What Tmpeg settings do YOU use for DV-AVI to VCD for best?

16th May 2002 16:05 #1

Member

I want the best possible quality VCD from my DV-AVI capture from firewire.

Obviously the BEST QUALITY settings mean the LONGEST to encode but I have time.:)

What settings would you recommend.

The content of these videos are family events like XMAS and such so there is some fast motion and some slow.

What are the best possible settings for BEST QUALITY on a VCD.

Thanks guys

16th May 2002 17:28 #2

sych0

Member

Well, it all depends on what your dvd player can do. Obviously, the best setting is the DVD template. But most of us dont have a dvd burner. 2nd best (and pretty damn close imo) would be SVCD. SVCD's look AMAZING. When done right, you can barely tell the difference between a DVD and a SVCD. Next would be XVCD. XVCD is basically a VCD, but with a higher bitrate. Before i found out that my dvd player plays SVCD's, I was using XVCD. A standard VCD bitrate is 1150. Pretty crappy if you ask me, but it gets the job done. Ive burned an XVCD as high as 2500kbps. Pretty good. Much better than standard VCD, but still not as good as SVCD. And unless you have no other choice, i would not use standard VCD.

So first thing to do is whip out your DVD manual, or look it up in the dvd players section to the left. See if it supports SVCD. If it does, youre golden. Go with SVCD. If not, check VCD. Most players will not say it specifically supports XVCD since its not really a standard. But if it supports vcd, it will more than likely support XVCD. The only question is how high of a bitrate will it go.

So for XVCD, load up the standard VCD template in tmpg. Then load up the unlock template. Then click settings. Then boost the bitrate. And yes, higher bitrate = less time on disc. And what bitrate should you use? Thats when you load up the trusty vcdhelp.com java bitrate calculator. Its here: http://www.vcdhelp.com/calc.htm Punch in all your info, time, # of discs, vcd/svcd, etc. and then itll give you the bitrate to use. Use that bitrate in tmpg's settings. Hope that helped.

And if you are able to go with SVCD, id suggest trying out Cinema Craft Encoder. Its a lot faster, and I (along with what ive read) think it produces better looking SVCD's than tmpg.