VCD Burning
 

Toast from Roxio?

That works if you've got .mpg format. But i've got .avi format and toast dosent seem to like that.

Search for........
 

Sizzle and Minx Transcoder......

Nice little appz for conversion and encoding.

Might help, then again might not. I use them for DVD burning. Not sure if they do VCD. I will check tonight when i get home. Also see if I can find the links to download em.

I'll See
 

if i have a .avi to .mpg converter. Then u can use toast.

VCD requires a very specific format, just 'mpeg' isn't enough.
You must use MPEG-1 video, 352x240 pixels, 29.97 frames per second and a constant bitrate of 1150 kilobits/second. This assumes NTSC video. Do you use NTSC or PAL down under?
Audio must be MPEG-1 layer II, 44,100Hz stereo at 224 kilobits/second, combined in a suitable stream.

This is NOT the default format of many encoders as it consumes over 10Mb/minute.

There are several other support files that must be burned onto the cd, and you might want to check if your DVD player will even accept VCD's before going to all that work.

You can also read www.dvdrhelp.com and www.cdrfaq.org
There are many linux utilities that will transcode avi files. Hope you have patience, a big hard drive and a fast processor!

Give Missing MPEG Tools a try
http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/
There are some how to guides on the site as well. I'm not sure if it will transcode .avi files, but it does transcode some files. It will also create VCD (or SVCD) file structures, and disk images to burn in Toast.

Down under we use pal. By saying getting it to mpg is because thats what roxio toast uses and encodes to VCD or SVCD

Are you asking if mpg is the required format for Toast to make a VCD? MPEG 1 is THE format for VCD and MPEG 2 is THE format for SVCD (CVD and DVD as well) no matter what you use to burn the CD. You can read the specifics at
http://www.dvdrhelp.com/vcd

Try using Missing MPEG Tools...
http://homepage.mac.com/rnc/

converting from avi to mpeg 1 is tricky. i havent found a specific program to do it. If anyone knows of the best way to do this, that would be great.

Use Toast
 

Toast will convert ANY file compatible with quicktime into the desired MPEG1 format (see details in the post above).

It WILL convert AVI files. In fact, last night I converted a XviD .AVI file into a VCD using toast, just by dragging the file onto the Toast "create video CD" window. I did have the specific XviD and DivX encoders installed in Quicktime (search for the hint on macosxhints.com).

It seems like ANY file that will play in the quicktime player can be converted into VCD/SVCD/DVD video format within toast with no fuss - just a bit of patience....

I have tried encoding and burning VCD's manually and it is a real pain - I recommend just getting Toast.

Where do i get those addons for quicktime?

DivX and AVI files in Quicktime
 

Check out this hint:
Play any DivX file using Quicktime

Once set up, all you need to do is drag the AVI file onto the quicktime player, or right-click on the file and select quicktime player using the "Open with..." menu. You could even go in and instruct quicktime to open all AVI files using the finder's 'Get Info' box and setting the 'open with' option.

Enjoy!!

i have tried to make a VCD from quicktime competible AVIs
and here are the scenarios i have encountered,

1. I dragged an AVI into the Video tab in Toast and click record, n' it works on my DVD player.
2. I dragged Another AVI into the Video tab in Toast, and click record, n' it tells me that I need 1GB+ of space, and that my CD R isn't big enough. (my avi is about 500mb)
3. i tried dragging that same AVI into the Data tab instead and chose the "DVD-ROM (UDF)" option. the result is an AVI file that sits inside of what seems like a regular data CD... and my DVD player doesn't recognize the disk...

is there anyway to get around of this?

Sounds about right. The compression ratios of avi and mpeg1 are not the same. A random check of avi files on my machine show them to be about 20-50% of the resulting VCD-format file.

That's exactly what it's supposed to do.

What do you mean by "get around this"? The program is behaving properly. The avi you want to turn into a VCD is too big for a single cd. You must split it (either before or after conversion) with an appropriate tool or make a DVD.

Incidentally, it is perfectly kosher to make a DVD-Video with MPEG1 encoded to VCD specs. I'm not sure if Toast will do it, though.

Okay then… Your first AVI produced an MPEG Video under 700MB.

Yep. You could probably fit the video onto a DVD through the Video portion of Toast. The MPEG of your 500MB AVI would require a 1GB CD. Too big! The same AVI would require about 1/3rd of a DVD (MPEG2).

For the video to work as a DVD it has to be multiplexed properly. The Video section of Toast will do it for you. Putting the file on a DVD as data though would simply burn it as data on the disc.

If you have any xmas money left, one solution to all this is to buy a DVD burner. I picked up an internal Pioneer (branded as Piodata) from aria.co.uk for £65 - and it burns dual layer DVD's. If you go for a single-layer burner its probably half that price... and if you dont have a machine that can have its internal CD/DVD drive swapped (eg iMac or laptop), then go for a lacie external burner (firewire) which costs about £100...

.. the reason I suggest this is that I had similar problems with VCD and SVCDs - sometimes choppy quality and a lot of the time videos would just not fit...

does anyone know where i can get a copy of an avi spliter for mac?
there are tons of software that do it for PC, but i can't find any for Mac...

The PioData brand differs from the Pioneer DVR-108 in that it automatically booktypes DVD+R discs as DVD-ROM. This allows the DVD+R discs to be used in standard DVD Players. Both brands booktype DVD+DL (Dual Layer) discs.

What do you mean by an "AVI Splitter?" Are you looking for something that will break up AVI files into smaller clips or separate multiplexed AVI files?

i would like to break up my AVI file into smaller clips...
does anyone know any mac software that would do that for me?