Need info on files generated by DVD2SVCD <- where are the subtitles?

[Chetwood]

Well, I've searched the board and found a lot of informative stuff that helped me out, still some questions remain unanswered; however, they may have been dealt with in other parts of this forum so please bear with me.

I've been only doing DIVX so far but now, as I was so stupid to tell my little cousin that I've borrowed some Buffy eps on DVD, I'm doomed (pun intended) to rip some eps for her so she can watch them on her dad's standalone DVD player. Doh!

So I've just started with DVD2SVCD and I've got a bunch of questions:

- which is the best bitrate to go?
Using a good mp3 encoder would allow me to rip the sound to 128 kbit only so the rest could be used for video. Though the bitrate and thus quality is also a matter of personal taste, I'd like you to suggest some to start with. What would be a good bitrate to make eps of roughly 41 mins each (one audio and one subtitle stream) fit on 700 MB cdr's? I don't think I'd like to go for 1,5 eps/disc so it should be either 1 or 2 eps...


- how do I rip only 1 ep of the 4 that are on each DVD?
I've ripped the whole DVD first with Smartripper. Do I have to do it again using the internal ripper with chapter selection? How do I know which chapters to select for an ep? I've noticed that one ep spread over 2 vobs so how would I rip the beginning of this second ep that starts in the middle of vob 2?


- I setup DVD2SVCD to not delete any files so I ended up with a bunch of mpgs and in the default dir.

So what's the difference between

bbMPEG_Muxed_File00.mpg ~ 829 MB
bbMPEG_Muxed_File-subbed00.mpg ~ 835 MB?

Does the second one really have the subtitles in it? Shouldn't the file be larger? As well: when I have selectable (CVD) subtiles, shouldn't the subtitles be saved to a seperate file or how does it work?

I'm asking because I don't see any subtitles when I watch any of these files on my PC and also when I burn them to CDR. I've tried the test_svcd_pal.zip from VCDhelp.com and I could see those CVD subtitles on my standalone just fine. But when I checked my DVD2SVCD bin files with CDmage I did not find anything else besides an mpg file of 839 MB. This leads me to the conclusion that making them with DVD2SVCD somehow did not work.


- the source audio on the DVD is Dolby Surround 2.0, would that be an AC3 track on the DVD? Where can I read more about it? Soryy for my ignorance.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[Clixo]

all your anserws are here:

http://forum.doom9.org/search.php?s=
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21859
http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm

read it

[Chetwood]

Originally posted by clixomano
all your anserws are here:

http://forum.doom9.org/search.php?s=
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21859
http://forum.doom9.org/forum-rules.htm

read it ^

Did you read em? Did you read my questions at all? I've read the rules and the *whole* DVD2SVCD FAQ and can you imagine: my questions were NOT answered in there. I've also done a search on different subjects but obviously they weren't specific enough or they just haven't been answered before so I think my posting is appropriate in this forum.

In case you did find answers using the search function (which I doubt) please do not hesitate to post the direct links here otherwise pls don't waste our time.

[Clixo]

Q16: I have encoded a movie with subtitles, but no subtitles are shown when I play the movie. Why?
A: The subtitles only work on Standalone DVD Players that supports SVCD and/or CVD - aka China Video Disc - Subtitles. As of now there are no Software players that supports SVCD/CVD Subtitles. An option is to use "permanent subtitles".

Q17: I've created a SVCD with subtitles, but the subtitles do not appear to play correctly in my standalone player.
A: First, verify your standalone player supports subtitles. Download one/all of these following samples:
NTSC with CVD style subtitles. This sample has also a nice Menu, so you can test PBC features also;
PAL with CVD style subtitles;
NTSC with SVCD style subtitles.
They are known to work correctly. Burn to CDR and verify whether they play correctly. If they do play correctly but the output made with DVD2SVCD does not play correctly, please provide further feedback.


12) How NOT to post on this forum:

5 minutes after your initial post you reply to your own post writing something like "Why is nobody helping me? I'm sure you know the answer".

Once somebody replies to your thread but doesn't give you exactly the answer you've been expecting you insult them.

Do not ask "what's best" because this question cannot be answered objectively. Each and everyone has their own view about what's best in a certain area. The best is what works best for you!

ok i think you got the point

[Zoltan]

Hi,

To answer you questions:

1., The bitrate highly depends on the followings:
- Your player. Usually the players support a max and a min bitrate for SVCDs. You have to find these values yourself or by searching the player compatibility thread.
- Input is 16:9 vs 4:3, since 4:3 has more pixels so at the same bitrate gives worse quality
- NTSC vs PAL, because the fps is different so higher fps gives worse quality
- and of course, your quality expectations. There are experiments on how to put 2 hours of acceptable quality video onto a single SVCD... Search for the appropriate thread on this topic.

I usually use max=2450 for video plus 192 or 160 for audio when creating permanent subbed SVCDs for my Philips 751. Min=1000 (some players need higher), avg 1800 (up to you, but should not be 300 or closer to max, since CCE VBR coding will not have space to play with bitrates... See the appropriate thread on this)

2., Selectable subs are not supported by any software players. See the Player comaptibility thread or vcdhelp for your your player's ability. Many players don't support selectable subs at all. 90% of the ones that support selectable subs support SVCD style, not CVD (Chinese). The is a link to sample images for both styles in the FAQ ot Q&A.

3., Selectable subs are muxed by bbmpeg into your mpeg-2 file so there's no separate file and the size difference is due to the second video stream.

All the best,
Z

[Zoltan]

@clixomano: you were faster :)

Z

[Chetwood]

Originally posted by Zoltan
@clixomano: you were faster :)

Z

Sure he was faster but so what? His posting was *completely* pointless since it did not at all answer my questions but instead repeated his wrongful accusations; which btw did not get any more right upon repitition.

As we all can see the 2 FAQ excerpts clixomano is offering do not aplly, neither does his quoting of rule 12), cause I did not insult anyone.

Luckily there are others who actually CAN read and also come up with useful answers. Thanks to Zoltan for the help on bitrate/subtitles and to Bach for the other thread that explains why subtitles do not work on one's standalone even if the test VCDs run flawlessly.

Still makes me wonder how some people try to insist on discussing crossed purposes. Oh well...

@clixomano
Pls refrain from quoting some other totally irrelevant stuff in a vain attempt to reply to my question about converting only partial vobs. I think we've had enough already, thanks.

[Clixo]

ok
answer to question 1:
go to the bitrate tab and on the first line choose 42 minuts for the first cd so you will have the complete image in one cd keep all other default settings.

answer to question 2:
are all the 4 episodes in the same ifo, if they are you have to fing out whitch is the last chapter or the first chapter of episode two or one, and then use internal routines to make the ripping of the selected chapert . there is a very nice tool called ifoedit also there is a forum about that here with that you can see all the info inside of the ifo file.

answer to question 3:
the diference of sizes of the two files is because there is more info inside of it- the subtitle steam is already muxed.

also the is NO WAY at the moment to see any svcd or cvd in an pc cause there is no .dll made up til the moment


answer to question 4:
if it is ds2 ( the audio ) thats no prob cause many dvd dont have 5.1 streams but since the svcd audio is encoded in dolby digital it is not a problem.

i am not an english native so my english is not as good as yours, but as someone once told me " it is not my fault "