[MPlayer-users] making a vcd from certian chapters

[Giacomo Comes]

On Fri, Jul 23, 2004 at 04:03:55PM +0000, ronnie escobedo wrote:
> I've been using mplayer for over a year now to view dvds on my laptop and 
> make audio cds from my concert dvds. I think this is a fabulous program.
> Just recently I began to dabble in making vcd's. I've encountered some 
> problems but nothing I wasn't able to resolve from reading the mailing 
> list.
> I use the following on fedora core 2
> 
> mplayer-1.0pre4-4
> mencoder-1.0pre4-4
> vcdimager-0.7.14-1.1.fc2.fr.1.fc2.dag
> mjpegtools-1.6.2-3.1.fc2.dag
> mjpegtools-devel-1.6.2-3.1.fc2.dag
> 
> 
> One thing I would like to do is create a vcd from certain chapters on a 
> dvd. I wasn't able to find this information on the list. I am assuming 
> that I would have to transfer the chapters to the hard drive first. I've 
> done this using the following commands:
> 
> mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 1-4 -dumpstream -dumpfile 
> partOne
> 
> mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 10-12 -dumpstream 
> -dumpfile partTwo
> 
> mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 21-24 -dumpstream 
> -dumpfile partThree
> 
> 
> I then try and create the vcd using the following command:
> 
> mencvd MyVcd -vnorm -vfr 4 -noburn /home/vidFiles/*
> 
> 
> I'd like to mention that I've been succesful at creating a vcd from an 
> entire dvd by using:
> mencvd MyVcd -vnorm -vfr 4 -noburn mplayer dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom
> 
> Would it work out if best if I created a vcd for each set of chapters then 
> burn all the 'bin' and 'cue' files to a cd? Or would this scenario cause 
> some conflicts?

I don't think you can burn different cue/bin on one VCD.

Suggested solution would be:
mencvd MyVcdpartOne -vnorm -vfr 4 -mpgonly dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 1-4
mencvd MyVcdpartTwo -vnorm -vfr 4 -mpgonly dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 10-12
mencvd MyVcdpartThree -vnorm -vfr 4 -mpgonly dvd://1 -dvd-device /dev/cdrom -chapter 21-24
vcdimager -t vcd2 -c MyVcd.cue -b MyVcd.bin MyVcdpartOne*.mpg MyVcdpartTwo*.mpg MyVcdpartThree*.mpg
cdrdao write MyVcd.cue

> The mencvcd script makes makiing vcds easy however it takes forever on my 
> system. Is there another method or script that is recommended that will 
> speed up the process.

To speedup the creation of the audio mp2 stream you need toolame.
Concerning the mpeg video, a lot of time is taken by yuvscaler to downscale
from DVD size to VCD size. An increase in speed is obtained if you do the
scaling with mplayer. Add -vf scale=352:240.

I did a script that has more capabilities that mencvcd.
http://spazioinwind.libero.it/encode2mpeg/encode2mpeg-0.1.3.tar.bz2
you can have a look. A 0.2.0 version is almost ready. It has support
for mplayer 1.0pre5 and has better divx features. For VCD 0.1.3 is ok.


> A few more questions when I use dumpstream with mplayer it creates a raw 
> video file, correct? If I were to transfer that file to a win system what 
> kind of extention should I add to it?

dumpaudio creates a raw video file. The extension depends of the type of raw
video (mpeg, rm, etc). dumpstream dump the complete stream. If the source
is a dvd a good extension is .vob

Giacomo