DivX => MPEG and MPEG => VCD

VCD Guide

Some time ago I started playing with video conversion, DivX coding and VCD authoring. I found all of the information and software in just a couple of sites in the internet, but sometimes it was hard to keep track of where the instructions for different problems were. I decided to compile all the information in a file that I could use, and eventually I thought it would be cool to have that information in my website. This guide was primarily written for my own reference, so it might be difficult for others to follow at times. In the spirit of sharing, I will do my best to keep this guide accessible to all who bother to read it. This guide was created mostly with content taken from www.vcdhelp.com.

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For those of us who cannot afford a DVD burner but still want to play our home videos on DVD, there is an easy and cheap solution: Video CD's (or just VCD's). VCD's are just plain CD's, like the ones you use for music and computer games, that contain videos (in MPEG format) instead of songs or data. This guide can help you create your own VCD's, and it also provides information on how to convert video files to different formats.

Eventually this guide will contain information on how to convert video files from and to popular video formats, such as MPEG-1, MPEG-2, DivX, XviD, ASF, RM, ... However, I will build this guide slowly, and I am starting only with the most important conversions: DivX => MPEG and MPEG => VCD, so that you can make VCD's with movies you download from the web. If you would like to know how get movies, go the Resources & Links page. If you don't understand what all these words mean, check the Glossary.

Note that that if the video source quality is bad it will not get any better if you convert it to something else.

The central tool for this guide is TMPGEnc the best MPEG encode available - Be sure to install it!

• Software
  List of necessary software, with links for download. All essential software listed here is freeware or shareware. You can also download them from the APPS section in my FTP site.
  
• Video File Comparasion
  Quick Overview of Features and Specifications for different video file formats.
  
• Compatibility List
  VCDHelp.com's Compatibility list - find out which DVD Players can play your VCD, SVCD, CD-R/W, DVD±R/W...
  
• How to Watch the Movies
  How to play VCD's, SVCD's and DVD's in a computer or DVD player. Also explains what you need to play files encoded in several formats: AVI, DivX, XviD, RM,...
  
• Glossary

And here are the conversion guides:

• DivX => MPEG
  DivX files can actually be converted to MPEG files without much loss of quality. Once you have the MPEG, you can burn the video into a VCD and watch it on a standalone DVD Player. For this guide I use as an example a copy of Charlie's Angels.
  
• MPEG => VCD (VCD and SVCD Authoring)
  Say you have a Digital Camcorder that records movies in MPEG format, and he downloaded the files into you computer. Now you can take that file, make a VCD and watch your home videos on TV! This guide uses as an example a video a friend shot at our Halloween party this year.
  

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Software

Players
BSPlayer	One of the best DivX, AVI Player. Supports everything and some more. It will not play VCD's, though.
WinDVD	The best software DVD/SVCD/VCD Player. Demo available
Codecs
DV Codec	Play and import DV video with any tool.
DivX 5	The new DivX Codec so you can play the new AVI DivXs movies. By installing the Pro version you have access to more features than you get from the Nimo Codec Pack. However, beginners should use only the Nimo Codec Pack since I will not use nor explain the advanced features of DivX 5 Pro in this guide.
Nimo Codec Pack	This Pack includes, Divx 3,4 and 5, XVID, MP3 Audio Codec, Vob Playback, AC3 Dolby Digital audio decoder, MPEG2 Codec, DivX AntiFreeze Filter, OGG Audio Codec and much more. Highly recommended - It has almost everything you need! Click here to see which options you should choose.
tooLame	tooLAME is an optimized MPEG-1/2 Layer II audio encoder and You can easily use it with TMPGEnc just goto Options => Environmental Settings => External tool and change Layer2 to tooLame.
Encoders
DVD2AVI	A very good MPEG2 decoder tool for converting mpg/mpg2/dvd to avi/vcd/svcd. Download from here if the DVD2AVI official site doesn't work.
TMPGEnc	One of the best encoders, encodes to MPEG2 (SVCD,DVD) and MPEG1 (VCD) and supports also multiplexing, demultiplexing, joining and splittting. Limited MPEG2 Encoding.
VirtualDub	You will need this to create the sound files you use when encoding with TMPGEnc.
VCD Authoring Software
Nero	A easy and very good VCD and SVCD Author/Burner application, support also Menus and photo album. Guide here. Demo available here.
VCDEasy	VCDEasy allows you to author/build easily VideoCDs (VCD/SVCD) playable on most of the home DVD Players . Guide here. You can also download it here.
Video Editing
TMPGEnc	A very useful tool, can cut and join MPEG2 / MPEG1(SVCD,DVD,VCD) and also multiplex, demultiplex and encode.
VirtualDub	A superb freeware video editor with also AVI/DivX cutting and joining capabilites. (to open ASF,SMR you need Virtualdub 1.3c and the SMR Codec).
Others
ASPI Drivers	Adaptec ASPI Drivers for most Operating systems, read more here about ASPI.
VCDGear	The best VCD=>MPEG converter available. Converts dat to mpg, cue/bin to mpg, raw to mpg... and fixes bad mpegs block.

Note: You can also find all this software inside the APPS section in my FTP site. Just hit the button on the menu to the left to access it.

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How to Watch the Movies

• VCD, MPEG-1
  You can play VCDs with Windows Media Player, insert the VCD in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and browse to the MPEGAV folder and double click on the .dat file and associate it with Media Player and open them with that.
  To play a VCD with menus and still pictures use WinDVD or PowerDVD, insert the VCD and just hit Play.
  Use a low resolution, like 640x480, on the monitor when watching a VCD to get best quality.
  You can also play the VCD in your standalone DVD Player - just hit Play!
  
• SVCD, MPEG-2
  To play a SVCD you need a software DVD Player, insert the SVCD in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and open the .mpg file in the MPEG2 or MPEGAV folder with any player like PowerDVD or WinDVD. Or if you wanna access SVCD menus and still pictures use WinDVD and insert the SVCD in your CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and hit Play.
  You can also play the SVCD in most standalone DVD Player - just hit play! Check here for a compatibility list.
  
• AVI, DivX, MPEG-4
  To play DivX or AVI you first need to install the DivX codecs. Then you should be able to play the video with Windows Media Player. It's also possible that you need to install the Nimo Codec Pack - AVI's come in many diferent formats and you just might need a different codec for your paricular needs. If you still have problem try then to "fix" the DivX, beceause the DivX can have been broken while you downloaded it, read here how to fix a DivX/AVI. DivX/AVI files cannot be played in DVD players.
  

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Glossary

AC3 - Initially known as Audio Coding 3, AC3 is a synonym for Dolby Digital these days. Dolby Digital is an advanced audio compression technology allowing to encode up to 6 separate channels at bitrates up to 448kbit/s. For more information please check out the Dolby website.

ASF - An AVI-Codec, great quality for the size. More "blocky"\"blotchy" then MPG, but can shrink down a full length movie to about 300-500mb.

AVI stands for Audio Video Interleave. AVI is a file format, like MP3 or JPG. But unlike these formats, AVI is a container format, meaning it can contain video/audio compressed using many different combinations of codecs. So while MP3 and JPG can only contain a certain kind of compression (MPEG Audio Layer 3 and JPEG), AVI can contain many different kinds of compression (eg. DivX video + WMA audio or Indeo video + PCM audio), as long as a codec is available for encoding/decoding. AVI all look the same on the "outside", but on the "inside", they may be completely different. Almost all tools on this site are not just DivX tools, but also AVI tools, so will probably work with other codecs.
There is no such thing as a "normal" AVI file, but the closest you can get is probably an AVI file that contains no compression. AVI files has been around since the time of Windows 3.1, so by no means is it a new thing, and is probably the most common video format around (although its popularity wavered a few years ago, but has since come back with a vengeance due to the emergence of DivX).

BIN - A BIN is a image from a CD. It's great if you want to distribute a VCD on the web and the other one don't have any VCD-burn programs. Just burn the BIN with Nero and you have a true VCD.

Codec - Codec stands for COder/DECoder. It is a small piece of software that allows you to make/play movie/audio compressed in a certain format. MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX ... are all codecs. AVI, ASF, WMV are not codecs, but file formats. AVI is also a container format (see above for more information), meaning it can be made using many different codecs.

DAT - DAT is the file that you see on the VCD. The DAT doesn't differs much from a MPG but you should always convert the DAT to MPG if you want to edit it or use it outside the VCD.

Demultiplex - Demultiplex is when you split the video and audio to separate files.

DivX - A type of AVI Codec. MPEG-4. Awesome sound, awesome quality. They are used to make DVD Rips from movies. File sizes vary on the encoders choice. Not to be confused with the now - thank God - obsolete DIVX (DIgital Video eXpress) system introduced by Circuit City '98. There are 2 flavors of DivX today: DivX ;) is the name of the hacked Microsoft Mpeg4 codecs (Windows Media Video V3). Those codecs were developed by Microsoft for use in its proprietary Windows Media architecture and initially supported encoding AVIs and ASFs but all non-beta versions included an AVI lock, making it impossible to use them to encode to the AVI format - and only a few tools support ASF today. What the makers of DivX did is remove that AVI lock, making it possible to encode to AVI again, and changed the name to DivX video in order to prevent confusion of codecs, since it's possible to have both the unhacked and hacked codecs on the same computer if you use the Windows Media Encoder. The latest releases of DivX also include a hacked Windows Media Audio Codec called DivX audio - the hack of that codec is not perfect yet and its use is limited for higher bitrates. This codec is also known as DivX3 or DivX ;). The other DivX is a brand-new MPEG-4 video codec developed by DivXNetworks. It offers much advanced encoding controls and 2 pass encoding. Furthermore the codec can play the old DivX ;) (DivX3) movies. The codec is commonly called DivX5.

DV - DV is a standard for compressed digital video that are used in miniDV camcorders.

DVD stands for Digital Versatile or Video Disc, DVD±R stands for DVD Recordable and DVD±RW for DVD ReWriteable. A single layer (DVD-5) DVDr/w stores up to 2 hours of very good quality DVD-Video, including several audio tracks in formats like stereo, Dolby Digital or DTS and also advanced menu systems, subtitles and still pictures that can be played by standalone DVD Players. If you choose to lower the video quality it is possible to store several hours video on a DVDr/w using low bitrates and low resolution with quality more like SVCD or VCD. It is also possible to have up to 4.37 GB ordinary data or mix DVD-Video and data on a DVDr/w that can be played by computer DVD-ROMs. There are currently three competing standards:

DVD-R and DVD-RW
DVD-R/W was the first DVD recording format released that was compatible with standalone DVD Players. DVD-R is a none rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 85% of all DVD Players and DVD-ROMs. DVD-RW is a rewriteable format and it is compatible with about 65% of all DVD Players and DVD-ROMs. DVD-R/W supports single side 4.7 GB DVDs (called DVD-5) and double side 9.4 GB DVDs (called DVD-10). These formats are supported by DVDForum.

DVD+R and DVD+RW
DVD+R/W has some better features than DVD-R/W such as lossless linking and both CAV and CLV writing. DVD+R is a none rewritable format and it is compatible with about 85% of all DVD Players and DVD-ROMs. DVD+RW is a rewritable format and is compatible with about 70% of all DVD Players and DVD-ROMs. DVD+R/W supports single side 4.7 GB DVDs (called DVD-5) and double side 9.4 GB DVDs(called DVD-10). These formats are supported by the DVD+RW Alliance.

DVD-RAM
DVD-RAM has the best recording features but it is not compatible with most DVD-ROM drives and DVD-Video players. Think more of it as a removable hard disk. This format is supported by DVDForum.

For a compatibility list, click here. For more technical details, click here.

Firewire - FireWire is a very fast serial data transfer protocol used to transmit video from digital camcorders to computers.

Frame - The basic source of a movie; one frame represents one image. A movie usually runs at 24 frames per second, equaling 24 different images per second. Imagine 24 images with a bird on it. In the first image, the bird is on the left, gradually moving to the right. On the 24th frame the bird is on the right end of the image. When these 24 images are played in sequence fast enough, the human eye sees a bird flying from left to right.

Frameserve - Frameserving is using one utility to decode or read a video file and after it has been decoded, sending it straight to any other video editing or encoding application.

Interleaving - Describes the process of gluing together the audio and the video track at defined points. The player will recognize the interleave points and make sure that both audio and video are played in a manner that the "glued" points match throughout the movie.

I and P Frame - Frame describing only the differences to the frame before (this is less than accurate but I think you'll get the picture that way). Say we have a keyframe with a bird before a cloudy sky. Then we can use I frames which say something like this : move the bird an inch to the left and one inch to the bottom.

Keyframe - A complete frame but heavily compressed.

MPEG - MPG/MPEG is a standard for compressed digital video that are used in VCDs. MPEG means Motion Picture Expert Group and it's THE resource for video formats in general. This group defines standards in digital video, among them the MPEG1 standard (used in VCD's), the MPEG2 standard (used on DVDs and SVCDs), the MPEG4 standard and several audio standards - among them MP3 and AAC.

MPEG2 - MPEG2 is a standard for compressed digital video that are used in SVCDs and DVDs.

MPEG-4 is a standard defined by the Working Group 11 (Moving Picture Expert Group) of ISO (International Standard Organization) in October 1998 (date of the first draft of the standard). It is the standard for the mature digital era. With its added features, MPEG-4 offers better compression, interactivity, and universal Internet/wireless access to the medium.

Multiplex - Multiplex is when you join the video and audio to one single file

NTSC, PAL - NTSC is a Video/TV standard mostly common in USA and PAL is a Video/TV standard in the rest of the world, the main differences are that NTSC has more frames/sec, 29,97 fps than PAL 25 fps but then NTSC has some less horizontal lines than PAL.

Ripping - Lots of confusion about that one. Basically ripping means copying a DVD movie to your hard disk. This includes the authentication process for the DVD Drive (try to copy a file off a DVD and you'll get a message that this operation is not supported if your drive hasn't been authenticated) and the actual CSS Descrambling. CSS (Content Scrambling System) is a copy protection scheme designed to prevent unauthorized copying of DVD movies, although many argue that it was also designed to control where DVD movies can be played since without a CSS license you essentially have to crack the encryption to play a DVD movie - and I quite agree with that. The term "ripping" is also often used (even on this site) to describe the whole process of descrambling a DVD, then convert the audio and video into another format, usually DivX or MPEG.

RM - Real Media, uses Real Player, the worst video quality, but very small files.

Screener - Different types of bootlegged video that can be in VCD,SVCD,DVD or DivX format. There are many types of video associated with this name:

CAM - This type of VCD was recorded by someone in a cinema with a camcorder and the audience can be heard! The picture quality is usually OK but the sound is mostly very bad and hard to make out speech.

Telesync - These are also recorded in a cinema but usually on an expensive camera and they should have a seperate audio source (so the audience cannot be heard), these are generally very good quality and highly watchable.

Telecine - Done a number of ways, all from taking directly from the reel. Ripped in either widescreen (letterbox) or in full-screen (pan and scan) with excellent audio and video. The most common way is to get a device that you attach to the reel that generates a VHS tape of the reel. (called a telecine machine, but there are other machines that generate a digital output of both audio and video that are then put into a laptop or VCR and made into a VCD).

Screener - A Screener is usually recorded form a promotional video tape which is sent to censors and film critics etc.. The quality is usually as good as a commercial VCD, some times a copyright message appears on the screen.

Work-Print - Each fram of the film is copied from celluloid (or another source), these are sometimes incomplete movies. The sound is usually perfect and the visual quality can vary.

DVDRip - VCDs with this on the cover are ripped from DVD or Laserdisc versions of the film and the quality is as good as genuine VCDs.

SMR - It is a hack of the MPEG4 codec and the only difference between the original encoder and SMR is that the FOURCC (four bytes in the header, which identify the video stream) has been changed to MP43.

SVCD stands for "Super VideoCD". A SVCD is very similiar to a VCD, it has the capacity to hold about 35-60 minutes on 74/80 min CDs of very good quality full-motion video along with up to 2 stereo audio tracks and also 4 selectable subtitles. A SVCD can be played on many standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a SVCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a SVCD is much better than a VCD, especially much more sharpen picture than a VCD because of the higher resolution. But the quality depends how many minutes you choose to store on a CD, less minutes/CD generally means higher quality. SVCD's can be played on many standalone DVD Players - check here for a compatibility list. For more technical details, click here.

VCD stands for 'Video Compact Disc' and basically it is a CD that contains moving pictures and sound. If you're familiar with regular audio/music CDs, then you will know what a VCD looks like. A VCD has the capacity to hold up to 74/80 minutes on 650MB/700MB CDs respectively of full-motion video along with quality stereo sound. VCDs use a compression standard called MPEG to store the video and audio. A VCD can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players and of course on all computers with a DVD-ROM or CD-ROM drive with the help of a software based decoder / player. It is also possible to use menus and chapters, similiar to DVDs, on a VCD and also simple photo album/slide shows with background audio. The quality of a very good VCD is about the same as a VHS tape based movie but VCD is usually a bit more blurry. If you want better quality checkout SVCD or DVD. VCD's can be played on almost all standalone DVD Players - check here for a compatibility list. For more technical details, click here.

VOB - All DVD movies are stored in so-called vob files. Vob files usually contain multiplexed Dolby Digital Audio and Mpeg2 video. Vob Files are called as follows: vts_XX_y.vob where XX represents the title and Y the part of the title. There can be 99 titles and 10 parts, although vts_XX_0.vob does never contain any video, usually just menu or navigational information.

XVCD stands for eXtendedVCD. XVCD has same features as VCD but it is possible to use higher bitrates and higher resolution to get higher video quality. XVCD is basicly everything that uses MPEG1 video, is not within the VCD standard and burnt in "VCD"-Mode. XVCD's can be played on some standalone DVD Players - check here for a compatibility list.

XSVCD stands for eXtendedSVCD. XSVCD has same features as SVCD but it is possible to use higher bitrates and higher resolution to get higher video quality. XSVCD is basicly everything that uses MPEG2 video, is not within the SVCD standard and burnt in "SVCD"-Mode. XSVCD's can be played on some standalone DVD Players - check here for a compatibility list.

XviD is a high quality open-source MPEG-4 codec. As you may already know, XviD comes from the same open-source project that was the basis for DivX 4.x/5.x, but instead of going all commercial, XviD remains open-source. The quality of the codec is extremely good, and encoding speed is very fast as well, so it is at least worth a try.