Great AVI, terrible mpg with TMPGEnc

[jrgandara]

I'm in this business for a week by now, I confess that after all this foruns and all my nights spended trying learn how to create a good quality VCD or SVCD, I'm still confused.
I want convert my VHS tapes to VCD or SVCD with good quality, that's it. My questions:

- If VCD already is better than VHS, I will have any advantage using SVCD instead VCD for this copies?

- I captured using a Pinnacle DC10+ and a ATI ALL-In-Wonder 128 great AVI files. They look as good as original, but after converting to mpg with TMPGEnc, they get terrible! Fast scenes get blocked! Very inferior than original AVI file. What the best setup for good quality? I don't need more than 30 minutes per VCD!

- There are better encoder than TMPGEnc? I really don't care to have to pay for it, but I want some better.

I read all this forum and I just getting more confused. Too many diferent opinions, too many option to deal with. I just want a similar VHS quality, just like the AVI file I capture. There are any way to get it or is better I give up all these stuff and wait some more years?

I will really apreciate any help

[siaododo]

I also have ATI AIW 128. Read the How To Capture section and follow the steps on "Capturing with ATI AIW" section.

After upgrading to MMC 7.1, I was able to capture from VHS and Camcorder in mpeg format. The quality was quite good, however, you get better result if you capture in mpeg 2 format.

The mpeg 1 files I captured is already VCD compliant, and ready to burn with Nero 5.5.5.1. If the files is too big, I would cut it with TmpgEnc using the VCD template. The whole process takes about the time to capture, 5 - 10 minutes to cut, and about 10 minutes to burn.

I hope this is some help to you.

[siaododo]

Forgot, when I cut the Mpeg files with TmpgEnc, I didn't lose any video nor audio quality, except some files may come out with audio/video out of sync. If this happens, I de-multiplex the file with TmpgEnc, and re-multiplex using BBMPEG and set the correct video or audio delay to get them matched. I was very satisfied with the result, and I can usually put about 80 minutes on one cdr using over-burn option with Nero.

[Jason A]

one thing I noticed is that VCD is very poor...unless you are watching it on a 25" or smaller screen.

My 33" Panasonic running 3 component input right from the DVD and it looks blocks and not the greatest.

I watch the same disc on a 25" and it looks good..not great.

As for the VHS thing...I thought VCD was the same as VHS....

Jason

[jrgandara]

My problem is not the capture itself, is convert avi to mpg. The captured avi is great, look very similar to original VHS image, but after TMPGEnc it's look very block and looks like dropping frames, and avi files has no dropped frames

[jrgandara]

My TV is 29" Sony Wega with a Pionner DVD 535 conected via component video output. Everything I have made looks very bad on SVCD

The best experience I had was ripping MR Bean DVD in 2 SVCD, 40 minutes each. Great quality image, but in fast scenes blocky.

[speedy]

First no MPG is going to look as good as the source AVI file because of compression. Common sense tells you a 700 MB file won't look as good as a 20 GB file.

To make "good" SVCD with TMPGEnc:

Begin by entering the source video and audio files and a name for the rendered file.

1. click on LOAD, select one of the PAL or NTSC SVCD templates.
2. click LOAD again, then double click on the EXTRA folder
3. click on unlock.mcf, then click on OPEN
4. click on SETTINGS under rate control mode select 2 pass variable
5. click on the SETTINGS button next to rate control and
enter a value between 2000-2350 for max and between 1150-1500 for min.
6. under motion search precision select high, click OK
7. click on the SETTINGS again then the ADVANCED tab
8. set source aspect ratio to proper PAL or NTSC setting, click OK
9. click on Quantize matrix tab, check soften block noise have value between 30-40, click OK

If necessary apply any of the filters under the advance tab by checking, then double clicking to set options. Click on START button to render.

The above should give you a good quality SVCD assuming the source file was decent. Getting good results requires lots of trial and error. Sometimes turning off soften block noise or using different values help. So does adding the noise filter and playing with the max/min values for bitrate. Sometimes you get better results using a costant value for bitrate.

[AKundeti]

Can anybody tell me, how to convert Divx avi file to DV avi file using TMPGEnc???

Please, send me if there is any template ??

mail me: kundeti@dtrend.com

Thanks

Anil Kumar Kundeti

[Anonymous65]

VCD is only as good as VHS when it's done correctly, which is hard to do. If you make a VCD from a VHS tape using low quality software compression, it look horrible! If you buy a commercially made VCD, you will see that a VCD can look as good as VHS, but this is very hard to do with consumer equipment. If you have a hardware encoder, it's easy. If not, follow these steps:

1. Capture uncompressed AVI at 704x240 at the original frame rate.
2. Use a high quality software encoder like Tmpeg to encode to VCD.
3. Burn the file and play it back on a DVD player and TV.

The video source should be professional formats like Betacam, 1", DVCPro and the like. Good quality Hi8 and SVHS will also work, but not as good as broadcast formats. Using VHS will NOT give the same quality as the tape, it will look like a soft copy of the VHS tape (with motion artifacts).
Hardware encoding and/or software processing may make a better looking copy of a VHS tape.

[biffos]

I never seem to get great VCD'S from AVI files but I down loaded a couple of trailers in Quick time movie format converted them in TMPGEnc and the quality is brill!
pity all the films are not in the same format but I expect the files are bigger!