SVCD and DVD500 Plus

[Anto]

I'm trying to create SVCDs with a Pinnacle DV500 Plus (CD 4.5 and Windows XP pro). The capture using the Pinnacle AVI DV codec results in a great quality movies, but huge files (more than 2 Gb for a 10 minute video).
I looked for instructions about VCD and SVCD in both Pinnacle's and Premiere's documentation, but found nothing. I tried to export a captured AVI in Premiere 6.0 using the Pinnacle MP2 (the only thing that looks like MPEG2 in the combo box) file format, but there is no VCD or SVCD preset, and I cannot set the horizontal resolution to lower than 704. The result file is not a compliant SVCD file, at least according to Nero, as its resolution is 720x576.

I encoded the captured AVI with TMPGEnc v2.510.49.157 and successfully created a SVCD with Nero, but the quality was not that good, despite having used the maximum bitrate and 2 pass VBR. Also, the encoding process took much longer due to, I believe, the fact that the Pinnacle MP2 is hardware accelerated and TMPGEnc having worked alone.

Being a rather expensive card with some semi-professional software bundled, is it really necessary to use external software for the encoding process to create a (S)VCD? Can the Pinnacle MP2 create MPEG2 files compatible with SVCD? Or is TMPGEnc the best option in terms of compatibility and quality even for owners of Premiere 6.0 and DVD500 Plus? Shouldn't the encoding capabilities of the hardware result is smaller encoding times and higher quality?

Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Agora_Live]

The amount of disc space needed you can't do anything about. When the DV500 card captures it uses DV codecs, that's also why you have the great quality.

My expirence with this card and the bundled software is that DON'T USE THE SOFTWARE. I don't like them Premiere might be good enough, but the MPEG encoding it's suppose to do dosen't work.

For capturing I use Scenalyzer great little program, fits on a Floppy disc, enables you to save 300 gig (and more) files. DV-1 or DV-2 type captures, but keep in mind that any capturing you do with this card is interlaced.

I use TMPGEnc for encoding to MPG use the template provided to make VCD, SVCD or DVD's but remember to DEINTERLACE (in the settings/advanced menu) I usually use the double function which works fine for me.