How can I make an AVI into a VCD?

[MJBoa]

OK, I used TMPGEnc to encode my 716 MB AVI to an MPG with a bitrate of 600 but no matter what I do, it increases the size to 900MB+ when I add it to a VCD project under Roxio Easy Media Creator 8 which I'm using because Nero doesn't work on my computer. But I doubt it would work in Nero either. It seems like it's converting it to a certain format no matter what I do to it beforehand. How can I make it not make it larger?

[yoda313]

You can try kvcd. They change the bitrate of standard vcds. Other than that you could try getting a cheap divx dvd player and simply burn the original avi file to cdr and playing it straight off the disc - no conversion (many under $50 these days).

Other than that you'll have to split it to two discs to get it to fit.

[jman98]

MJBoa - Your source AVI must be about 2 hours or so. That's an awful lot of video to try to fit on one CD-R. I have a few suggestions.

1) Get a video editor and split the encoded video into 2 files. MPEGVCR and VideoReDo are 2 good editors. TMPGenc can also be used for this, but beware that many (but not all) have audio sync problems when using it to edit.
2) Buy 90 or 99 minute CD-Rs and burn to those. 90 minute CD-Rs offer the best compatibility for playback. Many CD burners can't burn to 99 minute discs. Both violate CD standards, but the 90 minute ones are close enough that they usually work.
3) Use an even lower bit rate. If you can live with 600 Mpbs, try 400 or 500. The video at 600 is going to be pretty sucky and if you can live with that, an even lower bit rate may not be a whole lot worse.
4) KVCD can do this as yoda313 says, but some standalone players may have problems with the disc as it violates just about every VCD standard there is.
5) Buy a cheap DVD player that can play Divx/Xvid as yoda313 also suggested.

Roxio and Nero don't play nice together which is probably why Nero "doesn't work" in your PC.

Standard VCD was designed to hold 1 minute of video for 1 minute of space on the disc. In other words, an 80 minute CD-R should hold about 80 minutes of VCD video. You're really just trying to jam too much onto one disc and you are going to have to compromise on something (number of discs or video quality) to pull this off.

[jagabo]

TMPGEnc follows the the VCD spec: When you select a bitrate that is lower than the standard 1150 it pads the frames so that the file size remains the same.

If you want to make a smaller file (ie, without the padding) go to Settings -> System and select "MPEG-1 VideoCD (non-standard)". But as jman98 said, 2 hours on one VCD isn't going to look good.

[Shadarr]

Have you tried VBR? Set a low Minimum and you can even increase your MaxBitrate to reduce macroblocks on the faster-moving scenes. It will compress the slower 'talking' scenes well, but if your movie has lots of fast-action, it will end up big anyway.

Might have to find an encoder that will let you do this, but as long as your standalone player is less than a couple years old, it'll play it - even the cheap ones do these days!

[ZippyP.]

Might have to find an encoder that will let you do this...

TMPGEnc will do it. 2-pass VBR, 100 minimum, 600 avg., 1500 max, and set it for non-standard as mentioned. Author with VCDEasy, older free version available.