VCD Quality

[treavis]

I burned my first VCD this weekend and found that I had very poor quality on the playback. Using MGI Mediawave to capture from a VHS tape, I converted to MPEG-1 and it burned correctly. When I went to view it on my Sony DVP-350 player, the picture was horrible and the CD hung and jumped a lot in places that it didn't jump on the tape. I was using a Memorex CD-RW cd.

Help!!!!

[Dave B]

Did you use TMPGEnc to do the conversion?
Did you use the standard VCD template?
Is the VCD as bad when it's played through your computer?
Was the video you initially captured with MGI Mediawave good quality or did it have the same visual problems?

Answering the questions above will help us assess what part of the process you need help with.

[Mirror_Image]

Did you just capture straight from tape to 352x240 1150/224, or did you capture to a higher bitrate and resolution, then convert that file to VCD? If you used TMPGEnc, where did you have the Motion Search Precision set?

[treavis]

Thanks for the quick response. I have not used TMPGEnc. IS this something that I can download? The video captured through MGI looked fine when played back. The VCD looks okay when played back on the computer.

[tmcmvd]

When played back on the computer it's fine...you might want to check the bitrate, it may be too high for our dvd player...search for your type in the dvd player section on the left to see what max bitrate your dvd player can handle... is the player vcd capable at all ?

It might be the CD...maybe the payer can't read it well...or you just made a wrong vcd...try using TMPGenc (see tools section to te left) and read some guides on how to use it.

You may also try burning with NERO, directly from your avi...nero will make the correct conversion for you.. not the best quality, but it should always work.

Greetz..

Michael.

[alkieman]

The built in MPEG encoder in MGI Videowave is very poor both with MPEG1 and MPEG2.

VCD quality is pretty crappy anyway but you can vastly improve things with a much better MPEG encoder. Try TMPGEnc which is free if you stick to MPEG1. It produces some pretty good quality VCD MPEG1 files which you can then import back into Videowave to burn your VCD disc if you don't have a CD burning app that can created video CDs.

You'll get the latest version of TMPGEnc here:
http://www.tmpgenc.net

Output your movie from Videowave as an AVI file then encode with TMPGEnc using one of TMPGEnc's templates for VCD. Of course, you may run into the 2/4Gb file size limitation if you do not have Win XP/2000/NT or a MAC. Check out the guides to the left for all the help you'll need.

[treavis]

Ok. Here is what I tried last night.

Used MGI Videowave to capture the video from the VHS tape. Exported it out of MGI to and AVI format. Used TMPGEnc to convert the AVI format to MPEG-1 format and then burned the MPEG-1 format to a TDK CD-R using the Video-CD option in NTI CD Maker.

Popped it into the DVD player (DVP-350) which says that I can play VCDs and it didn't recognize the CD as valid.

I'm at a loss now...any suggestions?

:(

[cvannest]

You could also check out the following combination:

Canopus ProCoder at http://www.canopus.com
Nero at http://www.nero.com/en/index.html

They both have demo versions, and I've found ProCoder produces some of the best VCD/MPEG1 videos I've seen after trying several other demos (Ulead DVD Workshop, etc).

Note that ProCoder is quite expensive if you end up buying the full version, but at least this combo will give you a couple of days/weeks to see if you can create a VCD that's compatible with your system (and looks good to boot).

-CV

[mike416]

Try a different brand of media
Burn at a slower speed (not more than 4X)

[Dave B]

Thanks for answering most of the questions.

I would suggest that you try burning your video onto a high quality CD-RW rather than a CD-R. Most Sony players have trouble reading CD-Rs and this could explain the stopping and starting of the first sample.

[surfdaddy]

didn't he say he was using a CD-RW? stop making me think i'm going crazy!

[Akai Rounin]

NTI Coaster Maker...

treavis wrote, "then burned the MPEG-1 format to a TDK CD-R using the Video-CD option in NTI CD Maker. ... Popped it into the DVD player (DVP-350) which says that I can play VCDs and it didn't recognize the CD as valid."

No VCD I have burned with NTI CD Maker 2000 Plus has EVER worked in a standalone Sony or Samsung branded DVD player. They work on my PC, they work on my Dreamcast, they work on a portable AudioVOX DVD Player - the standalones? No dice. Try authoring and burning your disc using VCDEasy instead.

HUN-YA!

Akai Rounin

[Executioner]

Use VCDEasy for authoring by using the newbie guides.

Also, if you have a picky DvD player, I was able to use CD-R's by buying them at Curcuit City. The are the STI brand, and have a higher reflective coating than other brands. It was the only brand that worked on my Sony, besides CD-RW's.