Sunday, December 10, 2006

Show #7 - 12.10.2006



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 Tech Forum Talk Back
  • Charles from San Bernadino asks, "How do you convert a HD DivX AVI with 5.1 Surround Sound to a Watchable DVD without loosing the surround sound"
    • Explanation
      • Where might you encounter the need to use this process: Downloaded TV Shows, Educational Videos, and
      • Legality: Downloading TV shows violates copyrights, and while I don't specifically frown on it myself I can't condone it because they often have the commercials removed which is how these shows stay on the air and generate revenue. Good content should be supported. For instance, check out our completely free advertiser-supported feed on the right side of our website in beta from NBC. It's really fun to watch, and the commercials aren't too intrusive.
      • What / Why an AVI: AVI stands for Audio/Video Interleave and According to Wikipedia, "AVI is considered by many to be an outdated container format. There is significant overhead when used with popular MPEG-4 codecs (Xvid and DivX, for example)," which we are discussing today. Ultimately "increasing file size more than necessary. The container has no native support for those codecs' modern features like B-Frames. To circumvent this problem, cumbersome hacks (in a programming context) are used, causing incompatibilities in some players...Despite its limitations and the availability of more modern container formats (like MP4), AVI remains popular among file-sharing communities. This is probably due to its high compatibility with existing video editing and playback software like VirtualDub and Windows Media Player."
    • Tools
      • GSpot - Lets you check your video for errors and tells you all about what is inside the file
      • VirtualDub - Extract the AC3 Audio from the AVI file and store it for later use
        • Open the AVI File containing the AC3 audio
        • Under the 'Audio' menu you will see that 'Source audio' is selected
        • Under the File menu click 'Save WAV'
        • Once it has saved, rename it to a .AC3 file instead of a .WAV file (it is a WAV, but with 6 channels of audio data) and just like AVI, WAV is a container format that can store more than just stereo or mono.
      • TMPGEnc - Remove the video from the AVI file and convert it to MPEG2 (DVD format)
        • For North American AVIs they should be at 23.9 or 29.9 FPS, if so use the NTSC profile in TMPGEnc, if its 25 FPS then use the PAL profile
        • On the bottom right of the window select the 'ES (Video Only)' that tells this program we want an elementry stream (one file for each audio language, one for each video) -- and by selecting 'Video Only' we tell it to ignore the audio completely.
        • Click on the 'Setting' button on the bottom right under the previous selection, then in there here unlock the frame rate and match it to what the source frame rate is.
        • For a faster encode use (CBR) Consistant Bit Rate at 5640 kbits/sec, for a better quality encode use (VBR) Variable Bit Rate at a maximum of 8000 kbits/sec
        • The encode mode should be 'Interlace' 99% of the time.
        • Under the 'Advanced' tab set the 'Source aspect ratio' to 1:1 and the 'Video arrange method' to 'Full screen (keep aspect ratio)'
        • That's it, click 'OK' then click 'Start' on the top of the window in the background.
        • Repeat this process for every video you intend to put on the DVD and keep in mind that a single-layer DVD is about 4.5 GB of available space, so not only do you need about 10 GB of available space on your hard drive but you have to make sure that your encoded video is not larger than the disc.
      • TMPGEnc DVD Author - (Trialware: $90) Put the files back together and burn them to a DVD.
        • This program is relatively simple, open it, tell it where the video and matching audio files are
        • You can create a simple menu using the program if you like and have sufficient space
        • Then you tell it where to put the DVD production files and to begin processing
        • When it is complete it will prompt you to begin the burning process
    • Hints
      • DVD-R media is more compatible in video players than DVD+R media, so if you have both options (like a dual format burner +/-) then stick with DVD-R for video and DVD+R for files.
      • Rewritable media rarely works for video and it provides a bit less space for files (or video in this case anyway).
      • There are other tools to do each of these tasks, in my opinion the only tool that is easier if you use something else is TMPGEnc -- I would use something like Canopus Procoder 2 if you have the resources. But that's about $250.
      • If you have questions or we can help you past something in this process, call or e-mail us, we'll be glad to give it a whirl!
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