I just made my first VCD ever

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 12:57 am

Wow that was a lot of work and a lot of programs to download just to get this thing to work.

Anyone know the difference between PAL, and NTSC? Which one should I use and what best resolution when making it?

Thanks

BMED · Post by **BMED** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 2:14 am

PAL - PAL (Phase Alternating Line) is a video standard used in many countries around the world. Countries such as the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and more use PAL as their video standard. When a VHS, DVD or laserdisc is released using the PAL format it can have a maximum resolution up to 625 lines with a vertical frequency of 50Hz. There are different types of PAL standards, one of which uses a vertical frequency of 60Hz instead of 50Hz.

NTSC - NTSC (National Television Ssystem Committee) is another video standard used in many countries around the world. While it's not technically superior, it's more widely used thanks to its use in the United States and a variety of other countries, such as Japan. When a VHS, DVD or laserdisc is released using the NTSC format it can have a maximum resolution up to 525 lines with a vertical frequency of 60hz.

So can you play a PAL VHS, DVD or laserdisc on an NTSC TV? The answer is no. TVs are either NTSC capable, PAL capable or both. Unfortunately, nearly every TV in the United States is NTSC only. If you live in a country where PAL is the standard you can generally get a TV that is capable of both PAL and NTSC native playback.

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 2:21 am

Thanks for info, anyone know the best codec to use when capturing a movie from VHS to AVI?

cy · Post by cy » Fri Aug 23, 2002 2:25 am

The Sony TV that i shipped from HK is a multi system which compatable of PAL/NTSC

I think in a month or two, my dad will ship his 29" and 25" Wega to here too, both Multi system

Looking forward to it

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:12 pm

Originally posted by davy19
Wow that was a lot of work and a lot of programs to download just to get this thing to work.

We must have been on the same brainwaves yesterday, I was trying the same thing and probably downing the exact same programs.

Was your VCD twice as large as the initial avi though? The guides I was following said you'd have to cut the avi in half while converting it to mpeg if it was larger then 800MB or so, but the file I started with was smaller then that and fit on one disk. But by the time it was ready to burn as a VCD it was over 1200MB so obviously had to get cut and I was a bit miffed that none of the tutorials mentioned the size differences (since it took almost 5 hours to convert).

Just wondering if you encountered the same problem too?

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:18 pm

VCD MPEGs take up 10 megs for every minute. So a ~1200meg movie should be about two hours.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:23 pm

Originally posted by BIGJIMSLATE
VCD MPEGs take up 10 megs for every minute. So a ~1200meg movie should be about two hours.

That makes sense, I was just pissed that the guides hinted you'd only have to cut the file if the initial avi was more then 750 MB or so. They should have said 375 MB or so.

Does it matter if you cut the avi in half as you convert it to mpeg, or if you take the finished mpeg and cut IT?

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:36 pm

Either way, both formats can be "cut" without recompression, so its up to you.

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:39 pm

You happen to know of a good mpeg cutter then?

I've been searching the video forums but found nothing so far. Lots of avi cutters and mpeg joiners but no mpeg cutters.

Juggernaut · Post by **Juggernaut** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:41 pm

follow the guides at http://www.vcdhelp.com on how to convert Under "Newbie" on the left and then "Newbie beginners guides". It will give you the step by step on what programs you need and how to convert what you need to.

VCD's work similar to Audio CD's rather than Data CD's. What I mean by this is, VCD's work according to Time and not necessarily the data space (like Audio CD's).

Humboldt · Post by **Humboldt** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 3:47 pm

Originally posted by Juggernaut
follow the guides at http://www.vcdhelp.com on how to convert Under "Newbie" on the left and then "Newbie beginners guides". It will give you the step by step on what programs you need and how to convert what you need to.

VCD's work similar to Audio CD's rather than Data CD's. What I mean by this is, VCD's work according to Time and not necessarily the data space (like Audio CD's).

Thanks for the tip but that's the site and guide that got me into this in the first place

Meaning yes I've read through that site and yes I've been following that guide and yes they have some great information and yes I already have downed and installed VCDEasy, TMPGEnc and VirtualDub, and yes I'm a newbie at this but...they're also the site that told me not to worry about cutting the initial avi file unless it was bigger then 800 MB...which now leaves me with a 1200MB mpeg file that's too big to convert to VCD without cutting.

So does anyone know of a good mpeg cutter so I can avoid having to delete the 1200 MB file, go back to the initial avi and cut it in half while converting it?

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:29 pm

Well I am not sure about 10 meg a mintue. That does not sound right to me.

That would mean for 60 mintues it would be 600 meg right?

For an hour movie I had to split up my avi files, and total space was

a little under 8 GB, which comes to roughly 130 mb a minute.

Am I doing something wrong?

I was using Virtual Dub, with hufyy codec YUY2 , at 352 x240 NTSC,

Shoudl I be using a different codec? I wish I can get my avi smaller?

Btw, after I used TMPGEnc, my mpeg came to a toal of 572 MB, I have not burnt onto a cdrom, because it took 2 hours total time to make the MPEG with TMPGEnc.

I have been following the advice from vcdhelp as well. Anyway to get these files smaller? and done in a faster time?

I have P3 866, win98se, 512 ram, and western digital SE 7200 rpm drive, with 60 GB free space.

Thanks

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:33 pm

btw, I had 4 different AVI files, because win98se, cannot handle avi biger then 4 gb I think. So I used the enable multisegemnt option on virtual dub.

Then I used frameserver from virtualdub to feed all 4 avi's to TMPGEnc, without having to do any cutting and joining.

Jim · Post by **Jim** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:35 pm

Freeware splitters can be found around the net. Just do a search.

Originally posted by davy19
For an hour movie I had to split up my avi files, and total space was

a little under 8 GB, which comes to roughly 130 mb a minute.

Am I doing something wrong?

I was using Virtual Dub, with hufyy codec YUY2 , at 352 x240 NTSC,

Shoudl I be using a different codec? I wish I can get my avi smaller?

Btw, after I used TMPGEnc, my mpeg came to a toal of 572 MB, I have not burnt onto a cdrom, because it took 2 hours total time to make the MPEG with TMPGEnc.

I have been following the advice from vcdhelp as well. Anyway to get these files smaller? and done in a faster time?

And the 10megs/1minute is for VCD MPEGs. What you made was an AVI file, one that wasn't even compressed too much for being 2+ megs a second. VirtualDub doesn't export MPEG movies, so you'll need to use something like TMPGEnc to do that (as you did).

If you're just splitting the files in VDub, make sure the direct stream copy option is enabled for the video and audio. Otherwise, you're recompressing the video.

File size of the original AVI isn't as important if you are just making VCDs, since only the final MPEG matters.

Deus ex Machina · Post by **Deus ex Machina** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:36 pm

Uncompressed, your files will be huge. MPeg-1 and Mpeg-2 are compression formats. 10 Meg per minute is a rule of thumb for mpeg on 320X200 (VCD) and 20 Meg/minture for SVCD (640x400)

shant,
david

Deus ex Machina · Post by **Deus ex Machina** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:38 pm

Originally posted by davy19
btw, I had 4 different AVI files, because win98se, cannot handle avi biger then 4 gb I think. So I used the enable multisegemnt option on virtual dub.

2GB, actually

Ghosthunter · Post by **Ghosthunter** » Fri Aug 23, 2002 5:42 pm

That makes more sense now.

My mpeg after converting using TMPEnc came to 572 megs, which comes to roughly 10 meg a minute

Got another question if anyone can answer:

When using TMPGEnc, there are different formats to use in the aspect ratio, how do I know which one to use? I am msotly converting my old vhs tapes to vcd, here are some of the choices:

4:3 525 Line (NTSC, 704x480)
1:1 (VGA)
16:9 525 Line (NTSC)

The guide on vcdhelp showed to use 1:1 VGA, why? When I pick the avi default is 4:3 525 Line (NTSC, 704x480)?

Also when I go to clip options, and go to arrange setting, there are some more options not sure which to pick:

Full Screen
Full Screen (Keep aspect ratio)
Full screen (keep aspect ratio 2)

Last question does 2 hours sound right when using TMPEGEnc for a 1 hour movie?

Thanks

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