question on vcd video bitrate

[uncleholdout]

can i change the audio and video bitrate on a vcd? or should i only use 1150/224 which is the default in TMPGEnc-Free. and if i can change the video bitrate what would be the range 1000-2000? i am using TMPGEnc-Free and noticed you can unlock the settings. just wondering whats to much and whats not enough.

[yoda313]

You can make xvcds. They are nonstandard vcd's. BUT you're playback realiability is really limited. Some players can handle nonstandard vcds many can't.

If you're destination is the pc you'll be ok but you'd be better off with xvid or divx for better quality.

[Abond]

Everything over 1000 should be OK. If you want to use under 1000 use VBR 2-pass encoding - you break the standarts anyway. Firstly try to decrease the audio to 128, if it is not enough then play with video bitrate.

[jimmalenko]

Funnily enough, you can use ANY video bitrate you like ... up to a maximum of 1150kbps ... and remain within VCD spec (not an XVCD). Nowhere in the spec does it say that it's 1150kbps, no questions asked

It is recommended to keep the video bit-rate under 1151929.1 bps and it must be CBR.

Audio has the following restrictions:
• Joint stereo, stereo or dual channel audio streams at 128, 192, 224 or 384 kbit/sec bit-rate.
• Mono audio streams at 64, 96 or 192 kbit/sec bit-rate.

The Video CD specification requires the multiplexed mpeg-1 stream to have a cbr of less than 174300 bytes (1394400 bits) per second in order to accommodate single speed cd-rom drives.

So long as you meet all the conditions listed above, it's still a true spec VCD and not an XVCD.