VHS to SVCD question

[Joseph Vigo]

I have been capturing VHS video for transfer to SVCD, using ATI MMC set to half D1. resolution. This gave good results but only 20 mins of Video per 700MB CD. This was too little, so I tried going to "Medium" resolution setting in MMC. (4MB sec - 640x288 res) - but this has only upped it to 25 minutes of capture per CD maximum.

I accept that I`m never going to fit a whole movie on a single CD, but i would like to at least be able to fit, say, a 30 minute episode of a TV program. I have tried going to the next level resolutions setting down but the quality is too blocky to accept.

Is there a way around this problem with VHS capture to SVCD? I like using ATI MMC because it is simple, but this is a big stumbling block for me.

Is there something (not too time consuming) that TMPEnc can do when it is outputting the MPG "chunks" after the cutting and joining stages for burning with Nero?

Would I perhaps be better off capturing to DivX.4 using Virtual Dub?
I tried this once but there was no audio, either during capture or in playback.

Many thanks .

[teegee420]

You shouldn't have any problem squeezing 45 minutes of video onto an SVCD. To get the best quality you will have to re-encode. If it were me, I would up the bitrate of the capture to 5mbps and then re-encode with TMPGEnc or MainConcept MPEG Encoder. Use the DVDRhelp Bitrate Calculator to determine optimal bitrate for the total running time of your movie.

[Joseph Vigo]

perfect.

thank you.

[teegee420]

You're welcome. I would also advise sticking to half D1 resolution when capturing, as this is nearest to actual VHS resolution. Good luck.

[FOO]

Why don't you just capture at 480 x 576 in MPEG2
and skip the encoding ? The ATI does well enough for VHS

[Joseph Vigo]

Foo,

Will this resolution setting mean that i can capture more than 25 minutes of VHS onto an SVCD? Is that setting available in the ATI MMC?
It only seems to offer 640x288 if i remember right.

Anyway, theres a new problem, following on from re-encoding like Teegee said in TMPGEnc. I have re-encoded my 30 mins of video using the bitrates recommended by BitrateCalc, but it has produced a video file that has no sound in it, and a separate ausio file by the looks of it.

What do i do now~?

thanks

[FOO]

Depending on what MMC vesion you have you can set the bitrate
to whatever you want.

Next time you gotta tell TMPGenc to make System stream instead of separate a/v.
If you want a MPEG2 system stream just mux the a/v together with the
mpeg tools to fix your current capture

If you capture to 480 x 576 you don't have to bother with any of that

[teegee420]

Anyway, theres a new problem, following on from re-encoding like Teegee said in TMPGEnc. I have re-encoded my 30 mins of video using the bitrates recommended by BitrateCalc, but it has produced a video file that has no sound in it, and a separate ausio file by the looks of it.

What do i do now~?

thanks

In TMPGEnc, go to File>MPEG Tools>Simple Multiplex. Use the m2v as the video source, the mp2 as the audio source and click "run". This will create an mpeg with sound and video. In the future, set TMPGEnc for "System(video+audio)" in the lower right corner of the main screen.

It's true that you can set ATI MMC to capture at 480x576 with the proper bitrate rate, but I have never been happy with how it performs with bitrates below 3mbps. Re-encoding always looks better to me.

If you would like to change the bitrate in MMC, right click and select "setup", go to Personal Video Recorder>Map Preset, select the SVCD template, click Edit, select a new file name and click next until you get to Video Encoding Parameters.

[Joseph Vigo]

thanks again.

THere is definately something wrong here.

I capture 30 mins of VHS source video using MMC version 7.2 ( i can`t run higher versions on my machines, it wont install)....I capture at half D1.
resolution.
I open TMPEnc and follow the wizard to open the MPEG2 file. It says "unsupported file "

If I choose NOT to ask the wizard, and just go to Browse > choose file...in the main window....it seems to import the file, but nothing appears in the main window, and when i click START, it shows "elapsed time" as if it is doing something but nothing appears in the progress bar,, and no estimate for estimated completion time is given. ANd it ALWAYS produces a file of the same size (in this case 0.98 GB, whichever bitrates i select).

Why won`t it open or process my MPEG files?

I had to resort to capturing AVI and converting to MPEG 2. TMPGENc is very happy importing AVI and im very pleased with the results, but working with AVI is problematic for disk space, thats the problem.

thanks for any insights.

[FOO]

You have to have an MPEG2 codec for TMPGenc to read the file.
It has to decompress to raw video before it can encode.
The AVI is the best way

[Joseph Vigo]

great, thanks again Foo.

[teegee420]

If you're still having trouble, try installing the TMPGEnc MPEG-2 Plugin.

[Joseph Vigo]

thanks teegee


I get home and try things only to find they raise a whole new bunch of questions.

I captured 44 mins of VHS to AVI in ATI-MMC.
This produced a 13.2 GB file that I imported into TMPGEnc and re-encoded to 2550 bitrate, (recommended by Bitratecalculator) 352x576 res, CBR - SYSTEM (Video + Audio) -
--- this produced an MPeG file of nearly 800MB. Fine so far.

I double click the file, it plays in the ATI player but the audio is not in sync with the video, not by much, but it is noticeable, and very irritating. No good.

what is happening here? Everyone goes on about how good this TMPENc is but it seems a bit naff to me if it can`t even code the words to fit with the lips. I`m biting my tongue here. I want to do VHS > SVCD but i never realised it would be this much hassle.

That`s not all.

I tried to capture straight to MPEG-2 using ATI-MMC set at half D1 and changing the bitrate to 2,030 manually. res: 352x576

It captures ok. I open the file for burning in Nero and it says:

"stream encoding invalid for SVCD......Invalid video stream....25fps....352x576..."

What is going on here?.


Thank you for the Codec Tegeee, but i think it`s Codeine i need.



I

[FOO]

If you wanted a SVCD you should have captured at
480 x 576 . That's the SVCD specification.
Nero is correct

[Joseph Vigo]

really?

i thought it was 352 x 576

ok, that must be it Foo,thanks, i will try again. Will that explain the "out of synch" of the video and sound too?

[FOO]

Dunno about the sync.
Try 480 x 576 @ 2500 kbps , audio @ 196 kbps
No IVTC , no deinterlace

[Joseph Vigo]

Thanks Foo.

I tried it, but Im still having the synch problem.

[wingnut]

Afternoon,

if you're after some tips on SVCD via MMC then I suggest you also try www.pcphotovideo.com the site has quite a bit of information on capturing SVCD res (480 x 576 (PAL) or 480 x 480 (NTSC)) via MMC.

I may have missed it but are you capturing to AVI or MPEG2, if you capture to mpeg2 @ 2500 in a resolution of 480x 480 (or 576 in PAL land) you should be able to go straight to audthoring / burning.

I used to do this before I got a DVD Burner using MMC 7.7, (I noticed you said you couldn't install this, do you have more details as to why - I use an old, well, very old, ATI 128 All in Wonder Pro with 7.7 and it seems to behave itself ok apart from a very few lock ups)

Also try www.lordsmurf.com, (yes our very own Lord Smurf), since there are guides there on capturing via MMC.


Cheers

Edz

[Joseph Vigo]

Afternoon, thanks,

"if you're after some tips on SVCD via MMC then I suggest you also try www.pcphotovideo.com the site has quite a bit of information on capturing SVCD res (480 x 576 (PAL) or 480 x 480 (NTSC)) via MMC."

great, will do , thanks.

I may have missed it but are you capturing to AVI or MPEG2, if you capture to mpeg2 @ 2500 in a resolution of 480x 480 (or 576 in PAL land) you should be able to go straight to audthoring / burning.

OK Wingnut, I am trying to capture in MPEG2 with MMC. I wanted to capture at a lower bitrate -1950 bitrate- so my 44 minutes of VHS capture would fit onto a single SVCD...but I know how to set the bitrates in MMC, I just can`t find where to set the frame rate at 25fps. It seems to do 29 fps by default. Does your setting above come under the "Half horizontal" setting, or "medium in MMC"?

I used to do this before I got a DVD Burner using MMC 7.7, (I noticed you said you couldn't install this, do you have more details as to why - I use an old, well, very old, ATI 128 All in Wonder Pro with 7.7 and it seems to behave itself ok apart from a very few lock ups)

Well, I tried to install MMC 7.2, but it wouldn`t install. It needed something, but I can`t remember what...Direct X 9? I`ll find out....

Also try www.lordsmurf.com, (yes our very own Lord Smurf), since there are guides there on capturing via MMC.

Ok, thanks, I will.

[Joseph Vigo]

why does it say "moved" on this topic?

I just checked out that site Wingnut, got some good stuff of it thanks.
I will stick to 2.3MB in MMC i think, Nero just doesn`t seem happy with bitrate anarchy. (ie custom settings ) ANyway, that slider bar for bitrate settings in MMC isn`t very accurate in my version. It jumps all over the show.

[Joseph Vigo]

erm,

i just saw the topic at the top. Think i better go take a look.


Duh.