Making an MPEG (VCD - SVCD or DVD)
This may be the last step of your Video Conversion process or it may be the first. Many downloaded movies use codec's that are incompatible with certain other programs. The most used of these is the Xvid Video Codec and the AC3 Audio Codec. TMPGEnc cannot read these codec's so it is necessary to re-encode the AVI before you can convert it to any of the standard format's that will play on the DVD player attached to your Television.
If re-encoding is my first step I will do it the same as if it were the last step and create the largest AVI file that will fit on a single CD. That is always a better resolution that VCD or SVCD but smaller than a DVD. Since I do not yet have a DVD burner I don't worry much about this. Those who are burning DVD's may want to modify my instructions to create a larger sized AVI.
If the downloaded file is two AVI's (part 1 and part 2) I usually don't attempt to re-encode them to half the size that will fit on a CD as you do not have enough control of Dr. DivX to make sure the completed files are rendered exactly the same. Instead I will re-encode them to almost the same size as the originals, Then (hopefully) join them and encode again to get the size I want. If they won't join, I'll encode them to DVD format in TMPGEnc and join the MPEG's, Then encode back to a 690Mb AVI. Sounds Like a lot of trouble?? It is. But that is the price you pay for getting involved in Movie Conversion. It is a lengthy, tedious, time-consuming process.
Ok, Enough of that. Let's get down to the converting. Since I am writing this primarily for beginners I will work with the easiest program I know of for creating a DivX AVI, Dr. DivX Just four clicks to creating a great AVI. Actually a program called Virtual Dub is better but it is much more complex and later we will use it, but mainly for splitting and Joining AVI's.
Dr. DivX was created by the people who developed the DivX codec. It is designed to simplify the AVI creation process and it does, even though it denies you many of the advanced features of VirtualDub so you have little control over the format of the finished AVI. Even so, it is very simple to use and much better for the Beginner.
Here is the opening screen of Dr, DivX.
You can choose from several types of Video Input; a Video File such as a downloaded Movie, Digital Video such as a camcorder, and Lice Capture such as a Webcam. The 4th Button, Custom Plug-in, is where you will eventually install some of the special Codec's such as Xvid video and AC3 Audio.
Click on the First box "Video File" and use the browser that pops up to navigate to the movie file you want to render to AVI.
After the file loads, you will get a new screen with the following controls.
This screen allows you to choose a different Audio Source or even No Audio. In some of the more advanced renders it is necessary to separate the Audio and Video tracks. Dr. DivX will allow you to input the corrected Video stream and merge it with the corrected Audio stream, but that is far above the level I am writing this tutorial for.
For the most part you will not touch anything on this screen. You will just click NEXT.
The third screen does have some adjustments we may use.
Notice that the DivX Certified Home Theatre Box is checked. This is the default setting for normal use. The top one "High Def Video" is for creating DVD or better quality Too much for our uses unless you will be burning to DVD or other large storage devices.
In the upper right corner you can control the finished size of the AVI file. I have set it for 690 Mb since the average CD is 700 Mb This allows me room to add my autoplay files and still have a little room for error. These settings are not absolute. If I set it for 699 Mb it is possible the finished file may over run a meg or two and not fit on the CD.
In the lower Right corner is the Video information. The Play Length, the bitrate that will be used when encoding, The Audio Bitrate, The resolution (size) of the finished product, The number of frames per second and the actual estimate of the completed File size. Remember me saying that this process is acceptable for most common Video player sizes? This movie will be 480 pixels wide which is exactly the size used for super VCD (480 X 480). But it's not tall enough? When rendering to SVCD, TMPGEnc will just add 112 pixels of Black to the top and bottom making a picture that looks like the letterbox format. Otherwise you would lose some of the information at the sides or the picture would be stretched.
All we need to concern ourselves with is the Finished File Size and it is well within our tolerances.
Now the actual render.
Here is the screen where you can change some of the properties if you want. There is only one I would touch as it has little effect on the finished video.
Next to the white Name bar is a button marked SELECT that allows you to scroll to whatever folder you want the completed video to go to. You can also edit the filename here. If you are rendering an existing AVI file, it will not overwrite the original. Instead it will add (1) to the end of the file name. If there is already a (1) it will add (2) and so on. No danger of an overwrite.
Call me stupid, but I have never tried to find out what that Save Custom Profile button means.
The last button, Modify Settings, may be used . Occasionally I have gotten completed files that were wide but cropped top and bottom. I discovered the cause here.
When you click it you get a warning that modifications here may change features of the completed video, and they may very well do that if you make large changes. The ones I intend to make will have little effect.
I leave that box unchecked just to remind me not to mess with too much in there.
Here's the only area I usually check for problems.
Controls numbered (1) effect the borders of the image. In this case they all are set at zero so there is no cropping of the image. If this render had been from an MPEG there would have been black bars at the top and bottom and maybe at the sides. On occasion Dr, DivX was unable to clearly determine where the actual bars ended and the picture began, so I have started checking this area to make sure the picture is not being cropped.
There is also a preview screen that comes up with this one where you can make adjustments and see what effect they will have on the video.
Section 2 simply tells us the Aspect ration of the finished video. This is determined by Dr. DivX from the original file and should not be changed. Just for curiosity's sake 4:3 is the size for the normal TV, 16:9 is what is commonly called Letterbox format and 1:1 means to keep the picture exactly the same size as the original.
Section 3 allows some changes to the actual image size. Again, this should not be adjusted as it is determined by what you already told the program. In this case the size is as large as it could possibly be using the default Home Theatre settings to create a 690mb file. If it were set for Hi Def Theatre it would be larger. Probably up to DVD size, 720 X 480.
Section 4 shows the audio bitrate and sampling frequencies. About the same as I told you back in the MPEG settings. This is the best setting for movie Audio.
Filter's are electronic devices to change the way the video looks after rendering and you probably won't be using them The Advanced properties are just that. Advanced. Take a look but don't make any changes.
Here's the preview screen I mentioned. It is protected so I can't get a good screen shot of it, as it won't show the video that was on the screen
Finally we are ready to encode the Video
Take a look at the times and also notice this is the second pass. The 2nd pass took about 3 hours and 29 minutes to complete. The first pass took about the same amount of time. Seven hours to render this video with a 1.5Ghz Processor. Imagine if it had been an old 350Mhz!. That would have taken about five times as long or 35 hours.
With care and knowing what you're doing you can help minimize mistakes and know when a render should work but I still usually set it to do these jobs while I am sleeping.
Making an MPEG (VCD - SVCD or DVD)