How To Convert CD+GÕs  Into AVI

 

Alright, this topic is made for those people who are mainly interested in karaoke work.   CD+G is the format used by the graphical interface used to display the lyrics when singing a karaoke.   Of course, the issues people will have is that their player doesnÕt support CD+G format and/or the  MP3 or WAV format associated with the CD+G graphics.  

 

In my application, the player WinAmp has  a plugin that supports CD+G and WAV as well as CD+G and MP3.  However, the CD+G graphics are displayed on a different window than the video from an AVI or MPG.   Thus it forces the user to switch windows manually.    This is of course awkward  when my chosen interface wonÕt rely on a mouse.

 

So, here is my process to convert a pair of files (a CD+G and MP3 pair) and make them into one  *.avi  or *.mpg file.  You can skip steps if you have already done them and you can stop anytime when you have your desired outputs.

 

 

A)  Converting the MP3 To WAV

 

Ok a rather basic task.   Normally, you wonÕt need to do this for CD+Gs but in my case Power CDG does require the wave file. To work.

 

Of course there are many programs that do MP3 to WAV.   I will choose dBConverter just because it does recursive directories well.

 

You start up this program as follows:

 

Select the MP3s to convert by clicking on it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Select WAV from the menu choices.

 

 

 

Then this confirmation screen comes up.   It is just a nag screen to summarize what it is going to do.

This will convert your MP3s to standardized 44.1Khz Windows PCM format.   Just click on CONTINUE.

 

 

 

If you want to make CD+G disks, you can stop your tutorial here.  If you want to refine it some more for VCD creation, then go the next chapter.

 

 

 

Converting the CD+G to AVI

 

Ok, in situations where the player will only handle formats that require the video and the audio to be in one file like AVI or MPG, then this chapter is for you.

 

I will use the Power CDG to AVI Converter program.

 

 

Now this little program is pretty powerful, even does batch mode for lots of files.  But I will keep this FAQ simple so I will just do a single file.

 

Alright, the program is asking for the source video and source audio files.   So click on the BROWSE button in the centre of the screen there.

 

A new sub-menu will come up.   From here you will want to click on the CD+G that you want to convert with.

 

 

 

Then click on OPEN when you got the right file highlighted.

 

The next thing to set is the video compression.   You will now click on the button labeled VIDEO COMPRESSION.   

This will bring up another small menu.

 

Just select  your favourite video codec you would like to compress with.   You can pick DIVX but since I always hate that stupid Divx logo on the corner of the room.  In my example I will use FFDshow.

 

 

 

 

Now, you could choose the AUDIO COMPRESSION button to play around with the sound.  

 

 

 

When we are ready to begin, we press CONVERT.  It will do itÕs thing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And then wait for it to be done.

 

 

c)  Virtualdub To Make A Single File Out Of Two                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            

 

 

The Last phase.   Now usually, that Power CDG2AVI thing should do the job.  However, for some strange reason I ended up noticing that there was no audio.

Ok, no big problem, we have done this before!

 

First thing we do is FILE and OPEN the name of the AVI we need to convert. 

 

The next tab to look under is the VIDEO tab and we want to sent the video compression down to DIRECT STREAM COPY.  No  point re-encoding it twice, unless of course you want to be a MPG for VCD burning.

 

 

 

In my case the audio was not working so lets load the audio in.  Under the AUDIO tab select WAV AUDIO.

 

 

 

 

 

You can also go into AUDIO /  COMPRESSION tab, and you will see this window for fixing the quality of the sound.  

 

 

 

 

The lower you set it the smaller the resulting file will be.   The usual is 44.1Khz, so I set it down to 22.0Khz.   Since most karaoke VCDs are in Mono, you can set the stereo down to mono.   That should cut the size down quite a bit.

 

 

 

Once you set those things,  you can click OK.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Back to the main  page.

 

 

Now go FILE, then SAVE OLD FORMAT AVI.

I choose to save it as old format so it will more compatible with old programs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, then it will save it as your new AVI file.

And it begins to convert it as follows:

 

 

 

 

After you are done, you can test the new AVI file.  Just click on it and play it in your favourite viewer.

 

 

 

And that is it.