How do I know? To VCD or to SVCD?

[reapur]

Hi,
how do I determine if I should convert a divx .avi to vcd or svcd?
I am planning on using this guide:
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/userguides/111846.php

but I need help to determine if I should go vcd or svcd.

Here are GSTRING screenshots of these movies.





Cheers

[ZippyP.]

I generally look at the source and decide from there. The resolution of your sources appear high enough to use SVCD (480x480) but how does the video look to your eye? If they're not bad then you will get best quality with SVCD. If they're lousy then you won't loose much going to VCD. Generally you don't want to upsize (lo res > hi res) when converting, at least not by much. It's really up to you how you want your output to look.

P.S. CVD (352x480) is actually the best match for your videos. Look in the Tools section for CVD templates, they're a slightly lower res SVCD and the video is DVD compliant.

[indolikaa]

I'd go CVD on both, although the VCD output wouldn't be that bad.

[Zal42]

If you're planning on playing these in a standalone player, then double-check what formats your player can handle (actually try out test disks -- don't trust manufacturer's claims) that might make your decision right there.

[FKrueger]

ya, do check what the players support, I've gone XVCD with a cbr, capturing at no less than 2.0 mbit per sec. and am happy with that, better than tape on a 55" tv.

[reboot]

I generally decide if I want VCD or SVCD based on two things.
The quality of the original, and the size of the output.
If you want to make an SVCD with decent quality, it takes a reasonably high bitrate, and the resulting mpeg may not fit on one CDR. If the original's quality isn't that great to begin with, you have a couple of options, make an SVCD that spans two disks, or sacrifice a bit of quality to fit it on one disk, or...make a VCD at higher quality that will easily fit on one disk.
Clear as mud?
eg. Your first screenshot above, the movie is only 480x352, but it's already at 29.97fps. 348 meg, once converted to SVCD with decent quality, is going to be far too big to fit on one CDR. Better to make a high quality VCD with it, or split it into two, and make a great quality SVCD.
Your second screenshot above, the movie is 640x352, only 23.976fps, but it's 690 meg. It's too big for one CDR, no matter what you do to it. Split it into two equal parts and make a high quality VCD, or split it into three equal parts, and make it into high quality SVCD.

[reapur]

Thanks for all the help guys.
For the first one, I did get the cvd templates and I'm assuming I just import them into Tmpgenc.

Since the second one won't fit on a cd, I'm gonna convert it to DVD using this tutorial
http://www.polarhome.com:793/~afonic/tmpegenc.htm

hopefully it works

[reboot]

Do you have a DVD burner? If not, that guide isn't going to help much.
I thought you wanted (S)VCD to burn onto CDR...

[reapur]

Yeah, I got the lite-on 811.
I will end up doing to SVCD or CVD (if I can figure out how to use it) and to DVD on the second one. I'd like to avoid having two discs if possible.

Thanks again for all the help.

[Gazorgan]

No comments on Pirating? That's a bittorent file....