Making VCD's on a PowerMac. Can I? Easily?

[Jasoco]

Ok. My story.

Can I make VCD's in OS X? Can I make them easily? What would I need?

My plan: To copy favorite TV shows and old movies from VHS tapes to my PowerMac as MPEG's (Or whatever) then onto VCD's.

I can take care of the getting the video onto the computer, but can I put it on a VCD? How much can I fit on a CD? A friend says 2 hours which is what makes me choose the CD's over using iDVD. (I'm not a rich person so DVD Studio Pro is out of the question) Since an iDVD can only hold 90 minutes (60 at good quality which is prolly what I want)

If Apple would just make it so you could use iDVD to make 2 hr DVD's at good quality, I would go crazy making myself DVD copies of "Strangers with Candy" and some movies I have.

So.. Which would you recommend? I want to go to VCD IF I can fit 2 hours on it and can do it easily. But if it's difficult or will cost way too much, forget it. iDVD will be my way to go. Even if the discs are more expensive.

Also. Tell me about VCD's. I have never seen one in person. Never played one. Is there a menu before the movie? Scene selection? How does this work? (I don't need a history. Just features for future reference)

 

[jove]

VCD videos do not have great quality. They are highly compressed MPEGS. Raw DV format is about 15MB/4 seconds. If VCDs can store 2 hours then 11MB/2 minutes is what the compression gives you.

Since I have not needed to burn a 2 hour video (nobody wants to watch 2 hours of my baby doing baby things!), I have always just burned a straight data CD with minimum compression. But VCDs will play in most DVD players.

To burn a VCD get the commercial version of Toast. It installs iMovie exporters for VCD. Once iMovie exports the movie, Toast will create a CD with the correct file system.

MacOSX does not read VCDs correctly!!! Movie player will not display the video. MacOS9 works well with VCDs. I have seen mixed VCD reliability in various Windows machines.

 

[Jasoco]

The DVD player on my computer doesn't matter. Will they work in a commercial DVD player? We have one by Apex which has a bunch of readable formats listed.

Quality doesn't have to be perfect.

But what about being able to choose where to start playing? How my VCD's would be set up is they'd have 4 episodes of a half hour each. Would I be able to start playing from the beginning of say episode 3 on the CD without having to "Fast Forward" to the correct place?

I have never touched a VCD before, so I don't know how they work.

Also, with iMovie. Will I be able to get the show movie files into it? I don't know what format the vids will be in once I get them on here. A friend says to use "Dazzle" which I don't know what it is.

I just want a nice easy permanent copy of my favorite show that ever got cancelled after only 30 episodes.

So I need to know whether a CD/RW will be sufficient enough, or whether I need to go all out and get the SuperDrive. Which I would like, but I don't like the small amount of video iDVD is able to put on a DVD. So I want as MUCH as possible.

How much does Toast for OS X cost?

 

[jove]

The one VCD I burned has worked in all but one commercial DVD players I tried. The old DVD player didn't handle any consumer recorded media well.

I have not tried buring multiple movies on a single CD. Don't know how that will work.

The quality may be far from perfect. Don't throw away your tapes The quality will not be comparable to what you can do with the over 4GB of space on a DVD. CDs only have 660MB.

The VCD contains several directories. One of them has the MPEG. Toast will put a QT movie that points to the MPEG on the root of the CD for convenience when played on a computer.

You can download the basic Roxio Toast application free from VersionTracker.com. The VCD enabled version is about 80/90 bucks.

Dazzle appears to be an analog to digital converter. Its the hardware video input for the computer. Any DV camera *should* perform this function as well. It costs ($250) about half the price of the cheapest DV cameras. iMovie will capture the DV input and export it. Roxio Toast will then do the buring.

The Superdrive and iDVD will only function with a G4 Powemac.

What show are you trying to preserve?

 

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by jove
The one VCD I burned has worked in all but one commercial DVD players I tried. The old DVD player didn't handle any consumer recorded media well.

I think ours is pretty new. It supports MP3 CD's and Music CD's as well.

The quality may be far from perfect. Don't throw away your tapes The quality will not be comparable to what you can do with the over 4GB of space on a DVD. CDs only have 660MB.

But I hate that iDVD can only do one hour high quality. Sucks. I want as much on a disc as possible.

The VCD contains several directories. One of them has the MPEG. Toast will put a QT movie that points to the MPEG on the root of the CD for convenience when played on a computer.

How convenient.

Dazzle appears to be an analog to digital converter. Its the hardware video input for the computer. Any DV camera *should* perform this function as well. It costs ($250) about half the price of the cheapest DV cameras. iMovie will capture the DV input and export it. Roxio Toast will then do the buring.

I don't have a DV camera. Just a VCR.

The Superdrive and iDVD will only function with a G4 Powemac.

Obviously, I am asking for when I get my PowerMac.

What show are you trying to preserve?

Strangers With Candy. If that show disappears and I don't have a hard copy. I will kick myself for letting such a hilarious show disappear. Comedy Central. Monday-Friday 3AM. Check it out if you want to laugh and are not easily offended.

 

[jove]

A one hour DVD will be dramatically higher in quality than a two hour VCD.

71M/1 minute (DVD) or 5.5MB/1 minute (VCD)

The lower quality DVD will lower the 71MB number. But I doubt it will even approach 5.5MB.

Of what I understand VCDs were created to more easily distribute music videos and porn Video quality just wasn't that important!

Whether you choose VCD or DVD, you will need a video input to convert NTSA analog to DV. Dazzle for $250 appears to do the trick. If you are interested in getting a video camera as well, you can spend some extra to get the same functionality, plus a lot more.

iMovie is free I would hate for you to fork over $80 dollars for Toast just to find you are not pleased with VCDs.

BTW I don't have cable

 

[dricci]

I have an APEX DVD player that supports VCD and MP3 CDs, and it was only like $150 last summer.

I used it for burning music videos for a while, but I've made a few VCDs to back up things like Apple Commercials and Apple Promo Videos Perfect for that kinda stuff. (1984 on TV all over again! And the iMac commercial on demand!)

The quality is not the best, I'd say around VHS or so. But if you're transfering from a VCR then I guess that's all you'll expect, anyways

Toast works great for making VCDs, however conversion from QuickTime to MPEG-2 (VCD Format) does take a while, even on my 733 G4, so be prepared for a long wait (I don't think Toast takes advantage of AltiVec

One thing I miss from Windows burning software is the ability to add menus like DVD's have to VCDs, that was really cool. Maybe in the next version of Toast...

 

[Jasoco]

Originally posted by jove
A one hour DVD will be dramatically higher in quality than a two hour VCD.

71M/1 minute (DVD) or 5.5MB/1 minute (VCD)

The lower quality DVD will lower the 71MB number. But I doubt it will even approach 5.5MB.

Wow. Didn't know it was that much of a difference. If DVD is crisp and clear at 71.. Phew..

Of what I understand VCDs were created to more easily distribute music videos and porn Video quality just wasn't that important!

VCD's from what my friend who recommended them to me said.. (That sentence doesn't sound right) ..caught on in Japan where the VCR didn't. And in US VHS caught on while VCD's didn't.

Whether you choose VCD or DVD, you will need a video input to convert NTSA analog to DV. Dazzle for $250 appears to do the trick. If you are interested in getting a video camera as well, you can spend some extra to get the same functionality, plus a lot more.

And how much is a DV Camera? I'd LOVE to get something like that. But they're expensive I hear. And I can barely afford the PowerMac.

iMovie is free I would hate for you to fork over $80 dollars for Toast just to find you are not pleased with VCDs.

I knew I should have bought those BTTF VCD's when I had the chance. Coulda seen what I was missing.

BTW I don't have cable

You don't know what you're missing! Or maybe you do. But Strangers was hi-LAR-ious. I'm talking ROTFLYAO Hilarious.

Originally posted by dricci
The quality is not the best, I'd say around VHS or so. But if you're transfering from a VCR then I guess that's all you'll expect, anyways

Well, it will be from VHS anyway. The shows will prolly all be on the video by the time I get to the conversion stage. I can't count on Comedy Central running through all 30 episodes again just so I can record off the TV.


Hmm.. Does anyone know how much space a 30 minute (22 after commercials are stripped) movie recorded at standard TV resolution with stereo sound would take up? I really want to calculate approximately how mch space 30 half hour TV shows would take. Minus 16 minutes each hour. So, that'd be 660 minutes or 11 hours of video. The quality would be VHS of course. Oh, and should I really use the 2 hour SP? Or would the 6 hour EP be good enough? And woule EP provide smaller files? In this case, if the video looks like what it does on the TV when I watch the tape. That's good enough for me.

Also, what tools can I use to edit the movies? You know, remove commercials and such? I guess I could do a VCR to VCR copy taking the time to fast forward, pause, record and such to remove all the excess crap. But I prefer the easy Point and Click method. Unless iMovie can do this? I'd have to split each half hour show into 4 or 5 parts. Opening, First act, second act, third act, closing and credits. I believe that's how the show was structured.

 

[jove]

You can spend $500 to $3000 for a digital camera. The Cannon ZR20, 25, and 30 are real popular for the $500-$700 price range. I have a $1700 Sony with many bells and whistles. Sony's have the best chip-sets and lenses. Cannons have good price and an optical stabilizer.

There are many features in the cameras (inputs, outputs, still feature set, expandability, flashes, mounts, lenses, etc). It takes a while to become educated enough to understand all the variations. The Sony is my second camera because I didn't know what I needed/wanted.

Determining the space required for a compressed movie is an art. I cannot tell you the number of times I have had the export a movie numerous times to minimize the loss yet fit in 660MBs. There is supposedly some software available at versiontracker to help with the computations.

VCDs did win popularity in Japan. That is part of my VCD porn theory

As far as cable, we watch very little TV. I caught an episode of Junkyard Wars while on a business trip. I thought about getting cable just for that!

 

[dricci]

Skip cable and get a satellite. Other than a horrible windows/accountant-like interface, Dish Network has a great channel selection. I've heard good things about DirecTV with the built in TiVo, too.. Skip the Dish Network PVR, though.. It runs a very hacked and dumbed down version of MS UltimateTV...

 

[ernie]

I have done it, it's very awkward, I wish someone would write a single click or command line script to do it, with perhaps a set once config file. The quality is fantastic and played on a DVD/svcd stand alone player and also with vlc under Mac OSX.

The link to instructions is : http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/svcdXb.html


hope that helps.

 

[jamerican]

There is an alternative, outside of your computer. Visit http://www.terapintech.com/. They have available a VCD standalone recorder for a little under $500. You can record to this on a CD-RW from any source, including commercial dvd's. Each disc will hold up to 74 mins of VHS quality. The discs are playable in most dvd players. I have one for nearly 2 years and am quite pleased with it. Check out the site.