Using DVD2SVCD for SVCD2SVCD

[Swin]

Hi, this is along similar line this this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?threadid=48036&highlight=svcd2svcd) thread.

As suggested in the title, I am trying to create and svcd from another svcd - along with performing some conversion that DVD2SVCD should take care of nicely. After reading the above thread I have used dvd2svcd's suggestion and used the (DVB (pva)) option on the misc tab. Unlike the other in that thread I am not getting and Illegal Stream error but I am getting a very condensed movie - approx 550 frames in a 45 min SVCD!

I have tried cPVAS in versions 2.0.23a, 2.0.30 and 2.1 beta [Edit - also now ver 2.0.10 as suggested in other posts]. The later doesn’t work at all and the two former seem to produce incredibly small VOB file that when played in PowerDVD is only 500 odd frames mentioned.

Below are the PVA.job and PVA.log text’s from PVA

Log:
PVAStrumento 2.0.30
Parsing jobfile

ALERT> loglevel = 1
***

*** PVAStrumento 2.0.30

*** running at 06-25-2003 02:11

***
Stream info for

C:\Stuff\AVSEQ01.MPG

VIDEO: Resolution 480 x 480
Aspect ratio is 4:3
Frame rate 29.97 fps
Nominal bitrate 2530000 bps
first PTS: 00:00:00.346

AUDIO: MPEG-1, Layer 2
48.0 kHz, Stereo
Bitrate 384 kbps
Frame Length 24.0 ms (1152 bytes)
first PTS: 00:00:00.227

Audio starts 119 ms early

(->video delay on muxing)


Video bitrate: max 9346 , avg 2283 kbps
Setting first sequence header to avg. bitrate


Job:
offeryn pvas job v000102 # DO NOT DELETE THIS LINE
# Job Description
$JOB
# demux <infile> <videofile> <audiofile>
demux C:\Stuff\AVSEQ01.MPG C:\Movies\AVSEQ_1.vob C:\Movies\EXTRAC~1.MPA
# Streams to demux
audio 1
video 1
# Job Parameters
$PARMS
# program options
loglevel 1
fixstart 1
sync 1
dropgop 1
dropwronggop 1
strongaudio 1
shortscan 0
setbr 1
setvbr 1
setavg 1
adjusttc 1
packsize 2324
splitsize 0
overlap 1
spliteven 0



As an additional I ran the mpeg form the svcd through the PVA GUI and simply scanned the input file with no other changes and got a lot of error log like these:-

ALERT> 4 video frames missing at 00:02:48.952
Syncing: Cutting audio.
ALERT> 4 video frames missing at 00:02:49.786
Syncing: Cutting audio.
ALERT> 4 video frames missing at 00:02:50.620
Syncing: Cutting audio.
ALERT> 4 video frames missing at 00:02:51.454
Syncing: Cutting audio.
***CANCELLED***


I guess that PVA doesn’t like this mpg for some reason - but it plays fine on PowerDVD - not of the standalone as it is in NTSC format and so doesn’t play correctly - hence the reason for running it through DVD2SVCD!

I also read the suggestion about converting it to an AVI first then running it through DVD2SVCD but was trying to avoid doing any unnecessary conversions.

Any thoughts?

Swin

[Swin]

As an addendum, I have now tried running a second SVCD mpg movies though DVD2SVCD and have come across the "illegal stream" error. This time the movie was a PAL SVCD that needs a re-encode. I'm not sure if anything is going to happen as DVD2SVCD hasn't crashed yet and the CPU utilisation is at 100%, so I'll leave it tonight and report back in the morning.

[Edit - after leaving it run over night, the PC was at the same point this morning so I guess this isn't going to work. I have now also run the PVAStrumento GUI on this file and recieve the "Illegal Stream" error so I can only assume that all MPEG2 file are NOT created equal and that PVAStrumento has trouble with certian files - obviously this is not a DVD2SVCD fault.

After a little more resaerch I have found that some users succeede with the "renaming mpg to vob" file method and creating a relevant ifo file. So, to find IFOEdit and give this a whirl].

Swin

PS just wondered if it would be easier to build an option into DVD2SVCD to use DVD2AVI for SVCD2SVCD conversions as it is already part of the bundle?

[Swin]

Well things become odder and odder!

I have droppen the PVA2SVCD idea as I just can't seem to get any sense from PVAStrumento. Some of the error that I have come across do not seem to have solutions alhtough certian post do refer to these issues. I am just not clued up enough as yet to undersatnd these problems.

Anyhow, the idea of creating an IFO file seems more plausable as the movies I am attempting to re-encode are SVCD 2 disk movies. It would seems to make sense to create an IFO file to cover both MPEG files from each of the disks so as to re-encode in one flawless motion.....

Well, one of the option in the forum is to "borrow" an IFO file from a movie that would have the same resolution and frame rate etc as the movies I wish to encode. Of course these IFO file are from DVD movies and so all the resolutions are wrong when comapred to SVCD.

So I create an IFO using IFOEdit. This has some strange effects in giving my PAL MPEG2 movie NTSC and MPEG1 credential. These are can be edited (I assume correctly) in IFOEdit - but then theres's the mater of the 8 (yes eight) audio streams! With the PAL movie of of these streams is 4 channels - I'm pretty sure that this MPEG only has one video and one audio stream, the latter which is 2 channel stereo.

Edit - there is a monumentous amount of information in these IFO files - none of which I understand. I would normaly spend several weeks resarching this but they want 5 bucks before you even get to look at the forum - I don't think so!]

Well I decide to ignore this and move onto DVD2SVCD. The PAL video is analysed (I have set the AVS script to edit so that the process stops then open the AVS in VirtualDub - all seem to be there) but during the DVDto AVI analyses it is reported in the DVD2SVCD log that the frame rate is 29.97 fps - which it isn't - even though restoring the DVD2AVI program as it runs shows that the stats are reporting 25 fps. Running the MPEG in DVD2AVI normally shows that the frames are interlaced - but I'm not sure if DVD2SVCD is supposed to apply IVTC on PAL? There are also the lines Telecide()and Decimate(5) added to the AVS script - is this the IVTC?.

DVD2SVCD pre-selected audio stream 3 (the 4 channel one) on the PAL film which could not be extracted. At this point I stoppped as I guess that things won't wort out after 5 hours of encoding! The log for this is below.

WNASPI32.DLL 4.6.0.1021
WNASPI32.DLL 4.6.0.1021
--------------------------------------------------------
- 25/06/2003 22:48:01
- DVD to SVCD Conversion
- DVD2SVCD ver. 1.1.3 build 3 BETA 7
--------------------------------------------------------
Initializing
Initializing finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 25/06/2003 22:48:04
- DVD2AVI
--------------------------------------------------------
Creating DVD2AVI INI file:
- C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVD2AVI\DVD2AVI.INI

Variable settings:
iDCT_Algorithm: 32-bit SSE MMX

Executing DVD2AVI.
Executing DVD2AVI. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DVD2AVI\DVD2AVI.exe" -CS=2 -YR=1 -EXIT -OF=[C:\Movies\DVD2AVI_Project_file] -IF=[C:\Stuff\BruceVOB\VTS_01_1.vob,C:\Stuff\BruceVOB\VTS_01_2.vob]
Analyzing DVD2AVI Project file
Hybrid Film activated. IVTC will be applied and will slow down the entire process!
Framerate: 29970
DVD2AVI processing done.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 25/06/2003 22:50:10
- Free on drive C: 7041.68 mb
- AUDIO Extraction
--------------------------------------------------------
Audio1 delay: -813 ms
Analyzing DVD2AVI Project file
Hybrid Film activated. IVTC will be applied and will slow down the entire process!
Framerate: 29970
Audio stream 2 was not found!
Audio extraction finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 25/06/2003 22:51:22
- Free on drive C: 7041.68 mb
- AUDIO conversion
--------------------------------------------------------

Encoding Audio. Filename: C:\Movies\Extracted_audio_1
Executing BeSweet. Commandline:
"C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\BeSweet\Old\BeSweet.exe" -core( -input "C:\Movies\Extracted_audio_1" -output "C:\Movies\Encoded_audio_1.mp2" -logfile "C:\Movies\Encoded_audio_1.log" ) -azid( -L -3db -c normal -s surround -g max ) -ota( -d -813 -r 960 1001 ) -shibatch( --rate 44100 ) -2lame( -e -b 192 -m s )
Audio conversion of C:\Movies\Extracted_audio_1 finished.

Audio conversion finished.

--------------------------------------------------------
- 25/06/2003 22:51:30
- Free on drive C: 7041.68 mb
- Converting Pictures
--------------------------------------------------------
Converting: C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\cover13.jpg
Converting: C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DefaultChangeCD.bmp
Converting: C:\Program Files\DVD2SVCD\DefaultLastCD.bmp
Finished converting pictures


I am just about to try the NTSC SVCD now and see what happens.


Swin

[Swin]

Ok, the NTSC SVCD worked after many, many failed attempts mainly due to the PC freezing during the CCE encode. I did start receiving checksum errors and after reading the Q&A applied the patch, then the computer just froze. No CTRL+ALT+DEL, nothing, just a hard reset. I did manage to complete the encode once but this was after reusing the VAF - and the sound synch was way off - not sure if that is a problem of reusing the VAF, I haven’t had time to look into this one.

Anyhow after a good hard defrag, I managed to get the encode completed (maybe there’s a lessen to be learned here) and all seems fine. So what is the deal with my PAL SVCD?

According to DVD2AVI, the NTSC SVCD is 29.97 fps, progressive and is of type FILM, so force film is used in the project and the final frame rate is 23.976 fps, all of which DVD2SVCD seems to do correctly.

With the PAL film, DVD2AVI tells me that the frame rate is 25 fps, interlaced and of type PAL. However, as pointed out above, DVD2SVCD seems to misinterpret this and the audio is also not extracted. When I plug the manually created VOB's into DVD2AVI and save the project, the audio is extracted correctly and (I assume) that if I put the DVD2AVI project through a AVS script into CCE or TMPEG (haven't tried this yet) then the film will encode correctly.

So why does DVD2SVCD seem to get this wrong? Is there a way of "fooling" DVD2SVCD by say copying the manually created DVD2AVI project and extracted audio over a previous project then recovering (I will try this now however)? I haven’t dealt with interlaced movies before (at least not knowingly) and so I am not sure if the AVS script that DVD2SVCD came up with (above) would be correct or not for this film.

I'm also guessing that after 122 views of this thread and no response other than my own that this is an "unknown". Still I shall persevere and report back if I find anything.

Swin

[Swin]

Well, what a palaver, but it's finally finished.

This is just to wrap things up a little even if not all my questions are answered. In fact I have a lot more question stemming from the original thread topic that have now come up, as always seems to be the case with this whole digital video malarkey.

I managed to re-encode the PAL SVCD eventually although I believe all the problems came down to how the original MPEG was encoded.

Firstly, IFOEdit didn’t recognise these files (the ripped out MPEG’s with names changed to VTS_01_1.VOB etc) as MPEG2 streams or PAL. This in turn meant that DVD2SVCD thought it was an NTSC movie. Also, DVD2AVI thought that the movie was interlaced. After having read a few forum posts about this (sorry can’t remember links now) and the Doom guide at http://www.doom9.org/ivtc-tut.htm, I began to realise that DVD2AVI is not always correct. After parsing the D2V project through ParseD2V, the log showed that all frames as 0 and then viewing the D2V project in VirtualDub I could not see any interlacing effects – and all the frames seemed consecutive (it’s amazing what you can read and do when your waiting for a 40 hour encode using IVTC that turns out to be totally unnecessary!). Interlacing and figuring out if my digital source is interlaced is new area for me (as is most of this anyhow) but is was then obvious that this movie was actually progressive – so the Telecide()and Decimate(5) functions in the AVS script should have been removed.

Also, DVD2SVCD couldn’t seem to get the audio extracted properly from the VOB’s that I had created. The best I could manage was only half the sound track – essentially from the first disk. However, manually saving the project from DVD2AVI I did get a full extracted audio. After D2S had created its mpa, I stopped the program, copied the “real” mpa that had been manually extracted to the Extracted_audio_1.mpa file.

Even after this encode the audio synch was out. This was because the frame rate of the film was 25 fps but because DVD2SVCD though it was converting so it applied a conversion factor in BeSweet! So after doing another small encode on a “good” PAL mpeg I figured out what the switches were in BeSweet then manually re-encoded the sound track and saved to the Encoded_audio_1.mp2 file. I could then recover in D2S after the video encoding (actually I re-encoded anyhow but this was just to increase the bitrate). I then finally got the movie I wanted that plays OK in my standalone!

Basically it would have been nice to know what each program that D2V uses really does which of course you don’t truly get to learn by using DV2. However, in oddball situations like this, using the logs provided (and a bit of research) does mean that D2V actually can be used a quite a good learning tool to these programs.

In conclusion, if anybody is trying to do this method (SVCD2SVCD, MPEG2SVCD, MPEG2MPEG etc) then the method that worked for me best was to change the extension and file name of the MPG’s to VOB;s. I have probably gone all round the houses to get a result but it seems as though the method you chose is dependant on how the original MPG is encoded (don’t quote me on this but someone else may explain better than I). IFOEdit does create an IFO file, but again if the original MPEG’s are encoded incorrectly, you may not even get the IFO you actually require. I would like to know what information D2S uses from the IFO file so that they could possibly be edited to force D2V to get the right movie type. Moreover, persevere – it has taken me over 2 weeks to get these movies into a format that I can watch on my standalone but I have managed it - eventually!

Swin