(S)VCD to AVI help?

[Mr.Lupo]

Hello.
I have one SVCD - 3CD's (1800 MB) and I want to compress it to XVID version (to 1 or 2 CD's).
I didn't find good tutorial, so my idea was:
1. Merge the three .MPG's into one.
2. Compress it with VirtualDub.

Buuut, first I didn't find good video joiner (without changing the format, only to merge the files) and the other thing is that I don't know what compression settings and filters to use exactly.

I'll be very happy if you give me some tut. or some ideas what to use and do.
Thanks in advance!

[Guest]

Use DOS binary concatenation:

copy /b file1+file2+file3 mergedfile

You will have to use VirtualDub MPEG2 rather than VirtualDub.

[Mr.Lupo]

Excellent, it worked perfect, thanks neuron2! ;)

OK, I've updated my VirtualDub to the latest VirtualDub-MPEG2 (build 23787) and now I open the MPG's.
I will try to compress them now, but are there some other things... I mean some filters or some settings?

[Guest]

Filters should be used only when a problem in the video cries out for them. Do you have any problems in your video?

[Mr.Lupo]

No, but for example resizing?
The resolution is 480x480, do I have to resize to another?

[Nick]

OK. SVCD is a 4:3 format. A software player will resize the 480x480 frame to 4:3 on playback.

Some avi players allow you to specify an output AR and so would resize a 480x480 avi to 4:3 for you. However, not all will do this. For maximising compatibility with players you would be well served to resize to multiples of 4x3, eg 480x360. However, resizing is inevitably at some expense of quality, so if your player will allow you to select an output AR, you may be better to leave alone.

Also does your source video have any black bars? If so, you can crop them out to save on wasted bitrate.

Tell you what, let us know which codec you'll be compressing with and I'll move this thread to the suitable forum. Now you've got your source video extracted from the SVCD's and you're compressing to something else, it's getting outside the scope of this one. You'll get better advice from the AVI encoders than the (S)VCD encoders.

Oh, and give the guides on this site the once-over. Although I don't make many avi's, this sounds like pretty basic stuff and I'd be amazed if you couldn't find what you need in our guides.

[Mr.Lupo]

OK, move the thread to more suitable forum.
I'll use XVID for the compression, so maybe that's the right place.

And yes, there are black bars, I'll try to crop them, thanks!
Will search again to find something useful and if there are some questions I'll ask again.