DV to a SVCD or VCD, and more...

[The McBain]

Hi

First I'd like to thank you in helping me, I appreciate it. This is my first post in here and I'll try to make it as clear as I can.

I filmed with my Mini-DV camera a 5 minutes footage. I exported all the footage in Final Cut Pro 2, then edited it, and exported the final product in .dv format. Now, I'd like to export that near 1 gig file of DV to be able to see it on TV. My gf just bought a DVD player compatible with VCD. Here are my questions:

I want the best quality possible to see my movie on the DVD player.

1- I'd like to know in which format should I export/convert it? Is there only one choice (MPEG2)?

2- Which app/encoder/codec gives you the best (place above answer here) format? Example, I heard Sorenson 3 for MPEG1 or 2 (dunno) is it true?

3- Can I boost the megs/sec to unbelievable number or is there a limit sustained by the DVD player?

Thank you! I'll add other questions later if I can't remember them now...

[jchansen]

If you want to play it on a DVD player, then you basically have two choices: DVD or some kind of VCD.

DVD requires a DVD burner and DVD media, and uses MPEG2.
VCD requires only a cd burner, and uses MPEG1 video at a set bitrate, the same bitrate as an audio CD. You can also try XVCD, which is similar but uses a higher bitrate. It is not as compatible. A Super VCD uses MPEG2, up to a certain bitrate. SVCD is also not as compatible as VCD.

Codecs like Sorenson, MPEG4, Divx are all used by computers only. MPEG4 is promising, and maybe in the future set top players will be compatible with it.

If you really want the best quality, burn a DVD. But, VCD can look really good. I've had some luck with DVCD, but once I try to improve the picture by raising the bitrate, my DVD player chokes. I'm not sure if SVCD is worth the trouble. Certainly Ross's tools have turned it into a really viable process (see homepage.mac.com/rnc).

The easiest thing to do would be to get Toast Titanium, and drag your movie onto it. Voila, VCD. If you want to do a SVCD and you have OS 9, good luck. You need the defunct Astarte MPack. If you have OS X, go to Ross's page above. If yous SVCD doesn't work, it may just be that your player doesn't support it. The SVCD process is also quite long, and until you get all the software set up just right, it can be troublesome.

Personally, I broke down and got a DVD burner (does this mean I can't come to this forum anymore?). If I hadn't, or we weren't actually doing home videos for family/friends/money, I would have stuck with VCD, because SVCD is a less than perfect solution. VCD's can be improved by which encoder you use, even if you can't change the bitrate. I've personally observed the best results from Toast. The other cool thing about CD-based movies is that you could put your measley five minutes on a credit-card sized CD, which cost a little bit more and look cool.

Check you player's compatibility with XVCD and SVCD under 'DVD players' on the left.

Jeremy

[The McBain]

Thanx alot man

Unbelievable, but I think I got that astarte app somewhere around... hehe

Also, I couldn't find the DVD player in the DVD player section on the left It is a Toshiba model number SD412V. It says it can play DVD-R/DVD-RW/CD-R/CD-RW/MP3/VCD and more (I think, I don't have it here now). Would be cool if someone here has it and could tell me if XVCD works on it.

1- Also, how do you burn XVCD? Is it just that the mpeg file has to be a different resolution and things?

I got Toast Titanium 5.1.4, QT Pro 6, Final Cut Pro 2, Media Cleaner Pro 5.2 (with MPEG Charger), Sorenson Video 3, and a Yamaha FireWire CDRW 20x10x40x (no DVD burner)... tell me what's the best I can do with all that!

2- Also, what is the difference betweem MPEG1 and MPEG2? Is it just that the quality vs. size proportion is better?

3- By the way, I used Toast to encode the 5 mins DV file into a VCD format, and it took more than an hour to encode! DAMN! Would it be faster via QT export to VCD thing?

Thanx

[jchansen]

That's a whole bunch of emoticons.


Well, take the plunge on an SVCD and see if it works in your player. One of the other guys will have to help with the XVCD.

MPEG1 and MPEG2 are two compression methods. Each can be good or crappy, depending on bitrate, resolution, encoding method. MPEG2 is not inherently better, but MPEG2 video following DVD standards is of course stunning. The Toast VCD option will give you something as good as VHS.

Sorry, the Toast Quicktime plugin is the same thing. Your speed is normal. On my 400 mhz G3, VCDs took about 15 minutes/minute of video. MPEG2 via Mediapipe took about 55 min/min. I just got a G4 ZIF upgrade, and MPEG1 takes about 9 min/min. MPEG2 takes only 2.5 min/min!! I've read that the Apple MPEG2 plugin can't make SVCD compliant files. So you're processing speed is just fine. Have a sandwich.

I think Ross's page talks about XVCD. You can't use Toast directly to make them, because Toast only wants 160k/sec (or whatever) streams. But, use the tools Ross mentions to encode a stream at your favorite bitrate and build it as a disk image, then burn the image.

Jeremy