SVCD to DVD : how to "crop" SVCD streams before authoring

[waldok]

Hi all,

As usual, sorry if this has been asked before, couldn't find the answer.

Here is my (latest) problem. I want to transfer my home-made movies SVCD collection to DVD, on a "2 movies-per-disc basis". These SVCDs have been built with DVD2SVCD, and movies usually are spread over 2 or 3 Cds.
At the time, I had selected the DVD2SVCD option allowing to repeat the 2 last seconds of first disk at the beginning of 2nd disk, in order to preserve some "movie continuity" after switching CDs.

Now this is a pain in the fart factory, since I now have to edit the MPEG streams somehow in order to remove these repeating parts, since I want to merge all the streams together to generate a DVD.
(By the way, I'm using the new DVDLab tool evaluation version, pretty good and fast at this job.)

Now can someone tell me how I should edit my MPEG streams so to remove the 2 or 3 seconds that will be duplicated in the final stream and will cause the movie not to play smoothly at all. I know I can go throuhg M2Edit pro, but this will take time since it generally requires to demux and remux after editing).
What is another good MPEG editor or any other efficient way to do this (I sure don't want to spend hours on this, since final quality will not be worth the time spent anyway (although it's still not that bad)

Thanks a lot.

Waldok:cool:

[SVCD4Me]

You could probably use ChopperXP or VOBSplit to chop off parts, but I don't know if you could get it exact enough.

I know this isn't what you asked for, but why not just leave the extra overlap and make them separate Titles that you jump to when the first is over. It can give you an intermission and requires very little work. Even if you do chop off "almost enough" then it will still probably not be seamless enough to join as one.

Best of luck.

[auenf]

or tmpgenc or, in DVDMaestro (or even DVDLab) you can cut the end of the file off.

Enf...

[waldok]

Thanks for trying to help.

@Auenf
OK, I can cut parts, but as SVCD4me said, movie won't play seamlessly I fear (Well i'm just about to try ChopperXP to see). I used to use this M2edit pro and it was pretty accurate for this kind of stuff. So I guess I'll stick with it. I used to use it for SVCD stuff, never tried on DVD streams (well...sort of DVD streams here...since it is still 480x576)

@SVCD4Me
I don't really get you when you say

why not just leave the extra overlap and make them separate Titles that you jump to when the first is over. It can give you an intermission and requires very little work

Do you mean leave it like it is ? With the repeating parts ? Well, i already put both streams as separate VTS on the final DVD, but I want the second one to start immediately after the first one is over, which works fine, but there are these damn repeating scenes that I don't want to see. I agree with you, if I put them on two separate titles and manually select the second one once the first one is over, it could be ok to see just a few seconds repeating. But it's not very different from switching Cds then, so I would not spend time and expensive DVDRs just to do it. My goal is more to "recreate" the whole movies in one seamless piece.
Thanks for your suggestions anyway.

I'll let you know if M2Edit is satisfactory here.

[LAST MINUTE EDIT]

Right after I posted this, I just found a possible way to go. Let's say I have a movie split on 2 Cds. I create 2 movies in Maestro (movie1a = first CD and movie 1b = 2nd CD). Now in movie1b, I create a chapter point at the beginning, at the exact timecode just after the part that was repeated from movie1a (am I clear here ?). For example, let's say movie1b repeats the last 2 seconds of movie 1a, I would create a chapter1 in movie 1b at 00:00:02:00. Then, in the "Set End actions" part for movie1a, I just select "jump to movie 1b chapter 1" (which I just created at 00:00:02:00).
Quite simple, should work and no crop or demux/remux involved. I'm just about to check it right now.

thanks again for your help.

Waldok:cool:

[ChrissyBoy]

@waldok
Your last method sounds good. Did it work? BTW are you saying that you can have two SVCD movies in DVDLab and produce a title set per movie? I only managed a single title set...

[waldok]

No my method didn't work properly. I mean playback was not seamless when jumping from the end of the first half to the first chapter in second half.
So I'll stay with a "repeating" part in the final movie, not a big deal finally.

ChrissyBoy, yes, I managed to have 2 titlesets, one for each original SVCD movie.
I just created a movie in DVD lab for each SVCD and the final DVD contained two VTS.
Wasn't it the same for you ? I really did nothing special here, so I guess this should be the "normal" operating mode for DVDLab ?


Waldok:cool:

[ChrissyBoy]

@waldok: pity. On paper that looked like a good method. I will still point people to it as it might suffice for them. In my own case i can't see what all the fuss is about. 1/2 sec overlap is fine considering that the alternative is getting up off the couch & changing a SVCD CD!

I still have what i would call a single Title Set in DVDLab. I have two SVCD CDs. Both are 800MB. In DVD Maestro(which produces a title set per 'movie' (each CD being a movie)) i get two vobs which map to these CDs. I.e. both are 800MB. In DVDLab i get one @ 953MB and one at 644 MB. That is the type of behaviuor you get with single title set programs like movie factory etc.

Sorry if i'm wibbling about something you already know.....

Single title set output would look like(in the case of 4, 800MB SVCDs):

VTS_01_1.VOB (just less than 1GB)
VTS_01_2.VOB (just less than 1GB)
VTS_01_3.VOB (just less than 1GB)
VTS_01_4.VOB (around 200MB)

Multiple title set output would look like:

VTS_01_1.VOB (approx 800MB)
VTS_02_1.VOB (approx 800MB)
VTS_03_1.VOB (approx 800MB)
VTS_04_1.VOB (approx 800MB)

Which do you have?
CB

[SomeJoe]

Originally posted by waldok
No my method didn't work properly. I mean playback was not seamless when jumping from the end of the first half to the first chapter in second half.

A few other things you might try. I've never done this, so I have no idea if it will work.

Instead of doing two different movies (which Maestro will compile into separate VTS's), try this:

- Make 1 movie
- Drag the first part of the movie into Maestro's timeline.
- Drag the second part of the movie onto the same timeline after the 1st part (i.e. so that the two pieces of the movie are together with no space in between).
- Create two chapter points: One near the end of the first piece (Maestro will force the chapter point to the nearest I-frame), and one near the beginning of the second piece (also forced to the nearest I-frame). Those two chapter points need to be as close as possible to each other in terms of movie continuity. They probably won't be exact because the IBP framing of each piece won't be the same.
- Now create a playlist in Maestro that skips that tiny chapter where the movies are joined.

This places both .m2v streams in the same VTS when Maestro compiles. This might play seamlessly, but again, I've never tried it.

And a second possibility:

- Place piece #1 on the timeline in angle 1.
- Place piece #2 on the timeline in angle 2, and align the pieces such that they overlap, and that playback would be continuous if the angle were switched during the 2-second overlap.
- Create a chapter point somewhere during the 2 second overlap.
- Create a command sequence that fires at the end of the previous chapter that switches the angle.

This might also play seamlessly, but who knows. ;)

Let us know what happens.

[waldok]

Somejoe,

Thanks for your ideas. I'll give them a try.

Waldok:cool: