XViD bitrate

[IceFog]

I've been converting some dvd screeeners in xvid format to DVD-R (yes, I know its a shitty format to convert to dvd sometimes). The problem I am having is with the bitrate.

When I try converting using a low bitrate, like 1150 in TMPGEnc, the film is perfectly smooth, although there are many compression artifacts (blockiness). When I raise the bitrate to something acceptable, like 3000 or 3300, The quality is just fine, looks almost DVD quality. Except I get freezes in the video at the very beginning, during the studio logo usually, and a few minutes into the film, each freeze is for 5-10 seconds. It is sort of annoying, when I put so much time into converting. It also does this briefly, maybe for 1 sec or so, at a few places through the movie, just a flicker.

If there is no way to avoid this, no biggie, but it would be nice to watch the whole movie without these video problems.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

[DJRumpy]

Check your DivX for errors (you can use VirtualDub to do this VIDEO | CHECK STREAM FOR ERRORS, or check the tools at the divx.com web site, and the TOOLS section here).

If your DVD-R resoution is standard D1, or CCIR-601 (704x480, or 720x480 respectively), then your bitrate is WAY too low. It should be somewhere around 5000 on average.

3000 for an average is acceptable for HalfD1 (352x480).

You should read the Divx to DVD-R guide (check the GUIDES section on this site) to get you started.

[IceFog]

I put the bitrate as high as possible, but there is no way to put it higher that 4000 (for a 700MB movie) and have it still fit on the disc.

[DJRumpy]

Wait a minute. Your talking DivX bitrate, not DVD bitrate. Where are you getting a freeze? In the Divx, or the DVD? I would think anwhere between 700kbps to 1500kbps would be fine for a DivX.

The bitrate of the DivX should have no affect on your MPEG output. Your MPEG output settings could though, if they are too high.

What motion search precision setting are you using in TMPGenc?

[IceFog]

The freezes are on the DVD, once its burned. The bitrate of the xvid files varies according to the file, and I am setting the TMPGEnc bitrate as high as I can to still fit it on the disc. Any lower, and the quality on the dvd is "fo-shit".

When this happened, I was using motion estimate search (fast)

[DJRumpy]

If your expecting good quality, you need to use a slower (read: better) motion search setting. The pixelation your describing is called macroblocking. It's due to bitrate shortage. If your video is shakey (like cam sources), has a lot of noise, or is converted from analog, it will require more bitrate, and higher quality settings.

Use 2-Pass VBR, with a max of 9800, and a min of 0. Set your motion search to High Quality, or Highest quality (yes, it's going to take forever with TMPGenc).

What type of video is it?

[IceFog]

XVID DVD screeners. Some in the 700MB range, others 2 files merged into 1 file approx 1.4GB.

[DJRumpy]

Those are usually good quality sources. What format are you converting them to? If your going to a low bitrate format, like VCD, CVD, or SVCD, use the High Quality setting for motion search. It's slow, but you'll get better quality output. Also use the two-pass VBR (unless your going for VCD), as it will improve the quality. It will also double the amount of time to encode.

[IceFog]

converting to mpeg2 for DVD. I tried the high quality motion search precision, it turned out pretty good

[DJRumpy]

You should look into the Basic version of CCE. It's about the same cost as TMPGenc, and will encode in a 10th of the time. The motion search on CCE is not an option. It does an excellent job on quality.