Hi, my first questions here

Using TMPGEnc I'm trying to create as high a quality xsvcd as I can that will play on my Pioneer DV-355. This dvd player is fine playing svcd and mp3 etc and I am able to play the xsvcd that I have burnt using Nero 5.5 but having tried many different settings as suggested around the forum, and going through a number of cd's I can't get it to display in the correct aspect ratio on my TV.

My original(source) footage is PAL 720x576 25p (progressive) captured as a .avi

It is footage captured from my Panasonic ag-dvx100 camera. After figuring that I had to change my dvd player settings to 4:3 pan+scan instead of letterbox I am getting the correct height displayed, but the width is a bit stretched. I have tried a few different sizes in the TMPGEnc settings under the video tab like 480x576 and the closest I've got so far is with that and the advanced source aspect ratio at 1:1 VGA, but still a bit stretched.

My other problem is that the clip is playing in what seems to be double speed, but this varies, it's as though it's going faster when the variable bit rate is less and slower (normal speed) when it goes higher. The only way I have been able to view it at the correct speed is when I set the bitrate as 'Constant Bitrate' at 8000 and played it on my PC using PowerDVD, but of course this bitrate was too high on my Regular DVD player and it just staggered.


some settings I've tried:

'Video' tab
Stream Type: MPEG-2 Video
Size: 720x576 or 480x576
Aspect Ratio: 4:3 Display
Frame Rate: 25 fps
Rate Control Mode: 2-passVBR (various bitrates) or CBR (various bitrates) or CQ (various bitrates).
Profile&Level: MP@ML
Video Format: PAL
Encode Mode: Non-interlace
YUV format: 4:2:0 (only option)
DC component precision: 8 bits
Motion search precision: High Quality, (tried the others too)

Advanced 'tab'
Video source type: Non-interlace (progressive)
Field order: Bottom field first (field B)
Source aspect ratio: 4:3 625 line (PAL) and tried 4:3 Display and tried 1:1 VGA
Video Arrange Method: Full screen (keep aspect ratio)

whew

any advice would be hugely appreciated.

Jon.