Half D1 MPEG encoding (up to 5000k bitrate) on Mac systems?

[lordsmurf]

Some of you Mac folks follow this more closely than I do. Several months back, last time I looked hard, Mac could do Half D1 up to about 3000k bitrate.

What is the current status?

What software exists that can do Half D1?

So far, I believe MainConcept is the only one.
FFMPEGX and QUICKTIME had bitrate limitations that were unacceptable.

Glad to hear if anything new is out.

[havema-1]

I have done this with MediaPipe. I have preconfigured templates, among others, for this at:

http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/MediaPipe_templates.sit

You can set whatever bitrate you choose although my Pioneer 444 plays only <2500 kb/s XSVCD. With a bitrate that low (or even lower) Half D1 was my favorite because it didn't get blocky so easily as larger resolutions.

I did a lot of Half D1 XSVCDs before getting a DVD burner. But now with iDVD the quality is so much better and the encoding so simple that I haven't bothered anymore.

IMO MediaPipe was great -- it allowed me to build own custom pipes so that even the aspect ratio is preserved when converting 720x576 to 352x288 and back to 720x576 or 704x576 etc. Not many pro apps do this right.

http://www.iki.fi/znark/video/conversion/

MediaPipe also allowed interlaced output which I prefer. For some weird reason many apps insist on progressive output (yes, progressive doesn't get blocky as easily as interlaced output but I prefer the smoother interlaced movement).

BTW, do MPEG2 Works or ffmpegX currently do interlaced output?

Unfortunately MediaPipe development seems to have stalled for quite a long period and some pipes (AFAIR mp2enc, for example) don't work with new Mac OS X versions anymore.

[lordsmurf]

Yes, INTERLACED MPEG-2 is required, and the desired output will be DVD. CBR is okay, but VBR is desired. Up to 5000k must be allowed.

[pants]

i'm not positive but i think bitvice can do it.

www.innobits.se they have a forum you could ask on too.

[lordsmurf]

i'm not positive but i think bitvice can do it.

www.innobits.se they have a forum you could ask on too.

That looks decent. I'll have to try it.