adding chapters to divx

[tweedledee]

Hi, How can I quickly add chapters to a divx movie? Without having to convert back to another format.

[mats.hogberg]

Do you mean a DivX .AVI or a .DivX?
If the former - it can't be dome. If the latter, try DivX Media Builder. (Or other tool: https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=116#116)

/Mats

[tweedledee]

Do you mean a DivX .AVI or a .DivX?
If the former - it can't be dome. If the latter, try DivX Media Builder. (Or other tool: https://www.videohelp.com/tools?s=116#116)

/Mats

Thanks Mats, I'm not sure, but the file type shows as AVI, and it opens with MP classic which gives this info
Video: DivX 5 572x236 23.98fps 645Kbps [Video 0]
Audio: MPEG Audio Layer 3 48000Hz stereo 96Kbps [Audio 1]

[mats.hogberg]

Nope, that wont do. No chapters.
The "new" DivX 6 container format allows for chapters, menus and whatnot, but not the AVI container.
You could (without reencoding) turn it into a .divx, but the playback support for .divx is limited.

/Mats

[guns1inger]

If you author to .divx you can play it back in most standalone players, however only the PC based Divx PLayer, or Divx Ultra Certified will see any of the actual authoring (chapters, menus etc). Normal standalone players that can play standard Divx/Xvid etc will simply ignore the superfluous data.

[tweedledee]

Well, I decided that I would have to change the format. Then I found that the aspex ratio was way too wide for DVD Author to accept (560x306) so I used SUPER to convert to VCD format, then convert the result( again with SUPER ) to mpeg 2 with AC3 sound. The end result was very good and chapters were added in DVD Author.
If anyone can come up with a better method, please feel free to comment.

[mats.hogberg]

Some room for improvement, yes.
A simple way would be to use convertx2dvd. Downside of this, is I think you get chapter points evenly distributed, and can't control this.
If you're satisfied with the quality you got, fine, but you've thrown a lot overboard with your somewhat roundabout way of going from AVI to DVD specs MPG.
The fewer steps the better - and use a real encoder like HCEnc. IMO, SUPER produces rather dicey output qualitywise.
Use FitCD with your AVI to get the .avs script to feed into HCEnc.

/Mats

[tweedledee]

Thanks Mats for your comment. When I look at the movie on my 68cm TV I can not see any difference in picture quality from the original Divx movie,
There may be a difference,but I can't see it. I don't know how I can get the same result with less moves. I'm very happy with the result.

[mats.hogberg]

One improvement you could do, while still using the same applications, is to go from AVI to DVD mpg straight away, instead of avi->vcd->dvd. That will improve matters lots, since the VCD step throws most video quality over board.

/Mats

[tweedledee]

I tried that but it squashed up the picture. I'm just trying the program you suggested and so far it looks good.

[mats.hogberg]

Yes, that's the problem with SUPER - the resizing. But according to another recent thread,
https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=326871
it's possible to solve. It's just rather convoluted.

/Mats

[tweedledee]

Hi Mats, thank you for suggesting CONVERTXDVD it is much better and faster than my method. That's what I like about Videohelp, there is always someone who is willing to pass on their expertise. Thank you again, and keep up the good work.

[mats.hogberg]

Glad you solved it.

/Mats

[ejai]

I'm not sure but doesn't Tmpgenc's Divx Author software allow chapters to be added on either .divx or .avi files? I've never ran into the problem of whether I used a DivX .avi or .divx file. It seems to me if you have to convert the file you would be degrading the quality even more.

It might be worth looking in to.

[mats.hogberg]

I'm not sure but doesn't Tmpgenc's Divx Author software allow chapters to be added on either .divx or .avi files?

Or. I'm sure it can take DivX AVI as source, but the output is in the DivX contaner. Which has limited player support.

/Mats