|
|
| Macro’s Guide to VCD’s |
Introduction
In this tutorial I will explain to you how to make VCD’s
(Video CD) of movies, so you can download them of the net and play
them on your DVD Player.
Before I explain the simple steps you are firstly going to need
some programs.
And being such a nice guy as I am, I am going to tell you where to
get them.
Firstly you will need a encoding program, to actually encode the
video file to MPEG 2 format, in order for it to be in the right
format to burn as a VCD.
There are many programs out there, but the best in my opinion is a
program called TMPGEnc. You can
download this program for free at their web site, which is http://www.tmpgenc.net
The second program you will require is also Freeware (my favourite
word) which is called Virtual Dub
created by Avery Lee. This can be downloaded at http://www.virtualdub.org
Lastly you will need another Freeware (god I love that word)
program called Divfix created by
Budai Csaba, and this can be found at http://www.divx.com
Note: If you would like this Tutorial in a Microsoft Word
document, then click Here.
Right lets get started.
The Stuff to Know
Right so you got a movie.avi file and you want to make it into a
VCD?
Well first thing to do is to find out if this movie file is encoded
by divx or not.
So, load up TMPGEnc and you will be firstly presented with a
wizard.
(The first out of five steps).
Step 1
The first step will ask you what MPEG file you wish you create. Now
as this is a text on VCD’s yup you guessed it, we will be
looking at the Video CD on the left hand menu.
Now when you expand this, you will be presented with the following
options.
These are basically different formats depending where in the world
you live, because you DVD players will have a Region assigned to
it, unless you have it hacked so it plays all regions, or you paid
extra and got it converted.
The only difference between NTSC and NTSC film is that NTSC plays
the movie at 353x240 resolution and 29.97fps (Frames Per Second)
while NTSC Film plays the movie at the same resolution but at
23.976fps.
You will pick NTSC or NTSC Film if you live in American or
Japan.
Finally the third format is PAL. This plays the film at 352x288
resolution and 25fps.
You will choose PAL of you live in Europe.
Right once you decided what format to choose, click Next.
Step 2
This step makes you choose the source file to convert into
MPEG.
Click Browse next to the video box and choose the movie you want to
convert.
Once you have chose this, you will see that it automatically
selects the same file again as the audio file.
Once you have selected the source, you will see that 2 boxes have
came enabled.
The first box is Video Type, and gives you a drop down menu option
of Non-Interlace or Interlace.
The general rule here is that you choose interlace if you are
planning to watch the film on a TV, or non-interlace if you are
planning to watch it on a Monitor.
I always choose Interlace, as with non-interlace you might find
you’ll start seeing lines on the screen after a while.
If you choose Interlace you will see that the middle box of the
three has become enabled. This box is called Field Order, and to be
honest with you I never touch this box, and I leave it as default
(Top Field first).
Now the final box is the Aspect Ratio box. This gives you the
option to customize the appearance of the movie.
Now if you have a Wide Screen TV and you live in Europe, I would
suggest you choose the 16:9 625 line (PAL) option. If you
don’t have a Wide Screen TV and live in Europe I would
suggest you choose 4:3 625 Line (PAL) option.
If you live in American or Japan, then pick the same options as
above but for NTSC instead of pal.
Once you have selected the File Source, and the display options,
click NEXT.
Step 3
The third step you are presented with three features, Source Range,
Clip Frame and Noise reduction. The last 2 are self explanatory and
the program it self explains what each feature does.
But as VCD’s are generally big, you are going to have to put
the film onto 2 CD’s.
To do this, check the Source Range box.
You will now be presented with a new Window, with a slider bar and
boxes to manually set the start frame and end frame.
Now as mentioned just before Step 1, it is very
important to understand if the AVI file you are wanting to convert
is Divx or not.
To do this, first make sure you have the Display Audio Check box
checked in the Source Range window. When this is checked you will
see a green line. This is the audio line.
Now, Divx movies are encoded differently to normal movies, and this
is because a Divx movie encodes the sound.
Now as the sound is encoded, if you try to convert a Divx movie to
VCD format using TMPGEnc, you will only get the movie, and no
sound.
Now to find out if the film you want to convert to VCD is Divx or
not, slide the slide bar half way into the movie (Or anywhere where
you expect to have sound).
Now click Set Start Frame button, and it will move to when you have
slided it to.
Now if the Audio Line (The Green Line) remains COMPLETELY flat,
then that means the film you are trying to encode is a Divx
film.
If this is the case, carry onto Step 4.
However, if the Audio line has little bumps and spikes in it, then
that means its not Divx, and you don’t have to do anything
extra to the movie film. So now Skip Step 4 and
move onto Step 5.
Step 4
Right, so now we know it’s a Divx file.
Ok the first thing do to is close down TMPGEnc for
now and load up DivFix.
With DivFix open up the movie film, and click
Stripe Index. This should only take a few seconds.
Once that is done, click Rebuild Index.
We do this to make sure the film is proper condition, so that when
we come to use Virtual Dub, it wont spit it out at 90% and wasting
your time and piss you off.
Right once its done Re-Indexing it, close down DivFix and
load up Virtual Dub.
Now select the movie film within Virtual Dub and it should
as soon as it tries to open it, pop up with a Message Box, talking
about the Sound being encoded differently.
This is good, this is what we wanted to see, so click OK to that
message box, and it will then convert the sound. (This
shouldn’t take no more then 5-10 seconds, depending on your
machine).
Now when it has finished converting the sound, (you will see 2
panel like shapes in the background of the program and the hard
drive activity should slow down) select Video on the Menu Bar.
Select Direct Stream Copy.
Then select Audio on the Menu Bar and select AVI
Audio.
Don’t make any other changes. !!
Right now simply click File on the Menu Bar and select Save
As AVI. Choose a suitable location and name, and then
click Save.
It will then start saving the movie file, giving you a progress
report and projected file size. Now don’t worry if the
projected file size is 200 MB or 1000 MB it will flocculate up and
down, but will turn out usually within 10 MB bigger or smaller then
the original file size. (Usually a few MB’s smaller).
Now once it has saved the file, you now have the exact same
quality movie, but not Divx Encoded.
Important Note: Don’t run
DivFix on the movie file that Virtual Dub
created as it will re encode it as Divx.
Right now all you do is Repeat Steps 1, 2 & 3. Then move onto
Step 5.
Step 5
So now you are still at the Source Range window within the
application TMPGEnc.
Now you need it to split the film into two, so you can burn the
film onto two CD’s.
So with the slide bar, slide it to a suitable position, (Half Way
Along).
Once you are happy with the position, click the Set End
Frame button, followed by the Move to End
Frame button just to make sure.
This will be the end of Part 1 of the movie.
Note: When you have set the end frame, you will
see a frame number in the End Frame box. Make a note of this
number! As you will need it when you come to make part 2.)
You will now see the movie bar go to where you selected. Then click
OK.
You will now be back at Step 3 of 5 window.
You can now check the Clip Frame and/or Noise Reduction check
boxes, but I advice you leave these check boxes
unchecked until you are a little more advanced in
VCD making.
You will also see a button called Other Settings, again I advice
you to leave this until you are a little more advanced, and as this
is a simple guide based at newbie’s, I will not cover
this.
Now click Next.
Step 6
You are now at Step 4 of 5 in the wizard. You should now see
information about the movie you are about to encode, such as the
Length, Resolution, FPS and Estimated size of it.
You will also see a Nero like indictor for how much space of the CD
it will use up, and weather or not it will go over the size of the
CD. (But as you are only encoding the first half of the movie, it
should not go over it at all).
Now click Next.
Step 7
You are now at the final stage of the wizard. Here it will ask you
to give the movie an output location and name. Now as this is just
the first part I suggest you call it for example Shrek_cd1.mpg
Now at the bottom you will see two check boxes, called Start
Encoding Immediately and Create Another batch Job.
Now this part depends on you.
If you want to encode the first part of the film, and make sure it
works and burn it, before you do the second, then select Start
Encoding Immediately (Note if you do, do this make sure you made a
note of what the End Frame is, i.e. 65355).
However if you would like it to do the other part of the movie
straight after it does the first part, without the need to watch
and baby sit it, then select Create another Batch Job.
Click OK, it will inform you that the file you named as the output
file does not exist (Obviously cause we have not created it yet)
and weather or not you wish to create it. Select OK.
Now if you selected Start Encoding Immediately then obviously it
will now be encoding it.
However if you select Create Another Batch Job, it will now go back
to the beginning and be at Step 1 of the Wizard.
Now simply follow the steps before.
Note: When you come to do the Part 2 of a movie, make sure your
starting Frame is the same number, or lower then the end Frame of
part 1. (This is obvious but there are still people out here which
are going, Oh yeah!!!)
Note: For this I generally make the starting frame
for the second part of a movie 50 frames lower then the end of
frame for part 1, i.e. if part 1 is 0 to 65355 then part 2 will be
roughly 65300.
Then when the range is done, click next and repeat the same
progress as you did for Part 1.
Then when you come to the last stage, click the Start Encoding
Immediately box, and it will start on Part 1, with Part 2
Queued.
What is good about TMPGEnc is that you can queue it to encode part
1 and 2 of as many movies as you like, so you can go to bed, and
when you wake up you have the movies all encoded, and ready to
burn.
Summary
Right then, if you have followed the steps, you should now be
encoding and watching great movies you have downloaded on your TV
through your DVD player.
I hope this Text has been informative and has offered you guidance
and help.
Now time for me to shut up.
Good luck and Happy Watching!!!!
Macro
P.S – If you have found problems within this text and think
I’m wrong, then well possibly, as I have only had 1 days
experience in VCD burning, and I have only burnt 1 VCD so far
(Which turned out to be a fucking peach).
This text is merely for guidance, and I don’t accept any
blame if u fuck up and corrupt a movie file or worse a hard
drive.
|
|
![[Get Opera!]](opera.gif)
