Converting to SVCD help..

[yuppicide]

I built a home theater PC using a Hauppauge WinTV PVR 150. It records in MPEG2. What is the easiest way to convert them into SVCD?!

I'm not concerned with DVD quality recordings. I'm happy with SVCD and want to save space.

[kschang]

As you already have MPEG2, just author it with any SVCD Authoring package, like VCDEasy (the free version is fine) or Nero or some other packages.

[sanjayk]

Well MPEG2 may not necessarily be SVCD compliant. So you have to make sure that it is SVCD compliant beore creating a SVCD.

Check this link https://www.videohelp.com/svcd for SVCD specs.

[yuppicide]

I don't think they are compliant. I've tried to open them in Tsunami MPEG and it gives me an error.

[Baldrick]

Tsunami MPEG ?

tmpgenc/tmpgenc plus/tmpgenc xpress? you might need a mpeg2 decoder to be able to import mpeg2.

[yuppicide]

Alright I downloaded VCDEasy. I don't think it can do what I want. It looks like you can convert and burn. I just want to convert, not burn. I'm going to leave the converted files on my hard drive.

[kschang]

But I thought you said you want to

convert them into SVCD?!

[ZippyP.]

Are your files SVCD Spec? Check sanjayk's link and test them with Gspot to get the info. You should have captured to SVCD spec from the start.

If you need to re-encode then you can use TMPGEnc but you will need the mpeg2 plug-in here.

VCDEasy will author and burn to CD once you have an SVCD spec mpeg file.

[ZippyP.]

I'm going to leave the converted files on my hard drive.

Not much point converting if you're playing them on a computer only. Just leave 'em.

[mats.hogberg]

Hauppage PVR150 can capture in an SVCD compatible format (among other formats). To get it to disc (the D in SVCD) author and burn it with VCDEasy. If you don't want it on disc, why bother with if the mpg is SVCD compliant or not?

/Mats

[yuppicide]

Okay maybe I didn't explain things right.

With the program I am using to capture they're saving in MPG, but I am told they're DVD format. They're really large in filesize, that's why I want to shrink down to SVCD or DIVX. I just looked and a 4 min 50 second video capture was 463MB in filesize. I captured a music video off Headbanger's Ball on MTV2. When I download SVCD videos off the internet they're say 100MB or less for the same length. That's a huge size difference.

In the future I might burn them to discs once my hard drive space starts to run out, but I'm not going to burn them in DVD format most likely. I can fit more on a DVD if I just burn everything as data for backup. I once burned a DVD of music videos and I forget the number, but I was able to fit maybe 20 videos on a disc or something, but if I burned them in data mode I fit almost 60-70.

So I downloaded that VCDEasy program and it converts and burns to disc. I just want to convert. No burn. I didn't see a way to just convert.

I downloaded GSPOT and tested one of the files. How do I know what is what tho?! I opened a file, hit the render button and it says:

Stream Type and A/V Interleave: video/mpeg
Video Src Type: MPEG2_VIDEO Audio Src Type: MPEG2_AUDIO
Video Path: (S) --> MPEG-2 Demultiplexer --> ffdshow MPEG-4 Video Decoder --> (R)
Audio Path: (S) --> MPEG-2 Demultiplexer --> ffdshow Audio Decoder --> (R)

[kschang]

You need to re-encode to VCD specs, it speeds. VCDEasy is authoring only, it doesn't convert at all.

If you got a bit of time, I'd suggest learning the bare minimumof AVISynth and the various encoders such as QuEnc so you can produce MPEG2's in the bitrate you want. It's nice that TMPGEnc has those templates setup already, but QuEnc can be manually set that way as well.

[mats.hogberg]

Again, The Hauppage card can capture in SVCD (or VCD or DVD and anything in between) ready format.
It's always better to do it right to start with, than having to reencode. Only other way (that might produce similar results) would be to capture @ the highest bitrate, at the highest res (12000 kbps, 720x480 NTSC) and reencode down to SVCD specs using "any" mpeg2 encoder, but that would require lots of HDD space, and takes time.
Consult the WinTV manual for how to alter the capture settings.

/Mats

[yuppicide]

The card might capture in SVCD or VCD, but the programs don't. I've been fooling around with Media Portal (very buggy and new version always locks up on me), BeyondTV (just tv viewing/recording which is all I want and it looks nice), and SageTV (the software looks like crap and seemed hard to setup compaired to others).

[yuppicide]

Oh man I didn't see the forum for converting DVD to other stuff. I just saw it in a sticky post up top.

[mats.hogberg]

The card might capture in SVCD or VCD, but the programs don't.

WinTV does. (The one that's shipped with the card!)

/Mats

[jman98]

Yuppicide - Having read all these posts, why don't you simply record directly in SVCD format with your card? I have the Hauppage PVR-350 and I could set it up to record in SVCD if I wanted to. If it doesn't have an SVCD setting (I don't remember and my card isn't near me at present), just record it was MPEG-2 video, 480x480 resolution, set the video bit rate at a constant bit rate of 2400, the audio bit rate at 224 and you should have something that is close enough to SVCD compliance to work. SVCD is supposed to have the audio at 44.1 Khz, but that's not valid for DVD, so if you think you might one day want to turn these into DVDs, you might want to record the audio at 48 Khz so you'll have that ready.

[whitejremiah]

if your playing everything back on the pc itself, you may consider using divx or xvid instead....or heck, even x264.......just capture to mpeg then convert to one of those formats...if you want it in svcd, then as everyone said, just capture to svcd and burn to a disc...heck even nero can burn an svcd mpeg to disc.....

[yuppicide]

I figured out why it wasn't recording in SVCD. You go into preferences in the WinTV2000 application and you select SVCD Standard for Quality Setting, but it doesn't record in SVCD. I had to hit ADVANCED, VIDEO, then SVCD. It worked this time.. a 5+ min file came out at 107mb instead of like 550-650mb like it usually would. Doesn't seem to save the setting nad I gotta go change it eveyrtime I go in.

Now I just gotta see if some other program can do it because the WinTV program isn't that great.

Here's something that's supposedly SVCD that I recorded. It's 7.9megs:

http://www.yuppicide.com/other/pspcomm.mpg

Are the lines in it normal?! You can see lines when the movement is fast. Keep in mind I'm only capturing with standard coax cable.

[yuppicide]

I tried recording in VCD, obviously it's more blocky but it gets rid of all those lines. I gotta find a way to get WinTV app to record into divx.

[yuppicide]

All this stuff I read you have to do this and do that just to convert a recorded file in DVD.. nope.. just found this program called Vidomi. Opened file, adjusted settings, told it where to save, and it looks fantastic my outputted XVID file.

[whitejremiah]

if you have the harddrive space to spare, i'd recommend recording to a much higher quality mpeg then loading that into virtualdubmod or something similar.....as for the quality of the clip, i think it turned out pretty well, although i did notice some like ghosting or something at the very end of the clip...im not entirely sure what caused that or really how to get rid of it, but if your considering going to divx, your best just sourcing it from as high of a quality clip first then converting from there....capturing directly to divx...im not sure if that particular card is even capable of it??? quite honestly though, that turned out pretty good for just a coax capture (although a black and white source helped quite a bit.......)

also as far as the lines during high motion, those appear at least to me, to be interlacing lines....reason they dont appear in the VCD is because VCD by definition can NOT have interlacing lines....they are removed automatically once your resolution drops below a certain point....i dont really think though, that they would be visable on a tv if someone was to actually convert it to an svcd.....

[yuppicide]

I should post a clip that I converted with Vidomi. I think it's really nice... and those interlace lines aren't there. I think this is how I'll do all my future recordings.

I will look at VirtualDubMod when I get home from work.

[jman98]

WinTV won't record in DivX. I did some research on this before I bought my Hauppage and while there are a few people on the internet who claim to have recorded AVI video with their Hauppage cards, no one who claims to have done it has ever provided any proof of it. I found one post somewhere that said that it was impossible to do because the hardware chip used by Hauppage only supported MPEG-1 and MPEG-2 video and nothing else. I tried to get Virtual Dub to record AVI format and got nowhere. I don't think it is possible.

Your post about the setting to record in SVCD reminded me - it's a little difficult to get changes to stay in WinTV2000. What I had to do was type of the name of the file I wanted to change in the window that shows the settings, make the changes, and then press the Save button. Don't just select the file or the change won't stay. You HAVE to type the name of the file, change the settings and then save it or it will keep the old settings. It's not very intuitive.

[mats.hogberg]

...and don't start the setting name with an underscore! It wont be save then. Had me fooled for the better of a month when I first started doing custom settings in WinTV...

/Mats

[yuppicide]

Thanks for the tip. I actually didn't make any custom settings. I'm just using what they provide me so far.

...and don't start the setting name with an underscore! It wont be save then. Had me fooled for the better of a month when I first started doing custom settings in WinTV...

/Mats

[yuppicide]

Check this out:

http://www.yuppicide.com/other/captest.avi

It's a 15mb XViD. I recorded off tv, then used that Vidomi program. Only thing that it messed up is the flames at the end. That wasn't in the normal capture, but I think it looks damn good.