Need to make CDs of my digital camcorder videos(XVCD/SVCD)?

[dgagliardi]

Hello all. I am relatively new at this and am looking for some help on the putting my captured dv video from the computer onto a CD to play in my DVD player(TV). I am using Nero, Premiere, and TMPGEnc. I have tried the XVCD encode and burn(through the guide) and the SVCD-VCD hack. Both have worked on my DVD player. I have played with the settings of TMPGEnc so much, I'm not sure which test CD is which anymore. I am capturing my source video via firewire(720x480, 29fps, bitrate???, NTSC)

Q1. SVCD or XVCD? Which should yield better quality on my TV?
Q2. TMPGEnc settings so I can play on my fullscreen TV?
Q3. Should I capture the source in a smaller frame size for better quality on TV?
Q4. Can I set the bitrate to be higher than 2500kbit/s? Would that make a difference in the high motion scenes(see below)?

There just seems to be so many options. I don't have a DVD burner, so I need the next best thing. The TV is 32" and it just seems that every test CD I made seemed grainy and the picture degraded during faster motion(my 2yr old running around).

At this point, I'm lost and don't know what settings to use.
Any detailed help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
DG
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[EricB]

Try loading the standard SVCD template and unlock it. Change the frame size from 480 x 480 to 352x480. Leave the bitrate alone.

With these setting, I get the best results of having the resolution of the larger frame, but the bandwidth available for motion. Before doing this, I always had motion problems with the SVCD. Give it a try!

[dgagliardi]

Thanks Eric. Okay, but does that mean I should still encode as MPEG-2 and do the multiplexing as MPEG-1 and burn as VCD(compliant)?

[EricB]

It has the same encoding (MPEG2) and multiplexing as a regular SVCD. Don't change any of those in TMPGENc.

I have only ever burned VCD and SVCD in ULEAD DVD MovieFactory where it treats compliance as asking if you want to burn XSVCD which you obviously say "yes". I assume that in your case this would be non-compliant SVCD.

[Nelson37]

Q1. The highest resolution you can get with enough bitrate to avoid pixelation that will still play on your player. Since XVCD could be ANY res, this question cannot be answered as posted.

Q2. If you mean a Widescreen (16:9) TV, set Aspect Ratio in TmpGenc, but you may have to resize, crop, and/or Letterbox your source. For Standard (4:3) TV, just use Full Screen setting.

Q3. ABSOLUTELY NOT, Unless you just can't do it any other way. Capture ALL and resize down, rather than throw away some detail right at the capture stage.

Q4. Yes, and Yes, BUT your player may not handle the increased bitrate. Many do.

Your source is DV-AVI, which doesn't really have a bitrate. What you are seeking to do is keep as much detail (highest resolution) as you can, but that takes more bitrate. 352x480 @ 2500 is a good compromise, but 720x480 @ 3500 may look better. Test on your player. Use Motion Search Precision set to High or Highest. Some say no difference, I see a slight improvement, at a heavy time penalty.

If your player requires the header trick, then you have to do it for all mpg2.

[dgagliardi]

Nelson, I have a regular 32" TV. As for Q1, I was just asking if XVCD is better quality than SVCD. Would the question be better asked if it was , which yields better quality MPEG-1 or MPEG-2?

Like I said, I'm new to this.

Thanks.