Is it practical to convert (S)VCD files to DVD?

[tluxon]

I did a lot of video editiing before I got a DVD burner, so most of the files are SVCD and/or XVCD (higher resolution and bitrate MPEG-1).

Does it make any sense to convert these files for the DVD burner, or am I better off just burning them to CD-R.

If I want to convert some of the MPEG-1 files to DVD compatible format, what are the best tools and can it be done without re-encoding (transcoding)? I've used TMPGENC, but it takes forever, so I'm assuming TMPGENC is transcoding. Is there anything else that might be more efficient? Maybe DVDLab? Womble (MPEG-VCR)?

Thanks,

Tim

[gooki]

1) Does it make any sense to convert these files for the DVD burner?

No.

2) If I want to convert some of the MPEG-1 files to DVD compatible format.

TMPGEnc will re-encode. If you want to speed it up run in CBR mode as 2 pass VBR is quite a lot slower.

[E-Male]

vcd-video is included in the dvd-standart, so you just need to convert the audio

SVCD video is not in the standart, but your player could accept it in DVDs, you have to try

[tluxon]

Most of the MPEG-1 files are hybrids between VCD and SVCD, but inspired by the KVCD templates for TMPGEnc. They were made into MPEG-1 mostly because I wanted the option of being able to edit/join/cut them with TMPGEnc after 30 days without paying the $50. They're most typically 704x480 framesize with a maximum bitrate of 2458 kbits/sec.

I was thinking ahead when I left the audio on virtually all of the files at 48 KHz because they played fine on my standalone (Panasonic XP30).

These are really close to SVCD spec, so they just might play if I can find a DVD authoring program that will allow MPEG-1. Otherwise I just might re-encode if it will make the videos more "portable".

I was hoping to be able to give DVDLab a try, but if it doesn't work with MPEG-1 it might not buy me much.

Anybody know anything about SpruceUp and where I can get it?

[echooff]

Have you thought about using dvdpatcher availible here (http://www.doom9.org) . Check out the guide from the same location.