how to create an SVCD from an AVI file

For this you can use the mencvcd script that comes with mplayer.

• if you don't have it already, install mplayer, mencvcd sits in the TOOLS subdirectory
• you also need vcdimager and cdrdao
• mencvcd <name> -a 2 -svcdout -vbr 1810 -vfr 3 -abr 192 <input file.avi>
  -a 2: aspect ratio 4:3
  -vbr 1810: video bit rate (default is 2500)
  -vfr 3: 25 frames per second
  -abr 192: audio bit rate (default is 224)
  you can play with the video and audio bitrate to get a smaller/larger file (limited by what your writable CD can take)
• mencvcd calls mplex:
  mplex -f 5 -v -o name%d.mpg name.mpv name.mpa
  -f 5: user rate SVCD (because vbr was set), for standard SVCD use 4.
  If it stops at the mplex call, remove the parameter -m 2 from the line mplexnorm="-f $SVCDMODE -m 2 -V -b 230" (around line 335)
• the mencvcd script calls cdrdao to burn the CD. To do this with an ATAPI CD-ROM drive (all steps as root!):
  
  • get cdrtools version 2.01 or up (beta version) and install (read the README.linux file)
  • to see where your drive is:
    /opt/schily/bin/cdrecord -scanbus
  • change the line CDDEV="--device 0,1,0" (around line 85) to CDDEV="--device ATAPI:0,1,0" (if cdrecord --scanbus told you your writer was at 0,1,0 obviously)(you may need a different transport specification, run cdrecord dev=help to see what is available)
• add --speed 16 (for example) to the call to cdrdao (almost the last line in mencvcd) if you don't want to write at the maximum speed
• alternatively, you can use cdrecord to burn the CD, instead of cdrdao:
  /opt/schily/bin/cdrecord dev=ATAPI:0,0,0 -v -dao cuefile=name.cue