CQ, quality setting, higher always= better?

[jedi]

hey guys, i know that the HIGHER = better quality, but if i set the QUALITY setting too high is there a chance it'll come out worse?

also how would i know if the file is in sync or not? i mean i always watch files fine with no problems on the pc, but when i burn it to watch in my dvd player, thats when i notice some problems with the audio out of sync.

also i have one disc of a movie, but it is in AVI format. its about 700mb. if i converted this to a vcd, is there a chance it would look anywhere as good as the 1cd divx?

[banjazzer]

hey guys, i know that the HIGHER = better quality, but if i set the QUALITY setting too high is there a chance it'll come out worse?

I have heard of this happening, but have not seen it. With CQ I nearly always encode between 75 and 85. Basically, you will likely find it hard to detect any improvement in quality above 85.

also how would i know if the file is in sync or not? i mean i always watch files fine with no problems on the pc, but when i burn it to watch in my dvd player, thats when i notice some problems with the audio out of sync.

PowerDVD or WinDVD give a pretty good indication of how the file will play on a suitable standalone player. Other players might do, but it's not always guaranteed.

also i have one disc of a movie, but it is in AVI format. its about 700mb. if i converted this to a vcd, is there a chance it would look anywhere as good as the 1cd divx?

If it has been done well a 1CD DivX can look nearly as good as DVD provided the movie is not much bigger than 90-100 minutes. If you convert to VCD it should still look good, but the resolution will be much smaller than your DivX. Bear in mind for VCD you can only fit around 80 minutes on a CD. A really good DivX will look good converted to SVCD

[jedi]

thx for the great info dude. yeah before i burn i alwayse powerdvd to play the file. its almost always in sync, but when i burn and play thats when it goes out of sync. see the problem is, mostly all i get is SVCD. 3 of my SVCDs are out of sync on the dvd player. if i use tmpeg to re encode to fix the sync problem i lose quality. is there a way to fix the audio sync problem without quality loss? i am only 13, so pls let me know the simple way.

and about the divx. so u think im better off converting it to SVCD instead of VCD?

when watching VCD on a big screen i notice the quality doesnt look as good as it would on a smaller tv. is this the same for SVCD?

[jedi]

oh yeah another thing. i took the divx cd, and i put it in my cd drive. then i tried to copy the divx file to my hard drive, but it gives me an error. is there any other way to extract the file off the disc?

[banjazzer]

You don't say whether it's the SVCD which is in sync in PowerDVD, or the DivX. If a SVCD plays in sync in PowerDVD, I would say it's OK. Without more details of your actual procedures, it's hard to make a useful suggestion.
Are these SVCDs you create yourself, or ones you download? Whatever, it's always worth running an mpg through TMPG's mpeg tools and doing a multiplex, although I don't think this is likely to be the reason for the sync problem.

As to VCD or SVCD, it's a matter of choice. VCD is 352x240(288) and SVCD is 480x480(576), so you can see one is going to be much better quality than the other.

If you can't copy the DivX to your HD, it sounds like you have a problem with the disc. All you can do is try cleaning the disc and the CDR lens. Also try it in your writer, and try to copy from there.

[jedi]

sorry, i should of been more clear. the files are SVCD that i get from irc. they usually play fine in power dvd, but when its burned, it gives me problems. if i use the multiplex, does that mean i have to re encode? because when i re encode mpeg2 in tmpeg, it looks like i lose quality.


lets say i downloaded a mpg1 file. i decide to convert it to mepg2 [ i know the differences in bitrate and resolution] WILL it be ALOT better? will it be worth it?

i know this mite sound weird but, i have the blade2 dvdrip, and i made a xVCD copy for my friend, since he cant play svcd.
i brought my dvd player over to his house, and we both watched cd1 of blade. xVCD and SVCD on a 27inch tv. they pretty much looked identically the same. then i took the xVCD and played it at my other friends house on a BIG screen, and it looked like crap. couldnt try the SVCD there yet. so if im not planning to watch it on a BIG screen everytime, is it worth the conversion from mpeg1 to mpeg2?

[banjazzer]

Before you burn any files you download, I would load up TMPG and select File>mpeg tools. Choose Simple multiplex, Type=MPEG-2 etc, browse to your mpg in the video input. Audio will take care of itself, and choose a different name for output. This re-merges the audio and video, and sometimes will show if there are problems with the mpg, and can make your mpg play better. The final file should be *roughly* the same as what you start with. If it is drastically smaller, then you have a problem mpg. This is not recoding, so there is no quality drop.

There is no point at all in recoding an mpeg-1 to mpeg-2. It will only result in something worse than you started with. Divx (if high quality) can be worth converting to mpeg-2.

For what it's worth, I am happy to watch VCD, SVCD and DivX. Some people are a bit rude about VCD (but they are that kind of people, and can't help it). A good VCD looks OK even on a big screen, but of course, SVCD should look better. 8)

[jedi]

hey thanks banjazzer. since the multiplex merges the audio and video, would that fix most audio sync problems?

i dont just dont get it. i mean i take the ACTUAL SVCD and play it on the dvd = audio sync problems. take the same disk into the PC, and it perfect. could it be like a bitrate problem or anything like that? thanks again for all the help man.

[banjazzer]

It could be your player is a bit fussy. I have one DVD player which plays some SVCD perfectly, but others stutter. The best test is to test your SVCD on someone else's player! Then you will know for certain.