This is intended to provide some help in getting your vids into the MPEG-2 format.

Important! Windows users should use LlamaEnc application to encode their video.

Note: If you have a program that allows you to create video for DVDs or SVCDs, then you *do* have MPEG-2 encoding capability. It's then just a question of figuring out the right settings. Try searching the help file for the software using the terms "bitrate" and "multiplex" to find the most important settings.

Mac info
PC info

Mac Info

Earlier instructions have been replaced by detailed step-by-step instructions from the fabulous Killa:

http://seacouver.slashcity.net/mac_mpeg2.html

The equally fabulous Barkley has also posted some very helpful alternative instructions, if those don't work for you:

http://www.bonuspoints.net/misc/Mpeg2EncodingwithiDVD.txt

PC Info

• We vastly prefer that you use LlamaEnc, a Windows-only application that uses open source software adapted especially by AbsoluteDestiny for Vividcon. The program converts a video into a m2v and wav pair ready for VividCon submission, and we have found that it eliminates the majority of problems we run into with "manually" encoded vids.
  
  You can download LlamaEnc here. To use the program you need to have the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 installed. If you do not have this installed, the LlamaEnc setup will notfy you and take you to the download site.
  
  The program is fairly straighforward. You open your video file, pick the settings, click encode. If you have any problems using the program, simply press F1 to read the User Guide.
  
  

• MPEG-2 video
  If you are more comfortable doing your encodes "manually" using a commercial application: MPEG-2 video is a format that produces very high-quality files with reasonably good compression. It's not as good a compressor as MPEG-4, which is a more recent format, but it's the one that was accepted as a general standard by manufacturers, so it'll be with us for a while.

  You have to get your video into MPEG-2 format in order to put it onto a DVD.
  

• To do this, you have to have an MPEG-2 encoder. Most commercial video editing tools include MPEG-2 encoding now, and TMPGEnc (www.tmpgenc.com) includes a 30-day trial of MPEG-2 encoding and is inexpensive if you want to purchase.




• Basic settings for MPEG-2 encoding
  There are many different possible settings to use in MPEG-2 encoding, and going into detail is beyond the scope of this guide, and also not really necessary. The most important basic ones are:
  • resolution: 720x480 resolution is the right resolution for NTSC-format DVD video. Most other kinds of disks (SVCD, VCD, etc) use different resolutions that are not DVD-Video compatible. Disks made with mixed resolutions will not necessarily play in all players.
    
    
  • aspect ratio: We would prefer 4:3 files. If you are using a widescreen source, please ensure that you letterbox the footage so that it isn't squished when shown at 4:3. The con projectors are 4:3 so it's best if everyone's vids are presented the same. We can at a push accept anamorphic source if you don't know how to do the letterboxing.
     
  • multiplexing: this refers to mixing together the video and audio. Turn this off. If you multiplex, you will get a single ".mpg" file. This is fine for playing on computer, but for actually authoring a DVD, we will have a much easier time of it if you have separate video and audio files. The video file will have an ".m2v" or "mpv" suffix.
     
  • bitrate: stick with 5300 kbps and only increase it if you get a poor quality file with pixelation. Never go above 7000 kbps for your average bitrate. It's not going to get better from there and many players will actually have stuttering with higher bitrate files.
     
  • constant vs. variable: use variable bitrate if your encoding tool supports it. It saves space by not using the max bitrate for parts of your video that don't need it, like black screens. However, this is totally not necessary, it'll just make for a slightly smaller filesize.
     
  • audio: If you turn off multiplexing, then most encoding tools will either make an uncompressed .wav or .aiff file. The audio should be in 48000 kHz frequency. If it's not, the DVD won't work. This trips up a lot of people because when you rip audio from a CD, it is in 44100 kHz frequency.
    
    
• Demultiplexing:
  
  If you've got an .mpg file and want to break it up into separate pieces, it's very easy and can be done for free. Here's how.
  1. Get TMPGEnc (www.tmpgenc.com). The free version (even with the MPEG-2 encoding timed out) is all you need.
      
  2. Install and run TMPGEnc. Cancel out of the Project Wizard that opens when you start up.
      
  3. Under the File menu, go to MPEG Tools.
      
  4. Click the De-multiplex tab. Browse to the .mpg file you want to split apart. TMPGEnc will then list all of the video and audio parts inside the file (typically you'll just see one video and one audio, plus an unimportant "padding" part). This also has the nice effect of showing you the bitrate and frequency of the parts, in case you're not sure about those.
      
  5. Double-click on each of the parts that you want to save, in turn, and TMPGEnc will let you save them to separate files.