Best MPG2 vidcaps to feed SVCD2DVD?

[SMW]

Sorry if this is covered elsewhere; didn't see it when searching.

I have a Hauppauge hardware encoding card (PVR250) and would like to capture some material for archiving with SVCD2DVD. I would want the resulting discs to be played on a variety of standalones, so I'm shooting for maximum compatibility.

Regarding the MPG2 files that I will be feeding into SVCD2DVD, could I get a few comments on the following?

• Audio: Record at 48KHz rather than 44.1KHz? (bitrate?)
  CBR/VBR: I'm guessing that CBR will be compatible with more players. (Right?)
  Video bitrate: Is any particular bitrate (or range of bitrates) generally better tolerated by standalones?
  GOP: Four Ps and two Bs per group?

Thanks for your attention and, again, sorry if this is covered elsewhere and I missed it.

[Jikchung]

I'll answer as best I can:

Since it seems you are just using the program to 'Author' your DVD, you should stick with standard DVD aspect ratio of FULL 1:720 x 480/576 (NTSC/PAL) or HALF D1: 352 x 480/576.

Yes, you should use 48KHz audio.
As far as I know, all commercial DVD's are VBR, so that
shouldn't be an issue.
Video Bitrate: Up to 9.8 Mbps MPEG2 video is the
standard with the total of 10.08 Mbps total for Video and audio. I
would stay a bit below these maximums as some players have
choked on very high bitrates.

As for the GOP, I don't know, you might try:
www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4

[ChrissyBoy]

i aggree with Jikchung. For gops - the pattern does not matter particually for compatibility. The 2 b frames will give you very slightly better quality. The key is to set the max gop length for NTSC (18) or PAL (15) as this will affect compatibility quite a lot.

[sn0wbl!nd]

I use an ATI all-in-wonder to do my vid capturing and I have a 2.6mgz P4. I do the 720x480 capturing with VBR at 8Mbps max. However, when I use Ps and Bs frames I get a lot of dropped frames at 720X480 resolution. I have to use I frames only to avoid dropping any frames.

Question: How does that affect the quality of the video?

Thank you

[ChrissyBoy]

i frames require more bits to encode than p or b frames. So it would be like encoding with b & p frames at a lower bitrate, say 6000 or 7000. However if you are happy with the quality (which should be good) go for it.

[sn0wbl!nd]

Thank you.