Time To Clear This Up Once and For All

[tygrus2000]

All I want to do is get the best quailty encode to standard VCD/SVCD/DVD specs. I have flickering and shimmering problems in my encodes with both Tmpenc and MainConcept and i think it has to do with my settings.

I did quite an extensive search on this unfortunately the answer doesnt see to be in one post but spread across hundreds. If you can give me a one time answer to these settings for encoding video, I will be very greatful.

1.) For TV or PC viewing, Interlace or Non-Interlace? Progressive or no?
2.) Bottom Field first or Top Field First?
3.) Inverse 3:2 pulldown or not?
4.) Inverse Telecine or not?
5.) Ghost, Noise Reduction? or not?
6.) Sharpen Edges and Color Correction? or not?
7.) Deinterlace?
8.) 3:2 PullDown?
9.) Soften Block Noise?
10.) Joint Stereo or Stereo?
11.) Vegas Video - Interleave Frames?
12.) Divx - 1 pass? 2 Pass? Multi? ??

[yongkuk]

Read the articles on the left especially this one www.dvdrhelp.com/tmpgencexplained.htm

[tygrus2000]

Thx, this guide is very helpful, but it does not tell what the optimum setting are. I went thru and did a bunch more encodes carefully watching settings and I still get a flickering/shimmering final result.

When coverting an AVI file created in something like Vegas or Premier, and wanting to convert that to (S)VCD, does it go Progressive Or Interlace? I think this is what is causing the problem unless anyone can give me another reason for the flicker. Is there a VDub filter or some other filter I should run it thru first before encoding?

tygrus

[Laddydaddy]

I'm not an expert but I will try to answer your questions:

1.) For TV or PC viewing, Interlace or Non-Interlace? Progressive or no?

For tv viewing it doesn't matter. For pc viewing it must be progressive

2.) Bottom Field first or Top Field First?

It depends on whether or not your original film is interlaced or not. If your film source is progressive (nearly all dvds in the NTSC format are progressive) you don't have to worry about it.. If you have ripped an interlace film and you want to deinterlace it you would need to know which field comes first. Go to www.lukesvideo.com for a good discussion of interlacing. Bottom line is if you have a noninterlaced source just let this at the default setting in TMPG.
3.)

Inverse 3:2 pulldown or not?

No need to use this. A telecined film is one that has been encoded at 23.97fps but plays back at 29.97fps. The link to lukesvideo above gives a good pictorial guide to how this is done. An inverse 3:2 pulldown ( also called an inverse telecine ) reverses this process
4.).

Inverse Telecine or not?

Same answer as number three.
5.)

Ghost, Noise Reduction? or not?

Ghost reduction is only needed if you have "ghost" (double) images. Noise reduction will reduce the "noise" generated by movement but will tend to reduce the sharpness of your film. You probably don't need to use this in TMPG especially for svcd or DVD with higher bitrates.
6.)

Sharpen Edges and Color Correction? or not?

You really only need to use color correction if your film looks pale or washed out. If you don't like the color of your film and want something bolder, by all means use it. Just don't overdo it. As for sharpness, I always use a sharpening filter to make up for loss of crispness and clarity in the encoding process. It merely sharpens the edges of objects in the film. Again, don't overdo it or you will generate "noise."
7.)

Deinterlace?

You only need to use this if your films are interlaced and you want to deinterlace them. Again nearly all DVDs are non interlaced so you probably won't have to use this filter.
8.)

3:2 PullDown?

If you encode a DVD at 23.97fps you must do a 3:2 pulldown (see lukesvideo link above) so the film will play back at 29.97fps. Some people say not to use this. They say to use pulldown.exe available in the tools section of this guide. Whatever the case if you want your DVD to be complaint it must play back at 29.97fps. Either encode it at this rate or encode it at 23.97fps and apply the pulldown.exe.
9.)

Soften Block Noise?

This helps to reduce blockiness during high motion scenes. It won't hurt to use this if your vcds have a lot of blocks in them An alternative would be to encode svcd or DVDs at higher bitrates.
10.)

Joint Stereo or Stereo?

I guess you can just stick to stereo on this one. Read the help guide in TMPG for further explanation.
11.)

Vegas Video - Interleave Frames?

I'm not familiar with Vegas Video so I can't help you here.
12.)

Divx - 1 pass? 2 Pass? Multi? ??

The more passes the better your video is supposed to be. The programs (TMPG and Main Concept) analayze the film frame by frame to more efficiently allocate the bits to the film. When the program finishes analyzing the film this is considered a pass. If you choose 2 pass the program will analyze the film frame by frame twice, three pass, three times, etc., etc.
Hope I've been of help.

[SIRCOOKS]

try demuxing the file (seperating the vid from the audio) then reencoding the vid, it wqorks for me sometimes in your situation

[tygrus2000]

Actually, there isnt even any audio in the file I am creating.

Some of the slide show programs such as Ulead DVDPS have a anti-flicker filter or anti-alaising filter. I wonder if something like that would help, or possible VDUB has some anti-flicker filters that might work. I am at the end of my rope on this. This is an original production I am doing so I guess I could always go to one of the locals and get a top quality hardware encode done, but I would rather find a solution here.

tygurs