VCD quality?

[TheViking]

Do different encoders render different quality in the mpg?
And how do I make optimal quality mpg (for VCD) from an avi (DV) file?

The problem is that I am encoding from captured DV to mpg (VCD) in Pinnacle Studio 8. This gives me unacceptable quality. I only have an 1/2 hour of shaky handy-cam film to render, but the result is crappy. Why are other VCDs I have seen (from the net) so superior qualitywise?

And is there a way to manually make menus? (the only reason why I have to use Studio8 is to get the menus right)

Thanks

[energy80s]

I think you've just hit the nail on the head when you say that you have "shaky handicam footage" to transfer. This is going to look bad on any MPEG encode (even DVD) but will look really crap on a low bitrate VCD file. Remember that "garbage in = garbage out".

The only way to get a half decent encode will be to up the bitrate considerable from the 1150kbps VCD standard. This means either making an "out-of-standard" VCD (known as an xVCD) which won't play on most DVD players - although will play fine on a computer - or going for MPEG2 as either a CVD file or DVD file. If you don't have access to a DVD burner, then the CVD option is the one to go for. Do a search here for more info on CVD's.

[TheViking]

Thanks a lot for the answer.

The only thing that puzzels me a bit is that in the footage, there are fixed, non-moving titles and commentarys. Even these are blurry and blocky and hard to read. By the logic above, wouldn't they be of 'readable quality' since they are not moving around in the picture.

Thanks.

[energy80s]

Depends on the size of the titles. I've seen a lot of TV credits rendered unreadable in a VCD encode. Certainly some encoders are better at MPEG1 than others - the Panasonic coder is considered to be the best, but you can't expect miracles at 1150kbps!