After TMPEGing, how to burn DVD with AC3?

Some films also have the 2 channel ac3 file. But be careful, most of the time it's the directors comments. If there are two 2-channel ac3's, then at least on will work for you. I believe you can also import the audio into BeSweet and change the 5.1 ac3 to stereo ac3 without any quality loss. You can also change it to a wav or mp3. I'm unsure about how to author CVD's though. I'm not familiar with them. Is this similar to a dvd?

Yes, CVDs are "DVD-compliant" MPEG2 videos, merely half as wide as standard DVD (352x480). But with a high enough bitrate, they look DVD-quality anyway. The upshot is the files are now smaller in size. So, those of us with DVD burners can make longer DVDs (since we can only burn to 1 layer, and not dual layer). At any rate, since I want to preserve the 5.1 surround sound, I have the AC3 file ripped and the CVD-formatted M2V file. Now I just need to find a way to assemble a DVD with these files somehow.

Well, I'm not sure if this will work, but here goes. If you open up ifoedit v. 0.95, click DVD Author from the drop down menu. In here place your m2v file first, then your ac3 file, then your subtitle file and last your chapter file. Press save and select a new folder to store everything, not the source folder though. This will give you vob's. I'm not sure if this is what cvd's require though. Is this the right file extension you need (vob's)? I'm curious, with a 352x480, does that squish your video horizontally? And do you put your files onto a dvd disc? You've got my gears turning.

I'll try the IFOedit thing, even though I don't have subtitles or chapters. And no, it doesn't squish the video at all! It looks perfect! Which is why I want to make this work! I burned a test with plain stereo sound and it was flawless. It looked exactly like the original movie. Of course, I want to preserve the AC3, so that is the next hurdle. If I can get this to work, then the sky's the limit!

Yeah, you don't really need the subtitles. I put them on just in case of a movie like "Snatch" where you can't tell what the frig they're saying. The chapters are very easy to do, and it doesn't take hardly any space at all. This will give your remote the possibility to skip to chapters easily, rather than scan in fast forward. Let me know if this works, I would eventually like to put Lord of the Rings on 1 dvd and if this reduces file size without sacrificing quality, then I'm on your team!

I typed in cvd in search and can't find anything. Is there a guide somewhere?

I've gotta say that I'm not impressed with my results with the quality. Very blocky. The website you sent me to said the max resolution for cvd's is 2520. This is what I set in TMPGEnc. It came out with a very good reduction in filesize, but it is very noticeable in poor quality. Maybe I'm missing something. Can you set the bitrate higher?

Yes. I will send you my TMEPG template. Push that baby up! I think I did 4000 max, 3000 average, and 2000 minimum.

To use Maestro to only have the movie(no menu, single track of sound), make a new project. 1)Delete the only menu listed on the left. 2)Double click "Movie1" 3)Drag the m2v file and ac3 file into the assets bin on the bottom right 4)After the files are read and verified, drag the m2v file into the movie track in the movie1 window, and the ac3 into the first audio track 5)Right Click on Untitled1 Project 6)Click View Connections (If it's already checked, find the connections window) 7)Drag Movie1 from the bottom half of the connections window into the top half of the window placing it in the bar that says "First Play" on the left 8)Click on Tools, Compile...Choose a place for it to put your finished DVD 9)Test the DVD in PowerDVD, or burn to disc if you have discs to waste... I suggest Nero 5.5.8.2 This method does not include subtitles or extra audio tracks, but if you want to add them, check Maestro's user manual. It has tons of great help. Any questions - feel free to ask! Good luck!