Subtitled AVI Movie File - Can't Convert To DVD Format Without Glitches

[TheGimp]

Nobody else could help, maybe you guys can? I'm trying to convert an avi movie file to a standard dvd format to later burn to a dvd to use on a stand alone player. I've had success with converting subtitled movies before but this one has got the best of me and so far, the best of many who are wiser than I (which isn't saying much).

Here's the file info that I'm trying to convert:

Stream 0
Codec XVID
Language
Type Video
Resolution 640X320
Frame Rate 25.000000

Stream 1
Codec A52
Language
Type Audio
Channels 1
Sample Rate 48000 Hz
Bitrate 128 kb/s

General
Duration 1:28:13

Stream 2
Codec subt
Language
Type subtitle

Meta-information
Setting HAS_INDEX IS_INTERLEAVED

My first attempt at conversion was with Toast Titanium 7. Converted the video and audio just fine but not the subtitles. Yes, I made sure subtitles were enabled but there were none to be found. Whenever this problem with missing subtitles has occurred I've then used VisualHub. VisualHub converted the video with subtitles just fine, but the audio is sped up (sounds like Alvin and The Chipmunks on speed). After contacting the guys at the VH support forums it was suggested to change the "channels" setting from "auto" to "stereo". This failed giving me the same result as before - they have yet to get back to me after posting this problem 2 days ago. A fellow member at ehMac suggested ffmpegX. I DL'ed it according to instructions. I tried converting the movie file to "dvd lo" but it too resulted with the exact same audio problem. I tried converting to MPEG2 but again, same audio glitch.

So here I am. Likely I'm a poor musician blaming his instrument when in reality I'm not using the programs properly to convert this file. Can anyone give me an idea of how to set-up ffmpegX to hopefully convert the above file?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Baldrick]

I'm moving you to our ffmpegx section.

[TheGimp]

Followed the guidelines as shown here; http://homepage.mac.com/major4/dvd_sub.html

For the preset I choose "DVD mpeg2enc". I then loaded the subtitles and used preview to check that everything was was in sync. Looked good.

Began encoding. After it was finished I looked for the Audio TS and Video TS - no such files found.

Instead I found the following (besides the original movie file and subt file):

- E.avi.ff.mv2 file
- E.avi.ff.mp2 file
- E.avi.ff.mpg file
- mpg.s.mpg file
- i.ff.mpg.xml

Using VLC to play these files if there was sound it was distorted, as usual, + there was no picture or subtitles. Very frustrating, especially after following the simple guidelines.

[Case]

1/ When you load the source file into ffmpegX, the Summary should show on the left side its video and audio characteristics. Do these match what VLC found, especially the audio (AC3, 48000 Hz, 1 channel/mono)?

2/ Your encoding to DVD was halted because some error prevented completion. As your five file show, this happened after encoding the video and audio, after muxing to .mpg. So perhaps it failed over the subtitle file. Is the mpg.s.mpg file 0 K in size?
Please tell us more about the source subtitle file (filename extension, language, file size, text based or image based).

3/ As the original audio should be DVD compliant, you could set the Audio to Passthrough, to keep it exactly as-is, and avoid any distortion.

4/ Your five output files are temporary files, needed to create a VIDEO_TS folder. The .m2v file is the video-only MPEG-2 file. The .mp2 file is the audio-only MPEG-1 layer II file. The .mpg file is a combination of the .m2v and .mp2 file, muxed into one file. The .mpg.s.mpg file is the MPEG-2 encoded subtitle stream. The .xml file is a temporary internal instruction file for the dvd authoring tool.

[TheGimp]

1/ When you load the source file into ffmpegX, the Summary should show on the left side its video and audio characteristics. Do these match what VLC found, especially the audio (AC3, 48000 Hz, 1 channel/mono)?

Yes, the summary on the left reads AC3, 48000 HZ, mono, and 128 kbs.

2/ Your encoding to DVD was halted because some error prevented completion. As your five file show, this happened after encoding the video and audio, after muxing to .mpg. So perhaps it failed over the subtitle file. Is the mpg.s.mpg file 0 K in size?
Please tell us more about the source subtitle file (filename extension, language, file size, text based or image based).

Yes, the mpg.s.mpg file is 0 K. As for the source subtitle file I can tell you the extension is .srt, the language is english (from Japanese), the file size is 44 KB and the subtitles are text based.

3/ As the original audio should be DVD compliant, you could set the Audio to Passthrough, to keep it exactly as-is, and avoid any distortion.

I'll try that.

4/ Your five output files are temporary files, needed to create a VIDEO_TS folder. The .m2v file is the video-only MPEG-2 file. The .mp2 file is the audio-only MPEG-1 layer II file. The .mpg file is a combination of the .m2v and .mp2 file, muxed into one file. The .mpg.s.mpg file is the MPEG-2 encoded subtitle stream. The .xml file is a temporary internal instruction file for the dvd authoring tool.

Thanks for the info - makes sense now.

If you think I should go ahead and try it again with the suggestion you made regarding the audio I will give it another try.

[Case]

If you think I should go ahead and try it again with the suggestion you made regarding the audio I will give it another try.

I'm still puzzled on why the subtitles didn't work. I would need to see the Process Information log (blue "i" button in the Progress window) to try to figure out why. Especially the last part of the log (after the INFO: [mplex]-lines), which shows what the app is doing with the subtitles.

[TheGimp]

I'm still puzzled on why the subtitles didn't work. I would need to see the Process Information log (blue "i" button in the Progress window) to try to figure out why. Especially the last part of the log (after the INFO: [mplex]-lines), which shows what the app is doing with the subtitles.[/quote]


Encoding started on Tue May 6 01:33:08 CST 2008
FFmpeg version CVS, Copyright (c) 2000-2004 Fabrice Bellard
Mac OSX universal build for ffmpegX
libavutil version: 49.0.0
libavcodec version: 51.9.0
libavformat version: 50.4.0
[NULL @ 0x45a630]looks like this file was encoded with (divx4/(old)xvid/opendivx) -> forcing low_delay flag
Input #0, avi, from '/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi':
Duration: 01:23:18.7, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1171 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 2.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 640x320
Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, mono, 128 kb/s
Output #0, dvd, to '/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg':
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(c): Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, q=2-20, 4000 kb/s
Stream #0.1: Audio: ac3, 48000 Hz, mono, 128 kb/s
Stream mapping:
Stream #0.0 -> #0.0
Stream #0.1 -> #0.1
[mpeg4 @ 0x45a630]looks like this file was encoded with (divx4/(old)xvid/opendivx) -> forcing low_delay flag
video:1851421kB audio:78104kB global headers:0kB muxing overhead 2.774689%
bench: utime=6570.976s
/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.xml:3: parser error : xmlParseEntityRef: no name
rs/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&
^
/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.xml:3: parser error : xmlParseEntityRef: no name
THSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.&
^
ERR: Error in parsing XML

[Case]

parser error : xmlParseEntityRef: no name

Usually this means that you have a stray ‘&’ in the XML document. This character has special meaning for XML which implies that XML does not treat '&' like a normal text character.

I would suggest renaming your files and folders to not include the '&'-character.

[TheGimp]

parser error : xmlParseEntityRef: no name

Usually this means that you have a stray ‘&’ in the XML document. This character has special meaning for XML which implies that XML does not treat '&' like a normal text character.

I would suggest renaming your files and folders to not include the '&'-character.

I tried what you suggested and simply removed the "&" character from all files ( eg. Lone.Wolf.&.Cub -> Lone.Wolf.Cub).

I then attempted to once again convert the file to DVDmpeg2enc. I left all the presets as is, loaded the subs and hit "encode". The resulting TS video file contained a VOB file with 0 KB. Did I do something wrong or is this file hopeless?

[Case]

Input #0, avi, from 'foo.avi':
Duration: 01:23:18.7, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1171 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 2.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 640x320

Input file has a framerate of 2 fps? That can't be right... AVI with framerate 25 you said in the original post.

Output #0, dvd, to 'foo.mpg':
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(c): Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, q=2-20, 4000 kb/s

When creating a DVD with NTSC Film framerate (23.976 fps), you should apply a 3:2 pulldown to the video. There is a checkbox for this (Set 3:2) in the Options tab for the DVD mpeg2enc preset.
DVDs at 23.976 fps without a pulldown may show unwanted behavior such as video stutter on some players.

The resulting TS video file contained a VOB file with 0 KB.

Hard to say why without looking at the log.

[TheGimp]

Input #0, avi, from 'foo.avi':
Duration: 01:23:18.7, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 1171 kb/s
Stream #0.0, 2.00 fps(r): Video: mpeg4, yuv420p, 640x320

Input file has a framerate of 2 fps? That can't be right... AVI with framerate 25 you said in the original post.

Output #0, dvd, to 'foo.mpg':
Stream #0.0, 23.98 fps(c): Video: mpeg2video, yuv420p, 720x480, q=2-20, 4000 kb/s

When creating a DVD with NTSC Film framerate (23.976 fps), you should apply a 3:2 pulldown to the video. There is a checkbox for this (Set 3:2) in the Options tab for the DVD mpeg2enc preset.
DVDs at 23.976 fps without a pulldown may show unwanted behavior such as video stutter on some players.

The resulting TS video file contained a VOB file with 0 KB.

Hard to say why without looking at the log.

Prior to this conversion (mpeg2enc) I selected "passthrough" and "set 3:2" as you previously suggested.

main debug: CPU has capabilities AltiVec FPU
main debug: looking for memcpy module: 2 candidates
main debug: using memcpy module "memcpyaltivec"
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: thread 42903040 (playlist) created at priority -47 (playlist/playlist.c:184)
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: thread 42892288 (preparser) created at priority -47 (playlist/playlist.c:210)
main debug: looking for interface module: 1 candidate
main debug: using interface module "hotkeys"
main debug: thread 42136576 (interface) created at priority -47 (interface/interface.c:198)
main debug: looking for interface module: 3 candidates
main debug: using interface module "macosx"
main debug: thread 42046464 (manage) created at priority -47 (interface/interface.c:164)
main debug: adding playlist item `VTS_01_1.VOB' ( file:///Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB )
main debug: creating new input thread
main debug: waiting for thread completion
main debug: thread 43422720 (input) created at priority 37 (input/input.c:265)
main debug: creating statistics handler
main debug: `file:///Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB' gives access `file' demux `' path `/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB'
main debug: creating demux: access='file' demux='' path='/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB'
main debug: looking for access_demux module: 0 candidates
main warning: no access_demux module matched "file"
main debug: creating access 'file' path='/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB'
main debug: looking for access2 module: 6 candidates
access_file debug: opening file `/Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB'
access_file error: file /Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB is empty, aborting
vcd debug: trying .cue file: /Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.cue
vcd debug: could not find .cue file
macosx debug: input has changed, refreshing interface
cdda debug: trying .cue file: /Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.cue
cdda debug: could not find .cue file
cdda warning: could not open /Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB
main warning: no access2 module matching "file" could be loaded
main error: no suitable access module for `file:///Users/name/Desktop/Lone.Wolf.And.Cub.COMPLETE.DVDRip.XviD-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE/Lone.Wolf.Cub.1.-.Sword.of.Vengeance.(Kozure.Okami.1).1972.DVDXvid-SOUTHSiDE.avi.ff.mpg.DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB'
macosx debug: error panel requested
macosx debug: input has stopped, refreshing interface
main debug: thread 43422720 joined (input/input.c:412)
main: nothing to play

[Case]

That looks like a VLC Messages output, which only tells that the (empty?) VOB can not be played.
I meant to ask for the Process Information log from ffmpegX, which would show why the conversion output was 0 KB/unplayable.

Is the converted .mpg file okay/playable? If so, try the Tools > Author tab to try to make a VIDEO_TS folder from the .mpg and .srt, without the long process of converting your source file to MPEG-2 all over again. If this is not successful, the ffmpegX Process Information log may be useful for the same diagnostic reasons.

[TheGimp]

The converted mpg file is playable but the audio is again, sped-up too fast.

The process information log for the prior conversion was unattainable. I clicked for the info log after conversion but only ended up with the forever spinning Mac beach ball.

[TheGimp]

Okay, finally figured this thing out.

First I converted the original file to a DVD file using VisualHub making sure the audio settings are identical to the original file (mono, 48 000Hz, etc).

Then I took the DVD file and added the subtitles using ffmepgX.

Then I used VisualHub to convert the file to a disk image which I later burned to a DVD.

This may be the long route but it's the only combination that works for these movies - 5 more to go