SVCD with DVD resolution ?

[Dave2001]

Hi Guys !

Iam just starting with all this stuff like ripping DVD's making SVCDs etc . So please forgive me if what i ask is stupid . Thanks

Ok the question is - can i make an SVCD with a DVD resolution and would that give me a better end result ? Will it play on a stand alone player ?
Any experiences ?

Oh and one other thing - can i glue the SVCDs together ? I think i have seen that somewhere - or will that damage the Player ... ?
I mean it would save some space - wouldnt it ?

Thanks !

Albert

[bugster]

An SVCD with DVD resolution would be a XSVCD, i.e., non-standard and so may or may not play on any particular standalone.

An increase in resolution requires an equivalent increase in bitrate just to maintain quality, so simply increasing resolution is not the answer.

My suggetsion would be to start with standard compliant SVCD and become familiar with the process of making these. Once you have got this sorted using atools and a technique that suits you, try tweaking settings to see what improves quality and can still play on your standalone. Personally I would start by increasing bitrates, buts thats just me.

Remember tho, anything that increases filesize, such as higher bitrates, reduces the playing time of each disk.

Hope this helps

[Dave2001]

I have managed to do some DVD backups by now - some in real good quality - but some are even under VHS quality .
I ll think i will check if my player can play these XSCVD . Just a pity that you have to change CD's all the time .

Iam waiting for an affordable DVD burner ....

Albert

[snowmoon]

If doning SVCD properly they should NEVER end up sub-VHS quality. I would look into your tools to try and develop your encoding some more. And if your encoding is comming out poorly then as has been said upping your resolution will only exacerbate the problem.

[Dave2001]

Most of the ones that came out under VHS quality were AVI files that i decoded .
If i RIP from DVd it mostly gets better . Till now i always use DVD2SVCD and Tmpegenc for the avi's .

Are there some ultimate tips - like GOP settings or matrixes i should know about ?

[bugster]

Dave2001 wrote:

Most of the ones that came out under VHS quality were AVI files that i decoded .
If i RIP from DVd it mostly gets better . Till now i always use DVD2SVCD and Tmpegenc for the avi's .

So are you sure the quality problems you are experiencing are not present in the source material (the downloaded avi's). Remember, garbage in = garbage out.

[Dave2001]

Iam not so sure - i had some pretty high quality avi's - at least on the PC it looked ok to me - and the output was rather poor .

Anyhow iam rather making a backup of my DVD's now . Not this hazzle with the avis's anymore .

So till now nobody said something about glueing the CD's together - is that some kind of weird idea ?


Albert

[bugster]

Dave2001 wrote:

So till now nobody said something about glueing the CD's together - is that some kind of weird idea ?

surley you don't mean literally using adhesive to stick two discs together! They would never fit in your player!

[Dave2001]

Actually i just meant that !!!

I think i saw that once in HongKong or so ... but hey - it might be indeed a really stupid idea ....

Oh and another question - for a movie without much action scenes - like Heart in Atlantis or Ocean's Eleven what kind of avg. Bitrate should i take ?
Is 1700 enough ? I have read some people dont even start when the avg bitrate is not over 2000 . Iam using 2pass vbr with High Moton detect ...


Albert

[bugster]

Well, what you find acceptable quality is very subjective, but in my opinion 1700 seems rather low. One way of determining best bitrate to use is use a bitrate calculator. See what bitrate will allow you to get the movie onto 2 CD's. If that is too low, go to 3 CD's and use the bitrate that will fill 3 CD's (without going over maximum of course).

Personally, I would always use the max bitrate possible and have to change discs a little more often rather than sacrificing quality, but thats just me!

[Dave2001]

Yeah i guess you are right - tomorrow morning i will see what quality it gave me - then i can start encoding again

[snowmoon]

It's the source. I've done good SVCD's all the way down to 1500! It was a 65 minute comedy sequence. Since it was mostly just a talking head, and the source was clean, it came out very well. I did 3-pass VBR with a modified matrix under CCE.

So their is no reason why with multipass you cannot go down to 1700 if your source is not too "complex" ( often action has nothing to do with it ). I would recomment using NR even for DVD's if going less than 2000 as every bit counts.

[dc91gt]

I tend to encode my svcds at:

VBR/2pass @ high quality motion

min 1850
max 2350
avg 2200

w/128kbps audio it'll fit a 95 minute movie on 2 disks.

Most people can't tell the difference between the rips i do an DVD's
of most movies. Granted there is a difference, but not one the average
viewer can tell.

-d

[snowmoon]

128 audio sucks.

Even with 160 I can hear audio artifacts all over the place. I use toolame and not just the crappy built in encoder too. I can live with 160 is I need to ( video came out too big ), but I shoot for 192 if at all possible.

160 and below start to really kill stereo seperation and complex audio sounds hollow or tinny. Just get to a segment where their is a song in the background ( a fast one ) and dialoug in the forground. Or rain and talking. the discrete unpredicable splats of rain kill the encoders.