Help

[timon]

Just wanted a little bit of help, do u guys know of a good program that can help me convert animefansite to vcd inorder for me to watch it on my dvd player. and what can of empty cd or dvd is the best for this kind of thing

[Schultz]

Originally posted by timon
Just wanted a little bit of help, do u guys know of a good program that can help me convert animefansite to vcd inorder for me to watch it on my dvd player. and what can of empty cd or dvd is the best for this kind of thing

Well it all depends on waht you want.. hehe but if you just want something quick you can just load nero select video cd.. and drag your avi into the compiliation and nero will encode it to a mpeg1 vcd if i remember right.. Or if you want a little better vcd encoder you can just encode it with http://www.tmpegenc.com to vcd standards and then burn it with Nero as a VCD.. (if its a valid mpeg1 /vcd nero won't reencode it) for good tutorials and alot to do with video encoding checkout
http://www.doom9.org

[kakomu]

as for CD-R Media, my friend prefers Darker bottom CDs, since more players seem to read them, however, only really cheap or bad players can't read the lighter CDs. Other than that, do know that all CDs are just about made in the same plant, which means that your Memorex cds are made in the same plant as your PNY, Fujifilm, Imation or Generic brand CDs. Verbatim makes darker bottoms, but in the end, I doubt it matters. For that matter, if you're willing to spend a little more and get some CD-Rws, you can make yourself some SVCDs out of your episodes and just burn those to CD-RW and burn a new episode on a CD after you're done with the previous. It's all up to you, personally, I wouldn't waste CDs burn inferior quality Video.

[timon]

thanks guys i tried what u say and it works perfectly .

[w0lf]

Wow Schultz, a whole step ahead of me. I was going to give the same advice, I've been encoding for a year or 2 now.. TMPGENC, Virtual Dub, etc etc. Though I've been out of it for a while, the only things I dont know a lot anymore is the OGM format which is just a file containing multiple audio files/video/subtitles from what I understand.

[kakomu]

You can't make mpeg-1 VCDs with VDub.

[w0lf]

I was referring to encoding in general -_-;;

[Schultz]

Originally posted by w0lf
Wow Schultz, a whole step ahead of me. I was going to give the same advice, I've been encoding for a year or 2 now.. TMPGENC, Virtual Dub, etc etc. Though I've been out of it for a while, the only things I dont know a lot anymore is the OGM format which is just a file containing multiple audio files/video/subtitles from what I understand.

AVI is also just a file containing Video/Audio etc.. ;o)
OGM is more robust.. If a part is corrupted it will just skip over it.. etc.. You don't have to complete the file if you are downloading to play it etc.. Its alot better then AVI.. But currently i like using MKV which is another new one.. its called "Matroska" there are alot of things you can do with it.. chaining multiple files together etc.. I have done alot of video encoding off and on over the past few years.. though last 6 months or so i haven't done much.. Lately i been more into authoring custom dvd's outta DV footage..

[Amethyst]

Originally posted by Schultz
AVI is also just a file containing Video/Audio etc.. ;o)
OGM is more robust.. If a part is corrupted it will just skip over it.. etc.. You don't have to complete the file if you are downloading to play it etc..

Do you know of any programs that will convert OGM files so they can be written out to DVDR's?

[Schultz]

Originally posted by Amethyst
Do you know of any programs that will convert OGM files so they can be written out to DVDR's?

Well you will still have to reencode the video because DVD's use Mpeg 2.. But basically what you will need to do is downloat
http://sf.net/projects/virtualdubmod/ which can Open OGM files and you can either frameserve them or convert them to an avi file which then you can go about your normal processing with them.. Or another way you can do it is use your standard DirectShow with util call Graphedit and build a graph to dump the contents into a avi file. but that is probably harder then what it is worth..

[kakomu]

Hey guys, just wanted to give a heads up on using OGG audio as well. Granted for a while I really liked using OGG since I could get much smaller file sizes, however, the problem I've encountered was that the playback filters for OGG are still a little buggy. It doesn't seem to like to play at the same time as other audio files (if you pause a movie for a second, the computer will buzz at you). Ogg has also been known to just plain have problems with other computers. A friend of mine can't even use OGG on her computer with it restarting (using WMP that is. she can use winamp, however, we had to rename the file to *.avi)

Also, simple thing to keep in mind concerning conversion from OGM to the mpeg-2 format, using VDUB Mod, you can extract each individual audio file as a wav, then use your video stream in your DVD program (so long as the program can accept DivX/Xvid/whatever) and load each individual audio file seperately.

I also don't care much for the softsubs in OGM, they are rather hard to work with and make just right and I don't like the inability to make different colors. Granted, you don't have to worry about the inferior quality of the encode due to the sharp lines of text (a few of my encodes have come up rather bleh becaues the subtitles were too weird a color or the font made everything in that area look all screwy), it's just that soft subs are always just a tad finnicky (DVD subs included). Maybe I haven't seen them done right (only downloaded one encode with them, and haven't had much success myself).

However, when it comes down to it, I'm the type of guy who has been making 2 CD encodes of movies I really like (I only encode movies I like, and I've made very few 1 CD encodes in the last 4 years). To the respect, I've found little need for using the OGM on a continual basis compared to the more easily useable avi. I think the main drawback is that so few people have heard of OGG or OGM (let alone installed the plaback drivers) which can be a major crimp when trying to watch movies on other people's computer. i remember a while ago when I was trying to get my prisitne Raiders of the Lost Ark Encodes to work on someone's computer and it was just really hard to get it to eventually play. Unless I have a reason to use it (soft subs or really small audio file or mulitple small audio files) I'l stick with AVI until it becomes more of a norm, much like Xvid and every new iteration of DivX back in the earlier days of their development, I wouldn't touch them until they would become a bit more proven in the field as I don't have the time or patience (let alone computing power :p) to test each codec beta. Granted afterwards, I could go ahead and encode until my heart's content (my first encodes were Eva R1s a long time ago, and it took about 2-3 weeks worth of testing to get some Nandub settings I really got good quality out of). So in the end, if you plan to encode in OGM for your own consumption, go right ahead, however, if you plan on sharing with your friends or distroing it online, beware that many people won't have the proper codecs and may prove to be a pain (so far, I think I only know one person whom has installed OGM/OGG with me, and that's only because both of us have been encoding movies together and working with each other for the past 3-4 years), otherwise, it's up to you.

[w0lf]

Originally posted by kakomu
I'll stick with AVI until it becomes more of a norm, much like Xvid and every new iteration of DivX back in the earlier days of their development, I wouldn't touch them until they would become a bit more proven in the field as I don't have the time or patience (let alone computing power :p) to test each codec beta.

I hear ya man, this OGG/OGM stuff is a bit buggy like you mentioned, most of my problems have been in the soft subs (go figure). I really would prefer a well encoded AVI with hard subs and jp audio. I know a english/japanese audio debate could last for pages upon pages, but in my honest opinion, anime shouldn't be distro'd if it isn't subbed. I have encoded in XVID time and again, and have always loved the results. I haven't been too fond of DIVX lately, mostly for the reason that it isn't open-source, and I have had great results without it. I have no problems with the codec personally though. -____- Testing codec betas isn't too bad, but like you said it is very time consuming... seeing what each option does, and whether it helps or not can be a real pain.

[kakomu]

When DivX 5.1 came out, all the movies I made with it were unplayable. I had to uninstall and reinstall. My current codec of choice is DivX 5.05.

[Schultz]

Originally posted by kakomu
Hey guys, just wanted to give a heads up on using OGG audio as well. Granted for a while I really liked using OGG since I could get much smaller file sizes, however, the problem I've encountered was that the playback filters for OGG are still a little buggy. It doesn't seem to like to play at the same time as other audio files (if you pause a movie for a second, the computer will buzz at you). Ogg has also been known to just plain have problems with other computers. A friend of mine can't even use OGG on her computer with it restarting (using WMP that is. she can use winamp, however, we had to rename the file to *.avi)

Well for one i wouldn't use WMP its a piece of shit.. And if you are looking for direct show filters that play OGG better then Torbias's then look at this
http://corecodec.org/projects/corevorbis/ its alot better then the normal OggDS filters.. Or you can get media player class http://sf.net/projects/guliverkli which has a OGM parser filter already built into the player and supports everything out of the box.. i am telling you this is one fo the best media players out there.. Gabest the writer considers the lack of skin support a "feature" which i will agree with him because skinning in a media player is useless because you don't look at the whole thing all the time all it needs to do is just play video.

Originally posted by kakomu
Also, simple thing to keep in mind concerning conversion from OGM to the mpeg-2 format, using VDUB Mod, you can extract each individual audio file as a wav, then use your video stream in your DVD program (so long as the program can accept DivX/Xvid/whatever) and load each individual audio file seperately.

Yea its a pain in the ass but it can be done.. thats what was asked..

Originally posted by kakomu
I also don't care much for the softsubs in OGM, they are rather hard to work with and make just right and I don't like the inability to make different colors. Granted, you don't have to worry about the inferior quality of the encode due to the sharp lines of text (a few of my encodes have come up rather bleh becaues the subtitles were too weird a color or the font made everything in that area look all screwy), it's just that soft subs are always just a tad finnicky (DVD subs included). Maybe I haven't seen them done right (only downloaded one encode with them, and haven't had much success myself).

Ok don't confuse SRT softsubs with SSA.. SSA you can do different colors effects and such.. if you want a GOOD demo example with softsubs in Mkv files go here this shows the true Power of Softsubs (but you would never need it truthfully this much) Also note all Fansubs now use SSA as there Subs system not srt as what comes with OggDS.
http://dl.matroska.org/samples/mewmew/index.html

Originally posted by kakomu
However, when it comes down to it, I'm the type of guy who has been making 2 CD encodes of movies I really like (I only encode movies I like, and I've made very few 1 CD encodes in the last 4 years). To the respect, I've found little need for using the OGM on a continual basis compared to the more easily useable avi. I think the main drawback is that so few people have heard of OGG or OGM (let alone installed the plaback drivers) which can be a major crimp when trying to watch movies on other people's computer. i remember a while ago when I was trying to get my prisitne Raiders of the Lost Ark Encodes to work on someone's computer and it was just really hard to get it to eventually play. Unless I have a reason to use it (soft subs or really small audio file or mulitple small audio files) I'l stick with AVI until it becomes more of a norm, much like Xvid and every new iteration of DivX back in the earlier days of their development, I wouldn't touch them until they would become a bit more proven in the field as I don't have the time or patience (let alone computing power :p) to test each codec beta. Granted afterwards, I could go ahead and encode until my heart's content (my first encodes were Eva R1s a long time ago, and it took about 2-3 weeks worth of testing to get some Nandub settings I really got good quality out of). So in the end, if you plan to encode in OGM for your own consumption, go right ahead, however, if you plan on sharing with your friends or distroing it online, beware that many people won't have the proper codecs and may prove to be a pain (so far, I think I only know one person whom has installed OGM/OGG with me, and that's only because both of us have been encoding movies together and working with each other for the past 3-4 years), otherwise, it's up to you.

Actually now a days Video codecs are good enough so you can put a full length movie onto 1 cd and still be awesome quality. i Personally use Xvid for all my video encoding and Ogg as the audio put into a MKV file. which MPC also has a internal filter for.. So i generally just burn Media Player Classic onto the cd (sinces its only 1 meg) and you can overburn 1 meg. and i never have a problem taking my video anywhere to play.. Since MPC has everything internally.. also for Video decoding i perfer http://sf.net/projects/ffdshow it can decode Xvid, Divx, anything else you through at it..

Originally posted by w0lf
I hear ya man, this OGG/OGM stuff is a bit buggy like you mentioned, most of my problems have been in the soft subs (go figure). I really would prefer a well encoded AVI with hard subs and jp audio. I know a english/japanese audio debate could last for pages upon pages, but in my honest opinion, anime shouldn't be distro'd if it isn't subbed. I have encoded in XVID time and again, and have always loved the results. I haven't been too fond of DIVX lately, mostly for the reason that it isn't open-source, and I have had great results without it. I have no problems with the codec personally though. -____- Testing codec betas isn't too bad, but like you said it is very time consuming... seeing what each option does, and whether it helps or not can be a real pain.

Its mostly if you have the right DirectShow filters.. if you get the ones i have suggested in this thread or if you read on the MewMew demo page you won't have any problems with softsubs at all.

[kakomu]

Originally posted by Schultz
Well for one i wouldn't use WMP its a piece of shit..

I can't see how you can say WMP 6.4 is a POS. It's the best player I've ever used in terms of flexability, ease of use and hardware consumption. Anyone who has to use their media player for more than playing media and checking their media is really doing way too much. As for the buzzing, it's when I play another audio file in conjunction with the movie (regardless of the player). I was getting my codecs at http://www.vorbis.org.

Lastly, in the end, I'm trying to stray as far away from DivX and other computer Video formats, considering that I don't like watching movies from my monitor anymore and I'm not too happy with the TV-out software that ATI has. I've mostly been trying to replace everything I have on CD with DVDs.

It also makes me feel kinda sad that all the knowledge of video and video codecs will become instantly obsolete with a new revision. Considering I don't feel like reading the thesis length arguments that go back and forth at the Doom9 forums I really seem to fall back on how to get the "perfect video" and really just don't care that much anymore in the end.