Three questions, simple probably.

[stratocaster138]

When encoding SVCD and VCD would there be much of an encoding time differencE?

Is there much difference in quality from SVCD to VCD? (heard there isn't)

Also, when encoding a video file then you burn it to cd and it goes super slow! Why would it do this, maybe a setting on TMPGenc?

The sooner the help the better but help is better than no help at all =)

[Treebeard]

not sure about the slowness problem, but whoever told you that there wasnt much differnece from VCD to SVCD was mistaken.

SVCD is far superior to VCD. the downfall is less time per disc, but the quality difference is worth it i usually put max of 50-55 min on a SVCD disc

oh and encoding time all depends on the different settings you select.

if you use standard templates svcd will take slightly longer

[ya_jai]

To answer your questions

1. Yes encoding to mpeg1 (VCD) is faster than mpeg2 (SVCD)
2. Yes it quite different in video quality between VCD and SVCD. VCD with 352x240/288 CBR 1150 compare to SVCD 480x480/576 CBR 2520, it's obvious of a difference. And as you can see with VCD you can fit 80 min in 1 cd (80 mins CDR) but you can fit only 40 mins of SVCD. So by far mpeg2 (SVCD) will provide better video quality but bigger fileszie as well.
3. Dont understand what goes super slow.

[sterno]

SVCD 480x480/576 CBR 2520

SVCD supports VBR video with a maximum stream (audio + video + etc.) bitrate of 2748.

[adam]

A SVCD is only limited to 40 mins per disk if you use CBR ~2500. This is an incredibly inefficient way of encoding and I don't know of too many people who make SVCDS like this unless the movie is very short, ~80 mins or less for 2 disks or ~40 mins or less for 1 disk.

I would say that the average SVCD is between 50 and 55 mins in length.

As for the quality, if you use a reasonable bitrate (40-55 mins per disk) then there will be a huge difference in quality between VCD and SVCD. When I play a SVCD for my family they say it looks like a DVD, when I play a VCD for them they say it looks like a VHS tape. So thats about the best laymen's analysis. To my eyes I think the difference is analogous to the difference between VHS and S-VHS.

As for the slow playback you need to give us some info on how you encoded. Does it play ok on your pc?

[ya_jai]

Excuse me ppl.

I'm just trying to explain to stratocaster138 what differences between VCD and SVCD. That why I use default template setting in TMPGEnc to show her/him a different. I know you guys know all the details about VCD/SVCD but he/she might not know that. So I think the better way to explain is to use the setting that he/she can easily see in TMPGEnc.

I think I must say sorry for being such a newbie, eh?

[stratocaster138]

SVCD plays fine oh my dvd player, lovely actually but I can never preview them before I burn, for some reason they will not play on my computer! They work fine on the DVD player though so is it because I don't have a dvd drive on my computer? I have all the divx codecs I can think of, nimo pack, etc...thats the only reason I could think of (no dvd drive on computer)...so?

Also for the slow playback thing, it was weird like it encoded but it played very very very very (you get the point) slow on the DVD player! I have no idea why?

Also one more thing, I didn't want to make a new topic so I figured I'd try this here...as for time goes in SVCD, how long does it take you and along with that answer why would it take me 8 hours to do ONE MOVIE!?!? That seems insane, and its on all movies that are around 2 hours, I'd think maybe 2 hours max but it takes 8! Is there a way to speed up the process without loosing much quality>?

My friend said he does SVCD's in an hour, how true that is I don't know.

[stratocaster138]

I'm running a 733 MHZ if your wondering...which shouldn't be that bad...its not old.

[ya_jai]

Cannot play in your computer mean you don't have a required code. You will need mpge2 code in order to play mpeg2 (SVCD) file which is not include in nimo code pack. The easiest way is to install any DVD player into your PC, I'd suggest install PowerDVD.

[stratocaster138]

wait i don't need a dvd drive to play dvd i can get a code somewhere? also anyone have suggestions about the time thing and how long does it take you to convert a 2 hour svcd?

[ya_jai]

You might be able to fine only the code itself (look under tool section) but like I said install DVD Player software is the easiest way and then you will have something else to watch your svcd beside window media player.

With your system if you convert to standard VCD, I'd say it will take about 5-6 hours per 1 hour length of movie. But then it still depends on the setting such as motion search, filter, etc.

[stratocaster138]

How long does it take for you , SVCD on average...I need something to speed this up or a new program that is faster.

[adam]

TMPGenc is a pretty slow encoder, thats the price you pay for free software. At least the quality is very good. Those speeds seem about right, even fast maybe.

If you want a free or even a cheap encoder than TMPGenc is about as fast as you are going to get. If you are willing to pay big bucks you can get CCE or the new Main Concept encoders which are literally more than twice as fast as TMPGenc.

I use CCE and with only basic filters I get near double time per pass, which means I could encode a 2hrs movie in just over an hour if I wanted to and I'm only an AMD 1.333. But I normally use a few extra filters and do 4 passes and average about 6hrs per encode.

You can download an mpeg2 codec from the tools section but it is not a very high quality one and many people report sync problems with it. I sugest you take ya_jai's advice and download a software dvd player like winDVD or PowerDVD, any demo version will do.

@ya_jai: I was just clarifiying things thats all. Everyone knows you get 80 mins per 700MB cdr in VCD but not everyone realizes that SVCD can and in fact should hold well over 40 mins per 700MB cdr without even sacrificing any quality. If I was debating whether or not to use VCD or SVCD I would think playtime would be a pretty important factor, and there is quite a difference between 40mins and 55mins.

[stratocaster138]

Thanks Adamn, How much is CCE, sounds worth it? What filter did you use also? I'm going to try it out I think! There is really no need to have an DVD/MPEG2 player like PowerDVD other than to test your encoding right, since you don't need to view the file on your computer to encode it, you can encode a file fine without one and then watch it on your dvd player correct?

[adam]

CCE is expensive and definitely isn't worth the money for the typical user. Its around $2000 or so for the full version.

I frameserve using avisynth and use light sharpening with unfilter, and light noise reduction using temporal smoother. That's about it really but these do slow things down quite a bit. And of course I use decomb as my inverse telecine filter when necessary.

If you don't plan on ever watching SVCDS, VCDS, or DVDS on your pc than no you probably dont need a software dvd player except for testing purposes, though some dvd ripping programs do not automatically authenticate the disk so you have to play it in a software dvd player first.

[ya_jai]

Yes you don't have to have a mpeg2 code on your computer if you are sure that every encode you will get a perfect mpeg2 file and can burn into SVCD without a problem. One another thing if you don't have mpeg-2 code then you wont be able to edit/ cut/join mpeg2 file.