vcd versus svcd

[jyeh74]

I noticed that when I use Nero Burning Rom and encode and burn 3 mpegs to a vcd that the total is about 150 mb. But when I encode and conver these exact 3 mpegs to SVCD, then it is close to 300mb. I dont notice the quality to be higher so why is it so much bigger? The playback seems the same. Is there a reason why people would burn it at a higher SVCD rather than a VCD?

[DereX888]

quality also depends on the source.
If your source file is lower quality than the output formats, you can't notice the difference in output's quality, no matter how high with the output resolution you'll go. You can't make HDTV out of VCD, all you'll do is just inflating file size (compared to source file).
I.e. if your source file is some 320x240 webcam capture or real media file, converting it to VCD, SVCD or DVD should give you same quality for all of them in theorey (because they are all of higher resolution than the source file).
The difference will be visible if you do it the other way around - when converting from higher resolution format (i.e. from DVD) to lower resolution format (SVCD, VCD, etc). In that case you would notice the picture quality difference between conversions to VCD and SVCD right away (if done right).

And ofcourse you might be doing it wrong too (wrong settings) and thats why you see no difference between VCD and SVCD...


I dont even think Nero can do proper SVCD encoding (VBR multipass MPEG-2), I think it does simple CBR MPEG-2 video encoding, but i may not remember correctly (been long time since when I test nero 6.0.0.0 ultra edition).
If your source file *is* of greater resolution than the VCD format specs, then apparently there is something wrong being done along the conversion way. In such case I would suggest trying different tools for making those conversions, i.e. TMPEG Encoder, DVD2SVCD with CCE, etc etc

[jman98]

The previous post is entirely correct. I would add only that anyone who really cares about quality does not ever allow Nero to re-encode their video for VCD or SVCD. Using a better encoder might help, with the caveats mentioned above - if your source is low resolution, don't expect SVCD to be better than VCD. TMPGenc is quite good, but CCE can give better results for SVCD, especially if you use it in multipass mode for VBR encoding.

[DereX888]

thank you jman98 for support

jyeh74 wrote:
"Is there a reason why people would burn it at a higher SVCD rather than a VCD?"
Somehow I missed answering that (well, I did, but indirectly).

SVCD = MPEG-2 compression, 480x480/576 pixels, with video bitrate up to ~2.5Mbps (more or less, it depends what audio bitrate you'll use, and will you add anysubtitle streams or not). Audio bitrate may be as high as 384kbps.

VCD = MPEG-1 compression, 352x240/288 pixels, with video bitrate fixed at constant 1.15Mbps, with fixed audio bitrate set at 224kbps, no possibility to add selectable subtitles.

If the numbers above don't tell you big differences between both formats, then you just have to believe my word for it
SVCD, viewed on standard analog televison sets, should look as good quality as DVD is (if done right and the movie allows for it). VCD simply sux compared to SVCD.

But again - to see a difference between VCD and SVCD, your source file have to be greater quality than either one.
If your source file is some low resolution (lower than VCD), then I'd go with VCD format - if all you need is to have it converted to some standalone player compatible format. And don't use Nero for it!

[arredja]

it also depends on if you really really really care about the quality a lot. for me if i can see it and its not to blurry than it is watchable and i make kvcd backups and i think there watchable. if you dont care an awful lot about quality than go kvcd you can get a lot of time on one of those bad boys i got all my rocky movies on one cd each and there was still quite a bit of room for more. just my two cents

[junkmalle]

I don't mind VCD resolution if I can't get anything better. But the biggest problem with VCD and NTSC material is that it's usually badly deinterlaced. Blend deinterlacing leads to frames that look like double exosures. Drop field deinterlacing leads to buzzing ~horizontal edges. 23.976 fps sources end up with duplicating every 4th frame to get to 29.97 fps, leading to jerky video.

SVCD can avoid all these problems in addition to having a clearer picture.