Using DVD2SVCD to convert a DVD to SVCD
This is just a quick guide for those who want to convert movies from DVD to SVCD. The advantage of SVCD over VCD is that it has sharper and better overall picture quality. The quality is somewhere between VCD and DVD. You could get near DVD quality video if you use higher bitrates, but his means that you will also need more CD's for your movie.
You can either use CCE or TMPG (any version of TMPG should work, including the one in the downloads page) to encode your movies. If you're using CCE and it crashes before it finishes encoding, then try using TMPGEnc. Its slower but it should get the job done and the video quality is also very close to that of CCE.
I am also assuming you have already ripped the DVD to your hard drive. If you haven't done the yet, do that before continuing with this guide.
You will need the following software for this guide:
Run the DVD2SVCD program and it will start with the screen shown below.
Open the IFO file for the main movie. The movie length is set to the main movie by default so you shouldn't have to change this. The aspect ratio should be set to 16:9 which is what most DVD movies come in but if you're not sure, check the back of the DVD box. If you want to deinterlace you movie, you can choose from different methods in the pull down menu but I would suggest using Telecide because it has the best results.
Now select the Misc tab and you should get the screen below.
Here you can select DVD2SVCD because this is what we want to do. You can set the process priority from Idle, Normal, or High. If you're going to be using your computer while encoding the movie, then you should set it to Idle. You might also want to use the Crash Recovery in case something goes wrong. All you have to do is load the log file it created and press the continue button.
Proceed to the DVD2AVI tab
You should turn off Force Film. If you leave it ON or in the Automatic setting, it will perform a 2:3 pulldown and convert your movie to 23.97 fps which is not a valid SVCD frame rate. So leave it OFF and your movie will be encoded in 29.97 fps which is a valid SVCD frame rate.
Now go to the Audio tab
Check the box for Autodetect Azid gain to get the optimal audio volume. You can choose from to audio priorities here. I only selected English but you can select a second audio priority such as French. If English is not available then it will use the second audio priority you selected.
The audio bitrate should be 160 but you can use other bitrate settings if you want. You can also check the Audio 1 downsample box if you want to convert the audio from 48 KHz to 44.1 KHz. Some DVD players can't play a SVCD at 48 KHz audio because the specs for audio is 44.1 KHz so you will need to downsample it.
Now go to the Frameserver tab.
Here you can select the resize method. I suggest using SimpleResize because it provides the best results. You need to check the box for Add ResampleAudio if you are using Cinema Craft Encoder 2.50 with an AMD Athlon. Select No editing for Avisynth Script File.
Next go to the Bitrate tab
The default bitrates are pretty good so you don't really need to make any changes here. But if you want to put the movie on more CD's or squeeze the movie onto fewer CD's then change the minute values accordingly. The last field in each line shows you the bitrate range for each length range.
Check the box at the bottom so it will let you know if your chosen bitrate is too high.
Now go the Encoder tab
First you have to provide a path to the CCE encoder on your computer. Then you can select where your movie will be saved. If you are using a version of CCE that is higher than 2.50, then you need to check the Safe mode box.
Select Multipass VBR and set it to 4. You can set it higher but you won't notice any difference in picture quality.
Check the Anti noise filter and Linear quantizer scale boxes. For the rest of the options you need to run the Bitrate Viewer program and open a VOB file. The information you need will be shown in a screen like below.
Check the DCT type, if it is Frame, you should check Progressive frames and Zigzag scanning order. If it was Field uncheck both Zigzag scanning order and Progressive frames.
Check the Field topfirst, if it is No you would have to uncheck Upper field first.
If you want to use TMPGEnc to encode the movie you have to select the TMPGEnc encoder and change the path so that it points to the TMPGEnc encoder. In the advanced settings make sure you check the boxes for "Use Floating Point DCT" and "No motion search for still picture part by half pixel". You can check "Soften block noise" if you see blocks in fast action scenes in your encoded movie.. The defaults for soften block noise are 35, you can increase this to a maximum of 100. The higher the number, the more it will soften the blocks. For "Rate control Mode" select "Constant quality" as shown in the picture below. Also set "Motion search precision" to "Highest quality".
In the Frameserver tab, use BicubicResize as the resize method. Set the bicubic b value to 0.00 and the c value to 0.55.
In the bitrate tab change the max bitrate to 2520 and the minimum bitrate to 755
Proceed to the Subtitles tab - Optional
Here you can select what subtitles you want. If you want subtitles, check the box for "Rip subtitles" select the language from the drop down list. Then select SVCD or CVD subtitles at the top. Some DVD players only support SVCD subtitles while others may support CVD subtitles. So you'll have to figure out which one works with your player. There's also a chance that your player doesn't support any of these subtitles. If you want permanent subtitles, then choose "Permanent Subtitles".
Now go to the CD Image tab
Here you can choose a title picture of a change CD picture for you SVCD. You can also Enter a label and title for you movie. If you don't want it to create CD images that can be burned after its finished encoding, select "Don't make Images". But you should get a muxed mpg file that can be burned using Nero.
Now everything has been configured so go back to the Conversion tab and press the go button to start encoding the movie.
In the end you should have a mpg file (your encoded movie) with the audio and video already muxed together. If for some reason they weren't multiplexed, then you should have an audio and video file. The video file will end with the .mpv extension and the audio file will be a .mp2 file. You'll have to multiplex these two with TMPGEnc as shown below. If you chose to make CD images, then you should have some bin/cue files that can be burned with CDRWin.
Multiplexing Audio/Video
Start TMPGEnc and go to File>Mpeg Tools
Then go to the Basic Multiplex tab like the one shown below.
Select MPEG-2 Super Video CD (VBR) as the type. Then select the video and audio to be multiplexed and choose where you want the output to be saved. The press Start and wait for it to finish.
When its done, you will need to cut the movie to make it fit on two or more CD's. You can use TMPGEnc to do this and the procedure is shown in the cutting mpg movies guide on this site. Just remember to select MPEG-2 Super VCD instead of MPEG-1 Video CD as the type. Then use Nero to burn it onto a CD.