Frustrated trying to burn SVCD

[InfoSeek]

Hello,

I'm an extreme newbie when it comes to burning anything more than audio CDs. However, recently I decided to burn some of my movies that I have on an external HDD to an SVCD so I can play it on a normal stand alone dvd player. I don't know if my DVD player supports XviD/Divx. In fact, I don't even know if they're the same thing. Googling it gave me mixed answers :/

Anyways, after I decided I was going to burn an SVCD, I started researching and it has been nothing but frustration. I have downloaded a few softwares but none seem to work!!

Let me tell you about the file. It is on an external HDD. When I try to open it using TMPGEnc, it gives me an error stating that the "file cannot open, or unsupported." The file appears as a "filename.xvid.avi" file. What does that mean? I understand that AVI is a type of file and Xvid is a codec. I also understand that in order to burn it to an SVCD, I need to covert the file to MPEG2 format. At least, that's what my research shows.

What do I convert, and how do I convert it?

I tried doing this some time back, but I gave up since it was so complicated. I thought I'll give it another try and I'm hitting the same road blocks again! It's so frustrating

Any help is appreciated

Thank you.

[wulf109]

That message in TMPEG means the video or audio codecs in the file are compatible with TMPEG. Try renaming the file to something simple like 01.avi
You need to find out what codecs are in the file.

[InfoSeek]

Oh, and one more thing:

Does anyone know how to uninstall VirtualDub from my computer? It's not showing up under the "add or remove programs."

I hate it when I install programs that don't show up on add or remove. I don't even know how to find out if that will happen or not.

Sign.. This can't be this complicated...

[InfoSeek]

How do I find out what codecs are in a file? What software do you use for something like that?

I could look it up, but for some reason right now, what ever software I download just turns out to be a waste of time. :/

*Edit: I tried renaming it to "filename.avi" and it returned the same error.

[aedipuss]

mediainfo or gspot would tell you what codecs were used, but the xvid in the filename is a pretty good give away.

first you need to find out if your dvd player will even play svcd, as most won't. you would be better of getting convertxtodvd and making dvds out of the videos.

[davexnet]

Which release of Tmpg ? If it's 2.5 go into options/environment setting/vfapi and make sure directshow is selected. Virtualdub doesn't have an uninstall routine, since it doesn't install - it just runs from it's folder. Delete the folder and you're done. Typically only about 40 minutes of material can be put on a single SVCD

[InfoSeek]

@aedipuss: I dl'ed gspot and the following codecs are being used -->

Video: Xvid MPEG-4
Audio: MP3 (MPEG-1 layer 3)

I have a lot of CDs and no DVDs and I really don't want to buy any DVDs. I'm pretty sure my DVD player plays other formats. I just want to burn the media onto something I can play on a DVD player instead of showing people the vid on a small screen (laptop).

@ Davexnet: I do have TMPGEnc 2.5 and it's under Options --> Preference --> VFAPI Plug-in (tab) and the 'DirectShow Multimedia File Reader' option is selected. So it's not working. Does SVCD really store only 40 mins of material? The file is 698 MB big. What about a VCD?

Thanks for letting me know about VirtualDub, it was driving me insane, lol.

[davexnet]

@ Davexnet: I do have TMPGEnc 2.5 and it's under Options --> Preference --> VFAPI Plug-in (tab) and the 'DirectShow Multimedia File Reader' option is selected. So it's not working. Does SVCD really store only 40 mins of material? The file is 698 MB big. What about a VCD?

Thanks for letting me know about VirtualDub, it was driving me insane, lol.

VCD can hold 80 minutes, unless you track down the KVCD templates then you can perhaps squeeze 120 minutes.
It's not the size in MB of the source that's the concern, it's the running time in minutes.

Did you right click on the items in vfapi plugin and set all to default ?
If you can't get Tmpgenc to open the file itself, you could try frameserving from Virtualdub or Avisynth.

[Nelson37]

First, the filename means absolutely nothing about filetype. If I hand you a banana and tell you it's a strawberry, what do you have? Lots of folks on the Internet either have a strange sense of humour, are clueless, or both. Use Gspot to determine what it really is. I've seen ".mpg" files that are xvids, and ".avi" files that are mpgs.

Now, a 698MB xvid is going to double in size or more as an mpg, or look like crap, or both. Does your laptop by any chance have an s-video out port, or does your TV have VGA-in?

[davexnet]

Well if you go back in time 7 or 8 years, quite a few of us got the most out of VCD and SVCD and learned many of the tricks involved to squeeze out the best from the 800MB maximum size of the CD. The KVCD templates, were able to increase the minutes by using a modified GOP and variable bitrate. You could put a whole movie in 800MB to fit on one CD - which was great at the time. I still have some of the disks I did back them. (because I haven't watched them yet). Seems antiquated now; the quality is a little fuzzy; but if you just want to watch the movie, it may be acceptable.

[InfoSeek]

@davexnet: I did right click and reset everything to 'recommended setting' within TMPGEnc and it still didn't work. Unfortunately, VirtualDub can't open the file either. It is giving me the following error (with VirtualDub):

Couldn't locate decompresser for forma "XVID" (unknown)

The video that I'm trying to burn is a little less than 80 mins long (1:19:00) so I guess I should tyr VCD? Right? Also, the quality of the video isn't all that great to begin with. It is a comedy stand up so the video doesn't really have to be clear, just acceptable. And what is a GOP? I know it's not the Republican Party, lol.

@Nelson37: The reason I thought it was AVI was because when I played it with VLC player, no matter what the file name was, it would add an .AVI at the end. I also confirmed that with Gspot. My laptop broke so I'm using my mom's old laptop which has no s-video out port. In fact, now that I think about it, I don't think we even have a DVD burner at home.. >.<

[davexnet]

Install the xvid codec and retry: https://www.videohelp.com/tools/XviD_Codec and yes, if it's less that 80 minutes a regular VCD will work.

[InfoSeek]

Thank you Davexnet! That worked! Wow, I can't believe how simple that was, lol.

I'm following the instructions on the following guide:

https://www.videohelp.com/divxtovcd.htm

Just so that I know why I'm doing what I am, could someone help me understand the different steps. Why are we extracting the audio? And does encoding just mean I'm converting the file from AVI to MPEG? Also, since I have an AVI file and a WAV file, how does encoding apply here?

Thanks

[jman98]

You extract the audio because you need to convert it and most of the conversion programs can't work with audio until it is separated from the video. MP3 audio must be converted for VCD/SVCD as the formats don't allow MP3.

Encoding means that you are converting from AVI to MPEG by using a program to encode the video from AVI to MPEG. AVI isn't valid for VCD/SVCD, so that's why you have to encode.

Encoding/converting aren't really different in your example so please don't get hung up with the terms. Your original file MUST have the video and audio converted to become VCD.

[InfoSeek]

Thanks for all your help guys! I'm glad I finally was able to burn VCDs. It worked perfectly on my dvd player.

Btw, Nero 9 will encode the file and burn the VCD all with one click. I dl'ed the trial version of Nero 9 and used it to burn the first VCD, and then I used it again without extracting/encoding manually, and it worked like a charm!

Out of curiosity, how do I play a VCD on my laptop? When I try opening the drive with VLC, it just shows me the files within.

[InfoSeek]

Thanks for all your help guys! I'm glad I finally was able to burn VCDs. It worked perfectly on my dvd player.

Btw, Nero 9 will encode the file and burn the VCD all with one click. I dl'ed the trial version of Nero 9 and used it to burn the first VCD, and then I used it again without extracting/encoding manually, and it worked like a charm!

Out of curiosity, how do I play a VCD on my laptop? When I try opening the drive with VLC, it just shows me the files within.