MP4 to VCD or SVCD

[pcapone]

Seriously this is not a joke.

I haven't toyed with VCD's or SVCD's in ages. Here is the deal. I have a friend who needs a video and im all out of DVD's right now. I figured I would create a VCD or SVCD instead. I need to convert a video from youtube that is mp4 format over to mpg eventually and make sure the mpeg-2 is VCD or SVCD compliant then find an app that will burn it correctly. How can I go about this these days? What software to use and what steps to take?

Is there another way easier where I can just drop a media file to a CD and have the player recognize it? If im not mistaken some units can read specific media types and play them back. The DVD player he has isnt top of the line, its older.


----

I dusted the cobwebs off some old software TMPGenc and a few others. I tried using TMPGenc to reencode an mpg I converted from mp4 using AVStoDVD and changed the disc size so it would fit a cd but it gave me an error saying it couldnt be opened or wasnt supported. Im assuming it wasnt the proper mpg and not compliant.

[Baldrick]

Does the dvd player support avi divx? Then convert to it with for example xmedia recode. Use the dvd player(Standalone) / dvd player(avi) preset. Be sure to use max 720x576 pixels resolution/size. Last burn it as a data cd with imgburn, cdburnerxp,burnaware free, etc.

mpg files might also work on a dvd player with avi divx/media support.

[Cornucopia]

Depends greatly on the player, but some have accepted DVD material burned to CD (usually called "miniDVD", though not officially). The problem is the filesize limitation (usually only works with short titles) and the bitrate limitation (CDs inherently have a slower datarate than DVDs, so there would likely be stuttering above certain bitrates). Many settop devices can only do 1x or 2x or 4x rotational speeds, so that would mean 1.18Mb/sec, 2.35Mb/sec or 4.6Mb/sec for CD media.

Since you have TMPGEnc, you can easly encode an MPEG2 using a 2pass VBR bitrate of say, 5.5MB/sec max, 4MB/sec avg, 1MB/sec min, but this would only get you ~19-20min. of title time per disc, and the quality would be compromised (probably even compared to the original). Then author using something besides AVS2DVD (like DVDFlick). Will need to check with a calculator.

Much easier to just get some more DVD discs.

Scott

[pcapone]

Does the dvd player support avi divx? Then convert to it with for example xmedia recode. Use the dvd player(Standalone) / dvd player(avi) preset. Be sure to use max 720x576 pixels resolution/size. Last burn it as a data cd with imgburn, cdburnerxp,burnaware free, etc.

mpg files might also work on a dvd player with avi divx/media support.

Im not sure if his player supports avi divx. I was thought something like this would work. I guess I will just have to give it a try.

[pcapone]

Depends greatly on the player, but some have accepted DVD material burned to CD (usually called "miniDVD", though not officially). The problem is the filesize limitation (usually only works with short titles) and the bitrate limitation (CDs inherently have a slower datarate than DVDs, so there would likely be stuttering above certain bitrates). Many settop devices can only do 1x or 2x or 4x rotational speeds, so that would mean 1.18Mb/sec, 2.35Mb/sec or 4.6Mb/sec for CD media.

Since you have TMPGEnc, you can easly encode an MPEG2 using a 2pass VBR bitrate of say, 5.5MB/sec max, 4MB/sec avg, 1MB/sec min, but this would only get you ~19-20min. of title time per disc, and the quality would be compromised (probably even compared to the original). Then author using something besides AVS2DVD (like DVDFlick). Will need to check with a calculator.

Much easier to just get some more DVD discs.

Scott

Thats what I am worried about is the size. The video itself is a tutorial and only around 20mins. I would need to get it from mp4 to avi or mpeg first and under the size of a CD. I took AVStoDVD and burned an 352x240 disc with the disc size at 600 or 650mb. I cant get it recognized in the software ive tried. I tried TMPGEnc encoding to VCD but I get an error when loading the file saying "can not open or unsupported". Im wondering if I set something incorrectly when using AVStoDVD to convert the mp4 to mpg first off.

[Cornucopia]

Most consumer authoring apps are not geared to accepting 352x240 (aka 1/4 D1), only full D1 (720 or 704x480 in NTSC-land). At 4Mb/sec, Full D1 looks pretty noticeably reduced quality. You could try 1/2 D1 (352x480) MPEG2. 4Mb/sec at 1/2 D1 is (obviously) soft but exhibits much less artifacts.

Don't encode to "VCD" (certainly not with it's preset), as it doesn't have the particular details for DVD support (might work, might not depending on the authoring app. Notice: VCD = 1/4 D1 = MPEG1, and if you are trying to keep things "DVD MPEG2 compliant", it shouldn't be included.

AVS2DVD is a good app, but you can also do well for yourself by manually encoding, authoring & burning separately.

Scott

[pcapone]

Thanks for the information Scott. I am getting around to trying out separate applications for each process. As for the video I gave Baldricks suggestion a try just havent burnt the CD yet. I will let you guys know how it does.

quick question.. If i want to put 2 videos on the disc can i just place them on it and burn the disc without merging them or doing anything else? Will this still let me skip from video 1 to video 2 on the DVD player?

[Cornucopia]

This, meaning AVS2DVD? Not sure as I rarely use it (I've got other better, full-fledged authoring & encoding apps to use). It is certainly possible (and yet still compliant) with some authoring apps.

Scott

[pcapone]

This, meaning AVS2DVD? Not sure as I rarely use it (I've got other better, full-fledged authoring & encoding apps to use). It is certainly possible (and yet still compliant) with some authoring apps.

Scott

What I mean is use baldricks suggestion. Take 2 videos and convert them with xmedia recode to the proper format then burn both videos to CD provided I can get them to fit. I converted one already and it was only 186MB and 19 minutes long. I think I can fit both. I just want to make sure I will be able to view both videos on the DVD player.

[Skiller]

VCDs and SVCDs are well supported among DVD-players. A player that supports SVCD almost certainly always does support VCD too, but there are players that play VCD but not SVCD. And very few (PlayStation 2 for example) do not support either.

If quality is not much of a concern and you do not want to risk whether the thing plays or not just burn a standard compliant VCD.
That's MPEG1 (not 2!) at 352x240 (for NTSC) at either 29.97 or 23.976 fps (yes, 23.976 is supported by VCD) at at a constant bitrate of 1150 KBit/s and MP2 audio at 224 KBit/s sampled at 44.1 KHz (not 48 KHz, although back in the day I found that 48 KHz works no problem at all and avoids the resampling). Aspect ratio must be 4:3, anamorphic 16:9 is not supported.

[Cornucopia]

WERE supported. Very few recent models support S/VCD.

Widescreen VCD is not officially supported but I know how to make them properly. Some players honor anamorphic, some (most) don't. It's better for SVCD, since the format already relies on anamorphic stretching. Just need the right tools & methods.
I have a widescreen VCD test disc in my library.

Scott

[Skiller]

WERE supported. Very few recent models support S/VCD.

Are you talking about Blu-ray players? I am aware that S/VCD is hardly supported by Blu-ray players but I haven't really noticed a drop in support with DVD-players.

I just checked the first five DVD-players listed on (German) Amazon, except for one (LG DP542H) they all officially support S/VCD.

[Cornucopia]

No. Dvd players.
But there could always be (& has been) a wide variance to features in models built for N.Am. vs EU vs Japan etc.

Scott

[hello_hello]

I'd go with the Xvid/DivX/Avi method myself first. Burn them as data files and see if the DVD player will play them.

Then I'd try converting to mpeg2 video and burning that to CD as a data file. DVD compliant mpeg2 would probably be a good idea, but burned as data files.

[pcapone]

Thanks guys I will give the suggestions a try.

[pcapone]

Well I replenished my DVD supply so I think I will just stick with a DVD. Although I still want to give these suggestions a try soon for the hell of it.

I notice WINAVI All In One Converter has an option for VCD/SVCD/KVCD output. I might give that a try too.