Xvid to mpeg2 - bitrates

[2nickelstripper]

Hi,
I would like to covert two 40 min xvid files to mpeg2, so I can burn them onto a dvd5.

If the xvid bitrate is 1008, what should I select for the mpeg2 bitrate?

If I select a bitrate higher then 1008 for mpeg2, will it make the coverted quality closer to the original?

[Midzuki]

What is/are the resolution/s of your XviDs
Do they have "black borders", or not, ?

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[2nickelstripper]

The resolution is 512 x 384.

I don't see any black borders, but i'm watching them in windows media player.

[guns1inger]

General rule is 3 - 4 times the Xvid bitrate is required. The real answer is whatever is required. If you care about the quality then you need enough bitrate so that you don't degrade it further. If you don't care, use whatever you need to squeeze too much on a disc.

Better yet, get a player that plays the files as-is

[Midzuki]

4000 kbps should be sufficient if you resize to 352x480.
Use 7000 kbps for 704x480 or 7200 kbps for 720x480.
And apologies for the out-of-place question.

P.S.: guns1inger was faster than I.
Gotta lrn 2 type faster! =^.^=

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[2nickelstripper]

Thank you for the help!! It is greatly appreciated!!

[jagabo]

Forget bitrates. Use an MPEG encoder that supports constant quality encoding. Pick a quality level you're happy with and let the bitrate fall where it does (within DVD compatible limits of course). As others have pointed out, you'll usually find the bitrate is 2 to 4 times the xvid source.

[Midzuki]

jagabo wrote:

Use an MPEG encoder that supports constant quality encoding.

TMPGEnc, MainConcept, CCE.

Pick a quality level you're happy with

if you're using TMPGEnc, this means something between 60% and 85%.

and let the bitrate fall where it does (within DVD compatible limits of course).

minimum = 300 kbps, according to Wikipedia, or 0 kbps if your player is not picky.

As others have pointed out,
you'll usually find the bitrate is 2 to 4 times the xvid source.

I'd entirely agree with the quote above IF the OP intended to produce an MPEG file
with PAR 1:1 and same frame size as the Xvid source. Not the case, I suppose.

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[guns1inger]

jagabo wrote:

As others have pointed out,
you'll usually find the bitrate is 2 to 4 times the xvid source.

I'd entirely agree with the quote above IF the OP intended to produce an MPEG file
with PAR 1:1 and same frame size as the Xvid source. Not the case, I suppose.

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Even resizing to full D1, this rule holds in most cases. If the source quality was high, I would agree that something 7000+ would be better (although a lot of commercial discs encode the movies at 6000-ish), however if the resolution has been hacked down to 500's and the source bitrate to low 1000's, you will find that you gain very little to nothing in quality over around 5000 kbps unless you are using some decent filtering and a good encoder.

[jagabo]

As others have pointed out,
you'll usually find the bitrate is 2 to 4 times the xvid source.

I'd entirely agree with the quote above IF the OP intended to produce an MPEG file
with PAR 1:1 and same frame size as the Xvid source. Not the case, I suppose.

Even if you're upsizing you're not really creating more information, just spreading the existing information over a larger area. This increases the bitrate requirement, but not by much.

And I'm speaking of typical xvid sources, not the extremes.

[Midzuki]

Understood. Thanks for updating my knowledgebase.

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