How to put multiple SVCD movies on one DVD±R

This guide will show you how to put multiple SVCD movies on to one DVDR disc. Your SVCD's can be either already burned to CD's, CD Images (eg bin/cue) or MPEG files on your HDD. There will be no re-encoding of the video stream so technically this DVD will be non standard. However, the method used has been tested and has a huge success rate. You can fit up to approximately 4.36GB on one DVDR. One cd-r would hold up to an 800MB MPEG file, so at most we will fit five full cds onto the DVDR. We will be creating a very basic menu with DVD-Lab to be able to select which movie to play. SVCD compilations are not DVD standard because the resolution is 480x480 for NTSC or 480x576 for PAL. Also the audio on SVCD is 44.1khz, but needs to be 48.0khz for DVD. The video resolution is not a problem for most DVD Players but nearly all DVD Players wont play 44.1khz mp2 audio on DVD. For that reason, the audio will need transcoding, which is explained fully later. Some parts of this guide will have more than one method so some parts of text you will be skipping over. Take a look now at some tools you will need and the different methods this guide will cover you for.

What do you need?

First you need to know which of the three methods this guide covers that you will be taking. The three methods are...

1. Ripping from CD's --> Merging segments to make full movie files --> Build menu and burn with DVD-Lab.
2. Mounting your CD images onto Virtual Drives --> Merging segments to make full movie files --> Build menu and burn with DVD-Lab.
3. Merging segments (MPEG files) to make full movie files --> Build menu and burn with DVD-Lab.

To achieve any of these tasks, you will need to download some software from Afterdawn and there are other requirements you must take into account. This is what you will need.

1. VCDEasy or VCDGear (Needed only if you have your SVCD's burned to CD already, I recommend VCDEasy).
2. Daemon Tools or Alcohol 120% (Needed to mount CD Images onto Virtual CD Drives so they can be combined to make the full movie, Daemon Tools is a better option if you've never used either program).
3. MPEG-VCR or TMPGEnc (Needed to merge MPEG file segments together to make one full movie file. I recommend MPEG-VCR as you can transcode the audio while merging to save time).
4. DVD-Lab (Needed to build the menu, the DVD and finally burn the DVD. It can also transcode the audio to 48.0khz if you have chosen to use TMPGEnc to merge. DVD-Lab Pro is what I would recommend you get if you plan on buying software).
5. You will need a lot of free HDD space. I wouldn't feel safe without at least 20GB space altogether for freedom without having to delete files all the time.

So after you have downloaded the software you will need, you are ready to take your first step. The first part of this guide is only for people who have their SVCD burned to CD's already, Ripping MPEG files from CD's. If you have CD Images (.iso, .bin, .cue), skip this step and move onto Mounting CD Images to Virtual Drives. If you have MPEG files, then you can skip both and move onto Merging MPEG files with MPEG-VCR or TMPGEnc. This guide assumes that you have at least two movies, and each movie is on at least two CD's, in two image files or is two separate MPEG files. If both of your movies are just one file each already, then skip the whole way to the DVD-Lab parts.