Encoding VCD & SVCD in FlaskMpeg using CCE

You need the following software for this guide:

SVCD pack
CCE SP - NOTE: Demo version, displays a logo on every encoded video. You can buy the full version (without that logo) online. Homepage
VideoServer
Bitrate Calculator
Pulldown

This encoder is lightning fast, however it has one severe drawback: it is not for free... If you're willing to spend that kind of money (the Lite version is $250 alone and that version is not enough to do SVCD and miniDVD since it doesn't support the kind of bitrate settings we need, and the SP version is $3890) or if you are willing to get the program by other means then this is for you..

CCE does not support 3:2 pulldown, but using pulldown.exe it's still possible to encode at 23.976fps and later on convert the movie to 29.97. If you're encoding an NTSC movie at 23.976fps you'll have to do step 7.

Step 0 - One time setup

To set up the Videoserver, unzip it to its own directory, then copy CM-Avisynth.prm to the directory where you have Xmpeg/FlaskMpeg and rename it to CM-Avisynth.cm.flask. Also, unzip bbmpeg.zip from the videoserver directory to the Xmpeg/FlaskMpeg folder and do the same for pulldown.zip and wav2mp_1_1.zip. You only have to perform these steps once.

Step 1: Rip the DVD

Note: All you need from that guide is the File mode part. Please disregard any reference to the other DVD Decrypter modes.

Step 2: Calculating the bitrate

You can use any regular bitrate calculator, the only important thing is that you respect the CD sizes that are applicable for VCD/SVCD (they can contain more than for a comparable data CD).

Step 3: Set up audio

Xmpeg is a modified version of FlaskMpeg with a different interface, certain very useful additions and it can work in the native YUV2 colorspace which speeds up encoding considerably compared to the regular FlaskMpeg. If you've used FlaskMpeg before Xmpeg won't be hard to use.

Step 4: Set up video and frameserver

Now it's time to properly resize and start frameserving.

Step 5: Encoding the video

Now it's time to encode the video in CCE.

Step 6: Encoding Audio

As mentioned before due to CCE's audio encoding problems we're going to do this separately using TMPG & toolame. . The program we use also yields a higher quality audio then using CCE to do this.

Step 7: Splitting to CDs

If you have an NTSC source and have not encoded at 29.97fps interlaced (most of the cases) you'll have to run the video thru pulldown. Then multiplex it using bbMPEG which creates guaranteed specs compliant streams and at the same time it can split the movie at the appropriate positions.

Step 8: Burn

The last step is burning the video in Nero or a cue/bin capable burning tool.

This document was last updated on 06/19/02