OK, plain and simple pleeeeaaaase!!

[nazimm]

Hi Sefy/ ALL,

I have been reading a lot (and I mean a lot) of posts in VCDHelp and I am printing a bunch of them as we speak but as these things go it is not very easy to find THE answer without sifting through tons of e-mails.....so I thought I'd ask you direct if OK with you!!!

Here is the scenario: I have a bunch of good quality DivX movies ranging from 550MB up to 900MB. They play super on the PC monitor and very nicely indeed on the TV. I even taped a few on VHS and they are fine for TV Viewing.

As you can imagin fuffing about with the TV-Out, VCR/ TV etc... is not my idea of fun and sticking all these on CD would make me very happy indeed. Now, I tried converting a file from AVI to VCD format using TMPGEnc, using just the PAL Tamplate and not changing anything (Video-CD PAL). Worked fine, no problem. Burned it on CD using Nero 5.5. Went down the local Hi Fi shop to try the disc on some DVD players, and except for a Sony (not recognised) it played no worries on the Philips model (the 612 is good!).

The picture was more or less the same as the AVI. For the sample I did not use the best DiVX I had...

I am getting to the point: What setting should I use to have a good compromiose on File Size/ Videa/Audio Quality under TMPGEnc for VCD and SVCD. Of these settings which ones can I change to tweek it.

My other question is for VirtualDub....using the filters you can smooth the picture etc.... but how to use it! The Help files are useless. Do you open a DiVX file, Dub it and then where does it go....I just don't get this software!! If you know where I can get help on this GREEEEAT

Sorry if this is too long to make a point, but your help would really be appreciated...
Ta
nazim

[Sefy]

I Believe you emailed me this question, and i've answered, but i'll answer here again a little shorter, basicly, a VCD is calculated by 1min=10mb, so if you want to put more movie on a single CDR and have atleast the minimum of a VCD Quality, then i'd recommand you use either the SxVCD or the SeVCD formats, and try them on the local DVD shop (I did the same thing when I bought my girl her DVD Player!, boy do the salespeople hate it!) and see which one plays, and let that be the one you buy, personally, id' recommand the Pioneer models!

[nazimm]

Hi Sefy,
Tried you SxVCD template and the picture did not play very smoothly, scrolling image was a bit jerky. I did not change the settings, loaded the template as it was. the picture froze a couple of times as well. The only things I changed in the settings are:
Motion Search Precision: High Quality (slow)
the rate control was Automatic VBR (CQ_VBR)

I then tried the standard SVCD Template and a little better. Somthing strange with the sound though in both files... seems delayed by fractions of seconds!!! Checked the AVI DivX and I think the problem is the sources...

Will try with another file, see whay happens
Nazim

[nazimm]

Hello Sefy,

Tried with another files, this one perfect. One small details, evry 1/2 seconds the image seems to stagger, it does not play as smoothloy as the DivX.

Got a quick question for you if you got time:

When I select the DivX file and hit Properties I get:

Audio Format: MPEG Layer-3,127 kBit/s, 44,100 Hz, Stereo

Videoa Format: 640 x 360, 24 Bits, 154929 Frames, 23.976 Frames/Sec, 110 KB/Sec, DIVXMPG4 V3

However, not I tried using the VCD PAL Template (standard) to see if OK and it syas 25fps. As this is different than the original source, would that mess the file a little bit? Like make it stagger a little?

Nazim

[nazimm]

Hi Sefy,
Quick message to let you know that I converted about 4 DivX movies with your SeVCD (Pal) template and it is the BUSINESS!!! Nice one Mate... I think I saw in of of your post that these templates were enhanced for TV viewing and that is dead right. They play beautifully on the TV and it is even better than watching the orginal source on the PC Monitor. Guess PC's resolution is too high and shows all those blocks.
Anyway, here is what I do:
-Start up TMPGEnc, load SeVCD Template and let it go
-4 Hours later or so all done....And ready to be burnt on 2 CDs (only managed to get one movie on a single CD, but that does not bother me at all...
-Make nice covers and the whole thing looks superb
-Play them on ther TV with Philips DV612 This player is not on your list so you can add this player to the list you keep. The DV 612 is a super cheap, lovely player and Fast Forward works no worries

Thanks Sefy!!
Nazim

p.s. not a big deal, but in scenes where the action goes from left to right or vice versa, there is a little jerkiness evry 2 seconds or so....any tips/ ideas?

[gambit32]

For the jerkiness...try unchecking "detect scene change" in tmpgenc. It worked for me.

[Sefy]

Hi Nazimm,

Regarding the SxVCD, you could also try the NTSCfilm version of the Template, since your DivX was 23.976 fps, and like gambit32 said, also try to uncheck the Detect Scene Changes, those two might help solve your problem with the Jerkiness, but I am glad to hear you find the SeVCD
satisfactory.

[nazimm]

Thanks for that you 2!!
I will certainly try the Detect Scene Change, it does sound logical.

Sefy, you mentioned trying SeVCD NTSCfilm but I am in Holland so I have to use PAL which is 25fps. All the DivX I got are indeed set at 23.976 so I guess that NTSC would keep the frame rate and then if go with PAL, then it is 25fps, does that impact...
Nazim

[GUTB]

The jerkiness is caused by encoding at the wrong framrate. Change it to 24fps and you will be okay.

Do not uncheck Detect Scene Change, that will only decrease quality.

Do not use VBR, you will only lose quality for the sake of size, which is not a good tradeoff in your situation. Even using 2-pass VBR with very conservative custom settings, you will notice a small drop in quality. Go with CBR.

You may want to try making a non-compliant XVCD, to better show the quality because of the high-resolution of this stream. By setting the resolution to 720x525 (or whatever PAL uses), you can keep more of the original's scene information. Also, in Advanced, see what happens when you set the source file to Custom 640x360. That's 16:9 by the way. I'm testing that now, but this encode will be going for 10 hours so don't wait up on me

[nazimm]

OK, I can do the CBR thing and this is what I use when using the standard VCD PAL Template. It is set CBR and cannoto be changed. Quality is very good by the way, only difference with Sefy's template is the size.
A few clarification:
16:9: I change that in the Video>Aspect Ration (TMPGEnc)? Or elswhere (as well...)
24 fps: PAL is supposed to be 25, if I cange this, would I still be able to play the CD on my DVD player???
Thanks for your Help!!