I want to encode at 3500 kbps: XVCD or XSVCD?

[pingdavid]

I have an Apex 1500 DVD player, and I have not been satisfied with the quality of my 2500 kbps SVCDs burned with Nero 5. The SVCDs that I download from the Internet are much nicer than the one's that I have been producing.

Anyway, I would like to try to raise my encoding rate to 3500 kbps. Which will produce the best results (in terms of video quality) MPEG1 or MPEG2? And, do you think that my Apex 1500 will play the VCD encoded at 3500 kbps?

I will also try 2 pass encoding (or 2pass Variable Bitrate), rather than single pass (or Constant Bit Rate). I am a newbie, so I am still trying to figure out how to produce the highest quality VCDs.

My uncompressed captures look great on my computer (using PowerDVD to play them), but they degrade in quality considerably when I encode using TMPGEnc (and the SVCD plugin).

So, how can I create the highest quality VCD?

[Benderchuk]

Are u getting your video from DV camcorder? If yes, I found a really nice way to preserve quality. I use DV to capture via firewire, it turns out it does it at 3512 kbps. Then you just use VideoStudio 5 (at least I use it) to render as 720x480 res with 3500 kbps on NTSC template and burn it with nero on SVCD template with compliance off. NO LOSS OF QUALITY. Of course you can only fit 25 min on CD but the quality beats everything

[JHebert]

Actually captures in DV codec are about 3.5MB/s (Megabytes not Megabits) which is around 25Mb/s (Megabits) or approximately 25,000Kb/s. You are compressing it quite a bit when you encode the DV to MPEG-2 at 3500Kb/s. However MPEG-2 compression is a lot more efficient than DV which is why it still looks very good at this bitrate. However it takes a lot of processing power to perform that compression which is why it takes so long to encode MPEG-2 in TMPGEnc.
In fact 3500Kb/s is on the low side for 720x480 resolution, but a lot of DVD players won't play much over that bitrate from CD because of slow CD transfer speeds. By comparison most DVD movies are encoded between 4500-9000Kb/s at 720x480 resolution.

[Benderchuk]

jhebert, thanks for the info. I tried to encode 5000 but my Daewoo DVD plays with jerking and pixelation. Is 3500 kbps an ultimate as far as quality (takes a while 23 min rendered for 1 hr with P4)?

[kingoflubrication]

where can you download svcd (mpeg2) from the internet? i would like to have something to compare my svcd encodes to.

[JHebert]

Benderchuck - Since your Daewoo DVD plays 3500 Kbs smoothly then count yourself fortunate, because lots of other players choke above 2500 Kbs. 5000 Kbs from CD is very high and I'm not surprised by the problems you observed. If you are getting good results at 720x480 3500Kbs then I wouldn't change anything. However you could also try lowering the resolution to SVCD standard 480x480 or XSVCD 352x480 if supported by your player. This should give you smoother motion with less motion artifacts but you will lose a little detail in still scenes. You will have to be the judge of what you think looks best.
If you ever plan to transfer your SVCD to DVD-R or DVD+RW then I would avoid 480x480 and stick with 720x480 or 352x480 because they are supported MPEG-2 resolutions in the DVD Video specification whereas 480x480 is not and would have to be transcoded to author a DVD.

[Benderchuk]

Jhebert, when I go to 480x480 with video studio template, the rate drops to 2460 and it is the max it can do. is there a way to have something like 3000 kbps with 480x480 svcd. have to try xsvcd. I want to fit as much video as I can i think one can fit about 45 min of 480x480 svcd onto 80 min cd. Xsvcd would be little more right? Also, can you recommend good burner to do photo albums. My nero makes cd's which stop and freeze after 5th slide for some reason.

[JHebert]

You could try encoding in TMPGEnc instead of Video Studio as it has lots more encoding options and better quality encoding overall. In TMPGEnc you would load the SVCD template and then the Unlock template to allow you to modify the mpeg-2 bitrate to your desired settings. Check the TMPGEnc guide on this site. I haven't worked with DV sources in TMPGEnc so I'm not sure about the best settings. I suppose you would export your edited DV .avi file from Video Studio and then use it as the source file in TMPGEnc. I'm not sure if you will need any special plug-ins or codecs for TMPGEnc to open DV .avi files.
As for the photo albums, I have heard that Nero is not the best for this. You could try WinonCD, Ulead DVD PictureShow, XatShow, or TSCV. Check the Tools and Guides section on this site.

[pingdavid]

Yes, I am using a DV camcorder.

And, my captures are originally 720 x 480. I have been encloding with TMPGEnc, which converts my video to 480 x 480--using the standard SVCD template--at 2500 kbps.

I will have to try encoding without using the SVCD template. Any ideas for TMPGEnc settings? I will encode at 720 x 480 size and at 3500 kbps using MPEG2.

When I burn the SVCD with Nero, I will try turning off compliance, as you suggested.

Thanks for the help.

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On 2001-12-13 07:28:38, Benderchuk wrote:
Are u getting your video from DV camcorder? If yes, I found a really nice way to preserve quality. I use DV to capture via firewire, it turns out it does it at 3512 kbps. Then you just use VideoStudio 5 (at least I use it) to render as 720x480 res with 3500 kbps on NTSC template and burn it with nero on SVCD template with compliance off. NO LOSS OF QUALITY. Of course you can only fit 25 min on CD but the quality beats everything
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