DV to XSVCD???

[Benderchuk]

I would like to go from captured DV movie 720x480 res to XSVCD 720x480. First how does one convert? and secondly, how does one burn XSVCD with Nero 5.5 .Please help!. I am loosing quality going from DV->AVI->SVCD. Thanks

[JHebert]

Are you using TMPGEnc? Try using it with the SVCD template then load the Unlock template so that you can change the resolution to 720x480 and also increase the bitrate. Also try using 2-pass vbr for best quality encode.
The standard SVCD is 480x480 up to 2520 bitrate but you need to experiment to find out if your DVD player will play 720x480 and how high a bitrate it can handle. Check the DVD player guide here for info on your player.
I assume you are capturing from DV using Firewire to get best quality. You would lose quality capturing from analog outputs on camera with a TV card.

[Benderchuk]

Thank you for your input. I tried last night to render from Ulead VideoStudio 5.0 in 720x480 res. I achieved almost exact quality as my miniDV camcorder hooked directly to tv. Except now I can only fit 20 min on a CDR whereas I could fit ~1 hr of VCD with worse res. What do you think? IS it a good wayto do it? I acctually like Ulead with all the effects and things. Not too bad. The question now is what to sacrifice quality or CDR disks for making home movies? Any ideas? I am going from miniDV to MPEG-2 and then burn it with Nero 5.5 on SVCD template with compliance off. Works except for size. Yes I am using Firewire form my miniDV. I am using daewoo-5000N and how can I check the max bitrate it handles? Again really appreciate your input

[JHebert]

Glad to hear you are getting better quality results.
Unfortunately you have run into the size vs quality tradeoff and since there is only limited space on each cd you will be limited to relatively short movies on each cd at those settings.
You could try going back down to 480x480 resolution and use a little lower bitrate than you were using at 720x480 and you might be able to fit more minutes per cd with good quality. The difference between 720x480 and 480x480 is not that noticeable in my opinion. Use variable bitrate encoding (if Ulead supports it) to make the best use of available disk space.
A DVD burner would probably be the best option and they are getting a lot cheaper (~$500) but the media is still pretty expensive (~$6-10 each).
I think its mostly trial and error to find out what your player will support. The dvd player guides on this site are helpful but not always 100 percent accurate. The Daewoo players are very flexible and play most anything from what I've heard.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JHebert on 2001-11-30 10:02:23 ]</font>