How to convert your AVI/DivX to SVCD
How to backup your
AVI(DivX) to SVCD
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is a simple method to
produce top quality SVCD's from your
top quality AVI(DivX)'s. If the AVI has poor play back quality, then suggest
you convert these to VCD instead, see the other Tutorials on how to
do this. You can't increase the quality of a poor quality movie by encoding to a better quality format.
The guide is substantially quicker than using TMPGEnc and the final result has
an improved overall quality, for both Video and Audio. While the final SVCD is not as good as a direct DVD to SVCD
conversion, if the starting AVI(DivX) has been made properly with a high bit
rate, then excellent results can be produced. This procedure uses DVD2SVCD with
the aid of Cinema Craft Encoder.
I have converted many AVI's or DivX that have come in various forms. The AVI's
Video encoding can be done with DivX 3.x, 4.x, 5.x or Xvid. The Audio can be
MP3, VBR MP3 or AC3. All are accepted and all converted using this same
procedure. Any other forms, I don’t know as I haven’t encountered them yet.
This guide is based on using Nero to
burn the final SVCD, or if
you choose to incorporate Chapters, etc.
you need to use CDRWIN to burn the CUE/BIN files to
CDR.
Software you will need:
1. DivX Codec 5.02 or later (d/l from _http://www.divx.com or http://www.cdrsoft.cc
)
2. DVD2SVCD 1.0.9 Build 3 or later (d/l from _http://212.88.77.140/ )
3. Cinema Craft Encoder 2.50 ( d/l from _http://www.geocities.com/gircobain/ )
4. Nero 5.5.x (d/l from _http://www.ahead.de or http://www.cdrsoft.cc
) or
CDRWin 3.9x (d/l from _http://www.goldenhawk.com or http://www.cdrsoft.cc
)
5. Xvid Codec or DivX 3.11 codec may be needed ( d/l from _www.doom9.net )
You will also need a Computer with:
* Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000 or XP installed.
* A Pentium III 550mhz or equivalent as a minimum.
* At least 128meg memory, 256meg preferred.
* Hard drive with at least 5 gb FREE space in one partition.
* A CDR(W) Burner to produce
the SVCD and a box
of good quality CDR's
* A sound card and SVCD player to check the finished product.
Tips before we get started:
* Turn OFF your Screen
Saver, it will simply slow the conversion down by hours.
* Do not run any other program in the background while DVD2SVCD is running,
especially if you have a slower computer.
* Turn the screens colour depth to
16bit colour or better.
* Re-boot the computer BEFORE you start the conversion.
So you have downloaded the software and checked that you have the right stuff
in your computer.
Sounds good, then lets get stuck into it!
Step 1: Getting Ready.
1. Install DivX Codec (and Xvid if needed)
2. Install CCE
3. Install DVD2SVCD
4. Install Nero or CDRWIN as required.
Step 2: Checking the AVI file
1. Every version of Windows comes with Windows Media Player (WMP), so we will
use that to check the file. You will
need version 7 or better installed.
2. If the DivX is on a CD, copy it to
your Hard Drive.
3. Run Windows Explorer, locate your
DivX file, and RIGHT Click on it. From the windows that opens, go to Properties, then Summary. You will now see all the
characteristics of the file. Write down the Frame Width and Height as we
may need them later on and note the Data rate. If data rate is less than
100 kb/s, I would not suggest you continue. Also if the width is less than 480,
I would also suggest you dont continue. The quality of these AVI's are poor and
converting to a SVCD
will only yield poor results. Convert
these to VCD instead.
4. You can use the Frame width and Frame height (from above) to work out the Aspect ratio of the movie but the
simplest is to actually play it full
screen. So play it in WMP, and hit t-Enter to
get to full screen display. If
there are no black bars top or bottom, then its a 4:3 full screen. On a
15" monitor, if there is about 1 1/4" or 3cm of black bars top and
bottom of the screen, then its a 16:9. If there is about 2" or 5cm of
black bars then its a 2.3:1 These 3 variations cover 99% of all movies.
Step 3: SVCD
Conversion.
1. Run DVD2SVCD. It may complain it cannot find CCE, so click the Encoder
tab and then browse your HD for
CCE (cctsp.exe) depending on where you installed it. This will happen 1st time
it is run only.
2. Click the Misc. tab, then select the Input File Type to be AVI. Then click Default Output folder to select the Output folder where all the files will go.
Un-tick Don’t Delete any Files (not important if you don’t), change DVD2SVD
Level to Advanced. You may need to check the box next to
Convert divx3 tp
divx4 ( can resolve CCE problem) but so far I have had no
problems converting DivX3 encoded AVI's.
3. Click the Conversion tab, and load in the AVI file. It will indicate
its length and select an Aspect ratio mode and mark the Audio track. There is
no Cut or Trim features here. I do not recommend ticking NTSC to PAL box unless you like jerky movies. DVD2SVCD still
has problems with most AVI's setting the correct aspect ratio. It tends to select 4:3 (No borders, encoded as 4:3). Change
this to 16:9 (borders added,
encoded as 4:3) if you found it above to
be 16:9. If you found it to
be widescreen 2.3:1, there is no option for this and has to be set manually. See Note 1 below.
4. Click on Finalize Tab, there is nothing in here to change.
5. Click the CDImage tab. If you don’t want any fancy Chapters or Title
pictures, etc, just click Don’t Make Images and you will end up with 2-3
MPG files ready to burn with
Nero. If you do want to
include Chapter and/or Title Pictures, then select VCDXBuild. The default
ChangeCD pic is excellent. Enter a CD Label, such as THE_DISH. If you click on
Movie info (IMDB), it will extract all the movie data (Directors, actors, etc)
and the DVD front picture from _www.imdb.com for inclusion on the CD if you
have an internet connection. Click on Include movie info on CD to include this info on the CD. For Fixed Chapters,
select a number in seconds that you want each chapter point to be set to.
I use 240 (4 min.) so I get about 10-12 per CD.
6. Click the bbMPEG Tab, there is nothing to
change except maybe the CD overlap in Seconds. Change to
suit your own
preferences.
7. Click the Pulldown Tab, there is nothing to
change or setup in here. This will run Automatically if a 23.976fps NTSC
framerate is found.
8. Click the Audio Tab. Leave Audio downsample 48 -> 44.1 ticked as this
makes a fully compliant SVCD.
However, leaving it unticked will produce a better quality Audio playback, but
if you burn the MPG file with Nero it will say its non-compliant and you will
have to turn compliance off. All
DVD Players (and now 99% of PC's) can play 48kHz audio. Change Audio Bitrate
from the default 160bps if you wish but the higher it is, the lower the Video
bitrate is used to fit it
onto the CD's. Most DivX have been encoded with low Audio bitrates anyway. The
box for Autodetect Azid Gain (2 pass) should be ticked as this with Normalize
the audio sound level.
9. Click the Frameserver tab and select Resize Method to be Bicubic Resize. Click on Sharpen and enter its
value as 0.4. Make sure Resize is set to
SVCD ('cause tha’ts what we are making
folks!).
10. Click the Bitrate tab to
see the number of CD's and their size for the movies length. Leave these at
default initially, just un-select Min Avg if its ticked. DVD2SVCD calculates
the bitrate automatically for you to
just fit onto your CDR's. But
I would suggest you change all the 740 to
800 and use ONLY 80min CDR's.
11. Click the Encoder tab and make sure Cinema Craft Encoder is selected
(and not TMPGEnc). Multipass VBR should be set at 3 for best results. Click on
the Advanced button and un-select all MPEG2 Video Settings. If you are encoding
a small 43min episode to
fit to one 80min CD, then I would
suggest ticking CBR instead of VBR 3 pass, as encoding time will be
dramatically reduced and quality basically the same. Give it a try and compare.
But if you have a 120min movie and trying to
fit to 2 CD's, stay with VBR, or
better still change to 3 CD's
for a substantial improved quality SVCD.
12. All is now setup and we are ready to
begin the encodeing. If you intend to
be doing a few movies, all the setup above needs to
be done once and will remain set to
the same settings next time you run DVD2SVCD. Next time you will only need to load the AVI in, set folder to
save to and change CDImage info.
13. Click the Conversion tab again and if all is ready, click the GO
button. Click Start Conversion then confirm with OK.
14. Go to sleep, work or school as
this process may take a long time. On a P700 it can take over 24hrs with a
4pass VBR encode! On an Athlon 1800, most movies convert
3pass VBR in 5-7 hours.
15. When finished you will have in the default folder you selected, about
20-30+ files. There will be 2-3 MPG files like bbMPEG_Muxed_File00.mpg if you
did not make an image. You will have 2-3 BIN & CUE files like
CD_Image_File_CD1.bin if you did.
16. Play them with WinDVD (or your
favorite SVCD player
software) to check them for lip sync
near start and finish of each file and any other problem, like incorrect Aspect
ratio. If your made an
Image file, load it into Daemon Tools CD Image and run the MPG file from there.
17. You have now made your
first SVCD files and
all that’s left is to burn
them.
Step 4: Burning.
1. If you have BIN & CUE files, run CDRWIN. Click on the top left button
and then the Load Cuesheet button. Browse to
the folder where the images were saved to
and load the CD_Image_File_CD1.cue file for CD1. Select the Write Speed to be 4x or 8x and all other boxes un-ticked. Hit the
Start Recording button and sit back and watch your
first SVCD disk
being burnt.
2. If you have MPG files, run Nero. Click the Super VideoCD tab for a SVCD, select Create Standard Compliant CD. In Volume
Descriptor tab, enter a Volume Label, such as THE_GLADIATOR_1 for disk 1 of the
Gladiator. Click on New and then drag & drop the bbMPEG...00.mpg file from
the right window (your HD) to
the left window (the SVCD
disk). Nero will check through the mpg file to
confirm that it is a compliant SVCD
file. After it finishes checking the file all should be well, click the Burn
Button. Select the Write Speed to
be 4x or 8x and make sure Disk-At-Once is selected and Finalize CD is ticked. Then
click Write and sit back and watch your
first SVCD disk
being burnt. If you had selected 48kHz audio back in DVD2SVCD, then a Non-Compliance
warning will come up, then turn off fully compliant option and burn.
3. The excitement builds! When the burning is finished, shut down the recording
program, label the CD with a felt pen and rush to
your DVD player to check it out. If all is okay, repeat this for the
second or third disks remembering to
change the Volume Label in Nero. Refer to
Nero's or CDRWin's help for further info and clarification on how to
use them.
4. You can now safely delete all the files created by DVD2SVCD, even the AVI if
you no longer require it.
5. Use only good quality scratch resistant CDR's. Some DVD stand alone players
will only read from CDRW's, then burn to
CDRW's instead. Burning at greater then 4x or 8x speed can also make them
unreadable by many players, particularly the latter part of the CD. Many DVD
stand alone units have problems playing SVCD
movies altogether, even though the book indicates it can and many will jump and
stutter if the bitrate is to
high or to low. These problems are
not with the SVCD you just
made, they are all related to
the brand and model of your
DVD Player. The SVCD's will play fine on a PC however.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
NOTE 1. If the AVI your
encoding has a widescreen Aspect Ratio of 2.3:1, as we found above, DVD2SVCD
does not have this as a setting to
automate the encoding and it has to
be adjusted manually.
a. In the Conversion tab, leave the aspect ratio set at 4:3.
b. Click on the Frameserver tab and change the Edit the Avisynth Script
file to Edit as part of Video
encoding.
c. Now start the conversion as usual.
d. Stay with the encoding and after the Audio has been extracted &
converted and just before the actual encoding start, an AviSynth script window
will pop up. In here we have to
modify the numbers, this example will explain. Once the correct numbers have
been entered, the AddBoarders statement added, then hit the Save button and
then the OK button. The encoding will now continue as usual and result in the
correct aspect ratio for the movie.
eg: Our AVI had dimensions of, say, 512 x 224 ( X x Y ) as found above. This
needs to be resized for a SVCD to
480 x 576 for PAL or 480 x 480 for NTSC. But the pixel aspect ratios of a PC
monitor and a PAL or NTSC TV are not the same. PC Monitor pixels have a square
pixel aspect ratio of 1:1 but pixel aspect ratio for PAL TV is 54:59 and for an
NTSC TV is 11:10.
So the correct resizing parameters for our AVI in this example would be:
For PAL AVI:
Calculated height = ((720 / X) x Y) / (54 / 59)
=((720 / 512) x 224) / (54 / 59)
= 344.16
So the correct "Resize" statement in the AviSynth script would be:
...
BiCubicResize(480,344,0.00,0.60)
...
where the Calculated height of 344.16 has been rounded to
344 to be divisible by 4 (even
better if divisible by 16).
Then we add borders on top and bottom to
fill the height up to 576
pixels.
Correct borders = (576 - Calculated height) / 2
= (576 - 344) / 2
= 116
So the correct "AddBorders" statement in the AviSynth script would
be:
...
BiCubicResize(480,344,0.00,0.60)
AddBorders(0,116,0,116)
...
For NTSC AVI:
Calculated height = ((720 / X) x Y) / (11 / 10)
= ((720 / 512) x 224) / (11 / 10)
= 286.36
So the correct "Resize" statement in the AviSynth script would be:
...
BiCubicResize(480,288,0.00,0.60)
...
where the Calculated height of 286.36 has been rounded up to 288 to be divisible by 4 (even better if
divisible by 16).
Then you have to add
borders on top and bottom to
fill the height up to 480
pixels.
Correct borders = (480 - Calculated height) / 2
= (480 - 288) / 2
= 96
So the correct "AddBorders" statement in the AviSynth script would
be:
...
BiCubicResize(480,288,0.00,0.60)
AddBorders(0,96,0,96)
...
NOTE 2. I would strongly suggest not to convert
widescreen 2.3:1 aspect ratio AVI's to 16:9 SVCD's. You are struggling to maintain SVCD quality from a DivX, and chopping
off any part of the pic is only going to make things worse, not better.
I also have problems converting AVI with DVD2SVCD in Batch mode. There appears to be a small glitch/bug in
DVD2SVCD.
ChickenMan (c) 2002