WHich is better? Low Quality SVCD or High Quality VCD

[akbrown]

I know that subject sound exactly backwards. What I am trying to figure out would it be better for me to encode my movies to a lower than normal (via unlock.mcf) bitrates, say 1950 kbps, 224k audio, svcd (mpeg2)or would it be better to go up from the standard bitrate of a vcd and leave in a vcd (mpeg1) format. I am trying to decide because I can play vcd and svcd, but I have made a non compliant svcd right now (xscvd) and i cant get it to burn. Went down to about 1750 on video and 224 on audio so i could fit the thing on two cds.

Also would there be better compatibility with burning programs with mpeg versus the non compliant mpeg 2.

Does anyone have any suggestions for bitrates for a movie that is 1:50 minutes long. MOst are about this long and I would like a higher quality than vcd, but still want to fit on two cds for playback via Home DVD player.

Thanks

[baker]

Low quailty svcd with max bitrate at 2500 and minium 500 avg 1500-1700 audio @ 160 bitrate.

MAKE SURE YOU USE CCE.

Baker

[akbrown]

I have the program CCE, have tried to use it with the frontend DVD2SVCD. However, CCE required a PIII processor. I have a 350 MHz Pentium II with 256 Meg RAM. I tried to use the program but had no luck. It would start out using the different programs fine, but would end up crashing Dont know if was the CCE but I think it was.

Will CCE work on a Pentium II 350 mHz?

I Have heard a lot of great stuff about it and it is supposed to be faster than TMPGenc (Which is slower than Christmas) but produce even better results than TMPGenc.

Thanks for the reply and please answer the above

[Flamer]

Use tmpg and load up svcd pal/ntsc/ntsc film and the load unlock.

Choose Dc = 10
Choose 2pass Vbr and eveything over 1700 (do not go over 2200)in avg is Very good if you have max 2450 and min 0 audio from 160-224.
This is ofcoure intended for Widescreen movies. Fullscreen need more.

Some1 told me:
"Use 2cd´s for ws movies under 120 mins
use 2cd's for Fs movies under 115mins"

This has worked out quite nicely for me

But there is also 1 trick to remember and that is to cut out the end credits becouse (i dont know why) they take up much bitrate. I really dont know what makes it use the full bitrate but that is a shame to waste bitrate when you are trying to fit a 120 min movie on 2cd and dont want to Throw the quality out the window.

Theese are my opinions and should not be taken too serously but this is they way i like it and i dont want to force my ideas to others but try to use this as a guide and not something you can flame.
But good ideas are always welcome.


Now i´m very very tired so i´m going to stop this mispelled relpy

[maxqa]

I would always use TMPGenc , SVCD and 2 pass VBR to control bit rate / movie size.

When bit rates fall between ~ 1300 - 1700 if your DVD player will accept it try using 1/2 SCVD resolution ie 352 x 576 ( for PAL) with a litte sharpen filter. This works exteremely well for me.

If your really trying to get everything onto one CD I've found if you burn SVCD at VCD resolution ( 352 x 288 PAL), with sharpening, you can go down to bitrates as low as ~800 and still get suprisingly good results.

hope this helps !

[akbrown]

Okay guys I'll try it again. I tired to follow Baker's Recommendation. I encoded half the movie (96k frames) to one cdr. I went with 720x480 29.97NTSC Frame Rate, CQ_VBR55 Layer2 44100 160 kbps. This was for about 48 minutes of movie, took 12 hours to encode, and ended up with the file size of .99 GB. Definetely too bigfor a cdr.

Maybe I should try a diffent method above and see how it comes out. Also, is 720x480 considered XSVCD, and if so what is SVCD 480x480? And if so how does that look on a standard tv, is the picture squished or something?

Thanks Baker and everyone for any help. Biggest problem I have is PC is so damn slow. Cant afford a new one right now, you know how it is.

[akbrown]

Okay I am trying the 2 pass VBR 1700 avg. max 2450 min 0 and 160 kbps audio. However, screen size is 480x480 Is that correct? That is a wdiescreen?

And do I really need the 2 pass? It shows that the encoding will be thru in about 30 HOURS!!! This is for half the movie...

Just thought Id let you know. Also, what about the motion setting? Set it to High Quality(Slow) or Motion Estimate(Fast) or what? This has a great deal to do with long encoding times.

[TheSeven7hSon]

If you have a slow machine, don't mess around with the VBR. Use CBR or if you're daring use CQ. CQ gives just as good or better encoding than VBR, in my opinion, in 1/2 the time. When using CQ, I raise the bit rate from about 10 to as much as 45 more per 45min TV show depending on how slow or how dark the video is. -(Somtimes I lose - twice)- Also, High Quality instead of High Quality(Very Slow) encoding won't show much difference.

A small test I did:
http://forum.vcdhelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=90906&highlight=

Seven

[baker]

Right thats a real sloooooooooow machine so follow this:

cce single pas no vaf max bitrate 2500 min bitrate 500. set the complex-flat settings to 25 and make sure the res is at 480x480(576 if pal).

This will produce good-great results and shouldn't take too much time, quicker and bettter quailty than tmpegenc anyway.

If you have a slow cpu dont use dvd2svcd frameserve from vdub.
baker

[Plant_Guy]

I looked into getting CCE, and its $250 . Yikes! Is there a place I can get it for less than that? For that much money, I'd rather just get my favorite 10 movies on DVD Thanks.

TomG. - aka Plant_Guy

[baker]

I think u may have found a solution to your problem"!

Baker