Welcome to Doom9's Forum, THE in-place to be for everyone interested in DVD conversion.

Before you start posting please read the forum rules. By posting to this forum you agree to abide by the rules.

 

Go Back   Doom9's Forum > Video Encoding > MPEG-2 Encoding

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread Display Modes
Old 8th April 2004, 19:56   #1  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Making a SVCD with mp3?

Hi there! I have a question: It is possible to create a SVCD with TMPGEnc but with a mp3 as audio stream?
I've seen the sugestion doing it with the "multiplex" option (I don't know if that work for SVCD) that means, that I have to create a non audio Super Video mpeg, and then add the mp3?
Or I can add a mp3 plug-in for TMPGEnc and make the encoding at once?
Greatings!
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11th April 2004, 20:55   #2  |  Link
bb
Moderator
 
bb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 2,665
I don't think that there are players that can play SVCDs with MP3 sound. It should not be called SVCD anyway, because the SVCD specs demand MP2 audio. So I guess there's no use to try it.

bb
bb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11th April 2004, 21:27   #3  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Good! Thank you very much for the advice.
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18th April 2004, 12:38   #4  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Well, here I go again, if there is no possible to create a SVCD with Mp3 as sound, What can I do to compress a little bit the audio file?
I've got a movie, almost 2 hs long and I have a very big wav file (1.300 MB) I would like to pack the entire movie in 3 CDs if it's possible, and for that I would prefer to compress the audio than set less bitrate in the video file.
Any idea how to do that, or at least, which another audio file fits into SVCD?
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18th April 2004, 14:04   #5  |  Link
Dimmer
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 883
MP2 is the standard audio for SVCD. Encode your .wav to .mp2 with TMPGEnc setting the bitrate as low as you can tolerate in terms of quality.
Dimmer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18th April 2004, 18:50   #6  |  Link
cweb
Registered User
 
cweb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: The Pandorica
Posts: 527
Quote:
Originally posted by Dimmer
MP2 is the standard audio for SVCD. Encode your .wav to .mp2 with TMPGEnc setting the bitrate as low as you can tolerate in terms of quality.
It's not recommended that you use TMPGenc to create your mp2 file. You will lose a lot on quality.
Use BeSweet instead and then mux your video and audio using bbmpeg or tmpgenc itself.
cweb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 18th April 2004, 22:55   #7  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Well, I've made the conversion and it went all wrong!
First of all, I used the "Project Wizard" from TMPGEnc only to see how big is gonna be the final mpeg file with the -non compressed- wave(2600 MB), then I set the audio on 32000 Hz and 192 Kb/s... hoping to make a difference (2400 MB and no more) but the final result was a 2600 MB mpeg, just exactly as the non compressed one, and also, out of sincronization: At the the end, the sound was a little bit ahead than the video.
Can anybody tell me what I did wrong?
P.S.: I certainly do not complain about the sound quality.

Last edited by castellanos; 18th April 2004 at 22:59.
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 10:54   #8  |  Link
Dimmer
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 883
Quote:
Originally posted by castellanos
Well, I've made the conversion and it went all wrong!
First of all, I used the "Project Wizard" from TMPGEnc only to see how big is gonna be the final mpeg file with the -non compressed- wave(2600 MB), then I set the audio on 32000 Hz and 192 Kb/s... hoping to make a difference (2400 MB and no more) but the final result was a 2600 MB mpeg, just exactly as the non compressed one, and also, out of sincronization: At the the end, the sound was a little bit ahead than the video.
Can anybody tell me what I did wrong?
You should set sampling rate to 44100 Hz, otherwise the audio will get out of sync on most of the players.

192kbps is a standard bitrate for stereo. You can try to bring it even further down.
Dimmer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 11:37   #9  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Thank you Dimmer for the advice, I will put 44.1 now but... I thought the standard audio for SVCD was 224 Kb/s.
Whatever, let me ask something: That's mean, what ever wave file you have or another audio compatible to SVCD, at the moment of encoding, TMPGEnc will encode the audio file into mp2?
Waht happen if I use the "simple multiplex"? There you can put a mp3 or even an ac3 audio file... Will TMPGEnc also encode the audio file into mp2?
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 12:14   #10  |  Link
Dimmer
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 883
Yes, TMPGEnc will encode any audio it can accept into MP2.

If you use Simple Multiplex, it won't encode anything but simply combine audio and video streams in one file. You won't get a standard SVCD, however some cheap players like Apex will still be able to play it. That's often called XSVCD.
Dimmer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 13:05   #11  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Good Dimmer, I apreciate very much your help.
One last question (I hope): If I create a mpeg with mp3 or ac3 using Simple Multiplex, can I burn it into a standard SVCD? The idea is to play it in a computer.
I've made one test once, I got a non audio SVCD mpeg and I muxed it with a mp3, the result was another mpeg... but smaller than the non audio one! I don't know why.
Whatever, It was possible to play it from the HD with WinDVD, but I didn't burned it. It is possible? and then play it with the computer?
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 15:11   #12  |  Link
Dimmer
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 883
You can multiplex MPEG-2 video with AC3 or MP3 sound into a MPEG file and play it as a file on the computer in a software player like PowerDVD/WinDVD/WMP. It certainly won't be a standard SVCD anymore since the standard calls for MP2 audio.

However, if you're planning to play this only on the computer, I don't see why you should bother with SVCD at all. Just burn the MPEG files muxed with any audio you like, and play them with a file player.
Dimmer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 15:44   #13  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Yes, you are absolutely right. The first idea was to play it in a computer and may be, in a not distant future, in a standard DVD player. As you said, there are some players able to play that XSVCD.
That's why I have the idea to do it as a SVCD format, do you know what I mean?
The final result would be a "XSVCD" or "mp3 SVCD", with the possiblility to play it in the computer or "may be" in a standard cheap DVD player. If that works.
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 19:05   #14  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Something that I really don't understand: How is possible that after encoding the non audio mpeg is the same big as the video+audio one?
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 22:09   #15  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Well, I think somethig is wrong with TMPGEnc... (I'm slownly getting tired of this program) I make another encoding, this time I set the audio in 44100 Hz, and the result is still out of sync. The audio begins good and at the end of the movie, is ahead the video.
I don't know what I am doing wrong!!
Please help!
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 19th April 2004, 22:37   #16  |  Link
bb
Moderator
 
bb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 2,665
Is your MP3 file encoded with variable bitrate (VBR)? If yes, decode it to a PCM WAV file first before encoding with TMPGEnc.

If you want to play your file on a DVD player, you should use either MP2, AC3, or PCM audio. You may consider to create a miniDVD, too (which requires authoring just as if you want to create a regular DVD). You have to test whether your DVD player supports miniDVD, though.

In terms of compatibility and qualit SVCD is a good choice. Use MP2 audio at 44.1 kHz; a sampling rate of 192 kbps is a good compromise between audio quality and bitrate left for the video. If you'd like to change the samplerate and encode to MP2 in TMPGEnc, I recommend to use SSRC and tooLAME as external programs (see Doom9's download section). In TMPGEnc, select Option/Environmental setting, then the "Audio engine" tab. Below "MPEG-1 Audio Layer II encoder" select "External program" and set the path to tooLAME. In the "" box select "External program" and set the path to SSRC. Confirm by clicking OK.

bb
bb is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20th April 2004, 00:22   #17  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
Well, here is the whole idea: I am tring to create a SVCD from a 2:10 Hs movie (including permanent subtitles). The programs I use are: DVD2AVI, (VAPICon. to create the sort of avi file and insert the subs with Vobsub) and of course TMPGEnc.
I've tried already many ways: Demuxing the audio file with DVD2AVI or just with VobEdit (In the last case, I demux the files and convert the audio with River Past Audio Converter).
I've tried encoding the mpeg together with audio, and also creating a non audio mpeg and then remuxing the files with the multiplex option.
In all the cases, the result was out if sync. and I don't know why.
I use 25 fps for the SVCD, exactly as the source.
One thing still bothers me: The aspect ratio: There are two settings for that, one in Setting/Video and the other in Setting/Advance (Source Aspect Ratio)... could be that the problem?.
The original movie is 16:9, should be both settings in 16:9? is that why the mpeg is going out of sync. or is only a problem with the audio?
My idea was to create the SVCD without loosing video quality and put that 2:10 Hs movie into 3 CDs, that's why I tought that may be compressing the audio file could be the solution, instead of reduce the bitrate; but I already notice that this make no really big difference.
Now I just want to get something... but syncronized!
Please help!

Last edited by castellanos; 20th April 2004 at 00:32.
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20th April 2004, 02:52   #18  |  Link
Dimmer
Registered User
 
Join Date: Aug 2003
Posts: 883
You should have mentioned from the start that you're trying to re-encode a DVD movie. This presents o number of new problems and solutions. For one thing, standard SVCD is not a best choice if you want to preserve video quality since standard horizontal resolution for DVD is 720 pixels while for SVCD it's 480. Next, DVD audio sampling rate is 48kHz and for SVCD it's 44.1kHz - that's probably the reason why your audio is getting out of sync.

Audio sync certainly has nothing to do with aspect ratio. I'm not sure if it's possible to create a 16:9 SVCD, maybe someone else could comment on it. I know though that the aspect ratio flag is stored within MPEG video stream, so perhaps some players would play it properly.

So I suggest you go the XSVCD way or better yet store your stuff just as MPEG files. Keep the original video resolution and audio track. You don't really save much space by re-encoding the audio unless it was in PCM format, which is unlikely nowadays. The only thing you'll have to do is multiplex and cut the MPEG file into CD-sized chunks. If you're planning to buy a player, choose the one that can play discs in file mode. This way you could save yourself a lot of time, and if you ever buy a DVD-burner, it would be easy to convert the movie back to a standard DVD video.
Dimmer is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20th April 2004, 11:39   #19  |  Link
castellanos
Member
 
castellanos's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: Argentina and Germany
Posts: 699
If the whole thing should be for me, I would make a DVD copy. I'm tring to give a present to someone who does not have DVD player.
Anyway, do you mean that I should create a non audio mpeg and then remux it with the original ac3 audio file?

Last edited by castellanos; 20th April 2004 at 11:41.
castellanos is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 20th April 2004, 15:03   #20  |  Link
bb
Moderator
 
bb's Avatar
 
Join Date: Oct 2001
Location: Germany
Posts: 2,665
Hmm, if your source is DVD:

- If you want something CD-based, which plays on DVD standalones as well as on PCs (using a software player like PowerDVD or WinDVD), why don't you simply use DVD2SVCD which does everything for you?

- If you want to play the movie on a PC only, why don't you use AutoGK and let it create a DivX (or XviD) film for you? This way you won't need more than two CDs for almost perfect quality.

As you can see, there are fully automated procedures available to solve your problem. Or did I misunderstand something very basic here?

bb
bb is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT +1. The time now is 23:37.


Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.11
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions Inc.