I want to create completely standard VCD and SVCD disks instead of varying bit rates, etc.. From some footage from my D8 camcorder, I generated a movie (with Studio DV). Anyhow, I rendered both a VCD and an SVCD using the standard templates from TMPGenc. The quality of the VCD was far superior to the SVCD. The SVCD was very jumpy and lots of pixellation.
So, my question is, what setting is the best for the SVCD in tempgenc? For example, I assume that I'll need to do highest quality...but perhaps there is little difference for most things between the high quality and highest quality. How much longer does it take to do a highest versus high quality? TMPGenc is already very slow, so I don't want to make things slower than I have to...but I also don't want my SVCD to be worthless after it is done as my first go at it was.
Thanks.
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I use 2pass VBR with avarage of 2500 adn max 3500. Motion is High precision. This gives me about 35 minutes on a 80 min CD in high quality. If the movie is flickering you maybe have to change the field order (either A of B) This more or less depends on your DVD player.
Yes 2pass VBR is twice as slow but the quality is superior to other settings. Just let TPMGenc run when you go to bed and when you wake up you can burn your CD.
cheers
Leo
Equipment:
Athlon 1700 XP system
512 Mb RAM
Geforce 3 Ti500 64mb
1x 100 Gb hard disc (IDE)
1x 40 Gb hard disc (IDE)
1x 40 Gb hard disc (firewire) -
2 pass VBR is fine...but changing the bit rates from the default makes the SVCD non-standard, does it not? In other words, I know that increasing bit rate may increase quality...but I don't want to touch the settings that are defined by the standard.
Unfortunately, reading some of the archives doesn't help because it seems like everyone is doing non-standard stuff. But I want to create SVCD and VCDs that can be played in any player that can handle those, not worrying about any variations that might cause compatibility problems. -
Although changing the bit rates may make it non standard, most standalone players that will play SVCD and VCDs, will play both with a bit rate up to 2500 or 2600. So I think it is OK to alter the standard for VCDs and still remain compatible with players that will play SVCDs. However, I wouldn't go to 3500 if you want to keep to the standard. In my experience, SVCD recorded at this rate (up to 2600)always appear blocky (especially if there is lots of movement). I find that my home-movie clips are much more watchable as VCDs - and are even better if I break the standard and up the bit rate to 2500. I spent a lot of time messing around with SVCD settings trying to get a clip without blocks - I'd assumed that SVCDs must be better than VCDs as they have a higher resolution and faster bit rate. But I now find that VCDs are much easier on the eye as they are less blocky. I just don't think that you can get the bit rate high enough with SVCDs so they're not blocky without going over the 2600 limit of most standalones.
One thing I haven't tried is dropping the resolution of an SVCD to 352x288 (that of a PAL VCD) and comparing that to my XVCDs. (Anyone have any experience?). Also I'd be very happy if someone can tell me that I can get smooth SVCDs at 2600 - as I'd loved to be proved wrong. -
brianrous, there are some things that you can keep in mind:
If you use 2520 CBR this will give less blockiness, but the capacity is limited up to 35 min on a 74 min disc. You can also try to use noise reduction (especially if the source is a vhs tape) and in TMPEGEnc there is a setting to soften blocknoise. According to some people deinterlacing will reduce blocknoise too, but I'm not a supporter of deinterlacing since you'll lose resolution with that.
If you use VBR with an average bitrate of about 2000kbps in combination with the things I specified you'll get nice results.
It's true that XVCD with the same bitrate always produces less blocks, but it's also less sharp than SVCD since it uses only one field instead of two. So therefor I don't think you should reduce SVCD to 352x288. If you plan on reducing the resolution, I think you should stay to XVCD. -
I have made a SVCD at 352 x 240. I was playing with Sefy's SxVCD idea which is a MPEG2 file at 352x240 with a one of his CBR and Audio rates. (He list time examples and what rate to set for a 80min CDR)
I tried instead a 2 pass VBR using whatever average the vcdhelp.com bit-rate calulator listed and a Max rate at 2500. The results look pretty good on my PC and it did not create a file that was to big to burn with Nero.. I have yet to hook up to my TV and veiw the results. I think that 2pass VBR gives good quality with fewer disks. He had the good idea, I just reporting edits with his template. If you try it, test with CDRW. Not all players can play this setting. Sefy listed test with Pioneer players that can read these disks. I am going to take a test disk and try it out on one of the two new Pionner DVD players that can also read MP3's. Hope it works, they look like the players to get. -
So are you all telling me that the SVCD standard is worthless? You can't get a good quality standard SVCD? What good is 480 lines of resolution if the resulting blockiness "undoes" that resolution?
I guess I'll have to try just using highest quality motion using 2 pass VBR and hope for the best. If not, I'll stick to VCD. I was hoping to preserve better resolution, though. -
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If the movie is flickering you maybe have to change the field order (either A of B) This more or less depends on your DVD player.
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I don't understand that comment. Are you saying that the VCDs you can buy commercially are available in A order and B order formats, which you choose according to your DVD player? Now I don't understand the A and B order issue...but I would think it has more to do with the source of the video, not the destination. -
The SVCD standard is not worthless. You can get great quality at 480x480, you will need to encode at a higher rate and with 2 pass VBR. (IMHO) I have made a standard SVCD at 2150 ave /2500 Max that looked as good as the DVD. (But it takes more disks) Remember, the higher the ratio (480x480) the higher the encode rate will have to be to get better results. Also, the qualtity of the encoder plays a great part. (I use TMPEG) My 352x240 2passVBR was to get good quality with less disks. The best thing to do is play with settings and disk space to get to a point that you are happy with the output and can play on your hardware of choice.
JNT -
rbruner2: He is talking about svcds. Vcds are not field based, so there is no fields to swap. When encoding svcds however you must select the correct field order otherwise the movie becomes useless, jumping all over the place. This has nothing to do with your dvd player however, it is something you must set in your encoder. If you set your field order wrong then it will play incorrectly on all dvd players.
The svcd standard is far from worthless. Anything above 2.0mbits is more than enough bitrate to support resolutions of 480x480 even during high quality/fast movement scenes. If your source is high quality than you should not be seeing any blocks in your picture at all. If you do then you either arent using enough bitrate or you are doing something wrong.
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