Just bought a DVD writer, want to convert my VCD / SVCD's onto DVD. Anyone point me in the right direction for a guide to do this and advise on what software is required.

Thanks

Sure.

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If you are the proud new owner of a DVD Writer, why settle for VCD/SVCD quality ?

Have a look at DVDShrink (freeware) and Dvd20ne trial copy. You'll soon be burning DVD's with far superior quality.

Dont settle for less ;)

Not if the only source you have is (S)VCD.

You can burn them using the raw setting on you burning app but if you want to fill up the dvd with more than one film then try maestro or tmpgenc to author your dvd with menus....etc.

i understand exactly what ur question is and how to solve it, its complicated tho

This is what I do:

1. If you have the the bin/cue files for the releases, use Isobuster to extract MPG's
2. If you have multiples MPG's, combine them into one file with TMPGEnc (File->MPEG Tools then Merge & Cut)
3. Then use TMPGEnc to convert VCD to DVD NTSC format
4. Now we need elementary streams, so use Simple De-multiplex (MPEG Tools in TMPGEnc)
5. Now, use SpruceUP to load the .m2v and .mpa to author the DVD.
6. Burn away.

This is just a vauge guide.

Real_iltfg: svcd2dvdmpg+ mate

svcd2dvdmpg.com

svcd2dvdmpg gave me extremely shatty quality on my PS2. I will stick to my method.

Real_iltfg,

I used your method m8 and got it burned to DVD. Unfortunately though when the film plays it is very jittery and the screen keeps freezing every few seconds :-(

Oh, the only thing I done different was made it a DVD PAL version in TMPGE - does that matter?

The menus and scene selection etc worked fine though. Any ideas onm what might be wrong?

Also, when you test your movie in SpruceUp should the film play on screen when you click on teh scene selections etc? as mine didnt - screens just stayed still.

You say you encoded as PAL. Was your source NTSC? If so that is your problem. Converting NTSC to PAL is not as simple as just selecting PAL in TMPGEnc, doing so will lead to poor motion such as what you have described.

i have tried loads of different ways but always encounter problems, usually sync issues (especially with tmpgenc

celtic_druid,

cheers I checked out the format and it was NTSC - redone it and it worked ;-)

Only problem is that I now have another obstacle in my way!!!

I have merged 4 vcds togeather to put onto a DVD disk - which has a size of 2.8 GB, but when I now try to convert the file to DVD through TMPGEnc it says the file size is 6.8 GB!!! and thus I cant fit it onto a DVD.

Anyone know why the file will grow by 4 GB if I put it through TMPGEnc?

Well if you are going from VCD to full res DVD complient MPEG2 then the file size is going to go up. I mean you are encoding at 4X the resolution of VCD. If you don't want the filesize to increase then don't re-encode or try encoding at half or quater DVD res.

Ah right m8, sorry I thought that you had to re-encode or something.

OK so I now have this .mpg file that is 2.8GB long - can you tell me how I know simply burn this to DVD so I can play it on my standalone player?

I would rather put a simple menu / chapter system in it too - but again whenever I load it into SpruceUp it doesnt seem to accept .mpg files, and when I try it in Ulead DVD Movie Factory 2 it makes it into a 5GB odd file?

Ulead is re-encoding. You would need to demultiplex it into a video and audio stream. Also if the audio is 44.1KHz then you would at least need to re-encode that.

It is quite possible that you would still need to re-encode the video, because although DVD spec does support both VCD res and MPEG1, not all players do.

Thanks m8 - got it all up and running now - nice one! ;-)

Easiest method I found was to join the mpg files together with TMPGEnc, then use the Wizard, it will allow you to adjust the bitrate and see what the final filesize will be, adjust it so its about 4.2GB, after it is encoded you will have a dvd compliant mpg file which you can then just load into Ulead DVD Movie Factory, create your chapters and menus, then burn it and you will have a perfect vcd-dvd.