how to convert vcd to divx format with only one audio?

[yingyangboy]

I just recently purchased a player that plays dvd/cd/divx etc.
I have several copies of vcd(dat files) that i want to convert into mpg/divx format..so i can save them as data format onto a dvd-r. so i can can play them on my new player.
My vcds have dual audio and i dont know how to separate them...while playing the vcds on my computer i can choose the audio by selection in the menus of windows media or adjust them through the volume controls(left and right) ...after converting it to avi...i can only choose audio through the volume controls while playing avi file on my computer...
Can anyone please tell me how to convert vcds(dat files) into mpeg/avi data format and also separate the dual audio for my player.
Please advise steps and software to use.
Fyi the DVD media player I purchased from BestBuy is a Philips (model DVP642)

[whitejremiah]

i know that this was brought up a while ago, and it involved actually making 2 audio tracks out of the output.....basically you take the output wav file and separate it into channels (giving you two wav files) then you can take those, and compress them (or not) to mp3......this will take a bit of forum searching...but there's also now the divx media format tools that will allow you to take the 2 separate audio tracks, along with the video and have 1 file as an output with 2 audio tracks that can be played just like how alternate audio tracks on a regular dvd are played.......unfortunately that particular dvd player has no real way to directly control the left and right audio so you gotta convert it otherwise you will get what is basically a mix between the two channels....

[jagabo]

You can use VirtualDub's advaced audio filtering to eliminate one of the audio channels.

Enable Audio -> Full Processing Mode. Enable Audio -> Use Advanced Audio Filtering. Select Audio -> Filters. Press Add Filters. Add the Discard, Input, Output, and Stereo Split filters. Press close to close the Add Filters dialog. Back at the Audio Filter dialog attach the output pin of the Input filter to the input pin of the Stereo Split filter. Attach one of the outputs of the Stereo Split filter to the Output filter, the other one to the Discard filter.



Select an output compression codecs for the audio and video. Save as AVI.

You can avoid reencoding the video by demultiplexing the audio and video with a tool like TMPGEnc. Then use an audio editor to throw away one channel and save as MP2. Then multiplex the video and audio with TMPGEnc.

[whitejremiah]

if you have that particular dvd player though, im still of the opinion that you should look into the actual divx format so you can retain both audio tracks with the video....basically what you can do is follow the above guide two times, then take the resulting videos and open them in virtualdubmod then go to streams and select the audio track that shows up and click demux....repeat this for the other video, then open one of the videos up, and go to video>direct stream copy and go back to the streams section and disable the audio track.........then save AVI....so now what you will end up with is 1 AVI without audio and 2 audio tracks, then check out divx labs (labs.divx.com) and look for the divx conversion tools....this will require some brief reading on how to use it, but you can then take the files and merge them together into one file that will play back with EITHER of the two audio tracks....

[kschang]

On the other hand, I don't see why you'd want to keep movies that have MONO soundtracks...

[jagabo]

On the other hand, I don't see why you'd want to keep movies that have MONO soundtracks... :D

Yeah, who would want crap like Gone With the Wind, Casablanca, Citizen Kane, Vertigo, Lawrence of Arabia, The Wizard of Oz, Seven Samurai, The Maltese Falcon, Dr Strangelove...

[yingyangboy]

Thanx for the fast reply, This is what i did
i first converted dat to mpg with vcdgear
then i use virtualdub and open mpg file and did all instruction as provided by jagabo...and later saved as avi file....they all were out perfectly...however i was playing arnd with the bitrate to shrink the file size and i dont know what i did..but i cant save the files as avi anymore on the new conversions...they keep on giving an error

Error initializing audio stream compression:
The audio codec cannot compress the source audio to desired format.

Check that the sampling rate and number of channels in the source is compatiable with the selected compressed audio format.

Can anyone please explain, as im a newbie at all of this..

Thanx again...

[jagabo]

Error initializing audio stream compression:
The audio codec cannot compress the source audio to desired format.

I think you get this error if you select the compression codec, then change the audio properties. For example you open an AVI file with 44.1 KHz PCM audio, select MP3 compression at 44.1 KHz, then change the audio to 48 KHz. Since the MP3 encoder is expecting 44.1 KHz and you're new feeding it 48 KHz it complains. The solution is to reselect the audio codec and compression parameters.

[yingyangboy]

It just isnt working...i dont know how to troubleshoot.
Steps i did

convert dat file to mpg with vcd gear
open mpg file with virtual dub
add audio filters to separate audio as advised
selected compression mpeg layer-3 128kbit/s, 44100 hz stereo, 16KB/s
select Video Full processing mode and divx codec compression
save file as avi.

Error pops up.
Error initializing audio stream compression:
The audio codec cannot compress the source audio to desired format.
Check that the sampling rate and number of channels in the source is compatiable with the selected compressed audio format.

Did i forget or am i missing anything. How do i check if sampling rate and number of channels is compatible. Whats bugging me is that it worked before. I dont know what to do

[jagabo]

Since you are removing one channel of the audio what's left is mono -- did you choose that for the MP3 compression? Ah, I think I see why you missed it. Put a checkmark in the "Show all formats" option of the "Select audio compressions" dialog.

If you still can't get that to work try installing Lame and using that as your MP3 codec. That's what I usually use.

[ki.cheuk]

WINavi will convert your DAT to MPEG 1. Then use DVD Author to build you DVD. It has an Multilingual option which you must click and it will separate the two audio which your original have.

[jimmalenko]

WINavi will convert your DAT to MPEG 1. Then use DVD Author to build you DVD. It has an Multilingual option which you must click and it will separate the two audio which your original have.

WinAVI is the biggest piece of monkey crap ever

[yingyangboy]

I've tried show all formats under the audio compression and still it wont work. I've downloaded lame, but dont know if i installed it right..there werent any instructions on how to install it...i just clicked the *.exe file and it just goes to ms-prompt window and disappears.
assuming it is installed...i go to the audio compression menu, but theres was no Lame option to select.....

[jimmalenko]

The Lame EXE is not what you need - you need the Lame ACM, and there should be a .inf file for you to right-click on and go to Install. Then it should show up in virtualdub.

Personally I'd use Goldwave to extract the single channel and convert to a stereo file - https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=250335 is pretty much what you need.

[jagabo]

If you can't get the mono output from the stereo splitter to work with your MP3 codec, you can use the Split filter to convert into two identical channels, then use a stereo MP3 compression.

[yingyangboy]

Thanx alot jagabo. i followed yr instructions and used lame and chose the mono output and everything converted and worked on my computer. Thanx everyone else for your help. however as u made recall that i bought a dvd divx player Philips (model DVP642) for the purpose of viewing data video files on tv...video data files ive d/l that are converted works/view fine with the player ...but the the ones i converted myself dont(audio works fine, but video is in black and white). Can anyone help there?

[jagabo]

video data files ive d/l that are converted works/view fine with the player ...but the the ones i converted myself dont(audio works fine, but video is in black and white). Can anyone help there?

There is a greyscale option in Xvid -- be sure that isn't selected. That would make the videos B/W anywhere you played them. Do your files play in color on the computer but B/W on the DVP642?

[yingyangboy]

yes my files play color on my computer but plays b/w on the DVP642.

i didnt use xvid mpeg-4 codec as the video compression codec....i used dvix codec 5.2.1.

if using xvid will be better how do i configure or what configuration should i use.

[jagabo]

yes my files play color on my computer but plays b/w on the DVP642.

I haven't heard of that problem anywhere else. You might find this guide generally helpful although it doesn't address the B/W problem:

http://www.jarnot.com/twiki/bin/view/Public/DVP642LisaBsAVIGuide

i didnt use xvid mpeg-4 codec as the video compression codec....i used dvix codec 5.2.1.

Either one should work.

if using xvid will be better how do i configure or what configuration should i use.

Starting with the defaults (press Load Defaults at the main Xvid configuration dialog): I usually use Xvid in single pass, target quantizer mode (constant quality) with a quantizer of 2 to 3 (lower number = higher quality), MPEG Quantization Matrix (sharper picture), no B-VOPs (some players don't like B frames, they're lower quality too), Motion Search Precision at 5 (pretty fast), VHQ mode at 0 or 1 (pretty fast), maximum I frame interval 100 (for better seeking).

You may have to set the target quantizer value to 3 or higher for large frame sizes on the DVP-642. Otherwise bitrate peaks may cause the player to stutter.

[yingyangboy]

Where do i select the quantization matrix..is it the quantization type? under that i selected mpeg..
saving as avi under xvid settings the projected file is much larger than the normal vcd file....what adjustments do i have to do to make file conversion file smaller in size or at least the around the same size as the source file

[jagabo]

Where do i select the quantization matrix..is it the quantization type? under that i selected mpeg..

Yes, there.

saving as avi under xvid settings the projected file is much larger than the normal vcd file....what adjustments do i have to do to make file conversion file smaller in size or at least the around the same size as the source file

Use a larger Target Quantizer setting to get smaller files. I shoot for picture quality rather than small file size so I use low quantizer values. At 2 the output will look almost exactly the same as the input, even if you look at enlarged still frames. At 3 the output looks the same as the input at normal viewing speeds but you will see a little macroblocking if you look at enlarged still frames. Most stuff you download from the internet is compressed in 2-pass variable bitrate mode where the quantizer varies thoughout the video. Usually in the 5 to 10 range.

You can also enable B-VOP's to get smaller files. But as I noted earlier, some players have problems with them (I think the DVP-642 can handle them) they have lower picture quality.

[yingyangboy]

Thanx again....i will try this and hopefully it will not play b/w on the dvp-642

[jimmalenko]

B & W playback is normally associated with trying to play PAL on an NTSC-only TV AFAIK.

[jagabo]

B & W playback is normally associated with trying to play PAL on an NTSC-only TV AFAIK.

Now that I think of it, I remember when I had a DVP-642 that it had a problem like that when I had it set up incorrectly (I think I was playing with the region settings). Setting it back to NTSC ouput fixed the problem.

[yingyangboy]

Everything worked out no more black and white...
Thankyou everyone.

Also i was wondering what software to use for just deleting the dual audio without converting to xvid/divx. Please advise steps ..thanx again

[jagabo]

Everything worked out no more black and white...

Was it just a matter of encoding with Xvid? Did you find a fix for whatever went wrong with Divx?

Also i was wondering what software to use for just deleting the dual audio without converting to xvid/divx. Please advise steps ..thanx again

You could use TMPGEnc's Demultiplex utility to separate the audio and video (File -> MPEG Tools -> Simple Demultiplex). Then use an audio editor to strip one channel and recompress to an MP2 elementary stream. Finally remultiplex with TMPGEnc (File -> MPEG Tools -> Simple Multiplex).

[yingyangboy]

I had my dvp-642 set on multisystem lol...thats why it was black and white..i adjust settings to ntsc and it worked.

but i did find out with alot of time spent that resizing(decreasing resolution size) conversion with xvid will allow converted file to be view colored even in my dvp-642 was set at multisystem...

Can you advise which audio editor with steps to use to strip audio channel

[jagabo]

Can you advise which audio editor with steps to use to strip audio channel

Audacity is free and can do it:

Open the MP2 file from the TMPGEnc demux. Split the stereo tracks. Delete the track you don't want. Duplicate the remaining track. Join the two back into a stereo track. Save as WAV.

Open that WAV file in TMPGEnc, set the compression parameters. Save as an elementary audio stream. Finally remux the resulting MP2 and the M1V streams.

[D0C]

Since a Vcd is already MPEG format, what is the issue of renaming the .dat file to .mpeg? I've done this a few times and it's worked. I dont know if the quality would be better converting with VcdGear as mentioned above.

[jagabo]

DAT is MPEG data in a RIFF container. Not all programs can handle it directly.