be just as good.

And now I could copy the track with QT but I can still not save the whole thing to MPEG-1. There are simply no option like that. MPEG-4 is there but no MPEG-1.

Looks like I'm missing some sort of MPEG1 codec. Does that come with OS X? I remember it comes with Toast 5 and I've recently made a re-install of my OS X, maybe the codec accidently got thrown away then.

nah, I just let Toast 6 do the whole encoding bit and then burn it with Toast 5, it's easier that way.

but thanks for all the help!

[terryj]

mAC3dec dind't work, it didn't like the mp2 files at all (I could just find an old version, maybe that's why) but I used MoreMissingTools to convert it to a WAV-file instead, that should be just as good.

And now I could copy the track with QT but I can still not save the whole thing to MPEG-1. There are simply no option like that. MPEG-4 is there but no MPEG-1.

AIFF is much more..."mac friendly"...but YOU can use .wav if you want....

Looks like I'm missing some sort of MPEG1 codec. Does that come with OS X? I remember it comes with Toast 5 and I've recently made a re-install of my OS X, maybe the codec accidently got thrown away then.

nah, I just let Toast 6 do the whole encoding bit and then burn it with Toast 5, it's easier that way.

but thanks for all the help!

Yes, You need to be a legacy Toast user ( Toast 5) to have the TOAST MPEG-1 codec installed. Without it, your only option is to have Toast 6
build your MPEG-1 files for you, but of course it will also try and do a
complete build for you as well.