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==== DV, DVD and (XS)VCD on a Macintosh memo and cookbook ====


http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html Updated: 20070520

Matti Haveri

<html>
<P><A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html">&lt;http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html&gt;</A>
Updated: 20070520</P>

<P>Matti Haveri &lt;mattiDOThaveriATsjokiDOTutaeiroskaaDOTfi&gt;
remove ei roskaa</P>

<H2><A NAME="Contents"></A>Contents:</H2>

<H3><A HREF="#SVCD">SVCD vs VCD vs DVD</A></H3>

<H3><A HREF="#SVCD_cookbook">DVD and (X)SVCD encoding and
authoring</A></H3>

<UL>
   <LI><A HREF="#System_requirements">System requirements</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#Encode">Encode MPEG video and audio</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#Author">Author and burn the DVD or (XS)VCD</A>
</UL>

<H3><A HREF="#Other_info">Other info</A></H3>

<UL>
   <LI><A HREF="#CVD">CVD vs SVCD vs DVD</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#minidvd">What is a miniDVD</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#quality">How can I get better quality for my
   (X)SVCDs</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#retrieve">How can I retrieve MPEG2 from a SVCD</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#edit_convert_MPEG">How can I edit MPEG or convert
   DVD or MPEG to DV</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#extract_frame">How can I extract a frame from a
   DVD</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#bin_cue">How can I burn .bin and .cue files</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#slideshow">How can I make a slideshow</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#imovie_3rd_party">How can I use 3rd party apps to
   process iMovie clips</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#PAL_NTSC">How can I convert PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#speed">How can I render Slow, Fast and Reversed
   motion</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#43-169">How can I convert 4:3&lt;-&gt;16:9 (and
   preserve interlacing)</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#crop">How can I crop video (and preserve
   interlacing)</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#pad">How can I pad video to the TV safe area (and
   preserve interlacing)</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#vert-horiz_rotate">How can I rotate video (and
   preserve aspect ratio and interlacing)</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#interlacing">How can I evaluate interlacing or
   deinterlace clips</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#aspect_ratios">Aspect ratios and rectangular vs
   square pixels</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#Other_tools">Other (XS)VCD and DVD tools</A>
   
   <LI><A HREF="#calculations">Info for the calculations</A>
</UL>

<H3><A HREF="#More_info">More info about (XS)VCD and DVD</A></H3>

<H3><A HREF="#Acknowledgements">Acknowledgements</A></H3>

<P>
<HR>
</P>

<H3><A NAME="SVCD"></A>SVCD vs VCD vs DVD [<A HREF="#Contents">back
to Contents</A>]</H3>

<P>Why SVCD? For one thing, CD burners are still much more common
than DVD burners so you may already have the hardware and software to
encode video that you can conveniently play on a regular DVD player
or send via snailmail or via the Internet to relatives etc. Provided
the DVD player supports SVCD, that is. VideoHelp
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php"
TARGET="_blank">lists</A> many DVD players that should be SVCD
compatible but try before you buy.</P>

<P>SVCD is high quality compared to VCD but low quality compared to
DVD. DVDs have much larger capacity than CDs so it is possible to use
higher bitrates and resolutions to gain better quality video. A 80
minute CD holds about 798 MB but a DVD can hold 4.7(-8.5-9.4-17) GB
of MPEG data.</P>

<P>DVD and SVCD use MPEG2 while VCD uses MPEG1 video encoding. Unlike
VCD, SVCD can take advantage of interlaced video which shows smoother
motion on TV.</P>

<P>DVD's video bitrate is up to 10036 kb/s (=9.8 Mb/s) while SVCD is
2441 kb/s (=2500000 b/s = 2,4 Mb/s) and VCD is only 1125 kb/s
(=1152000 b/s = 1.1 Mb/s). You can fit about 40 minutes of highest
quality SVCD on a CD.</P>

<P>DVD resolution is up to PAL/NTSC 720x576/480 pixels while SVCD is
480x576/480 and VCD is only 352x288/240.</P>

<P>You can make a non-standard SVCD a.k.a. XSVCD with DVD-like
bitrates and/or resolution but it may not play on all DVD players and
not all DVD players understand standard SVCDs anyway. XSVCDs and CVDs
are even possible to later rip, concatenate and burn as DVDs (see the
chapter "<A HREF="#CVD">CVD vs SVCD vs DVD</A>").</P>

<P>What's SVCD? <A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/svcd.htm"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.videohelp.com/svcd.htm&gt;</A></P>

<P>Super Video CD Overview
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/overview/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/overview/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>The Super Video CD FAQ
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/faq/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/faq/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>I've now switched mainly to DVDs but many (XS)VCD principles apply
also to DVD. You can use the many (XS)VCD applications also for DVD.
</P>

<P>
<HR>
</P>

<H3><A NAME="SVCD_cookbook"></A>DVD and (X)SVCD encoding and
authoring [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]</H3>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="System_requirements"></A><B>System requirements</B>
</UL>

<P>Most of the used software needs at least Mac OS X 10.2. A fast CPU
is recommended for MPEG2 encoding: my old '97 PowerMacintosh 8600/G4
450 and mpeg2enc compress 1 minute of DV to progressive PAL SVCD
MPEG2 in about 10 minutes (via MPEG2 Works) so you need a lot of time
or a faster Mac. G3 processor is very slow in MPEG encoding.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="Encode"></A><B>Encode MPEG video and audio</B>
</UL>

<P>For (X)SVCD you have to encode your QuickTime movie into movie.mpv
(<B>MPEG2 video</B>) and movie.mp2 (<B>MPEG1 layer 2 audio</B>).
Alternative suffixes for these video and audio formats are .m2v and
.m1a.</P>

<P>The source can be a QuickTime movie such as a plain iMovie DV
stream *.dv, a DV-encoded QT movie *.mov etc. Usually you want to
concatenate plain DV streams into a single file with original iMovie
quality by exporting them as a DV-encoded QT movies (PAL/NTSC
720x576/480). In iMovie 2 you can do this by choosing in iMovie
"File/Export Movie.../To QuickTime/Full Quality, Large" or just
"File/Export Movie.../For iDVD" which is the same thing.</P>

<P>In <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/imovie/"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie</A> 3 and 4 you don't have to export the movie
anymore because each time you do a save in iMovie, a little
<B>reference .mov</B> file is created inside the iMovie project
folder. You save a lot of time and disk space by using this tiny
reference .mov as your input file.</P>

<P>The hardest part is encoding the video into MPEG2. One good MPEG2
encoder is <B>mpeg2enc</B> in <A HREF="http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_blank">mjpeg tools</A>. Many (XS)VCD encoding GUI
applications (MPEG2 Works, ffmpegX, iVCD, MediaPipe etc) use mpeg2enc
as their MPEG2-video encoding engine and mp2enc as their MPEG1-audio
encoding engine so you don't have to use the command line interface.
You can use many of these tools also for DVD encoding.</P>

<P>Compiling mpeg2enc on Mac OS X (ctrl-click to download mpeg2enc)
<A HREF="http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/MacOS/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://mjpeg.sourceforge.net/MacOS/&gt;</A></P>

<P>MJPEG HOWTO
<A HREF="https://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=3456&group_id=5776"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;https://sourceforge.net/docman/display_doc.php?docid=3456&amp;group_id=5776&gt;</A>
</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://www.mpeg2works.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG2
Works</A></B> ($10) is a nice GUI front-end to mpeg2enc and other
SVCD tools. It is designed to output plain vanilla SVCD or DVD so
there is a minimum amount of settings making this is a very good
choice for those that don't want to fiddle with plethora of obscure
options that may ruin the video if incorrectly used. MPEG2 Works
doesn't currently support interlaced output and the aspect ratio
isn't exactly preserved with Half-D1 (PAL/NTSC 352x576/480)
resolution.</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/"
TARGET="_blank">ffmpegX</A></B> ($15) is a nice GUI front-end to
mpeg2enc and other (X)SVCD tools so encoding, multiplexing and
authoring is user friendly. It has many user-configurable options so
you can tweak the output in many ways. ffmpegX doesn't currently
support interlaced output and the aspect ratio isn't exactly
preserved with Half-D1 (PAL/NTSC 352x576/480) resolution. Notice that
with 4:3 input (DV) resolutions you must uncheck Options/Letterbox so
that ffmpegX doesn't unnecessarily add black borders to the left and
right.</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/"
TARGET="_blank">MMT-EZ</A></B> ($0) seems also to be a nice GUI
front-end to mpeg2enc and many other tools including a DVD/CD burner.
</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://www.mireth.com/" TARGET="_blank">iVCD</A></B>
($30) also uses mpeg2enc as its MPEG encoding engine although it
offers only basic (S)VCD encoding and authoring for people who don't
want to fiddle with many obscure options. At least in PAL the field
dominance is wrong and the other v1.1.3 bug seems to be that at least
in a PAL DV to SVCD the encoded MPEG2 has unnecessary black bars at
the left &amp; right where a simple 720x576 to 480x576 scaling would
have been correct.</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast
Titanium</A></B> ($100) is a good 1st choice for (S)VCD and DVD
encoding, authoring, and burning because you need a disk burner
anyway and it is easier to use than some cheaper CD/DVD burners.
AFAIK Toast Titanium 7 uses
<A HREF="http://www.mainconcept.com/press/sonic_solutions.html"
TARGET="_blank">MainConcept MPEG encoder</A>. Toast can be used to
encode MPEG1 files, too: make a VCD project and Save As Disk
Image..., mount the disk image, copy the /MPEGAV/*.DAT to the desktop
and rename it as *mpg.</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://mediapipe.sourceforge.net/MediaPipe/"
TARGET="_blank">MediaPipe</A></B> (currently $0) has also mpeg2enc is
packaged inside its MPEGEncoder.mpipe, which you can configure and
use as a command line utility either directly via MediaPipe's or
indirectly via <A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/MMTools.html"
TARGET="_blank">MissingMPEG Tools</A>' graphical user interfaces.
</P>

<P>Unfortunately MediaPipe hasn't been updated for a long time and
some of its components do not work with new Mac OS X versions. So
sadly it is now obsolete.</P>

<P>Despite other tools' user friendliness I used to prefer to encode
(XS)VCD via MediaPipe for the flexibility it offered. It is currently
the only mpeg2enc-based GUI encoder that supports <B>interlaced
output</B> which has smoother motion on a TV compared to progressive
output. MediaPipe is also currently the only encoder which can be
configured to <B>maintain the correct aspect ratio</B> with output
resolutions like PAL/NTSC 352x576/480. Encoding with MediaPipe is
flexible but somewhat complicated so I have moved
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/MediaPipe_and_SVCD.txt"
TARGET="_blank">MediaPipe instructions</A> to another page. There are
preconfigured
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/MediaPipe_templates.sit"
TARGET="">MediaPipe templates</A> for DVD and (XS)VCD encoding.</P>

<P><B>A quick review of more expensive DVD- and MPEG-encoding
options</B>: <B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/idvd/"
TARGET="_blank">iDVD</A></B> (comes bundled with a new Mac or $80
bundled with other iLife '05 applications) is easy to use, it has
good quality, and it has also nice-looking DVD authoring built-in.
<B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast
Titanium</A></B> ($100) has a decent MPEG encoder and a basic
authoring built-in. <B>DVD Studio Pro &amp;
<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/compressor.html"
TARGET="_blank">Compressor</A></B> provide more options for encoding
and authoring but the $500 price is quite high for an average user.
<B><A HREF="http://www.mainconcept.com/mpeg_macencoder.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">MainConcept MPEG Encoder</A></B> is easy to use, it
has good quality and plenty of options for tweaking but the $249
price may be too high for an average consumer looking for more
encoding options (custom bitrates, resolutions etc) than iDVD can
provide. <B><A HREF="http://www.innobits.se/" TARGET="_blank">BitVice
Lite</A></B> ($149) has slightly less options for tweaking but the
price is right. Quality-wise,
<B><A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/megapeg/"
TARGET="_blank">Digigami MegaPEG.X Batch</A></B> ($240) and
<B><A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/megapeg/"
TARGET="_blank">Digigami MegaPEG.X QT</A></B> ($240) are identical.
The latter is a QuickTime Export plug-in which allows one to output
MPEG straight from iMovie, QuickTime Player etc. Digigami's default
settings may be too smooth and fuzzy for some people so adjust the
settings as needed. Digigami MegaPEG.X Batch's <I>bitrate and
quantization chart</I> is a very nice feature (it actually reads the
bitrate info from demultiplexed m2v). Also the previously mentioned
<B>mpeg2enc variants</B> can be used for DVD encoding.
<B><A HREF="http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10498"
TARGET="_blank">LaCie FastCoder</A></B> ($249) currently supports
only NTSC. <B><A HREF="http://www.discreet.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Cleaner</A></B>, <B><A HREF="http://www.heuris.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Heuris</A> </B>are other options for MPEG encoding.
</P>

<P>You can increase the MPEG quality with a 2/3-pass encoder which
first analyzes the video content and then proceeds to encode it but
this takes longer than a 1-pass method. mpeg2enc does not currently
support 2-pass encoding.</P>

<P>A quick review about the role of
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/forum/archive/t250719.html"
TARGET="_blank">I, P and B frames</A> in compression: I-frames (intra
frames) stand alone; they rely on no other frames for proper
decoding. P-frames (forward predicted frames) are predicted in a
single direction: they rely on the previous I or P frame for motion
compensation. B-frames (bidirectionally predicted frames) are placed
between pairs of IP frames (display order). B-frames can be
reconstructed using both information from the I or P frame earlier in
time and the I or P frame occurring later in time. Each of these
three types of frames has an approximate cost in bits to the encoder.
Generally speaking, if you study the statistics of IPB frame sizes,
P-frames take about twice as many bits to compress as B-frames. And
I-frames take twice as many bits to compress as P-frames. I-frames
are the most expensive. GOP starts with an I-frame. B-frames follow
either the I-frame or a single P-frame. Only one P frame at a time.
</P>

<P>To make a standard <B>SVCD</B> you must scale and encode the input
QuickTime file to <B>PAL/NTSC 480x576/480 MPEG2</B> file at a
<B>maximum of 2500 kb/s</B>. You can fit about <B>40 minutes of SVCD
video on a 700MB CD</B> with this bitrate. If you deviate from those
resolutions or 2500 kb/s bitrate you make a <B>nonstandard SVCD
a.k.a. XSVCD</B> which may not play on your DVD player. Besides, not
all DVD players can play standard SVCDs anyway. Try a known-good VCD-
and a SVCD-disk before you buy a DVD player.</P>

<P>After you have encoded MPEG2 you can optionally check and play the
file with <B><A HREF="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"
TARGET="_blank">VLC media player</A></B> or with the <B>QuickTime
Player</B> if you have bought the $20
<B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/"
TARGET="_blank">QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component</A></B> from
Apple.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="Author"></A><B>Author and burn the DVD or (XS)VCD</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/idvd/"
TARGET="_blank">iDVD</A></B> and <B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Toast Titanium</A></B> have a MPEG encoder, DVD
authoring and a DVD burner built-in. Toast Titanium ($100) or
<B><A HREF="http://thegoods.ath.cx/~hmason/sizzle/"
TARGET="_blank">Sizzle</A></B> ($0) can be used to author encoded
MPEGs as video-DVDs (<A HREF="#edit_convert_MPEG">see below</A>).
<B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/dvdstudiopro/" TARGET="_blank">DVD
Studio Pro</A></B> ($500) has much more options at a price.</P>

<P>You can easily make a SVCD where you can select tracks with your
DVD player remote, just as if you were using a commercial DVD disk.
Just get <B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/johan/"
TARGET="_blank">VCD Builder</A></B> (donationware) and optionally
also compose a starting menu with track names and graphics to the
beginning of the SVCD. Also <B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Toast Titanium</A></B> supports SVCD authoring.</P>

<P>It is better to keep single MPEGs relatively short (max ~40
minutes) because in long MPEGs the audio may get slightly out-of-sync
and shorter MPEG chunks are easier to manage and re-encode at lower
bitrate if the CD's capacity is exceeded. VCD Builder allows you
author smaller MPEGs to a single CD and break individual MPEGs into
chapters so you can conveniently play them via the DVD player's
remote control (check the right chapter times with QuickTime Player
from the input movie or the MPEG files ( MPEG-2 Playback Component is
required for MPEG2 movies)).</P>

<P>VCD Builder automatically launches and configures Multitrack
CD-ROM XA in Roxio Toast (commercial) after it has processed the
input MPEGs.</P>

<P>For best results scale or crop your Menu source images to a
<B>4:3</B> size (iMovie exports stills as 4:3 PAL 768x576 or NTSC
640x480) with apps like Graphic Converter or Photoshop (you may have
to configure your DVD player to get the correct aspect ratio on a
TV).</P>

<P><B>CDRW</B> disks may be more DVD-player compatible than CDR
disks. Notice that not all DVD players can play SVCDs so try before
you buy.</P>

<P>Congratulations, you're done! Now try the disk in your standalone
DVD player before rushing to do longer projects.</P>

<P>
<HR>
</P>

<H3><A NAME="Other_info"></A>Other info [<A HREF="#Contents">back to
Contents</A>]</H3>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="CVD"></A><B>CVD vs SVCD vs DVD</B>
</UL>

<P>Before rushing to make SVCDs you may also consider the <B>CVD</B>
(China Video Disc) and low- and high-resolution XSVCD formats because
they are easier to export to DVDs later.</P>

<P>What is CVD? First, CVD predates SVCD. 2nd, "Chaoji VCD", which
roughly translates to "Super VCD" is like a compatibility
specification for players -- a Chaoji VCD player must be able to play
back SVCD, CVD, VCD 2.0, VCD 1.1 and CD-DA discs.</P>

<P>Super Video CD Overview
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/overview/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/svcd/overview/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>Today all "SVCD compatible" standalone PAL DVD players are
actually compatible with Chaoji VCD players. This means that both CVD
and SVCD formats are supported.</P>

<P>On the other hand, the "SVCD compatible" standalone Region 1 NTSC
DVD players in U.S. are not forced to include CVD compatibility. The
reason is simple: Those players are not used in China, even in theory
(as is the case with Region 2 PAL players). Only half of the "SVCD
compatible" R1 DVD players are currently (200206) compatible with
CVD. Most of them are made in southeast asia, and they use C-Cube's
microchips.</P>

<P>So why CVD-resolution (or high-resolution XSVCD) instead of a
standard SVCD?</P>

<P>CVD video differs from SVCD basically only by its slightly lower
horizontal resolution (<B>PAL/NTSC 352x576/480</B> vs 480x576/480).
This resolution also happens to be one legal resolution, a.k.a.
<B>half D1, for DVD</B> video. (Like a SVCD, CVD also uses VBR MPEG2
video encoding with up to 2441 kb/s (=2500000 b/s = 2,4 Mb/s)
bitrate).</P>

<P>So the benefit of encoding CVDs is that <B>you can use your
PAL/NTSC 352x576/480 MPEG2 files on CVDs today and on DVDs tomorrow,
without any picture re-encoding or re-scaling</B> (you just need to
multiplex them with DVD specs). This is not possible with SVCD,
because its resolution (480x576/480), isn't compatible with DVD
video. So SVCD files need re-encoding if you want to burn them on DVD
later. (There are ways to convert SVCDs to DVDs without re-encoding,
but that creates something like an "xDVD" and many players do not
support such discs. The most common problem is a picture with totally
wrong aspect ratio or blank picture in the right side of the TV
screen!). With CVD you don't have that kind of problems, and your DVD
authoring programs accept your CVD files!</P>

<P>CVD audio uses the same 44.1 kHz MPEG1 layer 2 audio as SVCD, but
more than 80% of the DVD standalones produced after 1999, which are
also compatible with Chaoji Video CD players, can play also 48 kHz
audio on CVDs and SVCDs. So, <B>if your DVD standalone supports 48
kHz CVD audio, you may want to encode 48 kHz audio in the first
place</B>, especially if you intend to later transfer the CVDs to
DVDs because <B>DVD uses 48 kHz audio</B>.</P>

<P>CVD, SVCD and VCD will all go away the day DVD burners become
mainstream and the DVD media becomes as cheap as CDRs are today. But
all those standards are based on MPEG so you may prepare yourself
with DVD in mind by encoding CVD or low- or high-resolution XSVCD
with 48 kHz audio so they can be easily transferred to DVD in the
future. Of course you get better quality by re-encoding to DVD with
higher DVD bitrates _if_ you still have the original material. You
can also continue to use your old SVCDs but transferring and
concatenating them to higher capacity DVDs has its benefits, too.
</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4"
TARGET="_blank">Legal DVD resolutions</A> are PAL/NTSC 720x576/480,
704x576/480, 352x576/480 for MPEG2 and 352x288/240 for MPEG1</B> so
you can transfer these resolutions also to DVD if you want. My
Pioneer 444 PAL DVD player accepts all these resolutions on XSVCD as
well as PAL 352x288 XSVCD MPEG2.</P>

<P>Using MPEG1 layer 2 audio (a.k.a. M1A or MP2) is non-standard in
NTSC but can be played back on many DVD players, so check whether
your DVD player supports it or whether you must use compressed AC3 or
uncompressed PCM audio.</P>

<P>So basically you need to decide whether to encode:</P>

<P>1) standard SVCD PAL/NTSC 480x576/480 with 44.1 kHz audio</P>

<P>2) low resolution <B>352x576/480 XSVCD a.k.a. CVD with 48 kHz
audio</B> (1st choice for XSVCD)</P>

<P>3) high resolution 720x576/480 XSVCD with 48 kHz audio</P>

<P>4) high resolution 704x576/480 XSVCD with 48 kHz audio</P>

<P>5) low resolution 352x288/240 X(S)VCD with 48 kHz audio</P>

<P>Standard SVCD is more compatible with DVD players but those
X(S)VCD-resolutions can be more easily transferred and concatenated
to real DVDs later.</P>

<P>PAL/NTSC 704x576/480 may be a good choice for originally analog
sources (analog-to-DV capture from a TV-tuner, for example) because
the original analog active image width is PAL 702 or NTSC 711 and the
704 XSVCD width crops the unnecessary black borders from the 720
width DV image.</P>

<P>CVD: What is it, how to test it &amp; what to expect!
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/98177.php"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/98177.php&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>A Quick Guide to Digital Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio
Conversions <A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P><B>Q: My DVD-recorder can burn PAL/NTSC 352x288/240 MPEG1 as a
video-DVD, but QuickTime Player displays only black video from the
VOB?</B> A: You might have also noticed that QuickTime Player
erroneusly reports your file as MPEG2 when it, in fact, is just MPEG1
in a MPEG2-style container. If you open the file with MPEG
Streamclip, you can see the video and also use the Show Stream Info
-command to see that it is really MPEG1. You can fix the MPEG
container issue if you demultiplex the file and then remultiplex it
with MPEG Streamclip. Then also QuickTime Player shows the video in
it.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="minidvd"></A><B>What is a miniDVD</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P><A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/minidvd.htm"
TARGET="_blank">miniDVD</A> a.k.a. cDVD is a DVD video written onto a
CD-R(W) instead of a DVD disc. A miniDVD can only hold about 15
minutes of DVD quality video on a 700 MB CD-R(W).</P>

<P>Not many standalone DVD players will play miniDVD -- see the list
for
<A HREF="http://www.vcdhelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=&Submit=Search&minidvd=1&Search=Search"
TARGET="_blank">miniDVD compatible players</A>. Computers can play
the miniDVD if the CD/DVD drive supports at least 8x CD-R/W reading
speed. A workaround for computers with slower drives is to copy the
VIDEO_TS folder to the harddisk and play it from there.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast
Titanium</A></B> can create a miniDVD. Go through the same process
you would to create a DVD, however when prompted for a blank DVD
insert a blank CD instead.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="quality"></A><B>How can I get better quality for my
   (X)SVCDs</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Avoid "garbage in, garbage out": Take care that your original
video is high quality. If possible, use good illumination and a
tripod so the MPEG2 encoder can focus on relevant movement on the
video. Familiarize yourself with the camcorder's settings.</P>

<P>You can minimize the loss of quality on long 60-90 minute XSVCDs
by using widescreen format or by converting the material to black
&amp; white. If you prefer color, the movie must be "clean", meaning
almost no noise. Progressive output is less blocky than interlaced
but progressive movement is jerkier on TV. Reducing the output
resolution also diminishes blockiness but the image may not be as
crisp. Animations may look ugly because there is noise around fast
moving clean lines. The blocking artifacts are most noticable on
backgrounds like sky. The material should contain as little visible
vegetation and water as possible...</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="retrieve"></A><B>How can I retrieve MPEG2 from a
   SVCD</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Q: OK, I have now successfully burned SVCDs. But how can I
retrieve the MPEG2s back from the SVCDs if I want to use them later
in other projects?</P>

<P>- Ripping is fast and easy with <B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Toast Titanium</A></B>: insert the (XS)VCD and choose
Recorder/Disc Info... A list of tracks will appear. Select the Video
track and save the MPEG from there.</P>

<P>If you want to burn DVD-compatible XSVCD to a DVD, you must
demultiplex and author the ripped MPEG and remultiplex it with DVD
specs. Toast does all this and also authoring automatically.</P>

<P>To <B>re-burn as DVD</B> in Toast: select Video/DVD-Video (or SVCD
or VCD), add the ripped MPEG and burn it to a DVD. If Toast sees that
the MPEG conforms to the DVD spec it doesn't re-encode it (the
re-multiplexing and authoring phases are fast) so there is no quality
loss. Toast may sometimes unnecessarily start to slowly re-encode
valid DVD or (S)VCD MPEGs -- demultiplexing the MPEG to .m2v and .m1a
(a.k.a. .mp2) may fix this.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.ns-software.com/" TARGET="_blank">VCD
Copy X</A></B> (donationware) can rip the tracks off of a VCD or SVCD
as *.dat files, which can AFAIK just be renamed as *.mpg and
re-burned as SVCDs. (Compared to the original *.mpg the *.dat file
contains some additional navigation information the SVCD needs).</P>

<P>- Another alternative for ripping is
<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/.Public/MissingMediaBurner.sit"
TARGET="">MissingMediaBurner</A></B>. MissingMediaBurner has to
compete with the Finder for access to the CDR(W) so put a blank
CDR(W) to the CD-burner but leave the drive tray still open. In
MissingMediaBurner choose Device: CD-R/RW, Driver: generic-mmc-raw
(you may have to experiment with your setup). Choose the Output
Folder in the RIP DISK panel, check Raw mode, press the Rip-button
and immediately close the CD-burner's tray. You get something like
mycd.bin as an output file. Launch
<B><A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/~tgpo/prog/vcdtoolsX.sit"
TARGET="">GNU vcdtoolsX</A></B> and use its vcdXrip to open mycd.bin
and generate *.mpg files that you can author and re-burn as SVCDs
with VCD Builder and Toast.</P>

<P>- Here is another way to rip via Toast (the other Toast method is
faster because here the MPEG must be demultiplexed so Toast doesn't
try to re-encode it): select CD/DVD Copy (and the desired CDRW) in
Toast and File/Save as Disc Image... Rename the saved disc image
*.toast to *.bin and use vcdXrip in
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/~tgpo/prog/vcdtoolsX.sit"
TARGET="">GNU vcdtoolsX</A> to extract the MPEGs from it.</P>

<P>- If necessary, you can demultiplex the *.dat or *.mpg files with
<B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B>, <B><A HREF="http://www.mpeg2works.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG2 Works</A></B>,
<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/"
TARGET="_blank">ffmpegX</A></B> or
<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/.Public/MoreMissingTools.sit"
TARGET="">MoreMissingTools</A></B>' MPG DEMUX, and remultiplex and
reuse them as *.mpg files.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="edit_convert_MPEG"></A><B>How can I edit MPEG or
   convert DVD or MPEG to DV</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to
   Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>MPEG is a delivery format, not an editing format, but occasionally
you may want to edit MPEG files or import them to iMovie. I'd suggest
you try MPEG Streamclip first and see if it does the job for you.
</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B> ($0) converts MPEG files (including transport
streams) into muxed, demuxed, DV, QuickTime, AVI, MP4 or H.264 video
or TIFF still frames, so you can easily import them in iMovie, Final
Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro and Toast Titanium. MPEG2 conversions require
the $20 Apple's <B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/"
TARGET="_blank">QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component</A></B> (you can
buy it online from Apple, but you already have it if you use either
Final Cut Pro 4/HD or DVD Studio Pro). MPEG Streamclip also includes
a player to set In and Out points, and perform a <B>partial
conversion</B>. It does not read encrypted VOB files. It can open and
convert also DV, MOV, AVI, MP4, H.264, DivX or WMV files (DivX and
WMV need 3rd party add-ons).</P>

<P>To <B>convert a DVD or MPEG to DV</B> with MPEG Streamclip (v1.8
or later): Open a desired .VOB on a DVD (DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB,
for example) or a MPEG file. Select the In/Out points if you want to
extract just a portion of the video. Choose "File/Export to
DV.../Compression: <B>DV (DV25)</B>". Choose "<B>Split DV stream in
Segments</B>" if the content is more than 9 minutes 27 seconds
because iMovie 1-4 can't reliably handle longer clip files and it
might be a good idea to limit the converted .dv file's size anyway
(segmented clips play seamlessly in iMovie). MPEG Streamclip can
optionally resample audio to 48 kHz which DV (and DVD) use (use this
option when converting (S)VCD 44.1 kHz audio for DV). You can import
the converted .dv to iMovie or <I>save it directly into iMovie
project's Media folder</I> to save time and HD space (iMovie prompts
you what to do with the clip when the project is opened. Notice that
iMovie HD 5 now stores its project folder as a
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_5_bugs.html#package"
TARGET="_blank">package</A> -- MPEG Streamclip can save straight
<I>into</I> the package's /Media folder!). As a nice touch MPEG
Streamclip <A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">correctly</A> adds 8+8 black pixels to the sides when
converting PAL/NTSC 352x576/480 half D1 or 704x576/480 MPEG to
720x576/480 DV.</P>

<P>MPEG Streamclip can <B>join similar MPEG files</B>: The joined
files must have the same PIDs, the same start codes, and the same
audio/video properties (that is, they must come from the same source
or channel). Using "Convert to MPEG" before joining the files can be
helpful, because it changes PIDs and start codes to a default value.
The preferred method to join streams is to Copy one stream in MPEG
Streamclip, open another stream and Paste it there. This method
checks that the joined streams indeed are compatible. Another method
is to put the MPEGs in the same folder, and rename them so that they
sort as desired in list view. Then select them via MPEG Streamclip's
"File/Open Files..." dialog box (Shift- or Command-click to select
multiple MPEGs). Then choose "<B>Edit/Fix Timecode Breaks</B>". After
this MPEG Streamclip should report the combined length of all MPEGs
(check the Log Window if you want to know whether any timecode breaks
were found). Then choose "File/Convert to MPEG... or /Save As..." to
save them in a single file. If the video transition between two files
looks bad, you can use the Cut command to improve it. You can join
very different and incompatible MPEGs with this latter method so the
end result is not guaranteed to work.</P>

<P>MPEG Streamclip can also <B>edit MPEG files</B>. Just set In/Out
points (with I/O keys), Cut unwanted material off and choose
"File/Convert to MPEG...". You can also Cut/Copy selections to other
parts of the same stream or open another compatible stream and Paste
it there. Shift-dragging the playhead can also be used to define a
selection. Option + arrow keys jump to the beginning/end or In/Out
points. You can use the Trim-command to more closely see a part of
the video before cutting, then choose Revert Trimming to see all
material. JKL-keys can be used to enable fast forward or reverse
playing. The scroll wheel works also; with the Option key it scrolls
1 second per click. See the manual for more details on how to jump in
single frame, GOP, 1 second, 10 second or 1 minute chunks when
searching a specific spot in the video.</P>

<P><I>Editing and trimming can be accurate only if In and Out are
both on keyframes</I> because MPEG Streamclip <I>edits to the
GOP</I>, not to the frame. For DVD and (XS)VCD the maximum GOP size
is PAL 15 and NTSC 18 frames, so the editing accuracy can be up to
about 0.6 seconds. You can advance to the previous or next keyframe
(i.e. I-frame, the beginning of each GOP or Group Of Pictures) with
the Up/Down arrow keys -- you can also use the Edit/Go to Keyframe
command to see where the In and Out points really are when editing
(<I>the In point is included in the selection, the Out point is not
included</I>). Shift + Up/Down arrow keys allow fine-tuning the
selection to the GOP.</P>

<P>Among other things, MPEG Streamclip can <B>demultiplex</B> VOB or
MPEG into .m2v video and .aiff, .ac3 or .m1a (a.k.a .mp2) components.
It can also easily be used to <B>multiplex</B> video and audio files
together: just place similarily named .m2v and .aiff, .ac3 or .m1a
files in the same folder, drop the .m2v file on MPEG Streamclip, and
convert them to MPEG with PCM, .ac3 or .m1a audio. If necessary, MPEG
Streamclip can encode new .m1a audio at 192-384 kb/s. Notice that
MPEG Streamclip doesn't multiplex VOB-compatible files for
performance reasons, so the DVD authoring app has to re-multiplex
them.</P>

<P>MPEG Streamclip can also change the aspect ratio, scale, center,
letterbox, un-letterbox, crop, add borders, deinterlace, change field
dominance, adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and volume of the
converted video.</P>

<P>MPEG Streamclip 1.5.1 is compatible with DreamBox or Topfield
TF5000PVR/TF5500PVR DVB set-top boxes, FireWire, Ethernet, USB and
DVD devices like Elgato EyeTV digital video recorders, ReplayTV
digital video recorders, the Humax PVR-8000 set-top box, the
Panasonic SV-AV100 camcorder, the JVC Everio camcorder, the Sony T1
camera, the Panasonic VDR-M70 and the Hitachi DZ-MV230 camcorders. It
is also compatible with MPEG-2 devices supported by DVHSCap and
VirtualDVHS (free applications available from Apple as part of the
FireWire SDK for developers); namely, the Sony IP7/MicroMV, the Sony
HDR-FX1, the JVC GR-HD1 camcorders; the JVC HM-DH30000U and the
Mitsubishi HD-2000U video cassette recorders; the Samsung SIR-T165
set-top box.</P>

<P>Check the MPEG Streamclip Guide at its Help menu for more details.
</P>

<P>You can import the edited MPEGs to Toast Titanium, DVD Studio Pro
or <A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/download/sizzle0.5b2.dmg"
TARGET="_blank">Sizzle 0.5b2</A> (some prefer
<A HREF="http://www.thefridgeowl.com/sizzle/sizzle0.1.dmg"
TARGET="_blank">Sizzle 0.1</A> because it can make DVDs which start
playing as soon as you insert the disc, whereas Sizzle 0.5 demands
you put in a menu. v0.1 might also be more reliable. There may also
be differences in what audio formats each version likes and
dislikes), and <B>burn them directly, with no encoding time and no
loss of quality</B>. (Notice that iDVD doesn't accept MPEG as its
input).</P>

<P>If you still have Toast 6, please update it least to version 6.0.9
as previous versions could alter audio/video sync of muxed MPEG
files. Some versions of Toast may have trouble burning some MPEGs
with mp2 audio -- a workaround is to demultiplex the MPEG to m2v and
m1a (or aiff) with MPEG Streamclip and burn them. Toast may lose
audio sync or be too picky and reject some MPEGs -- a workaround is
to demultiplex the MPEG to m2v and aiff with MPEG Streamclip and burn
them. Toast 7 now also features a preference to prevent the lengthy
and lossy re-encoding -- enable it if you know the MPEG is valid for
a DVD or (S)VCD. Converting to "Headed" MPEG via MPEG Streamclip adds
a special header to the MPEG file that lets you import unsupported
frame sizes into Toast 6 or 7 and skip recompression. However, DVDs
made from "headed" MPEG files are not guaranteed to work with all
players.</P>

<P>Toast accepts MPEGs, VOBs and VIDEO_TS folders as its input. Use
Toast's Video/Advanced/DVD-Video setting (not the "DVD-Video from
VIDEO_TS" setting if you want to burn several such items to a single
DVD. Delete unnecessary items (such as unwanted DVD menus from old
DVDs), change the description of the titles and the DVD itself to
something that makes sense and burn the new DVD. This results in
Toast authoring a new VIDEO_TS folder that has a title menu of the
videos from your other VIDEO_TS folders or their contents. Toast
basically treats the VOB sets as MPEG video. Toast adds the AUDIO_TS
folder as part of its authoring process so you don't need to do
anything other than drag the folders to Toast so it can find the
videos.</P>

<P>You can also author the MPEGs which Toast rejects with Sizzle. On
the other hand, Sizzle may not like the PCM audio in MPEG ripped from
an iDVD-encoded disk -- a workaround is to convert such MPEGs to use
mp2 audio with MPEG Streamclip.</P>

<P><B>Short Sizzle manual:</B> Click "Add Title" and one-by-one
select the desired MPEG files you want on the DVD. Then, with the
"TOC Menu 1" still selected in the "Item" list, choose an existing
button on Sizzle's preview screen, click "Edit Button", choose Action
"Jump to menu...", select "Destination" and the desired MPEG, and
edit the "Button Label" text as desired. For more MPEGs, choose "Add
Button" and repeat as above. * If you want to break the MPEG as
chapters: Play the MPEG in some other application and make notes for
the desired chapter point times (there is no GUI for this in Sizzle).
Then in Sizzle, select the MPEG in the "Item" list, the "Chapters"
tab and "+" to add chapters (the first chapter is always at
00:00:00.00). Then on Sizzle's preview screen click the chapter
button, "Edit button", Action: "Jump to chapter..." and Destination:
and a desired chapter time. Choose "Add Button" and repeat for the
remaining chapter points you have added. When you are finished click
"Save Disc Image". * If you want to test the DVD image before
burning: Mount the .dmg image by double-clicking it and launch the
/Applications/DVD Player to test it. * Burn the DVD via Toast
Titanium: Select Copy/Image File, select the .dmg Sizzle created, and
hit Record. Or burn using the Disk Utility: Choose images/Burn... and
select the .dmg Sizzle created, and click "Burn".</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/"
TARGET="_blank">ffmpegX</A></B> ($15) can also convert .VOB or .mpg
to .dv. It works OK but its installation and interface can be too
overwhelming.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.techspansion.com/visualhub/"
TARGET="_blank">VisualHub</A></B> ($23) also uses open source
components such as ffmpeg as its engine. It can convert between many
codecs: iPod, PSP, DV, DVD, Tivo, AVI, MP4, WMV, MPEG and Flash. It
has presets for easy use and it is targeted for people that "just
want to get the job done". Advanced panel lets you modify the
settings. Batch Processing of multiple files. Xgrid support: use the
power of every Mac on your network for batch encoding.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.dvdxdv.com/"
TARGET="_blank">DVDxDV</A></B> ($25) can convert DVD-disks, VIDEO_TS
folders and .VOB files to DV-encoded .mov files. iMovie 4 users
should be aware that the
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_4_bugs.html#32khz"
TARGET="_blank">audio is converted to 32 kHz</A> when it imports
DV-encoded .mov files (this is fixed in iMovie HD).</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.dropdv.com/"
TARGET="_blank">DropDV</A></B> ($40) can convert MPEG1 and MPEG2
streams to .dv.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.miraizon.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Cinematize</A></B> ($60) can convert a DVD or a
VIDEO_TS folder (not plain .VOB or .mpg) to .dv or QuickTime. There
is a 15 day demo limited to 10 second content.</P>

<P>- In <B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast
Titanium</A></B> ($100), select the Video tab, add the *.mpg or *.VOB
files or drag a DVD or a VIDEO_TS folder to Toast's window, select
the files in the list, choose Disc/Export Video... and Toast converts
them with audio to DV streams. The converted files may even be on the
(X)SVCD or DVD disk so no ripping is needed.</P>

<P>- A simple option to convert a DVD to DV is to just connect the
<B>DVD-player's analog outputs to a DV camcorder</B> and convert the
analog signal to DV.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://handbrake.m0k.org/"
TARGET="_blank">HandBrake</A></B> can't output to DV but it can
convert VIDEO_TS folder, DVD image or real DVD with AC-3, LPCM or
MPEG audio tracks to MP4 (MPEG-4 or H.264), AVI or OGM with AAC, MP3,
Vorbis or AC-3 pass-through. It supports chapter selection, basic
subtitle support (burned into the picture), integrated bitrate
calculator, deinterlacing, cropping and scaling and grayscale
encoding.</P>

<P>Here are some other apps for <B>MPEG encoding, editing or
authoring</B>:</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.pixela-1.com/capty_mpeg_edit_ex/"
TARGET="_blank">Capty MPEG Edit EX</A></B> ($50) for Mac OS 9/X can
do frame-accurate MPEG2 (not VOB or MPEG1) editing with 48 kHz PCM,
AC3 or M1A single audio streams. It does this by converting a GOP to
uncompressed video at the point of the edit. It supports all
<A HREF="http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4"
TARGET="_blank">legal DVD resolutions</A>. It can join different
MPEGs to a single MPEG file and write as DV stream or MOV.</P>

<P>-
<B><A HREF="http://www.pixela.co.jp/products/mpeg/download_captympegedit.html"
TARGET="_blank">Capty MPEG Edit</A></B> Mac OS X can edit MPEGs
frame-accurately (as opposed to GOP-accurately), so it must re-encode
some frames (if you clip off an I-frame it must be re-encoded). It
only accepts muxes of .m2v &amp; .mp2/.pcm. It is a Japanese
application, and unfortunately there is no english localization at
the moment (Capty MPEG Edit EX may be a very similar app). It is a
newer iteration of the english software that came with the
<A HREF="http://www.adstech.com/" TARGET="_blank">ADS USB Instant
DVD</A> hardware MPEG encoder.</P>

<P><B>- <A HREF="http://www.pixela-1.com/capty_dvd2/"
TARGET="_blank">Capty DVD/VCD 2</A></B> ($70) can encode and author
single- or dual-layer video-DVDs as well as VCDs. It also accepts
MPEG sources, does Dolby Digital encoding, offers 25 customizable
motion menu templates, provides the ability to specify chapter points
and chapter menus, and creates DVD slide shows that can display photo
titles as well as have background music.
<A HREF="http://www.bobhudson.com./captydvd/index.html"
TARGET="_blank">Here</A> is a CaptyDVD 2.0 quick tour.</P>

<P>- <B><A HREF="http://www.pixela-1.com/vrf_browser.htm"
TARGET="_blank">Pixe VRF Browser</A></B> ($50) for Mac OS 9/X can
view, edit and export video from a VR format DVD-RAM or DVD-RW or
from a VIDEO_TS folder to DVD authoring applications. Pixe VRF
Browser may be unnecessary if you have Toast 7 because its only real
value is in extracting MPEGs from VR-mode DVDs recorded on a
standalone DVD recorder or a DVD camcorder. It will not read MPEG
files directly. There is a short review
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=268473"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>. The data from VRF Browser is compatible
with Pixela's Capty MPEG Edit EX, enabling detailed editing of frame
by frame video and audio data. Unlike Capty MPEG Edit EX it doesn't
play audio or allow preview of edits.</P>

<P>-
<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/DVD_SP_Helper/Commerical/MAOSuX.html"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG Append</A></B> ($50, the Mac OS 9 version is
free) can combine MPEG files for DVD authoring applications like DVD
Studio Pro.</P>

<P>
<HR>
</P>

<P>...Many older MPEG tools handled only video and they are described
below mainly for historical curiosity. To preserve audio you had to
laboriously demultiplex audio and video to separate files and convert
them separately to *.aif audio and *.dv video which you can import to
iMovie and join there or combine in QuickTime Player:</P>

<P>1. Demultiplex MPEG to separate audio and video files:</P>

<P>You can do this with either <A HREF="http://www.mpeg2works.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG2 Works</A>,
<A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/"
TARGET="_blank">ffmpegX</A>,
<A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/.Public/MoreMissingTools.sit"
TARGET="">MoreMissingTools</A>' MPG DEMUX or
<A HREF="http://www.biermann.org/philipp/mpegcut/"
TARGET="_blank">mpgtx GUI</A> (all use mpgtx as their demuxing
engine. Note that for some reason iTunes can't currently convert MPEG
audio if it is demultiplexed with bbDEMUX so use mpgtx for demuxing).
</P>

<P>Demultiplexing yields *.mp2 as an audio file and either something
like *.m2v (MPEG2) or *.m1v (MPEG1) as a video file. Don't throw the
video file away because you convert it to DV later.</P>

<P>2. Convert *.mp2 audio to uncompressed 48 kHz 16 bit stereo *.aif
which iMovie can import:</P>

<P>a) With <A HREF="http://www.apple.com/itunes/"
TARGET="_blank">iTunes</A> you can convert the demuxed *.mp2 audio
file to an uncompressed 48 kHz 16 bit stereo *.aif file, and import
it to iMovie where you can combine it with the DV video you get in
the next step. You can import the converted *.aif file via iMovie 3's
Audio tab straight from the iTunes Library or locate and import the
converted *.aif file to iMovie 2.</P>

<P>(You can select the AIF format in iTunes/Preferences/Importing,
and define the folder where the *.aif is saved via
iTunes/Preferences/Advanced. In iTunes select File/Add to Library...
to add the .mp2 to the playlist, then select the .mp2 and choose
iTunes/Advanced/Convert Selection to AIFF. You can then copy the .aif
file from the iTunes folder elsewhere via the Finder or import it via
iMovie 3's Audio tab).</P>

<P>b) You may also convert the *.mp2 to WAV with MPEG2 Works and use
QuickTime Pro to export it as uncompressed 48 kHz 16 bit stereo AIFF.
</P>

<P>c) You may also convert *.mp2 to *.aif with
<A HREF="http://www.spies.com/~franke/SoundApp/"
TARGET="_blank">SoundApp</A> although it isn't currently Mac OS X
native.</P>

<P>3. Convert MPEG video to DV video: You can do the MPEG to DV
conversion with tools like DiVA or MediaPipe.</P>

<P>a) <A HREF="http://diva.3ivx.com/" TARGET="_blank">DiVA</A> is
more user friendly but it doesn't exactly preserve the correct aspect
ratio with resolutions like PAL/NTSC 352x576/480 (standard SVCD
resolutions and DVD 720x576/480 are OK). DiVA doesn't require you to
demultiplex the MPEG before converting it to another video format.
</P>

<P>Set DiVA not to crop the MPEG and set it to scale to PAL/NTSC
720x576/480 in its main window. Set Compression to DV-PAL or
DV/DVCPRO-NTSC with Best Quality and PAL/NTSC 25/29.97 fps.</P>

<P>b) With <A HREF="http://mediapipe.sourceforge.net/MediaPipe/"
TARGET="_blank">MediaPipe</A> you have more control so you can
maintain the correct aspect ratio even with weird MPEG resolutions. I
have some preconfigured
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/MediaPipe_templates.sit"
TARGET="">MediaPipe MPEG-to-DV templates</A>. You can use the
templates to convert _demultiplexed_ MPEG back to DV (the pipes don't
have a demultiplexer so you have to demultiplex the MPEG first!).
There are templates to convert MPEG resolutions PAL 352x288, 352x576,
480x576, 704x576 and 720x576 and NTSC 352x240, 352x480, 480x480,
704x480 and 720x480 to DV.</P>

<P>Note that some DV&lt;-&gt;MPEG conversions require you to crop or
add borders before or after scaling to maintain the correct aspect
ratio. Check the original MPEG's resolution with tools like
<A HREF="http://www.biermann.org/philipp/mpegcut/"
TARGET="_blank">mpgtx GUI</A> because QuickTime Player may report
wrong MPEG resolutions.</P>

<P>A Quick Guide to Digital Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio
Conversions <A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>c) By the way, iMovie 3 can import MPEG1 video if you drop the
MPEG1 file to the iMovie timeline or shelf.
<B><A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG-2 Playback Component</A> </B>is required for
iMovie 3 MPEG2 importing or MPEG2 playing via QuickTime Player.
Anyway, currently the converted MPEG files lack audio and the quality
isn't as good as with DiVA or MediaPipe because in PAL, the output DV
file every other frame is duplicated so the resultant video is jerky.
Also in PAL the diplayed 720x540 must be resized to 720x576 in
QuickTime Player to avoid distortion in interlacing. With DiVA or
MediaPipe the converted DV quality is good and interlacing is
preserved well with MPEG2 files.</P>

<P>4. Import to iMovie and join the converted video and audio:</P>

<P>a) Open the output DV-encoded QuickTime video file with QuickTime
Pro and export it as a PAL or NTSC DV stream (with iMovie 3 you can
skip this step). Import it to iMovie and combine with the imported
*.aif audio.</P>

<P>b) Or, in QuickTime Pro paste the audio to the video track with
the Add Scaled command to make video and audio sync.</P>

<P>Another commercial but expensive option to MPEG-to-DV conversion
is to use <A HREF="http://www.discreet.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Cleaner</A> which should export also audio.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="extract_frame"></A><B>How can I extract a frame from
   a DVD</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Methods a &amp; b are quick 'n dirty, method c yields the best
quality but you need the $20 Apple
<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/mpeg2/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG-2 Playback Component</A> for it.</P>

<P>a) Play the DVDwith <B><A HREF="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/"
TARGET="_blank">VLC media player</A></B> and choose Video/Snapshot or
take a screenshot via Command-Shift-3 (the whole screen) or
Command-Shift-4 (a selection). You can also use
/Applications/Utilities/Grab to take a screenshot.</P>

<P>b) Play the DVD with /Applications/DVD Player and take a
screenshot. Regular screenshot doesn't work with the DVD Player but
you can take a screenshot using the command "screencapture -c" with
/Applications/Utilities/<B>Terminal</B>: when you press the
Return-key, the screen image is placed onto the clipboard, including
whatever image was paused or played in the DVD player. Use Edit/Paste
with your choice of image editor. You can also take the screenshot
with utilities like
<B><A HREF="http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/"
TARGET="_blank">Snapz Pro X</A></B>. Also
<B><A HREF="http://www.chimoosoft.com/captureme.html"
TARGET="_blank">Capture Me</A></B> and
<B><A HREF="http://www.digitallyobsessed.com/software.php3"
TARGET="_blank">DVD Capture</A></B> support DVD still capture.</P>

<P>c) Open the desired .VOB in the DVD (DVD/VIDEO_TS/VTS_01_1.VOB,
for example) or a MPEG with <B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG Streamclip</A></B>. Scroll to the desired frame
with the arrow keys and choose File/Export Frame.../Frame Size: 4:3
or 16:9, Pixel Aspect: Computer Graphics. Choose "Deinterlace Video"
if there are motion-induced interlacing lines ( i.e. horizontal comb
lines) in the video and if you don't want them in the image. As a
nice touch MPEG Streamclip
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">correctly</A> scales the frame so that the correct
aspect ratio is maintained.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="bin_cue"></A><B>How can I burn .bin and .cue
   files</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast
Titanium</A></B> ($100) can burn (S)VCD from a bin and cue image file
pair.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/"
TARGET="_blank">MissingMediaBurner</A></B>
(<A HREF="http://cdrdao.sourceforge.net/" TARGET="_blank">cdrdao</A>
as its engine) is a cheaper alternative to Toast.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="slideshow"></A><B>How can I make a slideshow</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Some things to remember about slideshows:</P>

<P>1. Standard video resolution is only PAL/NTSC 720x576/480 so the
original megapixel stills have to be downsampled to this low
resolution quality no matter what (you can optionally include the
original images to the DVD-ROM part of the DVD so they can be viewed
on a computer with no quality loss, though). The MPEG encoding will
also degrade quality on video-DVDs.</P>

<P>High-Definition Video (HDV) resolution is somewhat better: in
iMovie HD it is either 1280x720 (720p) or 1440x1080 (1080i) so you
may want to try them instead of standard definition DV when working
with iMovie HD. Notice that iDVD doesn't currently support HDV so you
can't use it for this task.</P>

<P>2. iMovie display is just a preview so always judge the quality on
a TV or via the QuickTime Player.</P>

<P>3. QuickTime Player has low quality playback of DV clips by
default. You have to turn on
<A HREF="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93002"
TARGET="_blank">high quality playback</A> of the clip to see all
quality (in QT 7 you do this via enabling "Window/Show Movie
Properties/Video Track/Visual Settings/High Quality" setting -- do
not enable "Single Field" or "Deinterlace" because they deinterlace
playback. You can also set "QuickTime Player
7/Preferences.../General/Use high quality video setting when
available" to check the "High Quality" box by default (notice that
the "Single Field" or "Deinterlace" boxes may have been saved to the
file so sometimes you must take care to uncheck them).</P>

<P>Notice also that older versions of QuickTime Player do not
automatically scale the rectangular pixel video to square pixel
computer display so the aspect ratio may look incorrect (you must
scale NTSC 720x480 to 646x480 and PAL 720x576 to 788x576 to see the
correct <A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">aspect ratio</A>).</P>

<P>Notice also that you may see normal
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html#interlacing">interlacing</A>
comb lines in QuickTime Player.</P>

<P>4. iMovie
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_4_bugs.html#jagged_stills"
TARGET="_blank">4</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_5_bugs.html#jaggy_stills"
TARGET="_blank">5</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html#jaggy_stills"
TARGET="_blank">6</A> have a bug which may ruin still images: When
you send the project to tape or to iDVD, DON'T let iMovie render the
clips -- that's where you get irreversible jaggies! On the other
hand, slow-motion clips and reversed clips NEED rendering to prevent
flicker. Luckily there are workarounds for this nasty old bug: You
get smoother slow-motion and reversed effect with
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html#speed"
TARGET="">3rd party applications</A> so slow-motion clips don't need
iMovie's rendering. You can also convert still images to good quality
video with <A HREF="http://lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php"
TARGET="_blank">Photo To Movie</A> or
<A HREF="http://www.grantedsw.com/still-life/" TARGET="_blank">Still
Life</A> or by tweaking iMovie's Ken Burns effect so they don't need
iMovie's rendering either.</P>

<P>5. Notice that if an image is TOO sharp, this may cause flickering
in thin sharp vertical lines when viewed on an interlaced TV. This is
caused by the fact that a thin and sharp 1-line vertical object is
visible only half of the time and even a 2-line vertical object may
seem to jump up and down on an interlaced TV (see
<A HREF="http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/fields/fields.html"
TARGET="_blank">interlace flicker</A>, see also
<A HREF="http://www.adamwilt.com/Tidbits.html#CGs"
TARGET="_blank">this related article</A> about the issue). The
flicker is most prominent with "high frequency" images, i.e. images
with lots of thin and sharp edges (buildings, wires etc). On the
other hand, "soft" images (faces etc) are not affected.</P>

<P>iMovie doesn't properly blur the images so they tend to flicker
badly on a TV. Also thin vertical lines tend to "live" with the Ken
Burns effect. One clumsy workaround is to apply a small (1 pixel or
so) <U>Gaussian blur</U> to the input images. Just using a smaller
resolution (640x480) in the input images also prevents flicker but
the images may appear slightly fuzzy instead (and you really should
not much zoom into such low resolution image with Ken Burns!). I
recommend bicubic downsampling via a Photoshop batch; also iPhoto's
downsampling produces similar results. ...but I wouldn't currently
use iMovie for slideshows because all this is very clumsy... Luckily
there are some good 3rd party apps to the rescue:</P>

<P>Some applications intentionally slightly blur images to reduce the
flicker. <B><A HREF="http://lqgraphics.com/software/phototomovie.php"
TARGET="_blank">Photo To Movie</A></B>'s higher quality export
setting does this and the results are very good. Also in
<B><A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast Titanium
7</A></B> the slideshows don't flicker.</P>

<P>As a side-note,
<A HREF="http://www.kenstone.net/fcp_homepage/perfect_titles_phil.html"
TARGET="_blank">here</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.rqs.ca/RollingCredits/faq.php"
TARGET="_blank">here</A> are good pages describing how to make
good-looking titles to your video.</P>

<P>6. Notice that some operations will actually convert the slideshow
into video. In a real DVD slideshow without transitions the stills
are encoded to MPEG2 I-frames and <I>each frame is displayed several
seconds</I>. This will take very little space (about 30-224 kB per
image depending on its content). On the other hand, all the fancy
transitions between slides have to be converted to video running
PAL/NTSC 25/29.97 <I>frames per second</I>. This takes A LOT more
space. In the same manner in an iMovie "slideshow" ALL the material
is converted to video which takes even more space. There may also be
slight "MPEG pumping" in the encoded stills if they are converted
into video with iMovie and then encoded as MPEG for the DVD.</P>

<P>The advantage of doing the slideshow in iMovie is that this allows
more precise control of the content compared to iDVD: in iDVD the
slide duration affects all slides at once, selected songs will only
play through and then loop, etc (DVD Studio Pro allows more
variation). The DVD specification has a 99 slide limit per slideshow,
but you can have many such slideshows on a single DVD. A iDVD
slideshow offers the viewer a way to manually advance and go
backwards the photos, but if you want to control what the viewer sees
then stick with iMovie. iMovie (maybe combined with Photo To Movie
and Still Life for even better flexibility) allows you to vary things
like slide timing and music fades and basically give you control over
how things are presented. You can use the iMovie chapters as usual to
break the slideshow into smaller chunks.</P>

<P>7. For best results crop your input still images to some 4:3
aspect ratio (768x576, 1024x768, 2048x1536 etc) with apps like
GraphicConverter or Photoshop. You may have to configure your DVD
player to get the correct aspect ratio on a TV.</P>

<P>iMovie HD puts black bars to the left &amp; right when it imports
4:3 images (this is the correct thing to do and iMovie HD does it
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_5_bugs.html#stills"
TARGET="_blank">almost right</A>). If you want no black borders to
the imported still images in <U>4:3 video projects</U>, you must crop
the input images so that their aspect ratio is NTSC 720x528 or PAL
788x576 or some larger multiple of those figures (NTSC 1024x751,
2048x1502, 2095x1536 etc, or PAL 1024x749, 2048x1497, 2101x1536 etc).
If you want no black borders to the imported still images in <U>16:9
video projects</U>, their aspect ratio must be NTSC 874x480 or PAL
1050x576 or some larger multiple of those figures.</P>

<P>Technical trivia: The PAL/NTSC resolution for still images is in
DVD 720x576/480 (encoded as MPEG2 I-frames), in
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/svcd.htm" TARGET="_blank">SVCD</A>
it is MPEG2 704x576/480 or 480x576/480 and in VCD it is MPEG1
704x576/480 or/and 352x288/240 (for a VCD, you may actually multiplex
a high-resolution still and a low-resolution still
<A HREF="http://www.mir.com/DMG/stills.html"
TARGET="_blank">together</A> into the same system stream).</P>

<P><B>-<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/idvd/"
TARGET="_blank">iDVD</A></B> can make DVD slideshows with optional
transitions between images.</P>

<P><B>-<A HREF="http://www.roxio.com/" TARGET="_blank">Toast Titanium
7</A></B> ($100) can make good quality no-flicker (S)VCD and DVD
slideshows with menus and with either automatic or manual advance.
</P>

<P><B>-<A HREF="http://www.ulead.com/dps_mac/" TARGET="_blank">Ulead
DVD PictureShow</A></B> ($30) can create VCD or DVD slideshow using
photos, video, music, narration, captions and customizable menu
backgrounds. It also automatically blurs the images so they don't
flicker on a TV.</P>

<P>-<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/johan/" TARGET="_blank">VCD
Builder</A></B> (donationware) can easily make VCD slideshows. Just
create a new sequence in your project, and then drop the pictures
onto the sequence and wait a while for VCD Builder to do its job. By
default, the pictures are displayed for 5 seconds before moving on to
the next picture. You can change this by double-clicking on the
sequence to bring up the sequence edit window. Select all images you
want to change, and then enter a new value in the Wait box. You can
also change the scaling of the image, I prefer to uncheck TV-safe
borders.</P>

<P><B>-<A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/"
TARGET="_blank">MissingMpegSlideshow</A></B> can convert images to a
VCD or SVCD slideshow. Put MissingMpegSlideshow in the same folder as
MissingMpegTools.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="imovie_3rd_party"></A><B>How can I use 3rd party apps
   to process iMovie clips</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to
   Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Q: How can I use iMovie projects as an input for
<A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A> or
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A>?</P>

<P>A1: If necessary, select the desired contiguous clips in the
iMovie timeline and export them to a .dv file via
File/Export.../QuickTime/Full Quality/Share selected clips only. Then
use that .dv file as an input.</P>

<P>A2:You can also use <I>the whole iMovie project as an input</I>:
Quit iMovie. In MPEG Streamclip choose File/Open Files.../All Files;
then navigate to the "iMovie _project/Cache/Timeline Movie.mov" and
use that tiny reference movie as an input. Also JES Deinterlacer can
similarily "drill" into the iMovie project package when opening files
for input.</P>

<P>With MPEG Streamclip and JES Deinterlacer it is also do a
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html#quick_DV_import"
TARGET="_blank">quick import of the processed files back into
iMovie</A>. That method works with iMovie 1-6. Just remember to take
care that the .dv clip you are dropping in the Media folder is REALLY
a <B>plain DV stream</B> .dv clip and that it is of the <B>same video
standard</B> (PAL/NTSC) as the iMovie project. With other apps you
can use the Finder to drop the processed files to the
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html#package"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie project package's</A> /Media folder.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="PAL_NTSC"></A><B>How can I convert
   PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A></B> ($0) is a <U>very</U> good
quality PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC converter for .dv and QuickTime files. The
conversion quality is much better than with QuickTime, iMovie or iDVD
which distort or lose interlacing and skip frames (NTSC -&gt; PAL) or
duplicate frames (PAL -&gt; NTSC) when adjusting for the differences
in frame sizes and frame rates. JES Deinterlacer preserves
interlacing and intelligently blends fields so the movement is
smooth. Daniel Slagle's iMovie FAQ has detailed
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6017.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer instructions for PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC
conversion</A>.</P>

<P>Notice that JES Deinterlacer doesn't output audio if the source is
DVD/VOB/MPEG. It can also output only as .dv or QuickTime, not as
MPEG. As a workaround you can first convert DVD/VOB/MPEG to .dv or
.mov
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.html#edit_convert_MPEG">with
other apps</A> and convert THAT to the other video standard with JES
Deinterlacer. Then re-encode it as MPEG, if necessary. Doing this
involves MPEG-&gt;DV-&gt;MPEG conversion so you should use a high
bitrate in the re-encoding to avoid artifacts.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B> ($0) can also convert PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC. Just
switch the "Standard: " in the export settings. Also remember to
check "Interlaced Scaling" (to prevent distorted interlacing) and
"Frame Blending" (to compensate the different rame rates so you get
smoother motion).</P>

<P>The conversion output with JES Deinterlacer and MPEG Streamclip is
different so do a test and decide which you like better. In JES
Deinterlacer the motion may be somewhat smoother than in MPEG
Streamclip but the difference isn't very big. MPEG Streamclip seems
to more blend neighbouring frames than JES Deinterlacer. MPEG
Streamclip also completely loses the interlacing lines in some scenes
when it blends frames. JES Deinterlacer always keeps interlacing
lines visible.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.dvfilm.com/atlantis/"
TARGET="_blank">Atlantis 2</A></B> ($195) is another PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC
converter.<B>
<A HREF="http://www.nattress.com/standardsConversion.htm"
TARGET="_blank">Nattress Standards Conversion</A></B> ($100) is a
PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC plugin for Final Cut --
<A HREF="http://www.creativecow.net/show.php?forumid=8&page=/articles/solorio_marco/std_converter_rev/index.html"
TARGET="_blank">here</A> is a review about it. Also
<B><A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/megapeg/"
TARGET="_blank">Digigami MegaPEG.X Batch</A></B> ($240) can do video
standards conversion.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.mpeg2works.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG2
Works</A></B> can convert VOBs or MPEGs with AC3 or MP2 audio between
NTSC&lt;-&gt;PAL via its "VOB/VOB PAL &lt;-&gt; NTSC Conversion"
command. If the VOB contains PCM audio you must convert it to use MP2
audio with <A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip's</A> "File/Convert to MPEG with MP2 audio..." command
first. Notice that most PAL equipment can play NTSC so you may not
need to convert NTSC DVDs at all. Notice also that the video
standards conversion quality isn't as good as when converting .dv
files with JES Deinterlacer.</P>

<P>- BTW, a proper PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC conversion needs more than a
simple 720x576&lt;-&gt;720x480 scaling, but luckily the error is very
small and goes unnoticed unless looked for. The
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">correct</A> conversion should do the following:</P>

<P>PAL DV to NTSC DV conversion: scale 720x576 to 729x486 and crop it
to 720x480.</P>

<P>NTSC DV to PAL DV conversion: scale 720x480 to 711x569 and pad it
to 720x576.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="speed"></A><B>How can I render Slow, Fast and
   Reversed motion</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>iMovie can render slow-motion, fast-motion and reversed video but
you get better quality and more options with 3rd party utilities:
</P>

<P>When iMovie renders a slow-motion scene it just duplicates each
frame so the movement gets jerky. You get smoother motion with 3rd
party utilities like JES Deinterlacer or Slow Motion Smoother.</P>

<P>iMovie skips frames and deinterlaces its fast-motion effect. You
get smoother motion and more options with JES Deinterlacer.</P>

<P>iMovie HD 5's reversed effect deinterlaces video so the movement
gets jerky with interlaced material. You get smoother motion in
reversed video with JES Deinterlacer (or with iMovie 4 which did this
correctly).</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A> (freeware) instructions for
slow-motion, fast-motion and reversed video</B>:</P>

<P><B>Input</B>: If you want to render the <I>whole</I> iMovie HD
timeline movie, you save time and harddisk space by using iMovie's
tiny reference movie as an input: Quit iMovie and open JES
Deinterlacer. Open its <B>Input tab</B>, press "Choose...", navigate
to the iMovie_project/Cache/Timeline Movie.mov and select it as an
input.</P>

<P>You can export <I>selected</I> continuous iMovie HD clips as a
standalone .dv file via iMovie's File/Share.../QuickTime/Full Quality
-command and use the .dv file as an input for JES Deinterlacer. This
is also a safer way because sometimes using the reference movie as an
input may be produce errors.</P>

<P><B><U>Slow-motion and fast-motion</U></B>: In JES Deinterlacer's
<B>Project tab</B> select "Project kind: Standards conversion".
Select "Custom" and set "Movie speed: 0.5" for 0.5x slow-motion, 2
for 2x fast-motion and so on for other speeds. You can select speed
ratios in the range of 0.1-10x with 0.01 decimal precision (with
v2.7.1 the 0.1x may stall and with 0.2x the audio is out of sync.
0.25-10x are OK). THEN set the other options:</P>

<P>For NTSC use "Settings/Height: 480, Width: 720, Frame rate:
29.97".</P>

<P>For PAL use "Settings/Height: 576, Width: 720, Frame rate: 25".
</P>

<P>Check "Blend" and let "Scale only" remain unchecked.</P>

<P>In the <B>Output tab</B> set "Video output/Compressor/Export: DV
Stream.../DV Format: DV, Video Format: NTSC/PAL, Scan Mode:
Interlaced, Aspect ratio: 4:3/16:9, Audio Format: Unlocked/Locked,
Rate: 48.000 kHz".</P>

<P>Let "Progressive (out)" remain unchecked. (Leave the other options
as defaults).</P>

<P>Select the output folder via "Put..." and click "OK" to start
processing.</P>

<P>You can optionally check the Output tab's "Progressive (out)" --
with this option the movement is slightly jerkier.</P>

<P>JES Deinterlacer can smooth slow-motion by doing a "Both fields"
a.k.a. "bob" deinterlacing. This method deinterlaces each video field
(or half frame) and reconstructs a full progressive frame from it, so
you get 2x more frames and 2x smoother motion. Notice that this "bob"
deinterlacing trick doesn't work in progressive video because there
are no temporally different video fields to take advantage of. Notice
also that if you shoot with slow shutter speeds (PAL 1/25 or NTSC
1/30 second shutter speed or slower) you effectively get progressive
video so use 1/50 or 1/60 or faster shutter speeds so you get
different interlaced fields. After these temporally unique fields and
frames have run out, JES Deinterlacer starts to blend them together
with different opacities.</P>

<P>JES Deinterlacer features pitch preserving sound track for the
altered speed. iMovie doesn't preserve pitch for altered speed so you
can use iMovie-rendered soundtrack and combine it with JES
Deinterlacer-rendered video if you prefer the audio that way. Or
render the audio track with some audio application.
<A HREF="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/"
TARGET="_blank">Audacity</A> allows you to change the speed (and
hence the length) of audio but it does affect the pitch and tempo.
<A HREF="http://www.ronimusic.com/amsldox.htm"
TARGET="_blank">Amazing Slow Downer</A> can slow down audio with no
pitch change.</P>

<P>* There happens to be another JES Deinterlacer option which
outputs 0.5x slow-motion. You can enable this "<B>Deinterlace Both
fields with Double movie duration</B>" by choosing in the <B>Project
tab</B> "Project kind: Deinterlace", Check "Both fields" and "Double
movie duration". With this setting you can quickly extract all
temporally unique fields in an interlaced video and convert them into
frames. (This is equivalent to the Standards conversion with the
settings "Frame rate = same, no scaling, Movie speed = 0.5, Telecine,
Progressive out").</P>

<P>Notice that NTSC users may not be able to choose the DV Stream
Export in JES Deinterlacer via the "Deinterlace Both fields with
Double movie duration" method because, as a bug, iMovie HD sometimes
exports .dv files with slightly non-standard reported frame rates
such as 29.975 instead of 29.970. This prevents JES Deinterlacer to
set the DV Stream as its export option. The workaround for NTSC users
is to set the equivalent 0.5x slow-motion via the Standards
conversion dialog as described above.</P>

<P>You get <B>special fast-motion effects</B> by mixing JES
Deinterlacer's "Blend" or "Telecine" and "Progressive" or
"Interlaced" output options. Different material and different
fast-motion ratios may need different options so run a test and see
what you like the best. As a general guideline the Blend &amp;
Interlaced is very nice with somewhat fuzzy image and smooth motion
(several interlaced frames are blended in a single frame). Blend
&amp; Progressive combination is may also be nice because it makes
the camcorder pans and shakes more fuzzy (several frames are
deinterlaced and blended in a single frame). Telecine &amp;
Interlaced is crisp but also jerkier (every Nth interlaced frame is
preserved). Telecine &amp; Progressive may often be too jerky (every
Nth frame is deinterlaced and preserved).</P>

<P><B><U>Reversed</U></B>: In JES Deinterlacer's <B>Project tab</B>
select "Change field dominance" and "Reverse movie".</P>

<P>In the <B>Output tab</B> set "Video output/Compressor/Export: DV
Stream.../DV Format: DV, Video Format: NTSC/PAL, Scan Mode:
Interlaced, Aspect ratio: 4:3/16:9, Audio Format: Unlocked/Locked,
Rate: 48.000 kHz".</P>

<P>Let "Progressive (out)" remain deselected to enable interlaced
output and smoother motion. (Leave the other options as defaults).
</P>

<P>Select an output folder via "Put..." and click OK to start
processing.</P>

<P><B>Import to iMovie</B>: You can use iMovie's File/Import... to
import the .dv files but you save time and HD space with the
following method if the files are big: Quit iMovie. Let JES
Deinterlacer save its output (MUST be .dv!) straight into
iMovie_project/Media -folder. Alternatively you can also just move
the output .dv file to that folder (open the iMovie project package
by control-clicking it and choosing Show Package Contents in the
Finder). When you then launch iMovie, it prompts you that "Some stray
files were found in the project, and were moved into iMovie's Trash.
Would you like to view the Trash contents?". Move the clip(s) from
the Trash to the Timeline or to the Shelf.</P>

<P>JES Deinterlacer supports also <B>chapters</B> in iMovie projects:
To do so, you must quit iMovie and use the iMovie_project/Shared
Movies/iDVD/*.mov as an input. You must also save as a DV-encoded
.mov (NOT as .dv stream as in the previous instructions) via JES
Deinterlacer's Output tab's "Video output/Compressor/Direct:
DV-PAL/NTSC". Then use that as an input for iDVD.</P>

<P>Notice that JES Deinterlacer may stall if it is hidden (via Hide
Others command, for example) so avoid doing that when it is active.
If JES Deinterlacer acts up, you may need to quit JES Deinterlacer
and delete its preference and log files (~/Library/Preferences/JES
Deinterlacer Prefs and nl.jes.deinterlacer.plist and
~/Library/Logs/JES Deinterlacer log). Then log out/in and try again.
</P>

<P>You can render slow-motion also with
<A HREF="http://sdelaroque.free.fr/smse/index.html"
TARGET="_blank">Slow Motion Smoother</A> ($15):</P>

<P>Slow Motion Smoother is an iMovie 2-4 plug-in which can smooth
slow-motion clips. Unfortunately Slow Motion Smoother 1.1.2 isn't yet
compatible with iMovie HD 5. It seems to first do a "bob"
deinterlacing with its "Camcorder" mode. In its "File" mode or with
&lt;0.5x slow-motion clips it blends frames together so movements
appear fuzzy but the motion is smooth.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="43-169"></A><B>How can I convert 4:3&lt;-&gt;16:9
   (and preserve interlacing)</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to
   Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>This can be useful if you have shot some footage in 4:3, but now
want to include it in a "widescreen" 16:9 video (or vice versa).</P>

<P>iMovie HD letterboxes the material when converting
4:3&lt;-&gt;16:9, but a) it can't preserve interlacing and b) the
colors get a washed-out look. You get better quality by doing the
conversion with MPEG Streamclip which can do the conversion with
letterboxing and also without letterboxing (but with cropping, of
course). MPEG Streamclip can also preserve interlacing. See
<A HREF="#imovie_3rd_party">here</A> how to process iMovie clips with
3rd party apps.</P>

<P>Q: <U>How can I convert 4:3 DV or MPEG to 16:9 DV?</U></P>

<P>A: Open the DV or MPEG clip with
<B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B> and choose "File/Export to DV.../Aspect Ratio:
<B>16:9</B>, Zoom: <B>X/Y aspect ratio 0,75</B>". A letterbox will be
added, but you can remove it by also entering in the field "%" a
magnifying factor of 133.3 % -- notice that then you must also check
either "Interlaced Scaling" or "Deinterlace Video" to prevent
interlacing artifacts.</P>

<P>Q: <U>How can I convert 16:9 DV or MPEG to 4:3 DV?</U></P>

<P>A: Open the DV or MPEG clip with
<B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B> and choose "File/Export to DV.../Aspect Ratio:
<B>4:3</B>, Zoom: <B>X/Y aspect ratio 1,333</B> -- check also either
"Interlaced Scaling" or "Deinterlace Video" to prevent interlacing
artifacts". A letterbox will be added, but you can remove it by
entering in the field "%" a magnifying factor of 133.3 % and leaving
the X/Y aspect ratio at 1 -- check also either "Interlaced Scaling"
or "Deinterlace Video" to prevent interlacing artifacts.</P>

<P>With MPEG Streamclip exporter's two fields "<B>Center</B>" you can
move the picture center horizontally and vertically if you so desire.
Negative values move the center to the left or to the top and
positive values to the right or to the bottom. You can check the how
many pixels you should use by first saving a frame from the video via
File/Export Frame.../Unscaled. Then measure the pixel dimensions of
the exported image in some image editing application.</P>

<P>The "<B>Interlaced Scaling</B>" in MPEG Streamclip MUST be enabled
in some circumstances. If you are scaling <I>interlaced material</I>
to a different height, you must tell MPEG Streamclip to preserve
interlacing and scale each video field separately by checking
"Interlaced Scaling". If you don't, interlacing will be badly
distorted in the scaled movie, and you get many visual artifacts. The
alternative is to enable "Deinterlace Video". On the other hand,
using "Interlaced Scaling" with progressive movies isn't recommended
because it produces a little quality loss (blurring). But if the
video contains interlaced AND progressive material you must enable
"Interlaced Scaling" because interlacing artifacts are much more
readily seen than the slight blurring in the progressive part of the
material.</P>

<P>Notice that currently MPEG Streamclip loses the embedded
<A HREF="http://www.adamwilt.com/DV-FAQ-editing.html#DVTimecode"
TARGET="_blank">timecode</A> when doing DV-to-DV conversions.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="crop"></A><B>How can I crop video (and preserve
   interlacing)</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Q: Analog-to-DV conversion adds narrow black borders to the left
&amp; right (and some analog "head switching" noise to the bottom).
How can I crop them out?</P>

<P>A: If you view the output on a TV, then the
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/video/2004.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">overscan</A> will automatically crop the borders out.
But if you view the output on a computer monitor, you might want to
crop them out. You can do this with
<B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A> </B>(see <A HREF="#imovie_3rd_party">here</A> how to
process iMovie clips with 3rd party apps):</P>

<P><U>For non-DV output</U> (usually you want this for computer
playback) you can simply use suitable "Cropping: " values in MPEG
Streamclip's export settings. Notice that with DV input a few pixels
are automatically cropped because of the
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">rectangular to square pixel conversion</A> so do a
test for the desired cropping values. Leave the "Scale" unchecked so
the original aspect ratio is preserved. BTW, if you choose a DV frame
size as an output, the "Scale" option has no effect and the picture
is always scaled to match the input resolution -- this is why you
must Zoom into the image to preserve the correct aspect ratio with DV
output:</P>

<P><U>For DV output</U> you must do the cropping by using a suitable
Zoom % value. For example: with PAL you can use magnifying factor of
~103% and for NTSC ~102% (the
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">sampling matrix vs actual active picture size</A> is
PAL 720x576 vs 702x576 and NTSC 720x480 vs 710.85x486: so you can
calculate an approximate magnifying factor for PAL 720/702*100=102.6%
and for NTSC 720/710.85*100=101.3%). Fine-tune these values, if
necessary.</P>

<P>The "<B>Interlaced Scaling</B>" in MPEG Streamclip MUST be enabled
in some circumstances. If you are scaling <I>interlaced material</I>
to a different height, you must tell MPEG Streamclip to preserve
interlacing and scale each video field separately by checking
"Interlaced Scaling". If you don't, interlacing will be badly
distorted in the scaled movie, and you get many visual artifacts. The
alternative is to enable "Deinterlace Video". On the other hand,
using "Interlaced Scaling" with progressive movies isn't recommended
because it produces a little quality loss (blurring). But if the
video contains interlaced AND progressive material you must enable
"Interlaced Scaling" because interlacing artifacts are much more
readily seen than the slight blurring in the progressive part of the
material.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="pad"></A><B>How can I pad video to the TV safe area
   (and preserve interlacing)</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to
   Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>When you view video on a TV, then the TV's
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/video/2004.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">overscan</A> will usually crop about 10% of the image
in horizontal and vertical dimensions (i.e. 5% from all sides).</P>

<P>The <I>Picture Safe</I> (a.k.a. action safe) area is the largest
region of screen that viewers are likely to see. The <I>Text Safe</I>
(a.k.a. caption safe) area defines the boundaries of the area in
which vital information such as logos, text and menus can be placed.
The Picture Safe margins are generally considered 10% (i.e. 5% from
all sides). The Text Safe margins are 20% (10% from all sides).</P>

<P>You should take this into <A HREF="http://scanline.ca/overscan/"
TARGET="_blank">account</A> while shooting the video. Usually the
camcorder's LCD screen is set to similar overscan most TVs have. But
you can also later pad the video to the TV safe area with
<B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A> </B>(see <A HREF="#imovie_3rd_party">here</A> how to
process iMovie clips with 3rd party apps):</P>

<P>If you want to pad the video 10%, just set MPEG Streamclip to use
a <B>Zoom factor of 90%</B> while exporting to DV. Then use this
padded .dv to the iMovie and iDVD projects.</P>

<P>The "<B>Interlaced Scaling</B>" in MPEG Streamclip MUST be enabled
in some circumstances. If you are scaling <I>interlaced material</I>
to a different height, you must tell MPEG Streamclip to preserve
interlacing and scale each video field separately by checking
"Interlaced Scaling". If you don't, interlacing will be badly
distorted in the scaled movie, and you get many visual artifacts. The
alternative is to enable "Deinterlace Video". On the other hand,
using "Interlaced Scaling" with progressive movies isn't recommended
because it produces a little quality loss (blurring). But if the
video contains interlaced AND progressive material you must enable
"Interlaced Scaling" because interlacing artifacts are much more
readily seen than the slight blurring in the progressive part of the
material.</P>

<P>BTW, iDVD 5 pads 20% of the image (10% from all sides), when it is
set to output TV safe <I>slideshows</I> (via
iDVD/Preferences/Slideshow/Always scale slides to TV Safe area). This
iDVD setting affects only slideshows, not video. If you want the same
padding for video, just set MPEG Streamclip to use a Zoom factor of
80%.</P>

<P>Q: I have a tiny 320x240 square pixel video clip that I want to
convert to DV in its original size (such a tiny resolution may look
bad if upsampled to fill the larger PAL/NTSC 720x576/480 matrix).
</P>

<P>A: Do the padding by using a suitable Zoom % value in MPEG
Streamclip while exporting to PAL/NTSC DV. You can calculate this via
the vertical resolutions ratios: with PAL you can use Zoom factor of
42% [=(240/576)*100] and with NTSC 50% [=(240/480)*100].</P>

<P>(The padding could also be done via masks with QuickTime Player
(see <A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/usage/5007.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.bobhudson.com/AnamorphicToLetterbox.html"
TARGET="_blank">here</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.bobhudson.com/splitscreen/"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>), but using MPEG Streamclip could be easier
for most people and it also automatically preserves the correct
aspect ratio when converting square pixels to rectangular and vice
versa).</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="vert-horiz_rotate"></A><B>How can I rotate video (and
   preserve aspect ratio and interlacing)</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>- Q: I have <B>vertical, square pixel progressive video</B> from a
still image camera. When I import it to iMovie, the clip is stretched
horizontally. How can I maintain the correct aspect ratio?</P>

<P>- Q: <B>How can I rotate rectangular pixel DV material 90&#176;
while maintaining the correct aspect ratio and interlacing?</B></P>

<P>Open the video with <A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG Streamclip</A> (see
<A HREF="#imovie_3rd_party">here</A> how to process iMovie clips).
Then export via <B>File/Export to DV...</B> with <B>Compression: DV
(DV25)</B> and <B>Standard: PAL/NTSC</B>. In the <B>"Rotation"
options</B> you can choose to rotate the picture by 90&#176;,
180&#176; and/or flip (mirror) it. For 90&#176; rotation, aspect
ratio and scale factor will be preserved, resulting in a cropped and
letterboxed picture. With 4:3 pictures you can then apply a 133.3%
zoom to remove letterboxing, or a 75% zoom to get the full frame
without cropping. Interlacing will be preserved if "Interlaced
Scaling" is enabled.</P>

<P>Other tools:</P>

<P>...it is also possible to use iMovie HD's Mirror effect to mirror
video: Select the clip, click the Effects tab and choose Mirror.
Slide the Horizontal slider all the way to the Right and Apply the
Effect. Or open the DV clip in QuickTime Player Pro 7 and mirror it
(via Window/Show Movie Properties/Video Track/Visual
Settings/Flip_Rotate). Then do a File/Export.../Movie to DV
Stream/DV-PAL or NTSC, 48.000 kHz. Both methods work for interlaced
material.</P>

<P>...it is also possible to use iMovie HD's Mirror effect to turn
the video upside down: Select the clip, click the Effects tab, choose
Mirror. Slide the Vertical slider all the way to the "Bottom" side
and Apply the Effect. Sadly <I>this iMovie HD Effect works properly
only with progressive material</I> -- with interlaced material the
field order gets wrong and the output motion flickers badly on a TV.
</P>

<P>...it is possible to do the rotation in the QuickTime Player Pro
by adding a 4:3 mask to the clip (see
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/usage/5007.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.bobhudson.com/AnamorphicToLetterbox.html"
TARGET="_blank">here</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.bobhudson.com/splitscreen/"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>), but using MPEG Streamclip as described
above is easier and it is also more flexible. There is also a free
<A HREF="http://www.imovieplugins.com/plugs/turnclip.html"
TARGET="_blank">cf/x turn clip iMovie plug-in</A>, but it has some
limitations: It doesn't properly work with interlaced input because
also the interlacing lines are simply rotated and this doesn't look
good on a TV! So you should use it only for progressive material or
deinterlace the input. It can't rotate the material without cropping
and it doesn't preserve the correct aspect ratio when rotating
rectangular pixels.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="interlacing"></A><B>How can I evaluate interlacing or
   deinterlace clips</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Why was <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interlacing"
TARGET="_blank">interlacing</A> invented? The image on an old CRT
(cathode ray tube) TV decays very quickly, and scanning at a low
frequency like 25/30 Hz produces noticeable flicker and tires the
eyes quickly. A scan rate of at least 50Hz is required for
comfortable viewing, with 80Hz or more being preferable. This
mismatch could be solved by displaying the signal at a higher scan
rate than its frame rate, but that would require using a frame
buffer, a method that did not become feasible until the 1980s.
Therefore, the
<A HREF="http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/fields/fields.html"
TARGET="_blank">interlacing</A> method was adopted. Instead of
displaying a sequence of frames, the screen displays a sequence of
"fields". One field contains only the odd-numbered lines (forming the
odd field), and the next contains only even-numbered lines (forming
the even field). Because of persistence of vision, pairs of fields
are perceived at the same time, giving the appearance of a full
frame. Interlacing reduces the required bandwidth in half, without
losing vertical resolution in quiet areas (in motion areas you don't
notice very much anyway, because it's moving 50/60 times per second).
</P>

<P>So
<A HREF="http://www.adamwilt.com/TechDiffs/FieldsAndFrames.html"
TARGET="_blank">interlacing</A> is a way to display the nonmoving
parts with full resolution and the moving parts with half resolution,
but fluidly. It's a very clever way to cut bandwidth without
sacrificing much quality. Interlaced material has smoother motion on
an interlaced TV compared to deinterlaced/progressive material.</P>

<P><A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_scan"
TARGET="_blank">Progressive</A> scan is used in computer monitors. It
is also becoming increasingly common in high-end television
equipment, which is often capable of performing deinterlacing so that
interlaced video can still be viewed. Advantages of progressive scan
include: 1. Subjectively increased vertical resolution. The perceived
vertical resolution of an interlaced image is usually equivalent to
multiplying the active lines by about 0.6. This explains, for
example, why HDTV standards such as 1080i (1440x1080, interlaced) in
most cases deliver a poorer subjective quality than 720p (1280x720,
progressive). 2. No flickering of narrow horizontal patterns. 3.
Simpler video processing equipment. 4. Easier compression.</P>

<P>A computer monitor is a progressive device so the best way to
evaluate interlacing is to watch the video on an interlaced 50Hz PAL
or 60Hz NTSC TV. Make sure that the DVD player or some other video
source isn't set for progressive playback. New flat panel LCD or
plasma TVs may also default to progressive display so consult its
manual whether interlaced output is possible. AFAIK the 100Hz PAL TVs
deinterlace the displayed image so you may not be able to properly
judge interlacing using them. I recently bought a new TV and avoided
the 100Hz models because although they don't flicker, they may
produce irritating artifacts to the image.</P>

<P>You can check whether the material is interlaced or progressive
and look for flaws in interlacing also on a computer monitor:</P>

<P>Many computer applications have <I>deinterlaced playback</I> by
default so that the average user doesn't get upset about the comb
lines. To evaluate interlacing you must set the playback quality to
<I>display the video fields</I> (i.e. those comb lines in motion
scenes).</P>

<P>With .dv or .mov clips you can use QuickTime Player Pro:</P>

<P>Open the clip in QuickTime Player Pro. By default QuickTime Player
has low quality deinterlaced playback of DV-encoded clips -- you have
to turn on
<A HREF="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=93002"
TARGET="_blank">high quality playback</A> of the clip to see all
quality. In QT 7 you do this via enabling "Window/Show Movie
Properties/Video Track/Visual Settings/High Quality" setting -- do
not enable "Single Field" or "Deinterlace" because they deinterlace
playback. You can also set "QuickTime Player
7/Preferences.../General/Use high quality video setting when
available" to check the "High Quality" box by default (notice that
the "Single Field" or "Deinterlace" boxes may have been saved to the
file so sometimes you must take care to uncheck them).</P>

<P>With MPEG/VOB/DVD clips I usually do not use QT Player because it
has a nasty feature to imitate 4:3 aspect ratio in MPEG files. This
is bad in PAL because 720x576 is automatically scaled to 720x540 --
this distorts interlacing because the image is vertically scaled (in
NTSC it is horizontally scaled from 720x480 to 640x480 so this
doesn't affect the interlacing appearance). I could prevent the
distortion by scaling the MPEG display to the native resolution in QT
Player but instead I use <A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG Streamclip</A> which shows the MPEG/VOB clips
pixel for pixel after the "Window/Resize to Full Frame" command is
used.</P>

<P>Then look closely at the interlacing pattern in moving scenes: the
interlacing comb lines should be evenly and "beautifully" arranged.
If you don't see comb lines in moving scenes the material is
progressive. Some encoding applications may distort the
<I>interlacing pattern</I> and this is guaranteed to show in motion
scenes when watched on a TV. Sometimes interlacing distortion is
difficult to spot on a computer monitor but deinterlacing first the
other and then the other field off will usually reveal this (you can
do this by copying a frame to apps like
<A HREF="http://www.lemkesoft.com/"
TARGET="_blank">GraphicConverter</A> and deinterlacing it there via
Effect/Even Field Lines and Odd Field Lines or some equivalent
command).</P>

<P>Now, the interlacing might look even and OK on a computer monitor
but some apps may put the fields into wrong order. Spotting this
wrong <A HREF="http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=58634"
TARGET="_blank">field dominance</A> (see also
<A HREF="http://www.lurkertech.com/lg/dominanceorigin.html"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>) is difficult on a computer monitor so I
always check it via an interlaced 50Hz PAL or 60Hz NTSC TV when
testing video applications. The wrong field dominance produces a
dreadful zigzag effect on a TV so it is very easy to see.</P>

<P>Viewing the final output on a TV will best reveal interlacing
problems but even then some users might have trouble seeing whether
the material is interlaced or progressive to begin with. I have a 1
minute test clip that I'm VERY familiar with. It consists of smooth
camcorder pans and I can readily tell if some issue in the workflow
has made the material progressive because then the pans are not
smooth but get that jerky progressive "film" look.</P>

<P>So the existence of interlacing is more readily seen on a computer
monitor by those comb lines in moving scenes but the field dominance
is best to evaluate on a TV.</P>

<P>BTW, field dominance is actually an incorrect term; it should be
<I>Field Order</I> instead. Top First is the Upper, Odd field, field
1, the first line of the scan, which is actually half a line, the
equivalent of upper. Bottom First is the Lower, Even field, field 2,
the second line, actually the first full line, and the equivalent of
lower.</P>

<P>DV material is bottom field first. HDV is top field first. A DVD
can be either way: iDVD uses bottom field first but commercial DVDs
are often top field first. So there is a chance that the field
dominance can sometimes be incorrect if the DV editing and DVD
encoding applications don't properly take care of it.</P>

<P>Notice that a slow <I>camcorder shutter speed</I> will essentially
produce progressive video (so PAL 1/25s or NTSC 1/30s or slower
shutter speeds yield progressive video) because both video fields are
temporally the same.</P>

<P>(Notice also that, as a QT bug, sometimes the playback quality
setting of the input file can determine the output quality. For
example: If you have .dv clip whose playback quality is set for
deinterlacing (or field blending) AND it is scaled from its native
resolution, and you export it as .dv via QT Player Pro, THEN the
exported video is deinterlaced (or the fields are blended). iMovie
HD's reference movie is such an example, so make sure the 3rd party
MPEG encoder you are using doesn't deinterlace the output footage
behind your back! Sometimes only the deinterlaced playback setting of
the input file is needed to trigger the unwanted deinterlacing of the
output file. These kinds of things shouldn't happen so beware!).</P>

<P>Sometimes you might want to deinterlace video. You can deinterlace
iMovie HD projects and other clips with
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A>:</P>

<P>If you want to render the <I>whole</I> iMovie HD timeline movie,
you save time and harddisk space by using iMovie's tiny reference
movie as an input: Quit iMovie and open JES Deinterlacer. Open its
<B>Input tab</B>, press "Choose...", navigate to the
iMovie_project/Cache/Timeline Movie.mov and select it as an input.
</P>

<P>You can export <I>selected</I> continuous iMovie HD clips as a
standalone .dv file via iMovie's File/Share.../QuickTime/Full Quality
-command and use the .dv file as an input for JES Deinterlacer. This
is also a safer way because sometimes using the reference movie as an
input may be produce errors.</P>

<P>In JES Deinterlacer select Project/Deinterlace. Choose the output
format via Output/Export/DV Stream... (the right video standard
should be selected automatically). Select the output folder via
Output/Put... Click Output/OK to start the conversion. All the other
settings can be at their defaults.</P>

<P>Notice that JES Deinterlacer may stall if it is hidden (via Hide
Others command, for example) so avoid doing that when it is active.
If JES Deinterlacer acts up, you may need to quit JES Deinterlacer
and delete its preference and log files (~/Library/Preferences/JES
Deinterlacer Prefs and nl.jes.deinterlacer.plist and
~/Library/Logs/JES Deinterlacer log). Then log out/in and try again.
</P>

<P>Also <B><A HREF="http://www.squared5.com/" TARGET="_blank">MPEG
Streamclip</A></B> can deinterlace DV, MOV, MPEG, AVI, MP4, H.264 etc
(MPEG1/2 is not an output option, and only some movies can be saved
as MP4 or AVI).</P>

<P>There is a small difference in the deinterlaced output between JES
Deinterlacer and MPEG Streamclip so do a test and decide which you
like better.</P>

<P>Other interlacing-related stuff:</P>

<P><B>Q: How can I do interlaced animations?</B></P>

<P>A: Make progressive animation at PAL/NTSC 50/59.94 fps, then
reinterlace with
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A> to get a 25/29.97 fps interlaced
version for TV. Open the progressive and double frame rate video with
JES Deinterlacer and choose: Input tab/Progressive (in), and Project
tab/<B>Reinterlace</B>/Defaults. Then choose Output tab/Export/DV
Stream.../DV, PAL or NTSC and 48 kHz -- this <I>re-combines the video
fields back into a single frame with normal frame rate</I>!</P>

<P><B>Q: How can I change field dominance</B> of a .dv clip from top
field first to bottom field first? DV uses only bottom field first so
top field first video flickers badly on a TV.</P>

<P>A: Open the .dv clip with
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A>: Input tab/<B>check "Top field
first (in)"</B>, Project tab/<B>Change field dominance</B>, Output
tab/Export/DV Stream.../DV, PAL or NTSC, 48.000 kHz. (BTW, here is
another route to turn interlaced material upside down (the result is
identical to that in the previous paragraph): 1. Open the clip in
<A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A> and choose: Input tab/uncheck
"Top field first (in)" -- i.e. use the Defaults for that pane,
Project tab/<B>Change field dominance</B>, Output tab/Direct/DV-PAL
or DV-NTSC. 2. THEN turn the clip upside down with QuickTime Player
Pro, and choose: File/Export.../Movie to DV Stream/Options.../DV, PAL
or NTSC, 48.000 kHz.)</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="aspect_ratios"></A><B>Aspect ratios and rectangular
   vs square pixels</B> [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Standard definition video (DV and DVD) uses <I>rectangular
pixels</I>. On the other hand, the computer display uses <I>square
pixels</I>. To further complicate the matter, for historical reasons
there is some <I>"extra room" around the actual video frame</I>. That
is a mess that produces all kinds of errors when people try to
calculate the aspect ratios! Read all about it
<A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>. A short summary:</P>

<P>The <I>sampling matrix </I>of standard definition
<B><U>NTSC</U></B> DV is 720x480. Notice that inside (and outside!)
of it the <I>actual active picture size</I> is 710.85x486. Weird but
true.</P>

<P>Standard definition DV uses rectangular pixels -- the <I>pixel
aspect ratio</I> for NTSC is 4320:4739 = ~0.912. So the pixels aren't
square and you have to scale the image to see the correct
proportions. iMovie and a TV set do this automatically but sometimes
the poor user might see an unscaled image and think something is
seriously wrong...</P>

<P>Now, to see the correct proportions you have to scale rectangular
pixels to square pixels. You do that by multiplying the horizontal
pixel count by the pixel aspect ratio:</P>

<P>So the NTSC square pixel horizontal <I>sampling matrix</I> becomes
720 x (4320:4739) = ~656.</P>

<P>So <B>you should scale 4:3 NTSC 720x480 rectangular pixel
<I>sampling matrix </I>to <U>656x480</U> square pixels</B> to see the
correct proportions on a computer monitor (many applications cheat
and scale to 640x480 but luckily the error is so small that it goes
unnoticed unless looked for).</P>

<P>The same calculation applies also to the NTSC <I>actual active
picture size</I>: 710.85 x (4320:4739) = 648.</P>

<P>So the <B>NTSC <I>rectangular pixel actual active picture size
710.85x486 corresponds 648x486 square pixels </I>which is EXACTLY
4:3</B>!! <B>THAT</B> is the 4:3 ratio we talk about!</P>

<P>The same applies to <B><U>PAL</U></B>, too. For PAL DV the
<I>sampling matrix</I> is 720x576, but the <I>actual active picture
size</I> is 702x576. The <I>pixel aspect ratio</I> is 128:117 =
~1.094 for both.</P>

<P>So <B>you should scale 4:3 PAL 720x576 rectangular pixel
<I>sampling matrix </I>to <U>788x576</U> square pixels</B> to see the
correct proportions on a computer monitor (many applications cheat
and scale to 768x576 but luckily the error is so small that it goes
unnoticed unless looked for).</P>

<P>The same calculation applies also to the PAL <I>actual active
picture size</I>: 702 x (128:117) = 768.</P>

<P>So the <B>PAL <I>rectangular pixel actual active picture size
702x576 corresponds 768x576 square pixels </I>which is EXACTLY
4:3</B>!! <B>THAT</B> is the 4:3 ratio we talk about!</P>

<P>The same principles apply to <U>16:9 widescreen</U>, too. Just
remember that 4:3 and 16:9 material use the same resolution (NTSC
720x480 or PAL 720x576 sampling matrix) -- they are just scaled
differently for display. For the 16:9 calculations you have to
multiply the 4:3 figures by (16:9):(4:3) = 4:3 = ~1.33:</P>

<P>So with 16:9 <U>NTSC</U> the <I>actual active square pixel picture
size</I> is 864x486; i.e. 16:9 -- <B>THAT</B> is the 16:9 ratio we
talk about!</P>

<P>So <B>you should scale 16:9 NTSC 720x480 <I>sampling matrix </I>to
<U>875x480</U> square pixels</B> to see the correct proportions on a
computer monitor.</P>

<P>With 16:9 square pixel <U>PAL</U> the <I>actual active picture
size</I> is 1024x576; i.e. 16:9 -- <B>THAT</B> is the 16:9 ratio we
talk about!</P>

<P>So <B>you should scale 16:9 PAL 720x576 <I>sampling matrix </I>to
<U>1050x576</U> square pixels</B> to see the correct proportions on a
computer monitor.</P>

<P>Now, didn't all that make sense! ;-)</P>

<P>A quick note about <A HREF="http://www.adamwilt.com/HDV/"
TARGET="_blank">HDV</A> (see also
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HDV" TARGET="_blank">here</A>
and <A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-definition_television"
TARGET="_blank">here</A>):</P>

<P>The sampling matrix of HDV 1080i is 1440x1080, and its pixel
aspect ratio is 4:3 = ~1.33, so for square pixel display it must
scaled to 1920x1080.</P>

<P>The sampling matrix of HDV 720p is 1280x720, and its pixel aspect
ratio is 1:1 so it uses square pixels.</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="Other_tools"></A><B>Other (XS)VCD and DVD tools</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Besides MPEG-encoding, <B><A HREF="http://www.mpeg2works.com/"
TARGET="_blank">MPEG2 Works</A></B> and
<B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/major4/"
TARGET="_blank">ffmpegX</A></B> have also many (XS)SVCD and DVD tools
for getting MPEG info, multiplexing, demultiplexing, audio processing
and authoring.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.biermann.org/philipp/mpegcut/"
TARGET="_blank">mpgtx GUI</A></B> (based on the
<A HREF="http://mpgtx.sourceforge.net/" TARGET="_blank">mpgtx</A>
command line tool) shows MPEG info and splits, joins and demuxes MPEG
1/2/3.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/.Public/MoreMissingTools.sit"
TARGET="">MoreMissingTools</A></B> has many MPEG tools with a spartan
GUI interface.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://lonestar.utsa.edu/llee/applescript/dvdimager.html"
TARGET="_blank">DVD Imager</A></B> can be used to make a burnable DVD
video image file from a VIDEO_TS folder. You can then create a new
DVD disk using the Burn command in Disk Copy. DVD Imager is an
Applescript Studio GUI wrapper for J&ouml;rg Schilling's mkisofs
binary executable.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.editorsbin.com/mydvdedit/index.html"
TARGET="_blank">myDVDEdit</A></B> can change the DVD's aspect option
from 4:3 to 16:9 auto letterbox. Basically it's IFOedit on your Mac.
You can use it to set the aspect flag on a DVD VIDEO_TS folder, among
many other features. Now iDVD 4 and Toast users can set the flag for
16:9 before you burn the DVD and it will play at 16:9 on the set-top
players.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/mpressionist/"
TARGET="_blank">Digigami Mpressionist.X</A></B> ($1000) can analyze
MPEG and report peaks in bitrate and quantization as well as many
other details. Also <B><A HREF="http://www.digigami.com/megapeg/"
TARGET="_blank">Digigami MegaPEG.X</A></B> ($240) can show the
bitrate and quantization. A cheaper alternative is
<B><A HREF="http://www.tecoltd.com/bitratev.htm"
TARGET="_blank">Bitrate Viewer</A></B> ($0 or $30) which runs OK in
Virtual PC.
<B><A HREF="http://www.thefridgeowl.com/mdbp/MacDVDBitrateParanoia-0.5.dmg.bz2">MacDVDBitrateParanoia</A></B>
can show the bitrate graph of an authored DVD.</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.jaw.it/pages/en/x_mp2s.html"
TARGET="_blank">JAW MPEG2Splitter</A></B> ($15) lets you split huge
MPEG-2 (video stream only, i.e. the .m2v kind) files in smaller
chunks of size specified by user. It is also possible to extract a
single segment of the file, given the starting and ending offset. The
procedure can be fully manual, assisted, or fully automated.</P>

<P><B>Some iMovie and iDVD fixes and resources</B>: how to
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/usage/5013.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">fix a corrupted iMovie project file</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.berga.nu/~usrlt/imovie/" TARGET="_blank">file
fixers</A> for lost TYPE and CREATOR codes for iMovie project files
after they have been stored on non-HFS+ a.k.a. Mac OS Extended
volumes, <A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie FAQ</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.kentidwell.com/idvd4/" TARGET="_blank">iDVD
FAQ</A>, <A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_4_bugs.html"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie 4 bugs</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_5_bugs.html"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie HD 5 bugs</A>,
<A HREF="http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/iMovie_HD_6_bugs.html"
TARGET="_blank">iMovie HD 6 bugs</A> and
<A HREF="http://www.missingmanuals.com/" TARGET="_blank">iMovie - The
Missing Manual</A>. iDVD 5 sets some bits in the widescreen .IFO and
.BUP files incorrectly --
<A HREF="http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/widescreen.html"
TARGET="_blank">this link</A> explains the workaround. iDVD 3 added
chapter support, but it originally worked only with chapters
generated in iMovie (not
<A HREF="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/tutorials/chaptertracks.html"
TARGET="_blank">chapters created from scratch in QuickTime
Player</A>, for example) --
<A HREF="http://capital2.capital.edu/admin-staff/dalthoff/qtchapters.html"
TARGET="_blank">this link</A> explains the geeky stuff behind this
behaviour. <A HREF="http://metahoot.3ivx.com/"
TARGET="_blank">Metadata Hootenanny</A> is a viewer/editor for all
the spiffy metadata you can put into QuickTime movies. Among other
things, v1.1.5 lets you add or edit Chapter Tracks, which are a cool
little feature of the QuickTime container format that is seldom used.
</P>

<P><B><A HREF="http://www.xs4all.nl/~jeschot/home.html#DEI"
TARGET="_blank">JES Deinterlacer</A></B> is a very nice deinterlacer.
It is also a <U>very</U> good quality PAL&lt;-&gt;NTSC converter for
QuickTime files. It can also do "bob" deinterlacing, i.e. convert
both fields in an interlaced video frame into two separate frames so
you can duplicate the framerate or get a slow-motion effect.
Features: deinterlace movies (half height, normal height, double
frame rate, blend). Change field dominance. Trim, shift, simple color
correction. Change encoding (RGB gamma, video range, full range). Fix
jagged edges. Carbon application for Mac OS 9.2.2 and Mac OS X.</P>

<P>iMovie FAQ - Smooth Slow Motion
<A HREF="http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6016.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.danslagle.com/mac/iMovie/tips_tricks/6016.shtml&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>Oak Street Software has a handy
<A HREF="http://www.oakstreetsoftware.com/qtscript.html#dvsplit"
TARGET="_blank">AppleScript</A> that can automatically split DV clips
into smaller 9 minute chunks which iMovie 1-4 can handle. You can
edit the script to other durations. The script works otherwise OK but
it seems the Mov2DVparts script currently drops a frame at every
split seam except the very first seam. Unfortunately the script no
longer works with QuickTime 7. Update:
<A HREF="http://www.oakstreetsoftware.com/qtscript.php3"
TARGET="_blank">MovieSplit</A> replaces Mov2DVparts, and it does work
with Quicktime 7 and should also work with 5 or 6. The old
Mov2DVparts is still included for users of older versions of
Quicktime, although MovieSplit is faster, because it only splits the
movie, it does not convert to DV stream. (I haven't yet had time to
evaluate the updated script).</P>

<UL>
   <LI><A NAME="calculations"></A><B>Info for the calculations</B>
   [<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]
</UL>

<P>Notice that 1 B = 8 b (i.e. 1 byte = 8 bits), 1 Mb = 1024 kb, 1 kb
= 1024 b and so on. Notice also that for data <I>rates</I> the
multiplier is usually 1000 instead of 1024, so 1 Mb/s = 1000 kb/s, 1
kb/s = 1000 b/s and so on. For example: mpeg2enc uses 1000 as a
multiplier in its settings so when you enter 2500 kb/s in its
settings, then 2500000 b/s is used (= 2441 kb/s if 1024 was used as a
multiplier). You can also use the
<A HREF="http://www.matisse.net/bitcalc/" TARGET="_blank">Bit
Calculator</A>.
<HR>
</P>

<P><B>DVD example</B>:</P>

<P>The following
<A HREF="http://www.canopus.us/US/canopus/tp_technology5.asp"
TARGET="_blank">formula</A> calculates the video bitrate to use to
fill up a DVD disc based on the selected audio bitrate:</P>

<P><B>Video Rate [in bps] = (598566666 / Time [in minutes]) - Audio
Rate [in bps]</B></P>

<P>For example, assuming a 90 minute video with 192 kb/s audio:</P>

<P>Video Rate = 598566666/90 - 192000 = 6650741 - 192000 = 6458741
b/s = 6459 kb/s.</P>

<P>In this case, allowing about 5% headroom for authoring a simple
title, a 6000 kb/s average video bitrate would nearly fill the DVD.
For the maximum bitrate, try 8500 kb/s, which is about 50% above the
average bitrate setting and will produce good balanced results
throughout the video.</P>

<P>Uncompressed PCM audio is 1536 kb/s [(48000 samples/s) x (16
bits/sample) x (2 channels)] so it is 8x larger than 192 kb/s
compressed audio! For example: with PCM audio the video bitrate must
be dropped to ~6000 kb/s @ 80 minutes, while with 192 kb/s compressed
audio the corresponding length is 95 minutes.</P>

<P>Or in other words:</P>

<P>As a general guideline you can use this checklist when choosing a
bitrate for a DVD:</P>

<P>Total size of a DVD disk = 4700000000 B (this equals ~4482 MB or
~4.4 GB with 1024 as the multiplier).</P>

<P>Subtract 5% (= 235000000 B) as a reserve for .ifo, .bup, and UDF
info.</P>

<P>Subtract audio. With 192 kb/s .m1a audio this is 1440000 B/minute
and 129600000 B/90 minutes (1000 as the multiplier).</P>

<P>Subtract the still menus; about 100000 B/menu.</P>

<P>For example, assuming a 90 minute video with 192 kb/s audio and 3
menus:</P>

<P>4700000000 - 235000000 - 129600000 - 300000 = 4335100000 B</P>

<P>That is equal to:</P>

<P>4335100000 B / 90 min = 802796 B/s = 6422370 b/s = 6422 kb/s (1000
as the multiplier).</P>

<P>So you can use about 6422 kb/s to encode the video.</P>

<P>If you have motion menus, transitions, and so on then they take up
space that needs to be taken into account, too.
<HR>
</P>

<P><B>(XS)VCD example</B> is slightly different because the disk is
burned in a different format:</P>

<P>1x audio-CD speed is 75 sectors/s so a 80 minute audio-CD has 80
min * 60 s/min * 75 sectors/s = 360000 sectors (and a 74 minute CD
has 333000 sectors).</P>

<P>SVCD data is stored on a CD-ROM XA "Mode 2-Form 2 block" format
with 2352 B sector size. 2324 B of a sector is used for the actual
MPEG2-data, and the remaining 28 B is used for minor error detection
etc.</P>

<P>So a 80 minute CD holds 360000 sectors * 2324 B/sector = 836640000
B / (1024 * 1024) B/MB = ~797.9 MB of MPEG2 data. Likewise, a 74
minute CD holds ~738.0 MB of MPEG2 data.</P>

<P>(The same way a 80 or 74 minute audio CD which uses the whole 2352
B sector for audio data holds as much as ~807.5 or ~746.9 MB of audio
data. On the other hand, a computer data CD uses only 2048 B of a
2352 B sector for data so a 80 or 74 minute CD holds only ~703.1 or
~650.4 MB data because more space of a sector is used for error
correction etc).</P>

<P>A SVCD needs some overhead for non-MPEG2 data. You can calculate
the overhead in sectors by (number_of_non_ISO_tracks * 150) + 450.
For example: with 5 MPEG2s the overhead is (5 * 150) + 450 = 1200
sectors / (75 sectors/s) = 16 seconds (with 2352 B sector size).
(Possible segment items and application data, if any, go into the ISO
track and take up an additional total_ISO_data B : 2048 B/sector).
</P>

<P>The maximum sector rate for the SVCD is 2x, so the maximum speed
for the MPEG2-data is 2 x 75 sectors/s = 150 sectors/s = 150
sectors/s * 2324 B/sector = 348600 B/s = 2788800 b/s = 2723,4375
kb/s. This is the maximum _total_ (video + audio + 1-2% muxing mplex
overhead + possible padding) MPEG2 bitrate.</P>

<P>So the maximum bitrate for a SVCD's MPEG2's video is 2691 kb/s
(with the minimum 32 kb/s for audio). An audio bitrate of 224 kb/s
leaves a maximum of 2499 kb/s for video. Audio bitrate can be 32-384
kb/s. Deviating from these values may produce disks that play poorly
on some DVD players, especially if the video bitrate is other than
about 2500 kb/s. Notice that actually the maximum standard SVCD video
bitrate (mpeg2enc -f 4) is precisely 2500000 b/s = 2441 kb/s.</P>

<P>To _roughly_ figure out which video bitrate you should use to fit
60 minutes of SVCD on a 80 minute CD with 224 kb/s audio, you can use
this equation:</P>

<P>(80 * 60 * 75 * 2324 * 8 / 1024 / 60 / 60) - 224 = 1592 kb/s, or
more briefly:</P>

<P>(80 * 43575 / 32 / 60) - 224 = 1592 kb/s.</P>

<P>Or to fit 60 minutes of SVCD on a 80 minute CD with 128 kb/s
audio:</P>

<P>(80 * 43575 / 32 / 60) - 128 = 1688 kb/s for video, which may be a
better combination with low bitrates.</P>

<P>There is also a 1-2% mplex overhead so you may want to divide the
calculated video bitrate by 1.01-1.02.</P>

<P>That kb/s should be the correct number to use with -b in mpeg2enc
with constant bitrate (omitting -q from mpeg2enc sets CBR). Notice
that this calculation only works if you have a CBR stream. If you
have a variable bit rate VBR MPEG1/2 or SVCD, your calculation will
always be wrong because currently you cannot determine the final size
of a VBR stream (-q sets VBR in mpeg2enc). Maybe a 2-pass VBR option
in mpeg2enc will make this possible in the future. With VBR the
output size depends heavily on the material (fast or slow moving) and
on the quality of the material.</P>

<P>So at the moment it is usually best to encode parts of a video as
single streams (1st part from the beginning to the first commercials,
2nd from that commercials to the next commercials and so on, for
example). If in the end the whole video doesn't evenly fit on a given
amount of CDs, you have to reencode only one or a few sections with
other bitrates or just drop the audio bitrate. You may also specify
the MB where the stream is marked for splitting in mpeg2enc settings.
</P>

<P>Bitrate Calculator <A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/calc"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.videohelp.com/calc&gt;</A></P>

<P>
<HR>
</P>

<H3><A NAME="More_info"></A>More info about (XS)VCD and DVD
[<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]</H3>

<P>RNC's great SVCD pages <A HREF="http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/&gt;</A></P>

<P>There is a nice page describing Digital Video Resolution and
Aspect Ratio Conversions. The low-resolution XSVCD and CVD scaling
and cropping values were calculated using this info:</P>

<P>A Quick Guide to Digital Video Resolution and Aspect Ratio
Conversions <A HREF="http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P><A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/tvbranding/picturesize.shtml"
TARGET="_blank">This</A> BBC link is also very helpful in
understanding rectangular and square pixels.</P>

<P>VideoHelp Mac video forum
<A HREF="http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=9&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>VCDImager <A HREF="http://www.vcdimager.org/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.vcdimager.org/&gt;</A></P>

<P>MediaPipe forum <A HREF="http://mediapipe.sourceforge.net/Forum/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://mediapipe.sourceforge.net/Forum/&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>DiVA forum <A HREF="http://forums.3ivx.com/"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://forums.3ivx.com/&gt;</A></P>

<H3><A NAME="Acknowledgements"></A>Acknowledgements:
[<A HREF="#Contents">back to Contents</A>]</H3>

<P>First Paul Hagstrom et al and then RNC prompted me to explore SVCD
in a time when SVCD tools for the Mac were still rare. Their
pioneering efforts have benefited us all.</P>

<P>Paul Hagstrom: VCD subpage
<A HREF="http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/UG/hagstrom/vcd.html"
TARGET="_blank">&lt;http://www.bu.edu/linguistics/UG/hagstrom/vcd.html&gt;</A>
</P>

<P>-end-</P>
</html>