Convert SVCD to VCD with TMPGEnc (From CD-Images or MPEG files(s))

Some DVD Players will not play SVCD correctly but will play VCD perfectly, so if you've got an SVCD and unfortunately, one of these DVD players, then this guide is for you. This guide assumes that the SVCD is just one movie, and its on multiple CD Images or in multiple MPEG files on your HDD. If it's only on one CD-Image or one MPEG file, that's ok, this guide will work for that too, you just wont have to take some of the steps. The difference between SVCD and VCD is that SVCD is MPEG-2 and VCD is MPEG-1. Also, the resolution of SVCD is 480x480 for NTSC and 480x576 for PAL whereas the resolution for VCD is just 352x240 for NTSC and 352x288 for PAL. VCD also has to be CBR 1150kb/s. The audio will also have to be re-encoded even though it is probably VCD standard already. It has to be re-encoded because you cant trust TMPGEnc to come out with the same file length as the input length, that however, is through no fault of its own. You can change NTSC to PAL or PAL to NTSC in this guide also but I do not recommend it, unless you want an annoying slight pause in playback, but if you need to make the conversion to be able to play the VCD then so be it. Remember a CD-R can hold just 80min's of VCD but since this guide is coming from CD-Images, then each CD-Image if there is more than one will have less than 80 minutes of video anyway. If your MPEG files on your HDD are longer than 80 minutes, please look for a guide to split them. Look below to see some information on what we will be doing and what you need.

Requirements

VCDGear - Needed to Rip MPEG files from CD-Images.
SSRC - Little external Sampling Frequency Converter for TMPGEnc, produces higher quality than the internal converter
tooLame - Little external MP2 audio encoder for TMPGEnc, produces higher audio quality
m2v plug-in - Plug-in for the freeware TMPGEnc to read MPEG-2 files. If you are using the Plus version, then you shouldn't need this
TMPGEnc - We will use this to encode.
VCDEasy - We will use this to burn the VCD.

The method we will take is as follows...

Rip from CD-Images --> Setup external encoders and m2v plug-in for TMPGEnc -->Encode to VCD with TMPGEnc --> Burn with VCDEasy.

You will need a few GB space at least and hours of computer free time, depending on the speed of your computer. We will not be using any wizards with TMPGEnc, we will manually set the settings for VCD.

What are we doing first?

The first thing we will be doing is ripping MPEG file(s) from the CD Images you have on your HDD. This guide assumes the image is a bin/cue image. We will use VCDGear to rip the MPEG file from the Image. If you already have an MOEG file, you can skip this next step and go straight to setting up the external encoders for TMPGEnc.