A question of Quality

[geeare]

When I convert my AVI file from my camcorder to the settings needed to create a VCD I lose so much quality that it's not even worth it. There must be a better way to convert. I've tried TPMGENC and Nero to convert but they come out the same. I've never seen a real VCD before so maybe this crappy quality is the way they are suppose to look.

Any help would be great.

Thanks in advance!

GR

[SaSi]

To start with, congratulations on the complexity and quality of your posting. It took me more than 100 postings to be able to put in a proper link and pic.

On your question, VCD isn't the best quality around anyhow. It's 10 year's old technology tied and almost a quarter of the size of the frame of a descent modern camcorder. And if you compare it with DV, it has 17 times less bitrate to show the movie. So don't expect much.

Try SVCD and if you still don't like it, then go for DVD. If you can't afford to buy a DVD Recorder just now, create cDVD disks which you will be able to re-author to DVD eventually. At least you will have the assets ready made.

[geeare]

That's great thanks for the info. You're right, I can't afford a DVD burner right now but prices are dropping rappidly. Think I'll do what you suggest and prepare it for DVD.

Thanks again!

GR

[overloaded_ide]

Doesn't the quality have more to do with the amount of time your trying to put on the disk than the type of disk?

I think if you wanted 30 minutes on a cd you could get pretty good quality, but 3 hrs forget it

Granted, I have only made a couple Vcds, but I thought they were farily good for the short ones and high bit rates. I did not like the 90 minute movie I put on one very well though. Maybe what I made was above standard bit rates or something. Primarily I made 30-60 minite ones, and they were from VHS captures. I used TMPGEnc and Nero, and the info I found in the guides here.

I have a DVD burner now, so I don't do VCDS much, though I may do a couple for people with computers and only CD drives.

[Vejita-sama]

Well when someone says to be VCD I think of the whitebook standard, but often people say VCD when they mean xVCD. Similarly when people save avi they almost always mean DivX/xvid.

Most DivX files (esp d/loaded ones) are in pretty poor shape to begin with. And GIGO. I personally think that the CVD resolution of 352x480 is the best way to go (assumeing your source is approx equal or greater resolution, which again many DivX/xvid files are not).

At any rate, want to see a good looking VCD. Take a DVD rip and encode from that. Or make an xVCD at a high bitrate from a DVD source.

[SaSi]

At any rate, want to see a good looking VCD. Take a DVD rip and encode from that. Or make an xVCD at a high bitrate from a DVD source.

A good looking VCD is pretty hard to get. At 1.5Mbps for 352x288(PAL), and while we are already "spoiled" by DVDs, VCD stands out as outdated.

The worst problem of the VCD is that the bitrate is too low and you can't increase it at the expense of time capacity. 1.5Mbps is as much as it gets or the players start jumping frames.

[Redd]

I use Studio 8 and have burned only one VCD and thirty-five DVD's. The results on the VCD were actually quite good, I was very impressed and happy with the quality of the VCD edited, rendered, compiled and burned using Studio 8.

[spiderman2k1]

you can give Super-VCD and try much better then VCD but you have to encode it right. If not encode right VCD can look better. If I was you use CCE to encode

[Vejita-sama]

If you don't have a DVD burner I think that 352x480 at 2500kbit/s is the way to go for best quaility (higher if your standalone will support it). The problem is that leaves you with ~39min / 80min CDR.

VCD/CVD/SVCD are all outdated formats really IMHO the CVD resolution is the best compromise.