Pioneer 440 SVCDs

[Discus]

Dear Owners of the Pioneer DV440 -- or similar models like the 444,

I am encoding an SVCD as a gift, and I want to be pretty sure before I give it to him that it will work on his player: a Pioneer DV 440, in the USA. Most of my encoding questions have been answered in these forums, but a few remain.

First of all, it sounds like the player doesn't play PAL. But what about NTSCfilm? (That is, 23.976 fps with 3:2 pulldown.) That is how the SVCD I have is currently encoded. I would greatly appreciate if someone has tried this with their 440, and can let me know if it works or not.

Secondly, DVD2SVCD recommends adding a 2-second offset at the beginning of each multiplexed mpeg for compatibility, but I don't think that's very common: is this necessary for this player?

And finally, is audio sample rate important? I currently have it at 44.1 kHz.

The video was encoded with CCE VBR, and though I haven't looked up the bitrate data, it is approximately 60 minutes per CD, so the bitrate can't be too high; and bit rate is 192 Kbps. If you have any other guidelines for making a SVCD more amicable to this player, please share them.

Thank you very much!!

[BJ_M]

https://www.videohelp.com/dvdplayers.php?DVDname=dv444&Submit=Search&Search=Search

[BJ_M]

First of all, it sounds like the player doesn't play PAL. But what about NTSCfilm? (That is, 23.976 fps with 3:2 pulldown.) That is how the SVCD I have is currently encoded.

yes fine

adding a 2-second offset at the beginning of each multiplexed mpeg for compatibility,

yes fine

is audio sample rate important? I currently have it at 44.1 kHz

yes fine (44.1 is standard for svcd but often 48 works also on SOME players)


see above post i did -- some people report problems with svcd and this player and others swear no problems -- seems 1/2 and 1/2

[Discus]

Just to clarify, you're saying it's okay to NOT have the two-second offset at the beginning of each mpeg, correct?

Thank you very much for your help! I am pretty hopeful, or as you say, 1/2 and 1/2 hopeful, that it will work.

[BJ_M]

leave the offset , it can not hurt anything

[troyvcd1]

I got usa pioneer 440. I made all my svcds at 29.97 fps and they worked good. One caution. If you make mpeg stills make sure you get the latest version of mpeg tools. It was the beta version when I was using it about 6 months ago. Pioneer dvd players had a problem with these mpeg stills with the previous versions of dvd2svcd and if you use mpeg stills to create menus everything could get messed up. I dont know if this latest version of mpeg tools is still a beta or not.

[Boolean]

Hi,
I have a DV444. SVCD plays fine as long as your total bitrate doesn't exceed 2400 and the minimum does not go below 300. I was having all sorts of problems with freeze frame on low motion scenes and it was down to the minimum bitrate. There was a thread on this site all about the DV444 and a problem with CCE dropping below the set minimum. I always use to use TMPGEnc 2pass as its more accurate with the minimum bitrate. Try a forum search for the original posts.

[Discus]

Troy: I'm not using mpeg stills, so luckily that's not a worry, thanks.

[Discus]

Boolean: What happens when the bitrate goes too high? My minimum bitrate is well about 300, but the maximum is 2937, as is the wont of CCE VBR. Is that unreasonably high, and if so, what happens to playback? Thanks for your help.

[Boolean]

Discus,

If your total bitrate exceeds 2520, thats video + audio, the DV444 chokes, the picture freezes and the sound breaks up. Have a read of this thread https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=78843&highlight= it explains some of the problems

John