SVCD to DVD Video Workflow in Linux

Athough many new DVD, HD-DVD and Blueray players sold in the United States don't play SVCDs directly, the video hardware in these players can still decode a SVCD video stream if it is properly burned onto a DVD. This document explains how to convert an SVCD to a DVD without reencoding the video.

Ripping the SVCD

Use vcdxrip to extract the audio/video files from the SVCD.

$ vcdxrip -i /dev/cdrom

Note that SVCDs do not have the same kind of error detection and correction that data CDs and DVDs have so this may be tricky.

Encode the Audio at 48000hz

The 44.1Khz audio track needs to be resampled to 48Khz in order for the DVD player to play the video track. This can be done with

$ mpeg3cat -a0 avseq01.mpg >avseq01.m2a
$ ffmpeg -i avseq01.m2a -y avseq01.wav
$ sox -V avseq01.wav -r48000 avseq01-48.wav
$ toolame -b192 -s48 avseq01-48.wav avseq01-dvd.m2a

Multiplexing the Video

If the SVCD video stream was earlier edited with GOPChop then there may be a non-zero audio/video offset. You must specify this offset when multiplexing the primative streams to avoid audio/video desynchronization. You may find the offset with

$ mpeg2desc -m <avseq01.mpg

The units of the offset is given in terms of 1/90000ths of a sec. Divide the the output of mpeg2desc by 90000 to obtain an offset measured in seconds suitable for mplex. This can be done automatically with the commands

$ mts=`mpeg2desc -m <avseq01.mpg`
$ sec=`echo $mts / 90000.0 | bc -l`

after which the environment variable $sec will contain the offest. Now extract the primative video stream

$ extract_mpeg2 avseq01.mpg >avseq01.m2v

and then multiplex this with the resampled audio track with

$ mplex -O${sec}s -f8 avseq01.m2v avseq01-dvd.m2a -o avseq01-dvd.mpg

Converting SVCD Stills

To convert an SVCD still to a png image use the commands

$ mpeg3cat -v0 item0019.mpg >item0019.m2v
$ ffmpeg -i item0019.m2v -vframes 1 -f yuv4mpegpipe -y /dev/stdout |
    y4mscaler -O chromass=444 |
    y4mtoppm |
    pnmtopng >item0019.png

Writing the DVD

Prepare the menus for the DVD by taking the png files and adding button highlights. Then make the DVD using the remultiplexed SVCD tracks above.

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Last Updated: Fri Jul 4 21:29:00 PDT 2008