How to find the perfect cut-point for a 2cd project with extras?

[superyupkent1981]

HI all!

When I prepare my DVD copy for own use, this is what I usually try to do:

I want to make a 2 cd Divx 5 project which contains the following:
-main movie with subtitles and 2 (mp3) audio tracks
-making of
-interview with the cast
-special effects

I rip and calculate the three extra features into divx content, then I know the amount of MB for those. Then I look at the subfiles of my main movie, I convert the two ac3 files to mp3. At this point I know the final size of the three extra features, the subtitles and 2 audio tracks of my main movie.

Then I know how many MB’s I have left for the videofile of my main movie. But now the difficult part starts. Lets say my main movie inc. subs and two audio tracks is 1000MB and the other three features are 100MB each.

I want to put part I of my main movie on CD1 and part II plus the extra features on CD2. I tried to take the amount of frames and relate those to the amount of time so that I could make an estimate for the cutting point of my main movie and audio tracks.
I have found that this doesn’t really works that well, sometimes I get it just right at 680MB and sometimes around 730MB.

I am sure there must be a ‘smarter’ way of calculating this, I hope some of you guys experienced this problem as well and solved it.

Alex

[killingspree]

start up virtualdubmod
load the avi
select direct stream copy for both audio and video
go File > Save as and in the parameters at the bottom of the window, check the 'segment output file' checkbox, leave 'limit number of frames...' unchecked and enter the desired filesize in MB below (most likely 700 MB, but you usually can get up to 703 Mb onto one cd),
specifiya filename and hit save as.
that's it you'll have a first segment of pretty much exactly 700 Mb (+/- 2-300 kb for the closest keyframe) and the second segment will contain the rest!

oh and if you haven't muxed the video + audio files yet (unlikely if you did everything in gknot), you can do that while muxing too!

steVe

[oddyseus]

Killingspree's suggestion beats mine by a mile or so, but I will mention it altogether.

Use dvtools 0.24 application where u get a precise on spot size estimation of an audio/video file accurate to the frame.

u can find the app here (http://www.musclesoft.de/combatman/software/dvtool.html).

[superyupkent1981]

Thanks for the advice guys,

I think i'll stick to Steve's method. I had just one question about the muxing of my audio files. You suggest that I mux my audio during this cutting procedure? So that I actually finish with 2 parts containing the muxed audio tracks and one which is around 700MB?

I didn't really followed you where in VirtualDubMod I could add those two tracks. I was under the impression that I had to cut the video file, note the keyframe. Use that exact frame to cut both my tracks, then use Nandub to open part 1 and add both tracks and do the same for part 2.

Alex

[killingspree]

oh no... pls don't do it this way (:
i was of the impression that you were doing everyhting with gknot, therefor also letting it mux the file. so that you end up with an around 1100 meg video file with 2 audio streams and just needed to split the file so you could burn it to CD.
anyway, no in this case you even got two possibilities:
a) use vdubmod:
load the video stream
go to the streams tab, there you can load both audio streams
set to direct stream copy
set the output to be segmented at 700 MB (or whatever you like)
save the file, vdubmod will mux and cut at once
b) use avimuxgui (my favourite method)
just dl the program
drag and drop the audio and video files
on the advanced tab specifiy your split point in MB again
hit start, specifiy a name and thats it again :D

about where the cutting takes place: avis containing divx/xvid can only be correctly cut at a keyframe. otherwise the frames from the split point to the first keyframe in the second half will not be playable. this will cause numerous problems starting from players crashing to audio that is out of sync!

hope this clarifies things,

steVe
PS: here's a link to different vdubmod procetures: http://www.doom9.org/vdubmod-procedures.htm oh and the search button is your best friend around here ;)

[superyupkent1981]

Thanx Steve,

This have really helped me! I'll try to search even better next time.

alex