...I noticed they get an MP2 audio file, instead of an MPA one. Can I use the MPA file, instead, and get the same result? (I'll probably just try this if I have to.)
The other way I thought about burning was to use the other Cucusoft(R) software,Mpeg to DVD Burner, but there they only ask for the MPEG file to burn straight to dvd, which doesn't make sense, because what do I do with the other files?
Wait, do I need to multiplex them all into one mpeg file? Is that why it only asks for an mpeg and nothing else? I guess if the mpa and mp2 are the same I could use ifoEdit. Maybe I'll figure this out on my own, after all.
mp2 and mpa are the same thing.
What you've got is an mpa audio file, and mpv video file, and an mpg combined audio/video file.
Depending on what program you choose to author with, you can use EITHER the mpa/mpv OR the mpg.
If you choose to use the Mpeg to DVD Burner, just discard the mpv/mpa files.
Using IFOEdit, load the mpv, and the mpa to author.
The game is simple. Just keep in mind the definitions: VBR = Variabile Bit Rate; CBR = Constant Bit Rate.
The video in a movie has can have this resolution:
720x480/576 for DVD (MPEG type: MPEG-2);
480x480/576 for SVCD (MPEG type: MPEG-2);
352x240/288 for VCD (MPEG type: MPEG-1).
MPEG-2 are VBR and MPEG-1 CBR [except KVCD MPEG-1 - Kwags VCDs, made with some 'exotic' TMPGenc templates - which are VBR but CQ (Constant Quality)].
And remember (even if people loves to do it): quality can never be increased. It can only be decreased.
If you do DVD --> (S)VCD you decrease quality. If you make VCD --> DVD you make a 4.5 GB DVD movie with the same quality of a 1300 VCD movie (imagine to 'zoom' a small picture to make a larger one. The largest one has NOT better quality then the smallest, even if it ia 1000x800 pixels and 100 MB large and the one you used to make it was 50x30 pixels and 60 kB parge.
Usually it is either joined to the sound stream (and you create a MPG) but commonly, on DVD there is a video multiplexed to multiple audio+subtitle streams and you have VOBs.
The video alone can be M2V or M1V, and it can be easily imagined what it means.
The audio in a movie can be either Dolby Surround (AC3) - only for DVD - or MPEG Layer II (MP2). MP2 is sometimes also called MPA (MPEG audio). The (S)VCD convention is that they must be compressed 224 kbps, but some DVD player also accepts diferent bitrates.
The only problems are
1) DVD Sampling is 48 kHz and (S)VCD 44.1 kHz
2) in AVi movies you have MP3 (MPEG Layer III) audio, but you can either make a MP3 VBR or a MP3 CBR audio. VBR gves better quelity, at the same size, but the AVI --> MPEGs process requires CBR.
DVD player can usually watch DVD or (S)VCD movies.
The 'authoring' process put a MPEG in a DVD/CD image (.ISO, CUE/BIN, .NRG...).
Only DVD Lab accepts and doesn't try to convert but puts them into an image, (S)VCD movies in a DVD. The only care you must have is that those (S)VCD MPEGs must have audio 48 kHz sampled.
