Still image specs and VCD vs SVCD for stills. ( V Newbie )

[Spanner]

I am a complete and utter newbie to this, so please bare with me.


My main use of SVDC and VCD authoring is for still pictures . although at some point the kids home vids from a DV camcorder will also end up on there.

I have two main questions that I hope you could answer for me and perhaps the answers to these will help lead me to understanding the rest !!!!.


1, What is the main difference between VCD and SVCD for STILL images ? I am using VCDEasy and I noticed you can burn the same size (704x576...PAL) images in VCD and SVDC formats, is there any advantages in using the SVDC for a slideshow. ?


2. My photos are all scanned in at 300dpi, what is the optimum size ( ie, Pixel and DPI ) for the best conversion into a MPEG still ? I assume that if I resize my images to 704x576 in photoshop I would be helping the conversion process, but at what DPI ??? ( 72 as in web publishing ???? )


I basically need the highest quality possible for a Still image slideshow. Background music is not always going to be needed, but in some situations it will be required.


Many thanks in advance.

[Vejita-sama]

VCDs are encoded using MPEG1, SVCDs are encoded using MPEG2. However, at the same bitrate and resolution MPEG1 looks the same as MPEG2.

So for your slideshow there is no real reason/advantage to using MPEG1 or MPEG2. However, there are more standalone players that support VCDs so MPEG1 might be a better choice.

As for your source, you want to start with the best possible quaility you can. That means the highest dpi and resoultion you've got. This is true for all digital video. However, this is often 'overkill' so if you find settings that produce excellent quaility for you, just consider that good enough and keep using them

When you decide to start putting the DV home videos on discs you should really think about getting a DVDR drive. If you want to stick to CDR discs I doubt you'll be happy with the VCD white book standard (see what is VCD to the left). SVCD or CVCD are better choices (higher resolution and bitrate then VCD). CVCD is also popular because it calls for 352x480 MPEG2 video with mpeg1 layer II audio @ 48khz. Which is supported by the DVD standard. That is when/if you get a DVD player you could combine several CVCDs onto one DVDR.

There's no improvement in quaility, but it's one disc vs. 6 (well 5.8). You said that you are encodeding at 704x576 so I assume you're in Europe, in the USA DVDR drives can be had for as low as $180 (after rebates). And liteon is about to release a drive (IIRC) so you might want to wait/look into that.

Not sure if this helps any, just some random background I suppose. Luck with all your projects.

[Spanner]

That info helped me a lot.


If I ever decided to use audio tracks in the slideshow, would I then be better using the SVCD format ?

Are the menu options the same in VCD and SVCD for still image slideshows ?


I burnt one image in 6 different resolutions to a VCD ranging from the 720 dpi down to 72 dpi and all 6 showed up similar quality on the TV via the DVD player. So I guess it s very much along the lines of the puter monitor ( ie 72 dpi being ok ).