why there are vcd with clear image quality and some not?

[C-W]

i bought an original anime VCD and i played on my vcd player the images quality is brilian nice,
but i try to burn AVI file to VCD format using NERO, or convert it to MPEG1 vcd format, but the images quality is very poor.

any body know what happen?

and how to convert the mpeg1 high quality video format?

thanks

[guns1inger]

To start with, there is little you can do to fix any poor VCDs that you already have.

As for creating high quality VCDs - I guess High Quality is in the eye of the beholder, and is relative. Relative to actual good quality video, I have never seen a high quality VCD. Relative to some very poor quality VCDs (the majority I have seen fall into this category), I guess a case can be made.

If you want to make your own, you need to start with a high quality source. The best you will probably get is a DVD original. However if you have this, which you want a VCD copy is beyond me. if you start with a low quality download (and your typical 350 - 700MB download is low quality in comparison) then you are already on a loosing side.

Next, you need to filter all the noise out of it. Go to Donald Graft's site ( neuron2.net ) and look at his msharpen and msmooth filters for avisynth. If you clean up the image you can give what little bitrate you have to the image, and not the noise.

Finally, use a good encoder. Nero is not a good encoder. The best free encoder for mpeg1 is tmpgenc plus. You get a couple of weeks of free mpeg2 encoding, and after that you get free mpeg-1 encoding forever. use this to encode your avisynth script.

But expect it to be at best VHS quality, and only sometimes.