vcd works great / svcd skips and pauses...

[Mordant]

Hi there,

I'm playing around with converting divx to vcd and svcd so that I can play them on my DVD player. I have a Samsung 711, and I'd really like it to be good for something =)

I've burned vcd's and had no trouble with them at all.

When I burn Svcd's with Nero I have a problem with them skipping and pausing. I've tried on 650 and 700 meg cd's.

Is there a setting or template that I could use for better results?

I'm using TMPGEnc12a.

Thanks

[Vejita-sama]

First are you using the right template (NTSC vs PAL) and NTSC vs NTSC Film. I assume so since you've maed VCDs that work fine.

Try making an image of the MPEG and burning that. Nero often has trouble burning SVCDs.

Your DVD player might support VCD but not SVCD, check the DVD Players list to the left. OR might have a really low SVCD max bitrate.

As an aside, quaility wise MPEG1 and MPEG2 look the same at the same bitrate and resolution.

[thxkid]

True on the MPEG1 and MPEG2 looking as the same resolution, but not if your original source was recorded at 480x480, at that resolution MPEG2 has a much sharper image over MPEG1. Actually if your resolution is either 352x288(PAL) or 352x240(NTSC) then if you encode to MPEG2 at 480x480 you are streching the image so it will actually look worse as a SVCD than a VCD.

[Mordant]

I've actually tried using both the PAL and NTSC templates and both seem to work on the movie.

I'm working with a DIVX that has a frame size of 672x256 at 25fps. The guide says to use PAL for 25fps source.

The image is much better on the SVCD than the VCD (vcd seems blockier).

My player is supposed to play SVCD and does for the most part, it just seems to choke on some scenes, skip/pause, and then the audio is out of sink until I pause and start it again.

I'd be happy with instructions on how to make a good looking VCD from my DIVX.

...thanks for the help so far though...

[Mordant]

How do I go about making an image of the mpeg?

[Vejita-sama]

You can make an image using VCDImager + VCDImager GUI (VCDImager is a dos program). Both are under Tools to the left. There are several GUIs for VCDImager, another popular one is TSCV because you can add seamless chapters (entry points), make motion/still menus, intro/extro MPEGs, etc. etc.

[Mordant]

I'm about to try using VCDimager and CDRAO (just waiting for the SVCD mpeg to encode).

Is it possible that using a different bitrate would help?

I'm using 2496 for the current test video. Would a lower bitrate result in less skipping at a cost of picture quality?

As I said above, the VCDs I've burned play fine, but the picture quality looks poor compared to what I get with SVCD (mpeg1 vs mpeg2).

I've tried using the sharp and soften settings in TMPGEnc and the VCD looks slightly better.

[Mordant]

I tried burning the sample svcd with menus from here with CDRDAO. It worked perfectly. I was able to play it on my samsung 7-11 and use the menus. Great!

So, it seems my problem might just be with Nero. Going to try a full movie tonight.

Thanx for the help here.