Newbie CONVERSION of DIVX to SVCD and my Pioneer DV-343

[hence]

Hello all,

Okay I have read about 10 hours worth of articles and guides and keep confusing myself.

I have downloaded a few divx movies (mostly dvdrips) and want to create svcd's out of them to play on my new dvd player.

There is no info on what bitrate is best for my Pioneer DV-343.

But regardless, I have access to CCE 2.5 and TMPenc 12.j...
I have heard that CCE is much better quality, but doesn't have resizing.

This is where I get confused, Should I not be able to simply convert the divx avi as is into an svcd? Why do I need to change the size (ie. resizing it)?

I suppose the biggest issue is how to know if you should be using an ntscfilm, ntsc, or pal template, etc... very confused..

Thanks in advance for any help and suggestions.

Hence

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: hence on 2001-09-18 15:15:31 ]</font>

[kingoflubrication]

i too just bought a pioneer dv343, and according to the info & reviews of dvd players on the site (scroll down and look on the sidebar then click dvd players), the pioneer cant do anything (vcd, svcd, xvcd, xsvcd) with a max bitrate of 2600. the max bitrate is video AND the audio bitrate combined. also if the resolution of the clip you downloaded isnt standard for vcd, 352x240ntsc 352x480pal, or standard for svcd, 480x480 (i think thats right for both ntsc and pal), then it will become an xvcd or xsvcd. but you shouldnt have to worry about resizing for the pioneer dv343; i have played resolutions up to 720x480 (i am not sure if this is what you mean by "resizing" though). if you want to play the vcd on an american or japanese dvd player choose ntsc, but if you are in europe choose pal.

[srooibok]

If your going to use cc 2.5 to transfer to svcd (although not really worth the hassle as its easier to convert to vcd and the quality will be more or less the same) you will have to use something like virtualdub to franeserve the movie. Where as Tmnpeg doesn't need to be served it will convert straight from youe file. Remember you cant improve on the quality that you already have so mpeg1 will be as good as mpeg2!

'S'

[JJamez]

Whoever told you CCE is 'much' better than TMPG is pulling your leg... Any quality difference between the two is negligible.

CCE is much faster, but I've found it very flaky and have never really been able to get it working 100% of the time. On the flip side, TMPG requires more time, but always runs flawlessly for me - I don't think anything touches TMPG once you know what settings you like.

I agree with srooibok about using MPG1 - for converting Divx files its fine - MPG2 is useful in that it supports interlacing, 3:2 pulldown, VBR (although MPG1 seems to work fine with this as well).. You shouldn't need to change the resolution (size) of your Divx files, as the 343 should play them fine - and the one big added benefit of not resizing is the encoding goes MUCH faster.



<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: JJamez on 2001-09-19 11:34:27 ]</font>

[hence]

Great... thx everyone...

I tried using CCE 2.5 but it just kept crashing.. so it's been deleted..

So I'm using TMPG now, if I don't care about the resolution then, do I choose 1:1 VGA or 4:3? or should I just use an SVCDNTSC template that comes with TMPG?

Also, another strange thing.. I did a quick test.. and it looked good, but audio was off a bit.. now everytime I try to do it, it's just video, no audio... ??? Do I need to convert the audio to a wave first? It's strange that it worked the first time...

Also, if anyone wants to impart their settings that gave them good quality using TMPG for encoding SVCD's from DIVX, feel free to post em...

What's the opinion on audio bitrate? is 224 really worth it, or will 160-192 sound as good?

Sorry for all the questions.. it really helps me out tho!

Cheers...

[JJamez]

Yeah, try converting the Divx audio to wav first.

I wouldn't go below 192 for .mp2 files - even at 192 there is a noticeable difference from 224, but its acceptable - below 192 is not, at least to my ears - plus the space savings are minimal at best.

I'm not sure what difference it makes, but set your input file resolution to 1:1 (on Advanced menu) and output to 4:3 (on Main menu).

BTW, CCE consistently crashed on me to, until like you, I erased the piece of $*&#... lol

[2pac]

Yeah, I agree that CCE is bull crap, LoL. That's why I'm using ULead Media Studio Pro's video editor.

[hence]

lol! Actually, I am going to give the Ulead Media Studio Pro...