DVD to SVCD

[muratremix]

I'm usually ripping dvds to vcd format. but I would try svcd. but there is too many options, VBR, CQ, MVBR etc.
what is best for low-motion movie (eg. southpark), and what is best for a fast-motion movie (eg. matrix)
thanks.

ps: I need full values, not only just names (CQ @100 etc.)

[mfsav]

Well it's a little more difficult as SVCD supports VBR (Variable Bit Rate).

The most important thing to know is that:
the cumulative (audio+video) bitrate must be lower or equal to 2539 Kbps.

this means that if you give 128 Kbps for audio you have
2411 Kbps for video.

Now if you use CBR (costant bit rate) you can set it to 2411 and you have best quality but you probably waste space.

For VBR there are varius methods to set it, you can have two values mean minimum and maximum where the codec tries to work (I use 1600 - 2411) or quantization scale or other.

The most important thing is that VBR is adaptative so you will not waste space and bandwidth for "easy" frames.

Hope this helps

[BxB]

Sounds like there's no easy way to estimate how much space an SVCD will take. Are there any good rules of thumb? Do you just start with some certain min/CD and then re-encode until it fits? At 8 hours to encode (or is it more with SVCD?), that seems kind of time-consuming.

[El_Mero_Zooter]

you need an app called FitCD 0.92. You plug in the length of the movie, the # of cds you want, bitrate etc.
Encode times will vary with movie length and number of passes you choose, among other settings, cbr vs vbr, type of encoder you choose and if you choose any filters.

http://www.afterdawn.com/software/specific.cfm/354#download

ZtR

[gasmask]

I have found that using the default settings in TMPGEnc's SVCD templates always give good results that fit on 2 cds.