30 min High Motion Video=>1 CD Best Quality? Help

[venkmanincognito]

I need to fit 30 min of Movie Made in Adobe Premiere to 1 CD with the best possible quality. It will be viewed from a friends comp which is a 633 mghz comp. What is the best quality encoder to use? DivX, Mpeg1, Mpeg2, Indeo 5, Cinepak, Microsoft Video 1?? I have Tmpeg, VirtualDub, and Premiere to all encode w/ but I can't figure out which one will give me the best quality w/o encoding with all of them at different bitrates and such (Which would take days). Thanks a lot.

[Mirror_Image]

What codec/resolution/bitrate is the video that you wish to convert?

[venkmanincognito]

It is captured from a miniDV camcorder to Premiere in the standard D1 setting. It is 720x480 with a pixel aspect ratio of .9, DV codec, and I am not sure what the bit rate is for DV.

[markums2k]

I've found that TMPGEnc easily out-performs MPEG encoders for Premiere. I capture from DVDs in Premiere (using composite inputs)(I don't have a DVD-ROM, so I can't rip them directly) and here's the exact steps I take when transferring them to VCD. The end result is near-DVD quality. In fact, I can't even tell the VCD from the DVD, and the file sizes are still managable.

1) Capture in Premiere. Edit as needed.

2) Export VIDEO ONLY from your timeline in AVI format at the same resolution you captured at. I specifically export to PINNACLE AVI DV format, but you won't have that if you're not using Pinnacle hardware. I also use MEDIAN NOISE REDUCTION (that's under "special processing" in the exporting options).

3) Now, export AUDIO ONLY from your EXACT SAME timeline in WAV format . I always use the VCD compatible rate of 44100hz, but any rate would probably work, since we'll doing more converting in just a second.

Onto TMPGEnc. I followed "The newbies guide to fitting a movie on one CD using TMPGEnc" by newgen to get all the options unlocked and such. It can be found under the DVD RIP section. Obviously, since you're not ripping a DVD, just skip down a bit to get to the stuff that applies to you. The walkthrough helps you understand how to change options and set things up... once you browse over that, you should have a good idea how to complete these last few steps.

4) Starting the wizard with a custom template with all options unlocked in TMPGEnc., select your video and audio files that you exported from Premiere. You should have an AVI and a WAV. Click next.

5) Put a check in SOURCE RANGE and make sure that your clip is beginning and ending when it should. Put a check in NOISE REDUCTION and leave those at default settings, unless you know how to tweak those. Even at default settings, it helps considerably. Click OTHER SETTINGS. New window, new step...

6) Make sure RATE CONTROL MODE is set to 2-PASS VBR. This seriously increases the encode time, but yields the BEST quality. Click SETTINGS next to that box. Getting the best performance usually takes some trial and error with these settings. I'm still trying things out, but the last time I got really excellent quality, I used these settings: avg bit = 1900, max bit = 2600, min bit = 220. I got those settings from another topic here on the board. Click OK. Now click the ADVANCED tab. NOISE REDUCTION should already be checked, and SOURCE RANGE might be checked if you used it at all. Check SHARPEN EDGE and slide those puppies all the way to the right. Check GHOST REDUCTION, click ADD, then click AUTO-SETTING. Then click OK. You MIGHT want to try this too... on my last high-quality encode, I also checked INVERSE TELECINE, set the frames to 24 and clicked AUTO-SETTING. I suppose this will reduce flickering or "jumping" if it is present in your video, but I did it mainly to reduce file size. Obviously, 24 frames takes up less space than 29. Click the SYSTEM tab and make sure you're set to: MPEG 1 Video CD (non-standard). Click OK, then click NEXT on the wizard window to move on.

7) You shouldn't have to mess with anything here in the final window. I usually crank the audio down to 96k or 112k. Of course, I live in an apartment where I really can't "crank it up", so these settings may be too low for your usually volume level on the final playback equipment. That's the only other thing that you'll have to do a little trial and error on. Click NEXT, and either check encode right away or return to the main window and click START.

Actually, all the steps here could be improved upon with a little trial and error, it really all depends on your specific conditions (source files, quality acceptance vs. needs, etc.). All I know is, with these steps I can take video from a DVD and transfer to VCD, and not notice a difference, and therefore, am happy with the results.

I have a Pentium 4 1.4ghz and be warned that these encodes take MANY MANY **HOURS** to complete. This is mostly due to the 2-PASS feature being enabled instead of the constant bitrate option. If the encode time is just too much to take, try going with a constant bitrate. I think others have mentioned that 2-pass doubles your encode time, and I've found that to be pretty consistant. So, if you find out a 2-pass encode takes 8 hours to complete, the constant bitrate will still take about 4 hours to deliver... either way, you'll probably be letting the computer run while you're in bed, so you might as well go with 2-pass.

In the end, you've got a video file in mpg format that is ready to be burned. I burn all my VCDs with NERO. Hope this helps!

[Nelson37]

Gotta disagree with 5,6, and 7. DV capture shouldn't need noise reduction or IVTC, for 30 min computer viewing bitrate could be 4000-6000 mpeg2 VBR, 2-pass. A 633 shoudl be able to play that, maybe keep the bitrate closer to 4000. Check the MiniDVD or XSVCD specs. Divx might be even better but I have little experience with this.
Also audio numbers are quality, not volume. 128 or 224 are generally best.

[markums2k]

Yeah, I shoulda been clearer. The settings I use are for fitting much more than 30min of footage onto a CD. You could definitely go all out with your video and audio bitrates and still have room to spare.

However, I've been able to generate higher-quality video using filters, etc. rather than just increasing the bitrates. My source isn't DV footage (in otherwords, this may not apply), but if I ever forego noise filtering and just set the bitrate at 3000 or 4000, I still get artifacts and pixels, plus the video takes up twice as much space or more!

As for the volume level thing, I was just saying that pops and hisses generated from lower quality audio might not be apparent to me since I sometimes have the volume very low.

That's it, I'm done in this thread...
Just hoping that long convoluted mess of a post helps SOMEbody!

[Fifou]

I would choose MPEG1 in 720*576 (pal) with a 2Pass-VBR. The Amount of the max./aver./min. bitrate will be choosed to fit the CDR... MPEG1 (when it's not VCD (CBR1150)) is in my opinion better than MPEG2 on High motion scenes and is more compatible for low processors... But that's just my opinion ...