How do I convert an SVCD to a normal MPG?

[Rooster6975]

Hi,

I have a 2 CD SVCD that I would like to make normal MPG for play on a computer. I have already watched the SVCD using WinDVD and it works fine. However, I want to burn it to a DVD-R and be able to launch it from any computer without it being on 2 CDs. I know it will no longer work in set top DVD players, but I don't care. I figured the easiest way is to convert it to MPG (since it is already more or less in that format), and then use joining software to make one 1.5 GB MPG file.

This worked on another SVCD I have. On that one, I just copied the AVSEQ01.MPG files from the SVCD to my hard drive, renamed them and then joined them. The resulting MPG file works fine. However, with the second SVCD, there appear to be no key frames. When I copy the AVSEQ01.MPG file to a local directory, it is not searchable. It will load, but you cannot FF or rewind. I have seen this problem before with AVI files when they have no keyframes. When I tried to open the file with VirtualDub, it gives me an error message "MPEG Import Filter : Pack synchronization error".

Is there a program out there which will easily convert SVCDs into MPG so that they are searchable?

Thanks,
R.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by Rooster6975
This worked on another SVCD I have. On that one, I just copied the AVSEQ01.MPG files from the SVCD to my hard drive, renamed them and then joined them. The resulting MPG file works fine.This is black magic, AFAIK there is no way this would work. If you think it did, look better. You may have lost about 15% of the media info.

Normally, SVCDs use a writing mode on media which stores data where a regular Windows Explorer cannot read it. So, you have to rip the MPG back from the disk with a specialized tool. One free tool to easily do this is VCDEasy.

[Nick]

Just to note that vcdeasy is no longer freeware.
Only up to version 1.1.5.2 are free.

If you want the older free version I suggest a google search for

vcdeasy v1.1.5.2 download

That should find you a link. As for joining the files, TMPGEnc has a simple tool for this. Again the old versions up to Beta 12a are free but later versions are not.

[Rooster6975]

It's true I have not actually watched the resulting file from that first copy/rename/join. I will have a look and make sure it is complete. I watched the SVCDs so I should be able to recognize if a scene or two are missing.

I found VCDEasy, and it is indeed easy. Here is what the log file said when I converted to MPG using the CdXA3mpeg convert option (I pointed it to the MPG file on the SVCD and let 'er rip) :

[Cdxa2mpeg.exe]
GNU VCDImager 0.7.12
RIFF data[845275908]
CDXA RIFF detected
CDXA fmt[16] = 0x00 00 00 00 15 55 58 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
CDXA data[845275872] (359386 sectors)
...converting...
...stripped 0 leading and 0 trailing empty sectors...
...extraction done (359386 sectors extracted to file)!

There is now 1 800+ MB MPG file in my output director, however it is still not searchable, nor is it openable in vdub. In any player, when I try to click on any part of the movie, it just won't jump forward. It looks to me (total SVCD newb) that the resulting file from VCDEasy is identical to the renamed MPG file I tried to use earlier.

Any ideas? I used the Analyze options which said that it seems to be a DAT file renamed to MPG.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by Rooster6975
I watched the SVCDs so I should be able to recognize if a scene or two are missing.It doesn't work that way, but you'll notice what I mean when you watch it.
There is now 1 800+ MB MPG file in my output director, however it is still not searchable, [...] is identical to the renamed MPG file I tried to use earlier.Well, get out of doubt by running WinDiff.

On the searchable thing, I don't know what you mean. The SVCD standard defines chapters and the like, but AFAIK the MPEG2 container does not.

Also, if the file is encoded without some player required features, like scan offsets and seq. alignment headers, you may experience playability issues. But players seldom require those.

[Rooster6975]

Thanks for your responses so far. What I mean by searchable is when I play the MPG back in ZoomPlayer (or WinDVD, or WMP), the search bar (or seek bar as it is called in WMP9) at the bottom normally comes up and tells me how long the movie is. However, in both Zoom Player and in WMP, they both register the length as 00.00. When I click on the seek bar, in ZoomP it simply doesn't do anything. The movie continues to play but the counter does not augment. When I play it in WMP, the little seek button which normally moves across the screen as the movie unfolds, just sits there and does nothing. When I try to force it forward, I get an error message :
You've encountered error message C00D11CD while using Windows Media Player.

What is odd, is that WinDVD actually counts up. I can use the seek button to jump forward! But it is really slow like it has to do some calculations or something. It's definitely not behaving like a normal MPG.

When I load any other MPG, the counter at the bottom is correct, it counts up normally, and I can click on the seek bar to jump to wherever I want to go.

Any other ideas? Is there a similar tool for MPG files such as GSPOT for AVIs that will tell me information about this MPG file?

[Abond]

Rooster6975,
try to demux the mpg file to video and audio and re-mux it again with bbMPEG.

[Venom_IL]

have you tried VCDgear ?

[sarahjh69]

you need dvd patcher, free from the downloads section
dvd author, free for 30 days from www.pegasys-inc.com

drag the 2 data files onto your hard drive,
lets call em aveseq01.dat, and aveseq02.dat
(they should be 480 x 480 resolution)
run dvd patcher, patch both entire files to 352 x 480
(this only changes the header not the video data)
load the 2 files into dvd author using the add file button
add, chapters, menus, etc and compile the dvd
(ignore any errors) If you want to add chapters
click on the edit button, right click in the chapter
window and select add chapter every 10 mins or so

Now this is the sneaky bit use dvd patcher to patch
VTS_01_1.vob and VTS_01_2.vob back to 480 x 480 (entire file)

burn dvdr, and it will play perfectly in almost ever
standalone dvd player and PC

If its a VCD you want to convert, just forget the bit
with dvd patcher.

R6d2
I have never had any problems with getting the SVCD files
off the disk. sometimes they are .DAT and sometimes .MPG
but either way you can convert to dvd with no recoding of the
video data, dvd author converts the audio track if needed
without any user input.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by sarahjh69
I have never had any problems with getting the SVCD files
off the disk. sometimes they are .DAT and sometimes .MPG
but either way you can convert to dvd with no recoding of the
video data, dvd author converts the audio track if needed
without any user input. I never meant you need to reencode. I just meant you cannot drag and drop the file from Windows Explorer. If this worked for you, the only possible explanation, without resorting to black magic, is that the CD was not a SVCD after all, just a regular 2048-byte sector CD. :)

[Rooster6975]

Hi,

There are 2 SVCDs I am talking about here.

1st one :
When I copied the avseq01.mpg file directly off the SVCD, it seemed to work just fine. I could load it into an MPEG player (Zoom Player) and it played just like any movie. I couldn't explain it at the time. However, subsequent to a reboot (I virtually never reboot, my computer is always on), the file would not play on any MPG player. I can only assume it was somehow cached earlier. I ran it through VCDEasy and converted it from a DAT file (even though it was named .MPG) to a True MPEG, and now it plays just fine.

2nd file :
However, that was my first SVCD issue that I was only using to demonstrate the problem on the second issue (they are 2 different and unrelated movies). I have a movie that I am trying to convert to a true MPEG. It plays fine in an SVCD player such as WinDVD and I can click on the Time Slider to move to any part of the movie. Chapters all work fine, it appears to be a normal SVCD. However, when I run it through VCDEasy to convert to a normal MPEG, I point CDxa2mpeg to the file AVSEQ01.MPG and put in an output directory. It says it was successful :

[Cdxa2mpeg.exe]
GNU VCDImager 0.7.12
RIFF data[845275908]
CDXA RIFF detected
CDXA fmt[16] = 0x00 00 00 00 15 55 58 41 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
CDXA data[845275872] (359386 sectors)
...converting...
...stripped 0 leading and 0 trailing empty sectors...
...extraction done (359386 sectors extracted to file)!

The resulting MPG file works, however it is not searchable. The counters never move from 00:00:00 and clicking on the Time Slider has no effect at all.

How can I make a searchable MPEG from this SVCD?

Thanks,
R.

[r6d2]

Originally posted by Rooster6975
Re: Now agree with the Black Magic comment.....I'm glad to hear that. Otherwise you'd have your username changed to Harry Potter and I'd have my mod badge tinted. :)
How can I make a searchable MPEG from this SVCD?As stated above, AFAIK the MPEG-2 container does not define chapters. These are authored in SVCDs or DVDs on top of the stream.

I really don't know for sure the answer to your question, but if I were you I'd try demuxing and muxing back with bbMPEG enabling scan offsets and seq alignment header properties. Just guessing, really, but that's what I'd do. You'll lose no quality, even though the file may end up a little bigger.

If you try it, please report back the results. I'd be glad to know what those parameters actually are there for, since my player does not require them and hence I don't use them.

[Rooster6975]

I don't want chapters in my MPEG. If they are there, fine, if not, equally fine. I just want to have a normal MPEG. The first SVCD resulted in a normal MPEG after its run through VCDEasy. It's completely searchable, I can just click on the Time Slider and it will jump to that point in the movie. Just like an AVI, OGM, MKV, or any other video container.

But this one persists on leaving the counter at 00:00 although it does play properly. I remember this problem way back in the days of the first Divx codec version. People would encode without key frames, so the player could never pick up the movie if you tried to jump forward. It was either watch the entire thing in one go, or don't bother.

I'll keep at it. It has taken on more of a technical challenge than an actual desire to have it in MPEG format. I have seen the film twice now, and many, many snippets of it while trying to fix this problem. When I finally do get it in searchable "normal" MPEG format, I will probably never watch it again :)

R.

[Si]

I believe the program you want is called IsoBuster (http://www.isobuster.com)

About a year ago I used V1.0 to extract and convert SVCD's to normal MPEG-2 files.

Currently version is up to 1.5 but author states V1.5 works to V1.0 specs for free.

Its one of those progs thats needs a little working out but it seems to do the job.

regards

Simon