Hi, this was originally intended as a PM to ChickenMaster until I saw he doesn't read/respond to PMs. I'll post it in the forum here for general discussion then. Basically I'm new to DVD technology/burning (but not computers in general). The field is enormous and complex and I'd like to get some pointers in the right direction or to the right guides/programs plz.

Hi, I browsed your faq and it looks really detailed and thorough. I can't work on it for a few weeks cause I'm studying for my CCNA, but perhaps you can answer a couple of quick easy questions to see if my mode of thinking is on track:

1) I'm trying to backup convert/encode (whatever) some 350mb .avis into a format that my home dvd player can hopefully read. My panasonic player says it can read CD-R, DVD-R, and Video CD. If it can supposedly read VCD, would it likely be able to read SVCD also? (I think SVCD is significantly smaller than VCDs?)

2) It seems all of this is for the goal of burning SVCD CD-Rs. Since DVD-Rs hold 7x more data and should be readable by many home dvd players, is it possible to also make SVCDs onto DVD-Rs? Or does that require some new age programs that aren't out? Basically I guess what I'm asking (and I can research more thoroughly on this large topic, but would appreciate a pointer) is can there be a way to burn .avi source files onto DVD-Rs such that they would likely be playable on a home dvd player? If not SVCD/VCD then perhaps convert them into a flat out mpeg2 or .vob format?? (not sure the difference between all these formats...is it just compression?)

Any help is most appreciated.

Vally

Edit: I see this good tutorial now on converting DivX to DVD-R (instead of (S)VCD) but my question now is this:

Unlike converting to SVCD, the source .avi quality should have no perceptible drop off. Is this possible because the file will be very large (instead of compressed like an SVCD on CD-R)? Also, is the goal of all this to be able to play on home dvd players? (that can read DVD-Rs)? I don't mind if it takes more DVDs, if I can squeeze 2-3 350mb .avi source files into 1 DVD-R and maintain its quality, I'm all for it.


Edit:

So how many 350 divx .avi movies/files can I fit onto a DVD-R? 2, 4+?

I'm using ffdshow to cover all my codec needs and be able to play all my files on WMP. This bundle is bad also and why? If so can it easily be removed lol? (I dl'ed it initially cause the # of codecs out there overwhelmed me)


Which of these programs are permanent freeware, which are demos and which are payware? I'd be looking for fully functional versions that can do what that tutorial said, WITHOUT leaving things like watermarks or ugly text message on the end product

Plz advise here and/or pm me!

Thank you, you must be the first person to ever read that notice, I get sick and tired of saying "Ask it in the Forum", I just ignore them now !

No thats not true, many players that can play VCD's fine CANNOT play SVCD's at all. Many can also. SVCD's are almost always larger than VCD as well, but better quality though.

Yes you can convert them to SVCD and than author 6-7 of them to a DVDR. These may NOT play on your DVD Player even if it can play SVCD's normally. Dont assume it will automatically play because its on a DVDR.

[quote]
So how many 350 divx .avi movies/files can I fit onto a DVD-R? 2, 4+?[/quote
It depends on the movie length in hours & min, not file size. A 90 min movie when encoded to 1/2 a dvdr size will have a bitrate around 3000 and has very little drop (if any) in quality from a 700meg DivX/Xvid AVI. I tend to put 2 on a DVDR.. If your 350meg AVIs are 45min episodes, then I would suggest you could get 4 no worries on a DVDR.

ffsdhow tend to conflict with CCE and causes it to crash. Why not use the genuine DivX 5.x codec (its free) and Xvid (also free) as I mentioned.

None of those, only watermarked or timed demos available. All the others are.

If you're going to use DivX 5.X (ugh) go with 5.0.X since 5.X inherited a nasty protection wrapper. The author of vDub (Avery Lee) stated the he does not support usage of it in his application. Unless you're using a borked version of ffdshow, CCE should work fine with ffdshow if you set it up correctly.

Regarding SVCDs....
What ChickenMan said is right although you may be able to bypass this limitation by writing a VCD header on your SVCD a/v-stream.
http://raash.urk.se/svcd2vcd/
http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/40078

@ vallybally
It's really hard to estimate how much you can fit on a DVD without dropping too much quality. If your video files compresses decently you should be able to fit about 130 min of video (~4500kbps video and 192kbps audio) into one DVD. If your video source has a lower resolution than 640x480 consider SVCD instead of DVD.

ffdshow is not a bundle, it's a single DirectShow filter which works fine for DivX 4 and 5 material.
Dispite what that tutorial says all codec packs are not bad. Most well known packs are poorly put together while others works like a charm.
//Danne

Can you recommend a good 'non-borked' ffdshow version? I think I got it from the official site so I doubt it's a hacked/edited or beta version...would that make it 'non-borked' and likely viable for all this stuff we are talking about?

ffdshow ver. 20030523 (may 2003)
also have a newer one ver. 20040225 (feb. 2004)

I personally found 20030523 a bit buggy and reverted back to 20030424. It seems to work better if you set XviD as IDCT. If I'm not mistaken ffdshow requires a XviD dev-api3 build (codec) to work properly if you use XviD as IDCT.
//Danne