Recommendation for SVCD bit rates

[Silentbob343]

I was making an SVCD and only want it to be 2CDS but the bit rate that can fit on to an 80min CD-R is 1833. Is this an acceptable bit rate if I split the movie on to 3 CDs the bit rate can be 2520.

I know higher is better but I think having to changes 3 times in one movie is annoying. Is 1833 good quality or should all my movies be at least over 2000. Just seems that 1833 is a little on the low side, I haven't finished the movies so I can't judge for myself.

[kinneera]

If the movie is widescreen, that should be acceptable. Fullscreen, you will probably want to run it through several VBR passes.

[Silentbob343]

Thanks for the response

Sorry to ask another newbie question but
How do I run it through a VBR pass?

Again sorry any help you can provide is appreciated, thanks again.

[kinneera]

If you're using TMPGEnc, select 2-pass VBr and set the average bitrate to 1800. Max should be ~2500.

If you're using CCE, you choose multi-pass VBR and specify the number of passes. Set the average and max the same as above.

[Silentbob343]

huh

Didn't know CCE could go from divx to SVCD i thought it was just DVD to SVCD.

THanks again for the info

[frenetic]

Well, it doesn't. You didn't specify the source either. If you are working with divx you have to do some converting in order to use CCE.

take a look at this: http://forum.vcdhelp.com/userguides/91597.php

[Silentbob343]

Why not always use VBR instead of CBR?

[kinneera]

I'm pretty much of that opinion myself.

Still, if the VBR average bitrate is equal to or greater than the maximum allowable bitrate, CBR will simply be faster. (i.e. your video is short).

[Silentbob343]

hey what should i set the minumum bit rate to right now it's at 300 by default.

[kinneera]

300 is a good value. I typically set it to 300.

[Silentbob343]

Thanks for the 5th time :)

I promise to try and leave you alone for more than 30 minutes. Seriously though I appreciate the help i've been on many forums where the long time members brush off newbies.

[Silentbob343]

I did VBR but it still looks a lot like the 1833 CBR i did earlier is thee any software i can get that will display the bitrate as the movies plays my DVD player doesn't do it.

I just want to make sure it did in fact encode with VBR
There so many options in tmpgenc i've already made three copies of the same part of a movie adjusting different aspects to get the best quality.
What templates do you guys recommend for SVCDs in the tools section?

[banjazzer]

PowerDVD has an option to display the bitrate.

If you have the latest version of TMPGEnc, what I would suggest is to load the standard SVCD template. Choose 2-pass VBR. Alter max-bitrate to 2496. Alter min-bitrate to 755. Alter average bitrate to anything - say 1000 for now. Alter motion search precision to High quality. And then save this template and name it. Then use the project wizard. Choose your template at the appropriate stage, and alter the average bitrate to exactly fit to the number of CDs you want to use. This will take longer than some of the other methods, but you will maximise the bitrate and guarantee the filesize to be near as dammit 1, 2 or 3 CDs.

[kinneera]

You can also download the Bitrate Viewer from the tools section if you want to snoop into how the file was encoded.

Also, be careful doing VBR comparisons with short clips. The real strength of VBR is being able to determine optimal bitrate allocation over a long span of time.

[Ru$$Rip]

After conversion from a DIVX to SVCD using Tmpgenc on scenes where there is a lot of one particular colour it looks very 'blocky'. Will changing from CBR to VBR improve this - or is there any other way to fix this.

Thanks

[Silentbob343]

When going from a PAL divx 25fps should i choose SVCD NTSC-29.97fps or NTSC File-23.97fps.

[banjazzer]

>"Will changing from CBR to VBR improve this"<

You will get the best results by using 2-pass VBR, but it will take a lot longer to encode. Basically with CBR you are using a constant bitrate, whether the subject needs it or not. With VBR, it sticks to the average bitrate, but goes up to the max specified when it needs to. For a given filesize, the VBR will always look better than the CBR. CQ is also VBR but does it in one pass, so the filesize is very variable, and it is verydifficult to predict the filesize. Why not try a 2-pass VBR with the setting in my earlier post?

[banjazzer]

>"When going from a PAL divx 25fps should i choose SVCD NTSC-29.97fps or NTSC File-23.97fps."<

Neither. You should use a PAL template, or else you will introduce a wrong aspect ratio and jerkiness because of the frame-mismatch. If you insist on using the wrong template, the NTSC film will give better results because the framerate difference is smaller. You should also look at the framerate conversion guide in the Guide section.

Many standalones and all PCs will play PAL SVCDs as well as NTSC ones.

[kinneera]

I would also add that there has been at least one very good previous discussion of PAL to NTSC conversion in this forum before. You might try searching for it if you're serious about attempting that.

[Silentbob343]

so that would explain why no matter what encoding method the quality is always low. The reason i'm converting DIVX to SVCD is to watch those movies on my DVD player since I live in the US my DVD player can't do PAL.

Lots of great info for future refrence i'll look for the PAL to NTSC conversion thanks a lot.

[banjazzer]

The quality is always going to be lower becuse of the recoding. But with a good source recoded to SVCD the drop in quality should be minimal.