I would pay $1.99 for a mp3.....

[MrTorso]

Hmm. When I used the archive.org file for my Fun With Shorts DVD, I didn't have any trouble with the size. Although, come to think of it, DVD Architect did need to re-compress the video even though it was already mpeg2. In my experience, all the archive.org mpeg2s are not all DVD-ready.

Most of them have a size of 368x480 when I think the proper size should be 720x480. A guy on the archive forums has had good luck and results using virtual dub to resize. Here is what he said:

In case anyone cares...here's the best result I've found for resizing, use Virtualdub, and be sure to select "precise bilinear" as the method, it seems to minimize the "blocky" look.

[gammer]

No, don't resize it to 720x480. Going from 368x480 to 720x480 is not recommended.


Use an encoder like TMPGEnc and resize it to 352x480...that is a valid DVD resolution.

I can post screen shots on how to do this if anyone is interested.

Also, vDub is mainly for AVI encoding...its not designed or best used for MPEG encoding.

[gammer]

Ok, here's what to do to get the video from 368x480 to a valid DVD resolution without causing additional distortion or pixelation:


You can dowload TMPGEnc here (they have a trial version)

open TMPGEnc and click File, Project Wizard.

Then chose DVD NTSC on the left and VBR Linear PCM Audio on the right (as seen below).
This will give us our MPEG2 compliant video and a separate WAV audio that we can drop into GoldWave or Audacity for our audio mixing.
Then click Next


Now browse to the VisittoS1963.mpeg  file you downloaded and open it.
Next


Click the Other Settings button on the bottom right.
Now click the Setting button next to 2-pass VBR. I set mine to average 4200, max 8000, and min 300.
And I prefer to use a Motion Search precision of High Quality (Slow)
Click OK and Next


Now change the Video Resolution to 352x480.
Why? you ask...The source video is only 368x480. We want to match that as close as possible with a valid DVD resolution. It just so happens that 352x480 is the closest. 704x480 or 720x480 would be too big and cause more added distortion and fuzzyness.
Next


Chose a destination to save your M2V and WAV file to and click OK. If you used the same settings as I did, the encoding will probably take less then an hour.
When the encoding is complete, you can now take the WAV file and use it in GoldWave or Audacity for your audio mixing. When the audio mixing is complete, you need to encode the final WAV file to AC3 format or MP2 format.
Multiplex or Mux it back with the M2V file (TMPGEnc can do this too) and author it with your favorite DVD creation program.

[MartyS (Gromit)]

I ran mine through Nero Vision 4, using automatic settings and it looks normal on the TV.

[scottrkrv]

Not to toot my own horn, but to be a bit anal...I thought the volume level of the riffers was too loud. When I make mine, I will lower the volume level on the riffers so its closer to the movie volume. That way it doesn't sound like the riffers are blasting you.

When I converted the mp3 to a .wav (so that I could mix the rifftrax with the mpg file I d/l from archive.org) I had to increase the volume 4 times so that the movie soundtrack did not overwhelm the rifftrax.

[MrTorso]

Thanks gammer!

[bettertomorrowamy]

Yeah, good work, and thanks Gammer!  You are the Highlander!

[jetjaguar15]

Gammer: When I try to open the mpeg I downloaded from archive.org and already burned to dvd once, the TMPGEnc program gives me a error, saying "Can not open, or unsupported". Any suggestions?

[gammer]

Gammer: When I try to open the mpeg I downloaded from archive.org and already burned to dvd once, the TMPGEnc program gives me a error, saying "Can not open, or unsupported". Any suggestions?

You might not have a MPEG2 codec installed...or at least one that will work with TMPGEnc.
Try installing this one: http://www.rifftraxfan.com/other/mpeg2codecinstaller.zip
-unzip it
-Run the SetUp.exe
-Go to Start, All Programs, Free DVD Codec Installer...
-Click on Free DVD Codec Installer Version 1.0
-When the window pops up click the Install button
-This should install two codecs successfully and then allow you to open MPEG2 files in TMPGEnc

[Rude]

...

I just wanted to say thanx again to the guys at Rifftrax for giving us the MP3 for this release.

Originally i had copied the DivX file to DVD, but out of the three DVD players in my house... not one would play it. The last thing that i wanted to do was invite everyone at our Christmas party into my bedroom to huddle around the computer screen for 15 minutes. But the reauthor went amazingly well once i converted the public domain video to an ISO.  And it was almost easy compared to the Holiday Special.

Anyway, thanx for listening to the customers... even if we're shrill and annoying sometimes. I hope you can release the commentary MP3 tracks with any future DivX releases that you have planned. It helps to takes the sting out the whole DivX experiment while you guys work out the bugs.

-Rude