I've finally bit the cat's ear and got a dvd writer.

Can someone tell be a basic pathway to dvd -> kdvd (good quality 9 to 4.5, and ok quality multiple dvd to one kdvd)?

By "pathway" I mean that I want to make mistakes and bugger things up (I don't want hand holding), but I'd like to start with the right steps:

EG - my steps for kvcd:

dvddecyrpt (get it off the dvd)
dvd2avi (get the ac3 out, make a d2v)
avisynth script (hand made or movstacker)
Tmpgenc (with kwags 352x288 template (modified a little), save project for..)
kwag's cqmatic (brilliant tool, kwag!)
headac3he (does ac3 to mp2 @112 kbps)
bbmpeg (multiplex m1v & mp2 to mpeg for..)
vcdeasy (burning)

Do I still use tmpgenc for kdvd (with a kdvd-sized template, of course), or is there better?

Can I have ac3 in the ending m2v (for 5.1 sound), AND will bbmpeg still do the multiplex ok?

If I use another encoder, is there a "cqmatic" for it?

(The rest is just trial and error; like does my dvd player take 1/2 Dvd size ok, is it worth doing, etc - I'll find them out as I go).

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Meeow!

Hi Fluffbutt

I hope your cat didn't got to angry when you bit it's ear ...

I've also just got a DVD burner (I didn't want to bite my dogs ear, it's a German Sheppard Dog, and quite BIG too) and I am starting to learn how to make good looking KDVD's with up to 4-5 hours of video on them.

This is how I am doing it at the moment:
Decrypt
dvd2avi
Avisynth (Only if you want to resize/filter)
Calcumatic to find the average bitrate
Packshot (I really like the outcome from mencoder, and my two players play them very well, even when I set max to 8000) I always do 2 pass.
Besweet if I want mp2 files (smaller size than ac3) I encode audio at 128 kb/s
No need to mux the files.
TmpegAuthor or DVDlab-pro to author the video and audio, and to make menues
Nero to burn the compilation

Feel free to try any of this, and I myself is open to suggestions on improvement

-Anerboda

Thanks, mate.

I'm going to try mencoder (I liked it's vcd output, until it suddenly started to 'pulse' the macroblocks.. frame 1= perfect, 2=perfect, 3=huge huge macroblocks all over, 4=perfect, etc). Lets hope it won't do that for mpeg2video :LOL:

You don't mux for dvd? oooh, didn't know that one. How do you get the ac3 and m2v together then?

Does nero or tmpgenc author do it automagically (or does it leave them un muxed, with the ace in the Audio_Ts, and m1v in Video_Ts?)?

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Meeow!

The muxing used on the DVD (vob files) is a little different from the one used for making SVCD or VCD.

All authoring tools that let you import directly mpeg do a DEMUX before to REMUX them into a DVD. So it's a lack of yime to mux the m2v and the mp2(or the ac3) before to open tmpgenc author or dvdlab pro.

I use DVDDecryter.

If using DIKO I also use DVD2AVI.

Packshot does produce great quality DVD backups but for me because it uses BeSweet for AC3 encoding it gives me problems on my standalone which is not a problem as I can just re-encode the AC3.

I mainly use DIKO Gold and choose CCE to do the encoding and it produces excellent quality.

I then use DVD-Lab to author the DVD's.

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Regards.

Michael.

Thanks guys.

So it's silly to try muxing then authoring, cos the author demuxes, then does its own mux.. right.

I'm using the original ac3 (extracted via dvd2avi, which also give me the d2v for avisysnth) - I suppose I could gain some space by re- bitrating the ac3..
Do I need anything special to do the ac3 448 to ac3 224 (for eg)?
(Hope it's not some $1000 ac3 making program!) :LOL:

Thanks guys, again. I'm a dvd noob now!!
(I've got good at kvcd's tho - 125 minutes on one cdr80, at very good quality).

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Meeow!

AC3Machine.
It's a GUI based on Besweet and you can find it on dspguru site (home site of besweet).

Thanks Dialhot!

<Fluffbutt runs off to get programs and then to have fun!!>

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Meeow!

what I've found works for me when doing dvd -> kdvd is original vob files through dvd2avi (demux tracks) then use the kwag script linked to d2v file load into tmpgenc select kdvd template start that off an if I need to run the ac3 file through headac3he or in some cases original ac3 file then use IFOEdit to author the files to vob files never had any problems with this method.