Burn VCD/SVCD onto DVD

[crow8k3a]

is it possible to burn vcd/svcd onto a dvd and use its greater capacity and have stand alone players recognize it?

if so how? do i just burn it like a regular vcd?

[Tjalfe]

using DVDit there is an option to make a VCD compliant DVD .. I cannot remember the right wording/ menus for it, but it can be done.. I am trying to fit 6 episodes of Band of Brothers recorded from TV onto a DVD now

[crow8k3a]

can any other programs do it? such as ulead dvd moviefactory ?

[Tjalfe]

I have not used the ulead one.. downloading the trial version now, I will try tonight, if I get the time.

[Dr Mordrid]

The 352x240/288 frame of VCD (and MPEG-1) are legal for DVD, so most authoring packages will allow its use.

SVCD's 480x480/576 is not DVD legal, but you can transcode it to 352x480/576 (half D1) without too much in the way of losses and it too is DVD legal.

In Ulead products just make sure you set up a customized MPEG profile when you go to burn using the frame size and bitrate of your smaller than DVD sources.

For VCD this would be 352x240 (NTSC) or 352x288 (PAL) at 1150 kbps.

SVCD transcoded to halfD1 can be burned at any number of bitrates, which is one reason why I keep BitRate Viewer around since even the shareware version will give you the basic MPEG stream info you need from the SVCD stream to get you started;

http://www.tecoltd.com/bitratev.htm

In DVD MovieFactory this can be set up on the Finish page using the "Change MPEG settings" menu, which is located in the check-mark icon at the bottom-left of the window.

In DVD Workshop it's under the Finish/Make Disk menu.

Once burned to a DVD disk these files should play in players that could read a normal DVD-R or DVD+R disk.

Dr. Mordrid

[crow8k3a]

have you tried it w/ moviefactory 2? at the start, should i select, create a vcd or create a dvd if i want to put a bunch of vcd's on 1 dvd.


i tried it using vcd at start and dvd, each one gives me problems, maybe i'm doing something wrong.

anyway could you please post some steps for moviefactory2? thanks alot

[Dr Mordrid]

Yup....done it several times, including transcoding SVCD to halfD1's resolution in MSPro7 before setting up the DVD.

HalfD1 is great for DVD burns since the files are smaller than full frame but with very little loss in quality for most projects because you lose NO color samples in halving the width. This is because each sample is spread across two pixels anyhow, making for only 352 across the full frame. As a result losing half of them matters not.

HalfD1 is NOT good for those sequences with lots of graphics, subtitles & such because they depend on the full compliment of lumance (brightness) samples across the frame to give them sharpness.

Steps:

Choose to create a DVD, place your VCD clips then make menus. When you get to the Finish stage select to customize the settings.

Here (presuming a VCD source) you use the VCD frame size and 1150 kbps CBR. If you're using the version of DVDMF2 that came with MSPro7 you can also elect to transcode the audio to AC3. This takes a bit longer, but is worth it for improved compatability.

Dr. Mordrid

[crow8k3a]

okay that works, but here is my problem,


i have the shows already in vcd format burned on a disc. so i copy the .dat file off of the cd to my computer, then i put those into the folder, and then at the end after its done converting, it says the audio is not compatible w/ this program, and when i play
the converted files the audio is out of sync.

i goto the advanced options to try and make it not recompress the video, but it does everytime. is there a way to get around this? i have the advanced menu options enabled.

so 2 problems

1.) audio (says its not supported and gets out of sync when recompressed)

2.) the file gets recompressed (i'd like it to stay the same)

thanks alot for you help

[Dr Mordrid]

Are you extracting the *.dat's using VCDGear?

http://www.vcdgear.com/index.html

It can do a proper conversion to "normal" MPEG streams.

If you have MSPro7 the conversions should be simple using the VCD project preset.

Cutting the MPEG stream every few minutes on the timeline before exporting it should help correct the synch issue, but if not there are other ways

Dr. Mordrid

[crow8k3a]

i was just ripping them off by hand, i guess thats not a good way :-p. i'll try vcd gear

what i would like to do is not have to reconvert the vcd after i copy the disc? is there a way to do that?

[crow8k3a]

oh also, can you not just burn a dvdr just like a vcd w/ more space? or does it have to have the dvd format?

thanks

[crow8k3a]

thanks for your help dr mordid, i finally figured out how to put vcd files onto a dvd w/out having to recompress them.

no more questions sa of right now, but maybe some later on :-p

cya