Help with avi to svcd conversion needed. (Bitrate Related)?

[Blur]

Hey guys, if someone could help me figure this out I’d really appreciate it. I've been searching for a solution for a while now with limited success, maybe I’m not using the right search terms. Anyway here’s what I need help with:

I've got 8 avi (divx) episodes that I’d like to convert to SVCD format. Now if I wanted to put just one on a CD I’d have no problem :) but what I want to do is put two episodes on one disc and fill the CD to capacity (80 min, 700MB). I want to use as high a bitrate as I can so I can make the episodes look good. My audio will be set to 128kbps 48000khz (can I save some bits by down sampling to 44?) How can I determine what bitrate to use to accomplish the goals above?

From my reading this is what i think i should do.

OK let me start with the first two episodes, one is 24:31 and the other is 24:59. I downloaded the bitrate calculator at http://www.dvdrhelp.com/calc.htm. I added the times and rounded up to 50 mins. With 128kbps I got a calculated bitrate of 2034 and a max bitrate of 2592(I want to do 4 pass VBR). Now I guess the 2034 should go by max average and the 2592 should go by max on the bitrate tab (the min will be default and min average will not be selected). If I do this and the encode the two episodes one after the other in batch mode will the 2 resulting files almost fill the CD to capacity when i go to burn them? Is this the right way to do this? I want to use the highest bitrate possible and still fit the two episodes on one CD-R. Oh and I’ll be using the convolution 3d filter too if that matters.

Thanks for any help.

[markrb]

Just to get it out of the way don't use more then 1 ? in your title.

I also want to warn you that unless the AVI's are huge your chances of getting very high quality SVCD's are very low. I do many avi conversions myself and keep in mind quality in = quality out and no matter how good these look on the PC my guess is that the info to do a good encode is just not there. May I suggest doing a VCD which by making the screen size smaller will end up looking better if the source is not outstanding. Also 128 audio has been known to cause major issues with DVD players. If you want to play it safe raise it to at least 160.

There is no need to use an outside bitrate calc. The one in DVD2SVCD works just fine. Start by setting your audio to the desired bitrate, then go to the bitrate calc page and change the time that is closest to your calculated video length to the exact video length rounding to the next highest minute. The bitrates you will see on the right side are eqaul to the number of minutes first being the low and the second being the high. The high will be the highest possible Avg bitrate to fit the number of cd's you have selected on the size you have selected.

The easiest way to do what you want will make you loose chapters and you will need to burn the final image with Nero's templates.
Take that bitrate you have just calculated for the entire 2 video set and place it minus a few bits into the Max Avg. Leave Max and Min alone. Make sure the number of minutes that each single video has is set to 1 cd. Best bet change them all to 1 cd.
Then simply encode each as seperate encodes and use the templates in Nero to burn both onto 1 cd. You can use other tools to get chapters if you want, but there is enough info around for that.

If you want to do both videos at once look in the advanced forum for a post by DDogg. Search multiple avi.

Mark

[manono]

Hi-

I think what I'd try first is to join 2 episodes together using Nandub's Append command and then use AVI2SVCD from there. If they were created using the same codec, resolution, audio bitrate, etc., it should be pretty easy.

[badbert]

If having one big file does not appeal to you. Under the CD image tab, check the box that says "Don't make images". And change the disc size to 400mb run once for the first episode. You will end up with a BBMpeg muxxed file.mpg. Rename it episode 1.mpg (or what ever). If the file size is 400mb or less, you are in business. Just delete all the other files, load episode 2, and run it again. Rename this file episode 2.mpg (or what ever). Now use Nero to author the cd. You can enable the menu, it will give you a title picture where you can choose to play episode 1 or episode 2.


And in my opinion, leave the bitrate settings alone. They will work just fine all by themselves. And changing them can cause CCE to freeze. On the bitrate tab, all you ever need to change is the CD size (does anyone still use 650mb CDs?) And the length of time per CD. Your two films combined are 50 minutes, which is the default setting for 1 cd, so change the CD size to 795mb to prevent having to overburn. Or 745 if you are using 650mb CDs.


Hope this helps. LOL talk about response time, this was answered twice while typing this message.

[Blur]

Thanks very much for the help guys and from two knowledgeable people too I really appreciate the help.

markrb: I've seen you suggesting this in other threads but I never got it till now (I think :)) I’ll give it a shot and report back.

manono: Yes that’s what I tried to do first but unfortunately they do have diff audio and video setting. For the first two episodes I was getting the "audio sampling rates are different" message so I ripped the audio and decompressed it to wav format using winamp's disk writer plugin and then muxed it back with the vid file and joined them and it didn't take too long either. I was happy, only 6 more files to do I said to myself :). Unfortunately when I tried to join esp. 3 and 4 not only was the audio different but nandub said the vid sources were different too (even though under file info they looked the same to me). I didn't mind messing with the audio but I didn't feel comfortable messing with the video, I got frustrated and said to heck with it, I know how to batch encode and I’ll author the mpegs in VCDEasy. But I needed help with the bitrate thing if I was going to do the conversions like this and thats why I checked here and then asked for help.

Thanks again.

[Blur]

Hey badbert, I didn't know the cd size field was editable I thought I HAD to choose between 740,800 etc I’ve really got to fool around with DVD2SVCD some more. Ok great, now I have two things to try, thanks alot. :D

[Blur]

Just wanted to say thanks again guys, i'm filling most of my cd-rs to the brim. I wish i could have figured this out, it seems so easy now after i've done it a few dozen times...