Converting Video CD's?

[dbminter]

I have 2 10 year plus old Video CD's.  I don't know anything about them, like what created them, etc.  And I wouldn't know where to begin on the subject, but does anyone know how I can possibly convert these Video CD's?  To either DVD/VIDEO_TS or some kind of container file like .AVI, etc. that I can then convert to DVD?  Thanks!

[ianymaty]

Why do you wanna convert them?  You do know that any convertion comes with a loss of quality...

 

Video CD is half the resolution of a standard DVD. Why do you wanna upscale it? Video CD is DVD compliant so you can play it in any DVD standalone player.

 

You can convert them to any file you want but make sure you preserve the original resolution to reduce artifacts (352x240 for NTSC or 352x288 for PAL).

 

All you need from the Video CD structure is the AVSEQxx.DAT files (xx = 01, 02, 03... 99 max. files allowed)

 

Oh, any software player shoud play fine AVSEQxx.DAT files. You can copy them to your HDD and rename them to "My movie.mpg" and they will play fine in any software player so no need for convertion.

[dbminter]

I wanted to convert them because I wasn't aware Video CD was universally supported by all DVD players.  I thought I'd eventually encounter some DVD player that wouldn't play them.

[dbminter]

I can also think of another reason to convert to DVD.  There are more than 2 discs, I was wrong it turns out.  Each disc has 3 streams.  I may be able to put all those streams, probably, on one DVD.  Saves space. 

[ianymaty]

You don't need convertion just use the streams as is since they are compliant to build a standard DVD low quality that uses the half size SD resolution MPEG-1 compression.

 

Rename the streams and extension to .mpg and use a program that can do smart rendering to build the DVD. I don't know a free program that can do this but I know that TMPGEnc, Sony Vegas, Adobe Premiere and all major authoring software can do smart rendering.

 

Anyway you can try DVD Flick or DVD Styler to see if they can handle the raw .dat files or .mpg renamed files.

[dbminter]

I use ConvertXToDVD to convert container files to standard DVD VIDEO_TS compliant files.  So, as you say, I can just rename the streams to MPG.

[ianymaty]

That'll do it too.

 

Come back with a followup so we know how it went. I'm interested if the resolution is kept or it is upscaled to full SD resolution. Maybe you need to tweek the output settings to keep original resolution. It's long time I didn't use that program.

[dbminter]

I have started a test conversion and it looks good thus far.  I did as you said and renamed the .DAT file to .MPG.  ConvertXToDVD loaded it fine. 

 

 

If I had just examined the discs contents, I could have found the source files.    They were the largest files on the disc and in a folder called MPEGAV, so that would help me figure out, "Hey, these must be MPEG Audio/Video."  I might not have tried renaming the .DAT file to .MPG without you suggesting it, though.

[dbminter]

Haven't had the chance to actually watch the contents on a DVD player yet.  Just loaded them in Media Player Classic.  It looks like the resolution is kept relatively intact.  No really discernible artifacts that weren't present in the Video CD.  Looks like nothing got cut off the top or bottom.  So, looks like this process will work.  Thanks! 

[ianymaty]

If nothing was transcoded the size of the DAT/MPG files vs. VOB files should be roughly the same.

 

You can check file info in MPC via File > Properties or Shift + F10 to see if the video resolution and audio compression is the same as original or is altered.

[dbminter]

I guess AVSEQ stands for Audio/Video Sequence.    Makes sense to call the actual video contents that, I suppose.

[dbminter]

If nothing was transcoded the size of the DAT/MPG files vs. VOB files should be roughly the same.

 

You can check file info in MPC via File > Properties or Shift + F10 to see if the video resolution and audio compression is the same as original or is altered.

 

 

The .DAT file ran roughly 200 to 250 MB.  The resulting VOB was about 750 MB.  I've already deleted the test VIDEO_TS and DAT file, but those Video CD's should be coming up in my queue pretty soon for conversion.  I'll try to remember to check the Properties and see if the video resolution or audio compression are altered.

[dbminter]

Looks like this conversion method works well enough.  I've seen 11 of the 12 episodes I put on a DVD+R DL.  Only minor pixelation here and there in one or 2 episodes towards the end.

[dbminter]

Ah, discovered a really good reason to convert the VCD's to DVD.  The PS3 does not support playback of VCD, it seems.  The PS3 is not really a DVD player, so VCD may be universal for all DVD players but not all media centers.  I only have a PS3 in my bedroom and because of a back surgery I had in 1999, I have to watch things lying down in my bed.  So, I needed something to play these VCD's and DVD was the choice.  Plus, I managed to convert 4 VCD's to 1 DVD+R DL, saving storage space.