I have svcd capable dvd player but how do I produce them. what program . is there a demo that you can try

With VF you need to purchase the optional MPEG-2 encoder or upgrade to Vegas Video if you want much more besides that. If not in your present plans the easier way to to render to AVI in VF. If you are using FAT32 the simplest way is to make make breaks at scenes no more than the max size FAT32 allows. Now you'll have a series of AVI files. Use TMPGnc's unlock folder, many posts have given details here, in the VV forum and over at VCDHelp so not going to repeat again in detail. I suggest ou use the varibable bitrate and two pass options. Be sure you select the correct NTSC SVCD template! Now render the various AVI files. Once all are rendered to MPEG-2 you can use TMPGnc's join feature to put everything back to together. Because you now have a highly compressed MPEG files the 4GB limit won't be any problem. Use your favorite CD burning software.

To avoid all that I suggest you order the MC encoder. In my opinion the quality is equal to the TMPGnc rendering and you skip very tedious and long extra rendering.

Regardless what method you select do NOT render to MPEG then inport to some different application like TMPGnc. The double rendering of a MPEG file will severely reduce quality and probably introduce artifacts.

I agree with BillyBoy. I use the MC encoder, and then do the actual burning with NERO.

Nero has treated me well, although it has been pointed out to me by serious authors that it doesn't handle menus as well as some other apps. This doesn't trouble me, because I don't use menus very heavily, and I like the firepower NERO has in other areas.

kcarroll

Thanks everyone

Another possibility you might want to try is to produce DV-AVI in VF, and take that into Ulead DVD Movie Factory, which will convert to SVCD-ready MPEG2s, author (with menus, chapters, background music/pictures of your choosing), and burn your SVCD. I've had pleasing results with this fairly straightforward 2-step approach, but you should try a variety of suggestions and see what works best for you.

P_l, Did you say ULEAD will also BURN the SVCD? I bought the VF $30 SVCD Plugin. I rendered 2 hr movie into SVCD using it and it took several hours to render the one large movie. Now I need to burn it into a few disks. I am now trying to decide, do I buy Nero, or ULEAD or something else to burn the SVCD. Nero is probably cheaper, but then I think I need to by a mpeg2 plugin from nero on top of that. DOes ULEAD have the mpeg2 license built into the package for VCD's? the_ripper

Nero is excellent and I use it often for all sorts of things, but for making SVCD I use Ulead DVD MovieFactory. It has a pretty decent MPEG2 encoder built in, does all the authoring stuff I mentioned AND burns it too. You can also use it for VCDs and DVDs, and you even have the option to adjust bitrates, etc., and save your new templates for XVCD abd XSVCD. Plus it's pretty simple to use with its wizard-like interface, and it's quite reliable - it's never crashed on me. Downside: you're limited to the choice of menu templates they have, which is not very extensive, but as I mentioned, you can choose your own menu background music (MP3s are supported) and pictures, set your own chapter entry points, choose your menu thumbnails yourself, etc.. You can even add a little intro video.

Thanks P_l! Just picked up the Movie Factory. cant wait to burn a SVCD.........the_ripper

I use DVD Movie Factory too. It also does an excellent job making chapters using the MPEG-2 file rendered from Vegas Video. I assume it would do the same from the optional MC codec for VF. Aren't they the same? I think so. The advantage is this case is the superior MC rendering engine and since the file is already rendered no lengthy conversion. The only time is the actual burn time and the preprocessing to add the overhead for the chapters, background images/music if you want.

That works too, but I like to render to DV-AVI in VF/VV (no loss if your source is DV, since only trasitions/titles/effects are actually rendered -the original DV footage is just recopied quickly as is-, and no significant degradation in quality even if your source is something else), because I then have a good quality DV-AVI "master" I can use for producing to other formats, such as straight VCD for distribution to people whose DVD player compatibility with SVCD I'm unsure of, or WMV, etc. for web streaming and email.