Quality of converted VCD to DVD

[d_unbeliever]

if you convert VCD to DVD is there any loss in Quality?

is a converted VCD to DVD movie as approximately good as a commercial DVD in terms of picture quality?

[redwudz]

I don't know that I would 'convert' a VCD to DVD. You may be better off just changing the sound from 44 to 48Khz and making a DVD-VCD. Any time you convert formats (encode) you have some loss. Look under the DVD specification to the left for DVD-VCD.

[lordsmurf]

Do this:
http://www.digitalfaq.com/convert/vcdtodvd/vcdtodvd.htm

Does not involve any encoding, just authoring with an audio adjustment.

[mats.hogberg]

No and no.
If done properly, it'll be exactly the same quality as the VCD, and I really hope I'll never have to find a commercial DVD with VCD quality video! I expect a DVD to have the double resolution (4 times # of pixels), and at least 4 times higher bit rate

/Mats

[AlecWest]

if you convert VCD to DVD is there any loss in Quality?

I just converted a VCD to DVD and the quality improved. But, I suspect that might be due to my player ... that it grudgingly plays VCDs. The resulting DVD did not have the video smearing and audio clicks/pops the VCD presented. But like I said, it's probably the player. Bottom line ... everything depends on the quality of the source. If you have a good source file, quality probably won't suffer too much if at all.

[jimmalenko]

if you convert VCD to DVD is there any loss in Quality?

is a converted VCD to DVD movie as approximately good as a commercial DVD in terms of picture quality?

As soon as I saw this thread title, I though to myself "haven't I seen this thread before ? I wonder who's bumped it ???"

Haven't you asked this question about 6 months ago, or I am thinking of someone else ?


Anyway ...

if you convert VCD to DVD is there any loss in Quality?

Depends on what you mean by "convert". The minimum you need to do to a VCD-compliant MPEG to make it DVD-compliant is upsample the audio from 44.1KHz to 48KHz, which a lot of authoring programs will do for you on-the-fly. At the other end of the spectrum, if you feed the VCD-compliant MPEG into <insert MPEG encoder here> and re-encode (why you would "bother", given what I've just said is totally beyond me), then there's a much better chance that quality will be lost (brought on by the user, mind you - someone who knows what they're doing shouldn't have any issues), with that magnificent caveat that filters are the only exception to this rule.

is a converted VCD to DVD movie as approximately good as a commercial DVD in terms of picture quality?

The VCD is not as good as a commercial DVD to start with, and if you just change the audio as I explained above, you're obviously not doing anything to the video so therefore there's no change in the quality of the video. However, if you re-encode, chuck a couple of filters on etc etc, there's always the possibility that you might get it to look marginally better than what it started as. This is generally only true for a VCD conversion that had a poor or noisy source to begin with, though.

EDIT: ....... and as LS points out (see below), Garbage In = Garbage Out

[lordsmurf]

Almost missed this jim...

is a converted VCD to DVD movie as approximately good as a commercial DVD in terms of picture quality?

Garbage in, garbage out

[jimmalenko]

Almost missed this jim...

is a converted VCD to DVD movie as approximately good as a commercial DVD in terms of picture quality?

Garbage in, garbage out

I edited my post

[d_unbeliever]

thanks a lot for the infos guys....

jim my question months ago was quality in converting DVD to VCD now its the opposite,i.e.,VCD to DVD...my DVD to VCD converting was very satisfying because of your great tips and infos...got very good VCD movies from DVD.

[jimmalenko]

jim my question months ago was quality in converting DVD to VCD now its the opposite,i.e.,VCD to DVD...my DVD to VCD converting was very satisfying because of your great tips and infos...got very good VCD movies from DVD.

oops, my bad

The question needs to be asked, then:

Are these VCD files the same ones you created in light of that previous thread ?

[d_unbeliever]

np

no they are different...got tons of VCD that i want to convert them to DVD. it seems that the quality will not be good so maybe ill not pursue this...

[jimmalenko]

got tons of VCD that i want to convert them to DVD. it seems that the quality will not be good so maybe ill not pursue this...

It's not that the quality will not be good - it will be exactly the same as the source VCD !

It's just not going to get better, that's all.

[AlecWest]

got tons of VCD that i want to convert them to DVD. it seems that the quality will not be good so maybe ill not pursue this...

It's not that the quality will not be good - it will be exactly the same as the source VCD !

It's just not going to get better, that's all.

With one proviso. In my case, the quality did get better. But that's either a player issue or perhaps a media issue. The DVD lost the video smearing and audio pops/clicks presented when I played the VCD in my player. This is not something I expected ... but does make sense if a given player finds DVD media more compatible than VCD media.

But, I do agree on one thing. If a video can be re-encoded as DVD from a non-VCD source, it'll be much better than the VCD. In my case, a lot of stuff I captured on VCD is "irreplacable" (ie., news footage or 'specials' that will never be available on DVD/VHS and home-video tapes that have deteriorated too much).

[jimmalenko]

got tons of VCD that i want to convert them to DVD. it seems that the quality will not be good so maybe ill not pursue this...

It's not that the quality will not be good - it will be exactly the same as the source VCD !

It's just not going to get better, that's all.

With one proviso. In my case, the quality did get better. But that's either a player issue or perhaps a media issue. The DVD lost the video smearing and audio pops/clicks presented when I played the VCD in my player. This is not something I expected ... but does make sense if a given player finds DVD media more compatible than VCD media.

That was definitely your player/media compatibility causing it.

Nothing to do with the "conversion" of VCD to DVD itself

[AlecWest]

That was definitely your player/media compatibility causing it.

Nothing to do with the "conversion" of VCD to DVD itself

Absolutely agree. I only mentioned it because d_unbeliever might want to experiment with a few RW disks and compare DVD presentation to VCD presentation. He might have some of the same player/media issues I had and might be more impressed with the final DVD result. In my case, I'd long written off the smearing, pops and clicks as the "price" I paid for VCD. But, it turned out that the root capture file was just fine ... and that my media and/or player was exacting the price. I'm eventually going to convert all my VCDs to DVD because of this.

[d_unbeliever]

im going to buy my self a dvd writer this christmas and i need the infos you've given me for future projects....

[AlecWest]

im going to buy my self a dvd writer this christmas and i need the infos you've given me for future projects....

Check a local OfficeMax store. I got a MagicSpin Dual Format 8x DVD burner for only $74. Then about 2 weeks later (sigh), I heard they marked it down to $62. I've got no complaints about it ... yet.

[d_unbeliever]

lol alecwest ...prices drop really fast indeed. the DVD burner im eyeing for just dropped price recently...i hope they will still lower the price this christmas season .

[AlecWest]

lol alecwest ...prices drop really fast indeed. the DVD burner im eyeing for just dropped price recently...i hope they will still lower the price this christmas season .

Yup ... especially just after Christmas when stores are trying to beat the clock before "inventory tax" time. When you get your burner, experiment with an RW disk. Re-encode a VCD's root file and burn a DVD ... then sit down and watch the two, one after the other. If the DVD's "playback" quality is better than the VCD's, then it might be worth converting all your VCDs to DVD.

[d_unbeliever]

thanks for the great tips man