RMVB to VCD problem

[smurfgun]

Hi All,

I guess I'm a newbie - first time posting.

I have some RMVB files and they are quite good quality. I used EO video to convert to VCD. But in doing so, I lose a lot of quality. Not aweful, but I'm simply not happy with it. Does anybody know what I can do to improve it (unless I hit some VCD limitation; but I'm sure I've seen VCDs with pretty good quality).

I tried SVCD but it takes about 5 years to convert a file.

[daamon]

Hi smurfgun and welcome to the site and forums.

This link might be of interest.

It could just be, as you say, that you've hit the quality limit for VCD. The bitrate and resolution in those really are fairly low and are generally the poorest compared to SVCD and DVD.

The link mentions TMPGEnc - It's a very good encoder to MPEG1 (for VCD) and MPEG2 (SVCD and DVD). For MPEG1, it's free...

You say SVCD takes a long time - what are your system specs? Hint: Update your profile with your computer's details...

[smurfgun]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply! I have updated my profile with some computer specs. I think it may be the limitation of VCD. Will you use EO Video to convert to SVCD as well? How long do you expect this to take? I leave it for hours and it will still be converting the audio.

Thanks again,

[daamon]

Hi smurfgun,

I'm not at all familiar with EO Video, but looking at the FAQs on their site it says you can only convert to AVI and MPEG1 (VCD) - which is not surprising as I don't know of a free encoder that does MPEG2. SVCD is low bitrate MPEG2 (see "What Is... SVCD", top left of the page for full specs).

Having not used it, I can't say how long it'd take - how long is the original RMVB file? That's obviously a main factor... When you say it took "5 years" to do SVCD - obviously this is poetic licence, but how long did it actually take?

I'm sorry I can't help more, but I'm limited as I don't know EO Video.

I don't know if this will work, but try AVICodec or GSpot on your RMVB file and post what it reports (if anything) - the audio especially as that's where you say it's taking ages.

The "VB" of "RMVB" stands for variable bitrate, and it may be that the audio is also encoded with a variable bitrate - I know that this presents a problem for TMPGEnc, so it may do for EO Video also.

If that's the case, you could try to extract the audio from the RMVB file to WAV format - VirtualDub may be able to work with the RMVB format. Once you've got the WAV, you may be able to have your RMVB file as the video (only) source, and the WAV as the audio source - again, don't know if this is possible....

Hope I've helped some, and good luck...

[smurfgun]

EO Video has an option for SVCD. I can't tell you how long it takes because I waited a couple hours and it was still decoding the audio. I think after a couple hours I was 30 minutes in. That's how slow it is.

[daamon]

30 minutes of how long in total?

Did you try AVICodec or GSpot?

[smurfgun]

Hi,

It is a 45 minute file. GSpot doesn't support RM... But AVI codec gave me the following:

File : 223 MB (220 MB), duration: 0:44:01, type: RMF, 1 audio stream(s), quality: 33 %
Video : 180 MB, 571 Kbps, 24.0 fps, 448*336 (4:3), RV40 = RealVideo 9, Supported
Audio : 40 MB, 128 Kbps, 44100 Hz, 2 channels, 0x0 = RealAudio 8,raac-2, Supported

[daamon]

Hi smurfgun,

Well, if it takes 2 hours to do 30 mins of SVCD, it'll be about 3 hours to do the full 45 mins.

It's been a while since I've done SVCDs, but I'd say (with your specs) that's in the right ball park. Again, I don't know EO Video so that may still be slow / fast - I'm basing that comment on my experience with TMPGEnc.

There's nothing suspicious looking about the file from AVICodec, so I'd say to kicj it off and see what you get. This video encoding is a game of patience... I usually leave mine running overnight - 7 hours to do a 36 minute AVI to DVD MPEG2 (but that was only a 1.8GHz CPU with slower fsb o the mobo and RAM).

Report back how you get on.