getting started question

[tednbeth]

Need a bit of help.

I have Studio DV and have been making movies to record back to tape. I am just learing about VCD.

I just want to make sure that I can do the following.....

After I render my movie, I then use the MPeg converter found on this site, and then I can burn onto a standard CD-R with my computer. I can then play back the CD on my computer or almost any DVD machine?

Does the movie need to by in AVI to convert?

Will I be able to burn a 40 minute movie onto the CD?

I am sure there will be more involved questions, but I just want to make sure I have the basic concept down.

T

[Vejita-sama]

You've got the basic idea.
1) Get video source on HD
2) Convert to MPEG1 (xVCD) or MPEG2 (xSVCD)
3) Burn to CDR.

As for lenght. The VCD standard is video=1150kbit/s and audio=224kbit/s. This works out to 1min=1MB, or a 74min CDR will hold 74min and an 80min CDR will hold 80min of video.

SVCD standard is video=2520 audio=224 (for TMPGenc) that works out to ~38min of video on an 80min CDR.

You can raise or lower the bitrate. The higher the bitrate the better the quality, but you get less movie per CDR. The lower the bitrate the more movie you can fit, but the quaility starts to go down.

It mostly depends on the quaility of your source. For a DVD rip, I've used video=1500 audio=128 (that's 65min/80min CDR) and get DVD quaility MPEG2 encodes using 3pass VBR in CCE.

For a DivX source, VHS capture source, the quaility just isn't there to start with. Mind you I have a cheap-o capture card.