Advice requested on converting multiple DVDs to Blu-Ray playable discs

[bluedemon25]

Hi. This is my first post here so I hope I have this in an appropriate place. I am completely new to video conversion and work. I have done a bunch of internet search and some reading on this forum but am feeling still stuck with figuring out the process of converting DVDs to a form I can then burn onto a Blu-Ray disc which will play in standard blu-ray players. I have seen many programs mentioned, some of which I've tried in whatever freeware/trialware is available (such as TsMuxer, multiAVCHD, DVDtoBD Express, VidOn DVD to Blu-Ray converter) but have not had success with for various reasons. For most of these, while I found some documentation, it was not enough to make it clear if I'm "doing things right" or how to fix error messages given. I would love as an ultimate goal if at all possible to make a blu-ray that contains multiple DVDs and a custom menu (doesn't need to be fancy) and with many chapter designations made by me. I'm not aware if there is a limit to chapters per disc, but the DVDs seem to need anywhere from 20 to 60ish chapters depending on how many short vhs fragments were written to them, in case that help someone guide me as far as if it is plausible to have a lot of chapters on one blu-ray disc.

The DVDs I'm trying to work with are the actual DVDs (but I have copied to disc and tried with the VOB files and ISOs I made from them too), and are NOT copyrighted. These are old VHS family videos converted to DVD by a local camera company years ago, but without useful chapter information (most seem to be have chapters at regular intervals, others just thoughtlessly placed).

Many of the programs I've found seem to want a starting point of MKV or MP4, but I'm not sure how to generate those from my DVDs without losing video or audio quality or having company's watermarks (VidOn seems to do this at least in the trial version) on it. I'm not clear hence my asking here, if that is indeed the best way to go, or if I can skip the MKV/MP4 generation since these are physical discs in my possession and I can access the VOB files and/or make ISOs of them. I tried using TsMuxer as I found linked to download from this forum and it ran, but the resulting video file when I attempt to play it in VLC to see if I got anything only has audio and is black/no image. I'm not sure what that means.

With respect to attempts at using multiAVCHD, I found various guides that helped somewhat, but in the end it didn't succeed. I saw mention to use something called "multitest" and did so, and it says it failed on the MPEG-2 conversion. I couldn't find anything that details what one should do in that situation. I am using Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit if that helps. I would prefer to not change the aspect ratio and certainly don't want to degrade what audio and video quality there is any further. I don't know if part of the issue is related to this but it highlighted in red in multiAVCHD that my DVD VOB files were 352x480i. Is there a way I can keep this and have it use filler/black bars so it doesn't stretch and look silly or do I need to go up to the next size with similar aspect ratio?

I would be very appreciative for any advice on which pathway is best and how to do it (do I make MKV/MP4 somehow or is that not needed and instead work with VOB files? Which programs to use?) to combine multiple non-copyrighted DVDs into easily playable blu-ray disc (25 GB) preferably with a simple menu and my own chapter designations.

Thanks very much

Below in case it helps is the log I got from multiAVCHD

[02:04:27] Initialising...
[02:04:27] Checking for new version...
[02:04:28] You have the latest build.
[02:04:28] Consistency check finished!
[02:04:28] Initialization finished. multiAVCHD is ready!

[02:04:28] 10 years and 273 days since multiAVCHD was published.
[02:04:28] Support multiAVCHD to extend its features and keep it going!


[02:04:28] multiAVCHD.dat version: [04010767]

[02:04:34] Project name: multiAVCHD
[02:04:34] Project loaded: (C:\multiAVCHD\multiAVCHD.mpf)
[02:04:34] Project created with build 771 (23/09/2019 01:58:01)

[02:05:31] Checking for available space and drive types (FAT32/NTFS)...
[02:05:31] Destination [c:]: NTFS, 48967.98 MiB (47.82 GiB) free space
[02:05:31] Temp folder [c:]: NTFS, 48967.98 MiB (47.82 GiB) free space

[02:05:31] Log started for multiAVCHD v4.1 (build 771)
[02:05:31] Selected output mode: Blu-ray player (BD-R/BD-RE disc)

[02:05:31] Processing 2 titles...
[02:05:32] Processing (DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\)...
[02:05:32] Pre-processing DVD input (c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\)...
[02:05:35] *** Detected duration: 03:25:00
[02:05:35] !!! No subtitles found!
[02:05:35] *** Extracting audio (mplayer)...
[02:05:35] *** Extracting ac3 track #128 (und)...
[02:07:06] *** Extracting video (mplayer)...
[02:08:47] Pre-processing completed!
[02:08:47] This title is marked for reencoding / uncropping...
[02:08:47] Encoding process may take 10 min to 10 hours, so be patient...

[02:08:47] *** Initiating video encoding:

[02:08:47] *** Original : 352x480
[02:08:47] *** Crop : 0
[02:08:47] *** Resize : 352x480 (No change)
[02:08:47] *** Uncrop to : 720x480
[02:08:47] *** Sharpen : 0
[02:08:47] *** Bitrate : 1500 kbps
[02:08:47] *** Frame rate: Original (23.976)
[02:08:47] *** Level : 3
[02:08:47] *** B-frames : 3
[02:08:47] *** Ref-frames: 4
[02:08:47] *** GOP size : 48 (keyframe min. each 4 frames)
[02:08:47] *** Quality : One pass (turbo)
[02:08:47] *** SAR : 40:33
[02:08:47] *** DAR : 853x480
[02:08:47] *** Re-packing elementary V_MPEG-2 stream...
[02:09:00] *** Profile : Blu-ray

[02:09:00] *** Encoding : One pass - content: [03:25:00]
[02:09:00] *** Encoding : x264 options: --preset veryfast -B 1500 --interlaced --direct spatial -I 24 --level 3 -i 8 -b 3 -r 4 -m 2 --mvrange 256 -A p8x8,i8x8 --ipratio 1.1 --pbratio 1.1 --vbv-bufsize 12500 --vbv-maxrate 12000 --qcomp 0.5 --threads auto --thread-input --aud --nal-hrd vbr --sar 40:33 --b-pyramid strict --slices 0 --weightp 0 --qpfile "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\IDR-x264-marks.txt" --rc-lookahead 24 -o "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.[720x480-23.976].264" "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020847-uncrop-running.avs"
[02:09:02] *** Speed : 135775.69 fps (elapsed: 00:00:02 - Realtime x 5662.98)

[02:09:02] *** Transcoding failed!
[02:09:02] *** Check ffdshow/avisynth/haali (reinstall)!
[02:09:02] >>> Download links: http://multiforum.deanbg.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17
[02:09:02] *** DEBUG: Try to play [c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020847-uncrop-running.avs] in MPC or other player, which supports AviSynth scripts and report the error to the author!

[02:09:02] Retrying to transcode with FFMS2!
[02:09:02] Stand-by for indexing...

[02:09:02] *** Initiating video encoding:

[02:09:02] *** Original : 352x480
[02:09:02] *** Crop : 0
[02:09:02] *** Resize : 352x480 (No change)
[02:09:02] *** Uncrop to : 720x480
[02:09:02] *** Sharpen : 0
[02:09:02] *** Bitrate : 1500 kbps
[02:09:02] *** Frame rate: Original (23.976)
[02:09:02] *** Level : 3
[02:09:02] *** B-frames : 3
[02:09:02] *** Ref-frames: 4
[02:09:02] *** GOP size : 48 (keyframe min. each 4 frames)
[02:09:02] *** Quality : One pass (turbo)
[02:09:02] *** SAR : 40:33
[02:09:02] *** DAR : 853x480
[02:09:02] *** Re-packing elementary V_MPEG-2 stream...
[02:09:14] *** Profile : Blu-ray

[02:09:14] *** Stand-by for indexing (ffms2)...

[02:09:14] *** Encoding : One pass - content: [03:25:00]
[02:09:14] *** Encoding : x264 options: --preset veryfast -B 1500 --interlaced --direct spatial -I 24 --level 3 -i 8 -b 3 -r 4 -m 2 --mvrange 256 -A p8x8,i8x8 --ipratio 1.1 --pbratio 1.1 --vbv-bufsize 12500 --vbv-maxrate 12000 --qcomp 0.5 --threads auto --thread-input --aud --nal-hrd vbr --sar 40:33 --b-pyramid strict --slices 0 --weightp 0 --qpfile "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\IDR-x264-marks.txt" --rc-lookahead 24 -o "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.[720x480-23.976].264" "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020902-uncrop-running.avs"
[02:09:47] *** Speed : 8894.46 fps (elapsed: 00:00:33 - Realtime x 370.97)

[02:09:47] *** Transcoding failed!
[02:09:47] *** Check ffdshow/avisynth/haali (reinstall)!
[02:09:47] >>> Download links: http://multiforum.deanbg.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17
[02:09:47] *** DEBUG: Try to play [c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020902-uncrop-running.avs] in MPC or other player, which supports AviSynth scripts and report the error to the author!


[02:09:47] tsMuxeR failed to process [DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\]...
[02:09:48] Processing (DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 2 Disc Files\VIDEO_TS\)...
[02:09:48] Pre-processing DVD input (c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 2 Disc Files\VIDEO_TS\)...
[02:09:50] *** Detected duration: 04:09:46
[02:09:50] !!! No subtitles found!
[02:09:50] *** Extracting video (mplayer)...
[02:11:50] Pre-processing completed!
[02:11:51] Detected video: ID#0:V_MPEG-2 352x480, fps=29.970
[02:11:51] Total of 1 tracks found in this file.
[02:11:51] Adding audio file (dvddump.001.und.ac3)
[02:11:51] Creating clip and playlist info (tsMuxeR)...
[02:11:51] Media split set at 4000MiB point...

tsMuxeR (Version 1.10.6) output:
================================================== =============================
PROCESSING ERROR: No data received from tsMuxeR!
Trying again...
================================================== =============================
MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --blu-ray --vbr --custom-chapters=00:00:00;00:09:50;00:19:40;00:30:29;00:40 :19;00:50:09;00:59:59;01:09:49;01:19:39;01:30:28;0 1:40:18;01:50:08;01:59:58;02:09:48;02:19:38;02:30: 27;02:40:17;02:50:07;02:59:57;03:09:47;03:19:37;03 :30:26;03:40:16;03:50:06;03:59:56 --split-size=4000MiB --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG-2, "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.mpeg", insertSEI, contSPS, track=1, fps=29.970
A_AC3, "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.001.und.ac3", lang=und
================================================== =============================

[johnmeyer]

Sounds like a lot of work to no real purpose. Are you simply trying to save a little space?

Sorry, I don't see the point.

[manono]

Ditto.

Since they're only 352x480 they all have to be reencoded, thus degrading the already poor quality. The best quality is what you have already. If they were 720x480 then they wouldn't have to be reencoded.

[johnmeyer]

Manono,

I completely missed the 352x480 part. These sound more like SVCD encodes that were put on a DVD.

Best advice is to simply copy the files to a data BD and be done with it.

[DB83]

Well I guess the 'point' is that a single-layer blu ray disk can hold 25 gb of data compared with 4 gb for the dvd. So the cunning plan is that the blu ray could replace 6 dvds.

Well the theory is grand enough, the practice is somewhat different.

Your notion to 'preserve the original quality' is a stumbling block since for blu ray you do not have any quality. You have low resolution/low bitrate dvds neither of which are compatable for blu ray. Starting with the video frame that 352*480 video has to be atleast 720*480. So that resize at that bitrate makes your video unwatchable. So to try and compensate you need to convert that video to atleast 4500 kbps. Triple the bitrate triples the size so now you no longer can fit 6 disks but only two.

Still think it's worth the effort ?

[october262]

Hi. This is my first post here so I hope I have this in an appropriate place. I am completely new to video conversion and work. I have done a bunch of internet search and some reading on this forum but am feeling still stuck with figuring out the process of converting DVDs to a form I can then burn onto a Blu-Ray disc which will play in standard blu-ray players. I have seen many programs mentioned, some of which I've tried in whatever freeware/trialware is available (such as TsMuxer, multiAVCHD, DVDtoBD Express, VidOn DVD to Blu-Ray converter) but have not had success with for various reasons. For most of these, while I found some documentation, it was not enough to make it clear if I'm "doing things right" or how to fix error messages given. I would love as an ultimate goal if at all possible to make a blu-ray that contains multiple DVDs and a custom menu (doesn't need to be fancy) and with many chapter designations made by me. I'm not aware if there is a limit to chapters per disc, but the DVDs seem to need anywhere from 20 to 60ish chapters depending on how many short vhs fragments were written to them, in case that help someone guide me as far as if it is plausible to have a lot of chapters on one blu-ray disc.

The DVDs I'm trying to work with are the actual DVDs (but I have copied to disc and tried with the VOB files and ISOs I made from them too), and are NOT copyrighted. These are old VHS family videos converted to DVD by a local camera company years ago, but without useful chapter information (most seem to be have chapters at regular intervals, others just thoughtlessly placed).

Many of the programs I've found seem to want a starting point of MKV or MP4, but I'm not sure how to generate those from my DVDs without losing video or audio quality or having company's watermarks (VidOn seems to do this at least in the trial version) on it. I'm not clear hence my asking here, if that is indeed the best way to go, or if I can skip the MKV/MP4 generation since these are physical discs in my possession and I can access the VOB files and/or make ISOs of them. I tried using TsMuxer as I found linked to download from this forum and it ran, but the resulting video file when I attempt to play it in VLC to see if I got anything only has audio and is black/no image. I'm not sure what that means.

With respect to attempts at using multiAVCHD, I found various guides that helped somewhat, but in the end it didn't succeed. I saw mention to use something called "multitest" and did so, and it says it failed on the MPEG-2 conversion. I couldn't find anything that details what one should do in that situation. I am using Windows 10 Pro 64 Bit if that helps. I would prefer to not change the aspect ratio and certainly don't want to degrade what audio and video quality there is any further. I don't know if part of the issue is related to this but it highlighted in red in multiAVCHD that my DVD VOB files were 352x480i. Is there a way I can keep this and have it use filler/black bars so it doesn't stretch and look silly or do I need to go up to the next size with similar aspect ratio?

I would be very appreciative for any advice on which pathway is best and how to do it (do I make MKV/MP4 somehow or is that not needed and instead work with VOB files? Which programs to use?) to combine multiple non-copyrighted DVDs into easily playable blu-ray disc (25 GB) preferably with a simple menu and my own chapter designations.

Thanks very much

Below in case it helps is the log I got from multiAVCHD

[02:04:27] Initialising...
[02:04:27] Checking for new version...
[02:04:28] You have the latest build.
[02:04:28] Consistency check finished!
[02:04:28] Initialization finished. multiAVCHD is ready!

[02:04:28] 10 years and 273 days since multiAVCHD was published.
[02:04:28] Support multiAVCHD to extend its features and keep it going!


[02:04:28] multiAVCHD.dat version: [04010767]

[02:04:34] Project name: multiAVCHD
[02:04:34] Project loaded: (C:\multiAVCHD\multiAVCHD.mpf)
[02:04:34] Project created with build 771 (23/09/2019 01:58:01)

[02:05:31] Checking for available space and drive types (FAT32/NTFS)...
[02:05:31] Destination [c:]: NTFS, 48967.98 MiB (47.82 GiB) free space
[02:05:31] Temp folder [c:]: NTFS, 48967.98 MiB (47.82 GiB) free space

[02:05:31] Log started for multiAVCHD v4.1 (build 771)
[02:05:31] Selected output mode: Blu-ray player (BD-R/BD-RE disc)

[02:05:31] Processing 2 titles...
[02:05:32] Processing (DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\)...
[02:05:32] Pre-processing DVD input (c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\)...
[02:05:35] *** Detected duration: 03:25:00
[02:05:35] !!! No subtitles found!
[02:05:35] *** Extracting audio (mplayer)...
[02:05:35] *** Extracting ac3 track #128 (und)...
[02:07:06] *** Extracting video (mplayer)...
[02:08:47] Pre-processing completed!
[02:08:47] This title is marked for reencoding / uncropping...
[02:08:47] Encoding process may take 10 min to 10 hours, so be patient...

[02:08:47] *** Initiating video encoding:

[02:08:47] *** Original : 352x480
[02:08:47] *** Crop : 0
[02:08:47] *** Resize : 352x480 (No change)
[02:08:47] *** Uncrop to : 720x480
[02:08:47] *** Sharpen : 0
[02:08:47] *** Bitrate : 1500 kbps
[02:08:47] *** Frame rate: Original (23.976)
[02:08:47] *** Level : 3
[02:08:47] *** B-frames : 3
[02:08:47] *** Ref-frames: 4
[02:08:47] *** GOP size : 48 (keyframe min. each 4 frames)
[02:08:47] *** Quality : One pass (turbo)
[02:08:47] *** SAR : 40:33
[02:08:47] *** DAR : 853x480
[02:08:47] *** Re-packing elementary V_MPEG-2 stream...
[02:09:00] *** Profile : Blu-ray

[02:09:00] *** Encoding : One pass - content: [03:25:00]
[02:09:00] *** Encoding : x264 options: --preset veryfast -B 1500 --interlaced --direct spatial -I 24 --level 3 -i 8 -b 3 -r 4 -m 2 --mvrange 256 -A p8x8,i8x8 --ipratio 1.1 --pbratio 1.1 --vbv-bufsize 12500 --vbv-maxrate 12000 --qcomp 0.5 --threads auto --thread-input --aud --nal-hrd vbr --sar 40:33 --b-pyramid strict --slices 0 --weightp 0 --qpfile "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\IDR-x264-marks.txt" --rc-lookahead 24 -o "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.[720x480-23.976].264" "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020847-uncrop-running.avs"
[02:09:02] *** Speed : 135775.69 fps (elapsed: 00:00:02 - Realtime x 5662.98)

[02:09:02] *** Transcoding failed!
[02:09:02] *** Check ffdshow/avisynth/haali (reinstall)!
[02:09:02] >>> Download links: http://multiforum.deanbg.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17
[02:09:02] *** DEBUG: Try to play [c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020847-uncrop-running.avs] in MPC or other player, which supports AviSynth scripts and report the error to the author!

[02:09:02] Retrying to transcode with FFMS2!
[02:09:02] Stand-by for indexing...

[02:09:02] *** Initiating video encoding:

[02:09:02] *** Original : 352x480
[02:09:02] *** Crop : 0
[02:09:02] *** Resize : 352x480 (No change)
[02:09:02] *** Uncrop to : 720x480
[02:09:02] *** Sharpen : 0
[02:09:02] *** Bitrate : 1500 kbps
[02:09:02] *** Frame rate: Original (23.976)
[02:09:02] *** Level : 3
[02:09:02] *** B-frames : 3
[02:09:02] *** Ref-frames: 4
[02:09:02] *** GOP size : 48 (keyframe min. each 4 frames)
[02:09:02] *** Quality : One pass (turbo)
[02:09:02] *** SAR : 40:33
[02:09:02] *** DAR : 853x480
[02:09:02] *** Re-packing elementary V_MPEG-2 stream...
[02:09:14] *** Profile : Blu-ray

[02:09:14] *** Stand-by for indexing (ffms2)...

[02:09:14] *** Encoding : One pass - content: [03:25:00]
[02:09:14] *** Encoding : x264 options: --preset veryfast -B 1500 --interlaced --direct spatial -I 24 --level 3 -i 8 -b 3 -r 4 -m 2 --mvrange 256 -A p8x8,i8x8 --ipratio 1.1 --pbratio 1.1 --vbv-bufsize 12500 --vbv-maxrate 12000 --qcomp 0.5 --threads auto --thread-input --aud --nal-hrd vbr --sar 40:33 --b-pyramid strict --slices 0 --weightp 0 --qpfile "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\IDR-x264-marks.txt" --rc-lookahead 24 -o "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.[720x480-23.976].264" "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020902-uncrop-running.avs"
[02:09:47] *** Speed : 8894.46 fps (elapsed: 00:00:33 - Realtime x 370.97)

[02:09:47] *** Transcoding failed!
[02:09:47] *** Check ffdshow/avisynth/haali (reinstall)!
[02:09:47] >>> Download links: http://multiforum.deanbg.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=17
[02:09:47] *** DEBUG: Try to play [c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\20190923-020902-uncrop-running.avs] in MPC or other player, which supports AviSynth scripts and report the error to the author!


[02:09:47] tsMuxeR failed to process [DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 1 Disc files\]...
[02:09:48] Processing (DVD (01) c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 2 Disc Files\VIDEO_TS\)...
[02:09:48] Pre-processing DVD input (c:\Family Videos Files\Family Movies 2 Disc Files\VIDEO_TS\)...
[02:09:50] *** Detected duration: 04:09:46
[02:09:50] !!! No subtitles found!
[02:09:50] *** Extracting video (mplayer)...
[02:11:50] Pre-processing completed!
[02:11:51] Detected video: ID#0:V_MPEG-2 352x480, fps=29.970
[02:11:51] Total of 1 tracks found in this file.
[02:11:51] Adding audio file (dvddump.001.und.ac3)
[02:11:51] Creating clip and playlist info (tsMuxeR)...
[02:11:51] Media split set at 4000MiB point...

tsMuxeR (Version 1.10.6) output:
================================================== =============================
PROCESSING ERROR: No data received from tsMuxeR!
Trying again...
================================================== =============================
MUXOPT --no-pcr-on-video-pid --new-audio-pes --blu-ray --vbr --custom-chapters=00:00:00;00:09:50;00:19:40;00:30:29;00:40 :19;00:50:09;00:59:59;01:09:49;01:19:39;01:30:28;0 1:40:18;01:50:08;01:59:58;02:09:48;02:19:38;02:30: 27;02:40:17;02:50:07;02:59:57;03:09:47;03:19:37;03 :30:26;03:40:16;03:50:06;03:59:56 --split-size=4000MiB --vbv-len=500
V_MPEG-2, "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.mpeg", insertSEI, contSPS, track=1, fps=29.970
A_AC3, "c:\multiAVCHD\_TEMP\multiTEMP-20190923\dvddump.001.und.ac3", lang=und
================================================== =============================

try dvdfab DVD to Bluray converter - https://www.dvdfab.cn/dvd-to-blu-ray-converter.htm

[Sharc]

You may also try BD-Rebuilder. It can import your DVDs (even with SVCD content as far as I remember) and convert it to Blu-ray compatible format, adding a basic menu for navigation.

[DB83]

Allow me to do a little nit-picking here.

352*480 is not SVCD (that would be 480*480) but is actually half-D1.

Maybe those programs can import 352*480 and produce a Blu-ray compatable disk. But can they also inport multiple titles ? I may be wrong with the OPs motive and he/she saw that the original dvd would not play in a blu ray player - well there is a perfectly good reason for that - and looked to convert.

[Sharc]

But can they also inport multiple titles ?

Yes, BD-Rebuilder can. That's why I brought it up.
I don't know dvdfab though.

[johnmeyer]

Allow me to do a little nit-picking here.

352*480 is not SVCD (that would be 480*480) but is actually half-D1.

Maybe those programs can import 352*480 and produce a Blu-ray compatable disk. But can they also inport multiple titles ? I may be wrong with the OPs motive and he/she saw that the original dvd would not play in a blu ray player - well there is a perfectly good reason for that - and looked to convert.

I think you nailed it: the newer (BD) player won't play the slightly odd "DVD" format.

And, of course, you are right about SVCD. It's been over twenty years since I produced one, and I conflated the VCD 352x240 with the 480x480 SVCD spec. I made 'em both and still have a couple of old DVD players that will play them. I actually learned a huge amount of what I know about video trying to get music videos that were shot on film to look good on SVCD. I had to learn about telecine, interlacing, bitrate, noise reduction, and a lot more. The only tools I had were Tmpgenc and Nero.

[jagabo]

Just remux the DVDs to MPG files and burn them as data discs. Then use a BD player that can play media files. There will be no loss of quality or growth in file size. Even better, forget optical discs. Put the files a hard drive or NAS.

[Cornucopia]

352x480, or 1/2 D1 aka "CVD". It is a legit, though less common option for DVD authoring. Any official DVD player is supposed to be able to play that. However, I guess "BD" players might nitpik about what they allow for DVDs, seeing as how that is secondary and they aren't OFFICIALLY dvd players, but bd players with additional dvd playback capability. Aahh, progress!

Regardless, I agree with jagabo. Remux into standard MPGs and load em up in a folder, burn, and be done with it.

Scott