Vegas Video 4.0 & SVCD

bigsky wrote on 7/23/2003, 8:46 AM

Hope this isn't too long. I know when using DVD Architect, you encode the audio in Vegas Video 4.0 as AC3, then the video as MPEG 2 using the NTSC DVD Architect as the template however, I am collecting old movies that I am going to burn to CD using the SVCD format. I see that when you render in Vegas Video 4.0, there is a template for SVCD NTSC which I assume you should use but what about the audio. Do you still render the audio as AC3? If you do use AC3 then render in MPEG 2 using the SVCD NTSC template, will the sound be recognized when I use a different encoder to burn the SVCD since DVD Architect won't burn SVCD's. Thank you.

Comments

BillyBoy wrote on 7/23/2003, 9:07 AM

There seems to be confussion about AC3 because DVD-A if you look at the optimize section warns it is set to recompress MPEG-2 audio. When you use DVD-A, it warns that it will coverent your audio if you supply a MPEG-2 file. This is due to the NTSC specs not accepting MPEG-2 audio. That's the only reason. You do NOT have to render seperately when making a DVD. DVD-A will, all in its own, without any interaction from you covert the audio portion of your MPEG-2 to the required format. An optional template is included so if you wish you can do it yourself. The only real advantage is you see up front while building your menu structure a more realistic value for how much disk space you're project will use as opposed to a bloated value when it includes the audio portion of your MPEG-2 file prior to it actually making the image files. That term too is probably confusing since the context used here 'image file' means ALL of your DVD project including your audio. It doesn't mean image as in just the video portion.

As far as SVCD, no you can't use DVD-A to burn. Use the SVCD NTSC template and burn in your favorite CD burning application. I suggest Nero. There is no need to fiddle with the audio in this situation either. Just make a compliant file and everything should be fine.

bigsky wrote on 7/23/2003, 9:18 AM

Thank you for your reply. If I may trouble you one last time, I would like to make sure I understand. I would use Vegas Video to "capture" the movie, which is an .avi file. I would then just need to render it as MPEG 2 using the SVCD NTSC template. That will take care of the video & audio? No need to render the audio separate? Thank you.

DGrob wrote on 7/23/2003, 10:20 AM

I've been thinking of SVCD, and I like the look of Nero. Do I go with Nero Express with the mpeg2/svcd plug-in? We're talking home movies here. TIA DGrob

RBartlett wrote on 7/23/2003, 10:51 AM

SVCD uses Mpeg-1 layer 2 audio. It can apparently be multichannel/surround too.
It doesn't have a PCM or AC3 audio in the mandatory spec.

http://www.digvid.info/media/svcd.php
quick extract:
Technical Specifications of Super Video CD 1.0
Feature Description
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Video Resolution 2/3 D1 (480x576 PAL, 480x480 NTSC)
Video Compression MPEG-2
Video Bitrate Variable bitrate, up to 2600 kbps [1]
Audio Compression MPEG-1 layer 2

Note [1] - The combined audio and video bitrates should not exceed 2756 kbps.
Audio Bitrate Variable between 32 kbps to 384 kbps [1]
Surround Sound MPEG-2 5+1 (digital) or Dolby ProLogic (analogue)
Maximum audio streams 2 stereo or 4 mono
Other features Graphic overlay for OSD, 4 subtitle (or lyric) streams, extended interactivity with variables and conditional instructions
Still picture resolutions 480 x 480, 480 x 576, 704x480 or 704x576

BillyBoy wrote on 7/23/2003, 11:17 AM

Right.

bigsky wrote on 7/23/2003, 11:47 AM

Thank you Billy Boy for your help, I appreciate it.

farss wrote on 7/23/2003, 4:28 PM

I've made a lot of VCDs and quite a few SVCDs.
I would recommend using VV to capture to AVI, clean it up or whetever else needs to be done to it in VV.

You can then either use VV to render out as a SVCD compliant mpeg2 or render out to a new AVI and encode using TMPGEnc using their SVCD template. The MC encoder that you get with DVDA does a very good job but IMHO at the lower bit rate and oftenly noisy sources that go onto SVCD TMPGEnc seems to do a better job.

Avoid Nero's mpeg2 encoder, its worse than both of those. Either way you've somehow got to pay for and mpeg2 encoder!

I then use Nero to author and burn the SVCD, I'm certain SVCD supports more complex menus than Nero lets you build but its good enough for most things.