SVCD's and DVD format?

[bspmail]

Hi,

I've been capturing cartoons and making SVCD's for about 6 months now. I capture the episodes in 480x480, process the video with VirtualDub and then I use TMPGEnc to encode it. I've been burning off the MPEG2's of each episode to create SVCD's with later on. I plan on getting a DVD burner some day so I've also been using TMPGEnc to create DVD MPEG2's as well from the same processed capture file.

I just recently came to understand that since my original capture file was in 480x480 that it could be a problem if I try to use those files to make DVD's. What confused me is that when I go thru the wizard in TMPGEnc and pick DVD it automatically shows a resolution of 720x480 so I thought it was creating MPEG2's that were DVD compliant. Also when I use windows media player to play the finished MPEG2's it seemed like the DVD MPEG2's were at a different resolution than the SVCD MPEG2's so I thought I was ok.

So based on that brief history I have the following questions:

1) Am I correct in assuming that these DVD MPEG2's I've made will NOT work if I try to make a DVD with them later?
2) If so, is there any application that can change the resolution of these finished MPEG2's to make them DVD compliant? Is there anything I can do with all these MPEG2's (about 80 so far)to make them DVD compliant or was it a waste of time?
3) How should I proceed going forward? Will I need to capture the episode once in 480x480 for SVCD and then capture it again in 720x480 for DVD? or is there a step I can do prior to encoding that will allow me to use the same capture file?
4) I've read that DVD's are also allowed in 352x480? My capture card (Hauppauge WinTV Theater) doesn't seem to allow 720x480 so I may have to use 352x480.

Any help here would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to think all that work I did encoding those files was for naught.

Thanks in advance.

Bryan

[htc10825]

nothing new - please search this forum

[bspmail]

Yah, I searched for about 3 hrs before I posted this thread.. Found some general stuff and went through most of the forums that I thought would apply but just couldn't find specifically what I was looking for so decided to post..

Thanks for your help.

[htc10825]

Somelinks
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=36794
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37534

[Abond]

1. It is not very clear which MPEG's you mean. As you wrote "DVD MPEG's" I assume these are which TMPGEnc produce with DVD template. If so;) your assuming is not correct - you can use them for DVD authoring.
2. If you are not correct in 1. you don't need any application for changing resolution.
3. No, you need to capture only as 720X480. The TMPG will resize the resolution to 480 if you want to make SVCD. Of course your question make no sense if your card can't capture at 720X480.
4. Yes, it is allowed. No, you can still capture at 480x480 and resize upon encoding to MPEG to 352x480. The most powerful application for resizing is IMO Avisynth.

[cbwarz]

If you want to make SVCD now and later convert them to DVD maybe this can help

SVCD v1.0 is MPEG2 480x480 and Audio @ 44100
but CVD (included on SVCD v2.0 specs) is MPEG2 352x480 and Audio @ 44100

So, if you have a player that play CVD then convert that way.

CVD -> DVD
MPEG2 352x480 is acceptable for DVD, also know (if i remember well) as DVD x2.
but audio at 44100 isn't, convert them to 48000 then mux with video
and then you have a DVD

Hope it helps

[jshumate]

This topic has been discussed a lot more successfully in the SVCD forum at http://network54.com/Hide/Forum/70438. Essentially you have a couple of options.
1) You can use something to redo the resolution of your video to DVD valid resolutions. Doing so will cause some quality loss in your video. Maybe not a lot, but some. It would probably be better to go down to 352x480 than up to 720x480. As you know, 480x480 is not valid for DVD. The reason is that DVD is actually an older format than SVCD. The specifications for DVD came out at a time in which there was no such thing as SVCD. Really you should blame Philips, who wrote the SVCD spec, for making SVCD incompatible with DVD.
2) It is possible to use certain programs to fake the headers so that DVD authoring programs will accept the 480x480 video as input. This has been discussed a lot in the network54 forum listed above. You might want to search there or try posting your question as you are sure to get a response. It may be documented at http://www.vcdhelp.com, but I don't know as I didn't look, but they have a lot of guides there. It may even by documented at doom9, but again, I haven't looked. I would personally recommend you look into the 2nd option as this will not require you to re-encode your video and lose quality.