very very newbie

[shancat]

hello all,

like it says, i am very very new to dvd ripping, encoding, and everything else. i have read the guides, been reading the forums and have waited the 5 days to post, so hopefully i will not offend any of you old-timers with my questions. upon reading the guides and posts, i find most of them are over my head. for example, what is dvd-9 vs dvd-5? what is the difference between vcd and svcd, and why would you use either one? is there a way to split a divx file in order to put it on a disk? and finally, i know i have run into this before but have been unable to find it now that i need it, what do you do if the audio in a divx file becomes out of sync? thank you thank you thank you in advance for any help you can give.

[manono]

Hey shancat-

Don't get discouraged so early in the game. We've all been through it. You'll gain most of your practical knowledge by actually trying things out and making mistakes.

DVD-9 vs DVD-5--DVD-9 is a single sided, double layered DVD that holds more data. Many, if not most, DVD movies now are being released on DVD-9 which allows for a higher average bit rate and better quality. DVD-5 is a single sided, single layered DVD.

VCD vs SVCD--VCD has lower resolution and a lower bit rate when compared to SVCD. In general, SVCDs are better quality (in terms of resolution and bit rate), and if you're trying to decide which to make to play on your standalone DVD player, then my recommendation is to go for SVCD. Why use either one? If you don't have a DVD-Burner to make your own DVDs, and if you don't have a vid out on your vid card, or the computer is in another room, but you still want to watch your creations on your TV set using your DVD Player, then SVCD is one solution.

Out of synch audio--If it's out of synch by the same amount throughout, then its easy to fix by adjusting the delay. If it's progressively asynch (gets worse as the movie goes along), it's more difficult to fix, but still doable. Check out Doom9's VDub Procedures Guide (http://www.doom9.org/virtualdub_procedures.htm), and about a quarter of the way down you'll find the synching section. You should use Nandub and not VDub for this, though. Good Luck.

[killingspree]

... that i would recommend to make sure that your DVD standalone supports SVCD, for example mine doesn't (: i made the mistake myself so just check... it's worth the 5 minutes :-P

regards
steVe

[manono]

Good point killingspree-

You can find the compatability list Here (http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers).

Also, I forgot to answer the question about .avi splitting. In the link I gave in the previous post, just below the information about how to synch the audio, are the instructions about how to split an .avi.

[shancat]

thanks so much for the info. i just got back in town and back to the computer, so i'll be trying it out tonight.......