Burn Widescreen Divx to Widescreen DVD - with mp3 audio

[chef]

I started with a widescreen divx, and I've split up my audio and video into mp3 and m2v. I don't know how to get them merged together onto a dvd. I've got a boat load of divx and mp3 codecs, and a bunch of dvd burning programs, but I can't get any of them to work with mp3 audio. Can someone point me to a NEWBIE guide. Complex procedures can be valuable at times, but I'm looking for an easy solution if possible.

C

[gooki]

DVD specs don't support MP3 audio. Convert it to PCM or AC3 or MP2

[chef]

What's the easiest codec to convert it to, and how do I do it? And will the audio stay in synch?

C

[int 21h]

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/mpg/dvd2svcd-avi.htm

[chef]

I don't see anything about converting mp3 audio sources...will this app do it automagically? I'm looking for the EASY solution, this app looks fairly involved. Is there any easy way?

C

[gooki]

I think AC3 Machine will do the trick.

How did you create the m2v? The simplest way i found for converting divx to DVD was to use tmpgenc and set it to split the output file into m2v and mp2, so both the video and audio get converted to dvd spec at ones.

[chef]

TMPenc had a problem with the divx files because the audio is mp3. Not sure why that didn't work, but I guess that's another good question. Do you know of a good guide (for NEWBIES) on converting avi's with divx and mp3 to dvd...?

C

[Nick]

Let DVD2SVCD do the magic. Easiest way by a mile.
It may look involved but it really isn't all that tough.
Download it and have a play.
It really doesn't bite!

[chef]

Can you point me to a guide? I can't find a way to start dvd2svcd, everything is grayed in the convert tab.

C

[Nick]

Int 21h directed you to a guide higher in the thread.

Here's a quick overview though.

Firstly set the other tabs.
In Misc, set input to AVI and output to DVD and select a default output folder. This will need to be on a drive with 20GB+ free.
In Audio set your desired audio bitrate.
In Bitrate select your target disc size.
In CD Image select Sonic Scenarist if you have it, or Don't make images if not.
Then choose your video encoder. I notice you have TMPGEnc installed. The others give a slightly quicker and better result if you have them but TMPGEnc is fine.

Leave the other settings at default

In the conversion tab, there is a folder icon at the end of the AVI File box. Click it and browse for your AVI. Now the options should come to life! Select your target aspect ratio and hit the button with the big tick!

If you have Scenarist this will automate the whole process right up to creation of an ISO image to burn (in the DVD-Mux folder within your chosen output folder, called Discimage.dvd but just rename to .iso and burn with whatever app you use).

If not it will create the m2v and Encoded Audio.mp2 files to use in your favourite authoring program.

However, DVD2SVCD does audio conversion first, so if you already have the m2v file from before and an authoring program, you can stop DVD2SVCD as soon as the video encoder launches. There's no point in making another m2v file if you have a perfectly good one. This way, DVD2SVCD will just automate the conversion of your audio into a usable format, which I guess is exactly what you wanted to do in the first place!

[chef]

Thanks for the solid reply. 2 final questions:

1. Considering that i am doing my audio encoding via something else, is there a way to only do audio with dvd2svcd. hence have it automatically stop when it finished the audio encoding, and possibly do it in batch mode?

2. Once I have my mp2 and m2v files, what program do you recommend to author to teh 2 streams into 1? My only requirement is that I need to burn this in widescreen, and I'm having a hard time finding the dvd authoring app to do it.

C

[Kedirekin]

I can't answer #2, but for #1...

If you tell DVD2SVCD that you want to edit the AVS file before encoding, I believe it pauses just after audio encoding. That's not exactly the same as 'audio encoding only', but it's pretty close.

I don't think there is any batch mode in DVD2SVCD (unless it was added recently), but you can run multiple instances. In the past, I've run as many as 12 instances at once. Parallel audio processing worked for DVD->SVCD, I would expect it would work for AVI->DVD as well.

Just so you are aware - depending on your hardware, parallel processing can take much longer than executing DVD2SVCD the same number of time sequentially. For examply, on my hardware at the time, running 3 instances at once typically took 5 times as long as running one instance once - I assumed moving the hard drive head around so much slowed down IO. You probably don't want to run multiple instances unless you're expecting to be away from your PC for quite a while.

[Nick]

It is sadly not possible to have DVD2SVCD shut down automatically after audio conversion. However, compared to video conversion, audio is very quick. It takes about ten minutes to extract and convert the audio for a full movie so doing it manually is no big deal. Do as Kedirekin says and check "Edit as part of video encoding" in the Edit Avisynth Script section of the Frameserver tab. It will then pause after audio encoding. So you can run multiple instances and it will never waste system resources on video encoding.

As for a batch mode, you can batch-convert avi's. See Q73 in the DVD2SVCD Basic forum Q+A

There is an outdated and fairly lousy (I'm a busy man ;) ) avi2DVD guide here (http://nickspage.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/avi2dvd.htm) which gives you a download link for TMPGEnc DVD Author (fully functional 30-day trial version) and instructions on how to use it. See section 4 - Authoring your DVD.
[edit]
Just one last point - you said you need to burn this in widescreen. Aspect ratio is selected during conversion to MPEG2, not at the authoring stage. If you have not encoded the video to a 16:9 MPEG2 stream, you will have to re-encode the video anyway, in which case just let DVD2SVCD do the whole shebang.

[chef]

Thanks for all of the help guys...One final thing, I promise, I'm actually burning a dvd for testing right now, but I'd like to tweak my process.

I'm using tmpgenc source creator to make my m2v files, and dvd2svcd to make my audio. I have CCE, and I it made the corresponding m2v files really fast (much faster than tmpgenc source creator), and they were good, but the were outputted in 652x380 or something, and tmpgenc dvd author complained. Do you guys know of a way to adjust CCE to output in 752x480 for dvd? I couldn't find any kind of setting that would do it? Also, it won't save my ecl files, if that matters, but the template I made is still there. Other than that, I'm golden.

C

[Nick]

Which version of CCE are you running?
If it is the full CCE SP version not the lite or basic, it is supported by DVD2SVCD and so will be configured and run automatically after audio encoding.

[chef]

DVD2SVCD invokes CCE properly, but I don't have the option to set the output resolution in either CCE or DVD2SVCD...?

C

[Nick]

Whoa!
So when you say you made the MPEG2 Video files in CCE and the output resoultion was 652x380, do you mean you let DVD2SVCD invoke CCE, or did you do it manually.

DVD2SVCD automatically resizes your AVI to the correct target resolution for your chosen output type (ie 720x480/576 for DVD, 480x480/576 for SVCD and 352x240/288 for VCD) at the frameserving stage. If you let DVD2SVCD invoke CCE you definitely should not get odd output resolutions.

If you are, let me know what version of CCE you're using.

[chef]

DVD2SVCD is invoking it (calling the application), but its not running correctly. It requires some sort of manual intervention, it doesn't automatically call the AVI and start the mux. After it finishes the audio, the CCE box pops up, and sort of prompts for the file or something. Should the AVI be automatically populated in there? It says CCE trial edition or something (I'm away from my pc now).

C

[Nick]

CCE should be automatically "remoted controlled" by DVD2SVCD without any user intervention. These prompts open up but should be filled in automatically by DVD2SVCD

No manual intervention should be required whatever. The guide link INT21H posted has a link to a CCE demo verison which should work. However, as it is a demo there will be a watermark in the video stream.

For obvious reasons please do not ask how to remove this watermark, as the answer is to licence the product.