Fram avi to mpg2, best settings for Tmpgenc ?

[tvdk]

I've tried several settings in Tmpgenc but i can not figure out how The Great Hollywood producers do it.

Everytime i convert a home movie from avi to mpg2, I like to think that using VBR is better than CBR, but maybe i'm wrong.
These hollywood movies seem to have much less Bitrate (average 4) where i always come up with at least 7 which means i can put less video on my dvd r.

Ofcourse i can limit the max datarate but this means i also limit the quality of my video.

Can anyone give me some tips on what settings i might better use when want to keep quality but also like put more on my dvdr?

Thanx in advance.
Ton

[Ejoc]

I've tried several settings in Tmpgenc but i can not figure out how The Great Hollywood producers do it.

They arent using TMPGEnc, and the producers arent that great :P

Everytime i convert a home movie from avi to mpg2, I like to think that using VBR is better than CBR, but maybe i'm wrong.

VBR is better. But your source is VERY important, how it was captured will make a huge difference in final output.

These hollywood movies seem to have much less Bitrate (average 4) where i always come up with at least 7 which means i can put less video on my dvd r.

I dont understand these nunmbers you are talking about in reguards to bitrates.
SVCD/CVDs range from 0->2,520kbps
I dont know DVD limits off the top of my head, but I know they goto 8,000kbps.

Ofcourse i can limit the max datarate but this means i also limit the quality of my video.

yup

Can anyone give me some tips on what settings i might better use when want to keep quality but also like put more on my dvdr?

For home videos. Capture 352x480. Encode at around 3,000kbps, 352x480, audio 192kbps

[Ejoc]

A rate round 2,000kbps should be fine too. At that rate, you should be able to fit about 4 hours of video on a dvd

[tvdk]

thanx man,

ofcourse i ment 4000 kbps (or actually Mbps). I use Raptor RT to capture and this means i;d like to have the best quality that's possible, at least as good quality raptor gives me. So, the output has to be 720x576, same like the movies on television or a normal dvd (pal).

Vcd is not an option, quality loss is too big, it has to be Dvd. So 2000 kbps is way to low i think

But thanks anyway!

ps.. ofcourse the 'great hollowood...' was just a joke

[ZippyP.]

i;d like to have the best quality that's possible, at least as good quality raptor gives me. So, the output has to be 720x576, same like the movies on television or a normal dvd (pal).

I suggest using 352x576 pal resolution for your DVD, it's a legal DVD resolution and is widely used as a final resolution for captured material. Although commercial DVD is higher resolution, TV isn't much higher than that. Any higher resolution for a capture is wasting resolution and bitrate, it in fact may look better if you keep the bitrate up and reduce the resolution.

Try a VBR encode at 0 min, 4-5000 avg, 8000 max bitrates and resolution set to 354x576 and see if you like the results.

Another problem for you because of your source is video noise. Although you may not be able to see it, it affects the video because it eats up bitrate. You can crank up the bitrate to compensate or you can try noise filtering, TMPGEnc has a noise filter or you can use Virtualdub and frameserve. If your source is pretty good then you can keep your settings low. Be aware that TMPGEnc encoding time will increase dramatically

Good luck!

[ronnylov]

Hollywood movies are shot on film with an expesive high defenition film camera with very good optics. Your home movies are shot with a cheap camcorder (compared to a hollywood film camera) and are shot in interlaced format. The CCD sensor in your camera adds more noise to the picture compared to a film camera.

The hollywood studios have expensive equipment which keeps the source very clean and they use expensive hardware mpeg2 encoders when they convert to mpeg2.

Your home video will be much more noisy and also interlaced. It is more difficult to encode. You need to compensate for all this with a higher bitrate, or use a lower resolution, or use denoising filters to make it easier to compress at a lower bitrate. You'll loose quality with the lower resolution and the filters and the lower bitrate but that's the price you have to pay to fit more on a disc.

My personal opinion is that my home videos are more worth than the price of dvd-r discs so I always encode them at maximum bitrate and full resolution and keeps the denoising filtering as low as possible. I can still fit one hour on a dvd-r and that's quite much of home video. My home videos are so boring that nobody can stand watching more than one hour anyway...

[bugster]

I suggest you take a look around the forum for some of lordsmurf's or SatStorms post with respect to filtering. Good filtering on analog captured material can have a big effect on the amount of 'noise' the encoder has to handle. Remove this noise and the encoder can concentrate on supplying the available bitrate to the real picture, thuis improving final quality. 1/2 D1 resolution is also a good suggestion.

One problem with home video that you can't fix though is camera shake caused by the use of hand held cameras. This just eats up bitrate but all you can do is live with it (or buy a tri-pod!).

[BreakingTheSilence]

What exactly is half D1 resolution? Is there a setting for it in TMPEnc or is this something I set during capture?

By the way, thanks to everybody for all your suggestions. This is truly a great forum with a ton of helpful people posting. Thanks again!

[bugster]

[quote="BreakingTheSilence"]What exactly is half D1 resolution? Is there a setting for it in TMPEnc or is this something I set during capture?

[quote]

half D1 resolution is 352*480/576 (NTSC/PAL)

You don't say what kind of format yuour home movies are in. If you are doing analog capture, then you can capture at this resolution and encode at this resolution. If your camcorder is DV, you must capture at full D1 resolution (720*480/576) but can encode to 1/2 D1 with TmpGenc.