Creating an SVCD from a DIVX file

[Void Main]

Man I had built some scripts a couple of years back (that I still have) to create an SVCD out of AVI files but things change so much and I'm lazy at the moment I am asking for some help. I have a 250MB Divx 5 file that I want to create an SVCD out of. Here's what the file command says the format is:

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$ file myfile.divx
myfile.divx: RIFF (little-endian) data, AVI, 464 x 352, 29.97 fps, video: DivX 5, audio: MPEG-1 Layer 3 (stereo, 44100 Hz)


What would be the best way to create an SVCD out of this? I assume I first have to convert the file to MPEG 1 or MPEG 2 and maybe a specific framerate and resolution. Thanks for any suggestions!

[worker201]

Sorry, what is an SVCD? I know how to make a dvd, is it similar?

[Void Main]

VCD = VideoCD
SVCD = SuperVCD

http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/svcd.cfm

But I would be happy with VCD or DVD too. CDs are slightly cheaper and the 250MB divx file should fit on a CD in SVCD format.

[Void Main]

Duh, maybe I should try this:

http://dvdripping-guid.berlios.de/Divx-to-VCD_en.html

:)

[Void Main]

That stinking transcode is kicking my butt now!! That script I linked to uses transcode and uses the "export_mpeg.so" module. Problem is, that module doesn't appear to exist in the current version of transcode. There is a README file for it but I can't read it (it's in German and I'm not good enough with my German to understand it).

[Void Main]

I ended up creating a DVD out of it using these instructions:

http://www.tilug.ch/pub/DivX2DVD.html

The only problem is I must have not used the proper aspect ratio somewhere along the line because the bottom 1/4 of the screen is black.

[worker201]

That stinking transcode is kicking my butt now!! That script I linked to uses transcode and uses the "export_mpeg.so" module. Problem is, that module doesn't appear to exist in the current version of transcode. There is a README file for it but I can't read it (it's in German and I'm not good enough with my German to understand it).

http://www.transcoding.org/cgi-bin/tran ... stallation
4th question down - don't use it.

For me, I can get a dvd with the following code:

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# mencoder -o myfile.divx -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4:vhq -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp3 myfile.mpg
# transcode -i myfile.mpg -y ffmpeg -w4500 --export_prof dvd-ntsc --export_asr 3 -o myfile -D0 -s2 -m myfile.ac3 -J modfps --export_fps 29.97 -q2
# mplex -f 8 -o myfile_dvd.mpg myfile.m2v myfile.ac3
# dvdauthor -x dvdauthor.xml
# growisofs -Z /dev/cdrom -dvd-video DVD/

This assumes that your file is named 'myfile.divx', and your burner is /dev/cdrom. Adjust accordingly. Of course, you could use a wild combination of pipes to simplify this, if you so desire, since the output of each process is the input to the next.

Here's a copy of a dvdauthor.xml as a guide:

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<dvdauthor dest="DVD">
  <vmgm />
   <titleset>
     <titles>
       <pgc>
         <vob file="myfile_dvd.mpg" chapters="0,0:15:00,0:30:00,0:45:00,1:00:00,1:15:00,1:30:00,1:45:00,2:00:00"/>
       </pgc>
     </titles>
   </titleset>
</dvdauthor>

If you use this, it will automatically chapter the film every 15 minutes, so you can use the ">>|" button to skip boring parts. I assume you can see how it does this, and adjust accordingly. Interestingly, if your movie is only an hour long, this still works - it just ignores the chapters that are out of the timeframe.

All the code above is based on NTSC and television viewing. You might want to adjust resolution for screen viewing. Also, the transcode flag "-w4500" sets the bitrate. I think the default is 6000, but with really high quality rips, I have gone as low as 3500 to get the file to fit on the desired media. Your mileage may vary.

You know, it feels really really good to give advice to Void Main!

[Void Main]

Very VERY cool advice! It appears to me that you are using an MPEG file as input and outputting a DIVX file, or is that my imagination?

[worker201]

Whoops!

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mencoder -o myfile.mpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=msmpeg4:vhq -oac lavc -lavcopts acodec=mp3 myfile.divx

I keep these commands in a text file, so I can copy, paste and then edit. Looks like I edited backwards in this post.
"-o filename" is the output

But interestingly, "vcodec=msmpeg4" is divx, so you are recoding a divx file to divx. This step might not be necessary. However, transcode is very finicky, so it never hurts to take extra steps to make it happy. I've never had a problem with transcode rejecting video that ran through mencoder this way first.