Convert from 720 * 576 PAL to SVCD

[Gunder Sonsteby]

I have made a video with Premiere and my Pinnacle DV500 card. Now I want to get this video onto SVCD so that I for instance can put it in a DVD-player and what it on TV. The format in Premiere is 720 * 576 PAL and this I make an AVI file from. Then I take the AVI file and put into TMPGEnc and to convert it to SVCD. But the default format there is 480 * 576! If I use this the format gets to high so that I do not see the top and bottom of the picture, I belive this is the case horizontaly as well.

My question is therefore how to convert from 720 * 576 PAL (from Premiere) to SVCD and get the right format so I can see the hole picture on the TV screen?

Thanks in advance!

Gunder

[Dragonsf]

Where does the cutoff happen? On PC (as preview) or on the TV?
A proper DVD player (standalone or on PC) should adjust the resolution correctly, so the video can be seen as original!

[Gunder Sonsteby]

The cut off happens on the TV. On the pc it seems like everything comes with (the text screens do show completely in contradiction to what happens on the TV).

But on the PC as well the format is wrong! It is to high and to litle width. On the TMPGEnc the "Aspect ratio" is automatically set to "4:3 625 line (PAL, 704*576), but when I click on the "Other settings" button and look at the "Video" sheet it says "Size: 480 * 576 pixels" and that it what it is converting it to. I habe tried to change it, but get a message that if I change it it will not be a standard SVCD.

What I can not conceptually understand is how it is possible to convert from 720 * 576 to 480 * 576. To me it seems ovious that such a convertion not will be very good one. If it had been 480 * 384 then the propotions would be allright and it ought to work according to my brain.

Where do I miss something?

Gunder

[Dragonsf]

The conversion is not only not bad, but excellent,i.e only the horizontal resolution is actual changed.After conversion, the picture looks strechted like horizonal compressed.The resulting frame is 50% smaller than the original frame, so get fewer blocks with the same bitrate compared to (Mini)DVD.At least, the SVCD looks much better when viewed on TV.
The trick is, the pictured is streched in the player to original resolution.
The only lost is horizontal sharpness with a factor of 720:480=3:2, which is IMHO not significant.

[Gunder Sonsteby]

I am not completly sure I understand what you say; but if I understand it correctly the reason why this is not working properly on the DVD-player connected to the TV is the fault of the DVD-player and not of the convertion process. Is that right understood?

What kind of DVD-players should I try to get the picture right (are there some makes that are known to be better than others)?

Gunder

[Dragonsf]

I'm using the CyberHome ADL528, which plays nearly everything from VCD to DVD, CD-Audio to mp3.
What don't you understand?Maybe I can answer this, as I've done more than 100 SVCDs.
And, yes you're right, it's one of the players issues, to convert (stretch) the frames.
Just like playing the mpeg with Windows Media player in 100%:the aspect ratio is wrong (as expected), but playing it with WinDVD or PowerDVD, the picture is playing right.

[Gunder Sonsteby]

I think I have a clearer picture of the process now. What confused me (among other things...) was that when I play it in Windows Media Player the aspect ratio was wrong and I thought Windows Media Player was a fully compatible MPEG player. When I tried the video (again) now in WinDVD everything looked like it should!

Thank you very much, I have learned a lot today! Now I only have to tell my father in law to get himself "A proper DVD player"...

Regards

Gunder

[Anonymous65]

Yes, mixing TV and PC is not an easy thing to do.
TV's use rectangular pixels and interlaced scanning, PC's use square pixels and progressive scanning. You really need to understand the differences, and how it will look on the different media. If you don't understand the above, you will have a heck of a time getting it right.