BroKnBones
14th May 2002, 13:08
Dear reader,
I hope I have read the various FAQs, Guides and past posts concerning various problems I have had with DVD2SVCD, and this post is only here to illustrate what a "noobie" has to go through, since many people don't remember how it feels to be a beginner.
I discovered I could rip DVDs to SVCDs, keeping much of the quality of the original movie, but in a format that would allow me to take movies with me on 2 CDs while travelling, so I could watch them on my laptop.
Since then, it has become more a freetime-eating obsession than a night-time automated job. In the meantime, we bought a standalone player for the house, and playing SVCDs has not really been "easy".
In a nutshell, my P4 1.8GHz, 512 MB DDR-RAM 1 gazillion GB HDD space has been crunching VOB files for hundreds of hours under WinXP Pro, and still I only have a few nice MPG2 files here and there, without even one working SVCD image with menus, subtitles,...
This illustrates I hope the fact that :
1) I am most certainly incompetent
2) there is so much to read and learn that even "easy" automated tasks can be like hell.
Example Shrek, region2, or Unbreakable, region2. DVD2svcd 1.09 build 1. When selecting the IFO to start the whole conversion process, windows makes me wait, telling me "requesting information from disk". I used smart ripper to extract successfully all the files to the HDD, so let's move on. Other movies work fine, go figure.
DVD2AVI, Audio and Frameserver tabs, all is well explained in the guides, and seems to work like it should.
Bitrate: it seems from what I read here and there that the min bitrate has to be higher than 300 for some standalone players, like my Philips DVD951. Moreover, I also read that bitrate bursts might be higher than the SVCD specs and the indicated max BR in DVD2SVCD, which can cause problems of stu-stu-stu-stuttering.
Encoder: I use CCESP 2.50. VBR will reduce file size compared with CBR if the lower limit is set low enough, but bitrate settings have to be well chosen, since sound is also to be taken into account. Any suggestion for anything else than the DVD2SVCD defaults ? I have been disappointed in the quality of the MPG2 file produced for Disney's Tarzan, which has quite a lot of blockiness as soos as there is some action for example. Is there any use of modifying the settings (image quality, antinoise, number of passes...). From 3 to 4 passes I notice no difference, with or without antinoise: no difference...
bbMPEG: this mixes the extracted/encoded sound with the extracted/encoded video, right ? Is also the moment where permanent subtitles are inserted ? This seems to be the only technique for me.
Subtitles: oh my... Between all techniques, I have found none that makes subs that can be turned on/off during play on my standalone player. Standalone player issue ? I don't know, as apparently the subs won't work when the movie is played on a computer either.
CD Image: I hears I-author was the best and easiest... well the first times I used it, it would open tens of instances of itself, reporting all kinds of errors, which turned out to be related to too high bitrate settings. When finally I got it to make .cif files for me, it took me a little while to burn them correctly, and to my great joy, I could play them in PowerDVD4.
But... in my Philips DVD951, I only got the cover image, then the "change disc" logo, and nothing else. When I play the same disc in Heresoft's SthSVCD2001, the content movie is ok, but I don't get a menu ... I can just jump from one DVD chapter to another.
I think I am close to having a few usable movies, but the path was steep. Many thank to all who have taken the time to make DVD2SVCD, to write FAQs and guides, and who answer so friendly to posts from people who don't have a clue, and don't have much freetime to spend reading all the available documentation, and doing experiments.
BroKnBones
I hope I have read the various FAQs, Guides and past posts concerning various problems I have had with DVD2SVCD, and this post is only here to illustrate what a "noobie" has to go through, since many people don't remember how it feels to be a beginner.
I discovered I could rip DVDs to SVCDs, keeping much of the quality of the original movie, but in a format that would allow me to take movies with me on 2 CDs while travelling, so I could watch them on my laptop.
Since then, it has become more a freetime-eating obsession than a night-time automated job. In the meantime, we bought a standalone player for the house, and playing SVCDs has not really been "easy".
In a nutshell, my P4 1.8GHz, 512 MB DDR-RAM 1 gazillion GB HDD space has been crunching VOB files for hundreds of hours under WinXP Pro, and still I only have a few nice MPG2 files here and there, without even one working SVCD image with menus, subtitles,...
This illustrates I hope the fact that :
1) I am most certainly incompetent
2) there is so much to read and learn that even "easy" automated tasks can be like hell.
Example Shrek, region2, or Unbreakable, region2. DVD2svcd 1.09 build 1. When selecting the IFO to start the whole conversion process, windows makes me wait, telling me "requesting information from disk". I used smart ripper to extract successfully all the files to the HDD, so let's move on. Other movies work fine, go figure.
DVD2AVI, Audio and Frameserver tabs, all is well explained in the guides, and seems to work like it should.
Bitrate: it seems from what I read here and there that the min bitrate has to be higher than 300 for some standalone players, like my Philips DVD951. Moreover, I also read that bitrate bursts might be higher than the SVCD specs and the indicated max BR in DVD2SVCD, which can cause problems of stu-stu-stu-stuttering.
Encoder: I use CCESP 2.50. VBR will reduce file size compared with CBR if the lower limit is set low enough, but bitrate settings have to be well chosen, since sound is also to be taken into account. Any suggestion for anything else than the DVD2SVCD defaults ? I have been disappointed in the quality of the MPG2 file produced for Disney's Tarzan, which has quite a lot of blockiness as soos as there is some action for example. Is there any use of modifying the settings (image quality, antinoise, number of passes...). From 3 to 4 passes I notice no difference, with or without antinoise: no difference...
bbMPEG: this mixes the extracted/encoded sound with the extracted/encoded video, right ? Is also the moment where permanent subtitles are inserted ? This seems to be the only technique for me.
Subtitles: oh my... Between all techniques, I have found none that makes subs that can be turned on/off during play on my standalone player. Standalone player issue ? I don't know, as apparently the subs won't work when the movie is played on a computer either.
CD Image: I hears I-author was the best and easiest... well the first times I used it, it would open tens of instances of itself, reporting all kinds of errors, which turned out to be related to too high bitrate settings. When finally I got it to make .cif files for me, it took me a little while to burn them correctly, and to my great joy, I could play them in PowerDVD4.
But... in my Philips DVD951, I only got the cover image, then the "change disc" logo, and nothing else. When I play the same disc in Heresoft's SthSVCD2001, the content movie is ok, but I don't get a menu ... I can just jump from one DVD chapter to another.
I think I am close to having a few usable movies, but the path was steep. Many thank to all who have taken the time to make DVD2SVCD, to write FAQs and guides, and who answer so friendly to posts from people who don't have a clue, and don't have much freetime to spend reading all the available documentation, and doing experiments.
BroKnBones