A question of pixels

[Kurt S]

Not really a problem but more of a question.

I ripped a DVD to VCD using Easy VCD and TMPEGEnc and I noticed durring the conversion that it was using a resolution of 352X240. Since this is half of the resolution of a DVD (704X480) I thought the end result would be horrible.

After the burn was done I put it in my DVD player and was quite surprized at the quality. It was actually pretty good. Is this due to the fact that TV here in America has such low scan lines (512 I believe) or is the rip being reported wrong?

One more realted question, if it is actually being ripped at 352X240 is there a way in Easy VCD to bump up the resolution? I don't see the option to change it.

[macleod]

VCD is 352x240
CVD is 352x480
SVCD is 480x480

VCD resolution has bee compared to VHS, although the differences lie between digital media compared to analog media. With VCd resolution, you are going to get visual clarity (ignoring the fact that there may be pixelation, etc.) of a commercial VHS tape.

Although not at home to prove this, EAZY VCD is just that a one step app that converts a DVD to VCD format. If you want to bumnp up the resolution on it and want to stay with a one click solution, I would recommend DVDtoSVCD (www.dvd2svcd.org), which actually converts the DVD to CVD format, which has been said to be 1/2 DVD resolution. BTW, it also can "easily" be converted to DVD when/if you get a DVD burner without having to re-encode.

While not a rule of thumb, but if you dvd player can play SVCD, it should be able to play CVD. The two main differences between the two is that SVCD encodes at 44mhz audio and is 480x480, while CVD encodes at 48mhz and is 352x480. Me personally, I love CVD format (and the DVD2SVCD proggie) as it looks as good as the DVD to me and I dont have to reencode later when I get a dvd burner.

I would check the dvd compatibility list on the left just to make sure you can play CVD just to make sure.