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My SVCD Guide

My SVCD Creation Guide

The purpose of this page is to detail the method I'm currently using to produce descent quality SVCD (Super Video CD) from video captured from an analogue source (ie Camcorder, video, etc) onto a PC.

If you don't know what an SVCD is then you probably don't need to be here! But very basically, it is a cd containing a video film playable on most PC's and any standalone DVD players.

I use it to transfer home movies recorded on my Hi-8 Analogue CamCorder onto a CD I can play in my DVD player (an Afreey LD-2060).

As most of my movies are less than 30 minutes, the SVCD format is more convenient than bulky video tape.

This guide is not the best by any means - it's here as a step by step guide to remind me how I do it and to let anyone else who wants to try a method that works - it is continually evolving as I get better at it, and if anyone has any problems with it or can offer any tips on improving it then please email me at nezza42@bigfoot.com.

Please note that this is written with my Matrox G400 Capture card as the capture device. It has its own hardware MJPEG Codec. You will need to modify your process for capturing to suit your own capture device/Codec.

Anyway, here we go....

Step One: Video Capture

I use a program called Virtual Dub to capture my video as follows;

	Launch Program
	From FILE menu select CAPTURE AVI
	Wait for capture window to display your video source
	The first time you run the application, press F9 to open CAPTURE SETTING dialogue box then enable "Wait for OK to Capture", select frame rate (25 for PAL) & click "round to nearest millisecond" then finally enable "Lock Video Stream to Audio".
	Press F2 to select where to save your captured file
	Type "F" to open Video Format dialogue box. Select the format you are going to capture - I use the MJPEG hardware codec built into my capture card, other cards will be different.
	Click SET VIDEO SIZE and select your resolution & quality options - I use Full Size, High Quality for the MJPEG codec
	Click OK
	Type "S" to select VIDEO SOURCE - I use composite input and PAL standard
	Click OK
	Type "D" to select VidCap and adjust to your preference
	Click OK
	Press F6 to start capture - Press BEGIN to begin (!) and ESCAPE to stop capture.
	After video capture is complete, EXIT CAPTURE MODE (use FILE drop down menu)
	You should now have an AVI file ready to be processed & encoded.

If you have a video editing program such as Ulead Media Studio or Adobe Premiere you should now edit the AVI file - add transitions, titles, etc.

Step Two: Video Processing

Again Using Virtual Dub, apply required filters and set up frameserving to the encoding program:

Type CTRL+O to open the AVI file you just captured (or edited)

Type CTRL+R to open FRAME RATE CONTROL dialogue box

Select "Change so video and audio durations match" radio button

Click OK

Goto AUDIO drop down menu and select FULL PROCESSING MODE

Type CTRL+F to open FILTERS dialogue box

Click ADD and select the following filters:

	Smart De-Interlace * (required if using Matrox Capture - experiment if using a different card)
	Resize - Select width 480, height 576 and Precise Bilinear filter mode
	2d Cleaner *

* These filters are not included with VDub, but can be obtained from the VDub Filters page

From FILE drop down menu, select START FRAME SERVER

Click START

You must now enter a "signpost" (search the VDub web site or forum links at the bottom of this page for more information) this is a small link that will enable VirtualDub to perform the processing operation and then "Frame Serve" the result direct to the encoding program without having to create an interim AVI file - saves disk space & time.

	Enter a filename.avi (do not use the default .vdr - the encoding program we shall use doesn't recognise it! I use the filename "VDub Signpost.avi"
	Virtual Dub is now ready to process your video and serve it to your encoder.

Step 3: Encoding

Now for the time consuming bit!

The AVI file format is very large (even in compressed MJPEG format) and does not conform to the strict SVCD format requirements (try visiting this site for in depth details of the SVCD format).

We must now convert it (encode) to the required MPEG-2 video format. I use an excellent freeware program called TMPGEnc to do the encoding. I currently use version 12a as it fully supports MPEG-2 - the latest version (currently 12e at the time of writing) only provides 30 days support due to licensing issues. Check their website for more details. Note - If you use version 12e then there is no need to rename the VDub signpost to .avi as 12e has support for vdr files.

	Launch TMPGEnc
	Under OPTION - GLOBAL SETTINGS - VFAPI PLUGINS ensure first line in DISABLED
	Download My PAL SVCD Template.zip and copy the extracted template into the TMPGEnc Template folder (where you installed TMPGEnc).
	Load the template by pressing LOAD in lower right corner of TMPGEnc window
	Select Video Source by using BROWSE button, browse to the VDub Signpost created earlier.

	Select SYSTEM (VIDEO+AUDIO) if not already selected
	Click ENCODE to begin the encoding process.

Please Note - the encoding process may take a VERY long time. For example, my Celeron 400 system takes around 7 hours to encode 15 minutes of video. This is normal! You are crunching a lot of numbers in there!!

Congratulations, you should now have an SVCD compatible MPEG-2 file.

And Finally:

Using your preferred CR burning software (most people seem to like Nero 5.x) Open the SVCD layout and import your MPEG-2 file. Burn to CD. Pop into your DVD Player. Sit Back & (hopefully) enjoy!

If Using I-Author to Create your SVCD

	I-Author requires separate audio & video streams which must be multiplexed (MUXED) using its own MUXing application.
	From TMPGenc FILE drop down menu, select MPEG TOOLS
	Select BASIC DEMULTIPLEX tab
	Use the your new MPEG2 file as the INPUT file
	Rename the VIDEO file extension to filename.mpv (default is filename.m2v which I-Author won't recognise).
	Press START to begin DeMuxing Process.
	You will now have separate audio & video streams which can now be muxed & authored using I-Author.

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