SVCD vs VCD under this condition...

[Hastur]

I download some "medium" quality MPGs and AVIs from the net at times and I want to put them on disk to play them on my DVD player. I went out and bought the Panasonic RV31 as it plays CDRs CDRWs VCDs and MP3s.

Now these MPGs and AVIs are really the only thing I intend to burn other than MP3s. My only concern is I could have bought an APEX machine instead of the Panasonic as it can play SVCDs. I didn't do this as I went with the assumption that the AVIs and MPGs that I have aren't high quality so burning them as an "SVCD" wouldn't make any sense. I figure it can't improve the picture any. Is this correct ?

I imagine SVCD would come in handy if I wanted to burn DVDs or something. Anyway I could return my Panasonic and get the SVCD one but I need some educated opinions (heh).

Thanks.

[Braindrain]

Well... here's an analogy.

Let's say you have an old car that doesn't run very well and needs repairs. You could replace the parts with the best components available thus ensuring the car wouldn't run any worse. Or... you could replace it with cheap, used parts but the car would probably run even worse than before.
Of course, in this situation, cost is a big factor. In the case of SVCD/VCD, the only cost would be the DVD player itself and possibly the cost in extra CD-R's (negligible).

Personally, I encode in nothing less than SVCD. If you're encoding from a DVD directly (with the VOB's), then a VCD would actually get decent quality. If you're encoding from "medium" quality videos, then the degradation through conversion to VCD would be pronounced.

There are a lot of differing opinions but the 2 DVD players that get mentioned most often for versatility are Apex and Pioneer.

[Hastur]

Hmm... I am not encoding dvd's or tapes just existing MPGs and AVIs that I grab from the net. I just convert them to VCD and toss them onto a CD to play them on my DVD player.

Now if the AVI is already 320 by 240 when I originally download it - making them a 480 x 480 SVCD isn't going to do much... perhaps stretch the picture. Or at least this is what I am thinking.

Is this correct ?

[Sully]

I guess it all depends on the quality of your downloads. If you're already using low quality pictures, converting to SVCD won't do anything quality wise. It'll just make a bad quality SVCD since your source is what matters.

Of course if you're DL high-quality clips, SVCD can be the answer.

Point is... You're not going to make your source video better by converting it to SVCD. That's why most people who do DVD rips use SVCD. People who DL or capture from TV or something (VHS) tend to choose VCD.

Low quality source = low quality conversion (VCD)
High quality source = high quality conversion (SVCD)

[Hastur]

Thanks, that's what I figured.

The sources that I use aren't all that great so I don't think that using SVCD would make much sense.

If I were doing DVDs I would use SVCD as I would want to keep some of the quality of the pictures when I converted it.

[Braindrain]

Hmm... I'll use more layman English. Due to the limitations of VCD (352x240 pixels, 1150 kbitrate), whatever quality you have on your download will be FURTHER degraded through VCD. You could do a XVCD and increase the bitrate to minimize loss.

[Sefy]

I think if the source is in low quality and low bitrate, then no matter how you encode it to (SVCD/XVCD/XSVCD) the picture won't look any better and will just take more space.

More Bitrate is good when your source is of either higher or equal bitrate, if it's lower, you are wasting time in encoding as well as file sizes.

[Braindrain]

Sefy, you're right. However, from the avi's I've seen available for downlaod, most of them are encoded with at least a 2k bitrate. By encoding to 1150, you're decreasing the quality.

[vitualis]

I'd have to agree with Braindrain on this one...

Think of it this way, the higher the bitrate, the more sophisticated the encoding technique, the greater the capacity to preserve the original "crapiness" of the video without introducing even more artifacts...

Regards.

[Braindrain]

[Sefy]

Braindrain, vitualis, exactly in what way are you not agreeing with what I said ? cause it sounds like we all agree on the same thing