What are the BEST settings to Rip a DVD..Convert...........

[SiddharthM]

I use CladDVD to rip DVDs and then DVD2Avi to convert to AVI and then use TMPGEnc to convert to mpeg format.

I am not satisfied with the results that I get as sometimes the output is not as sharp as some of the VCDs that I have bought.

Pls suggest as to what are the right settings in each of the softwares above so that I can get the best possible output.

[Vejita-sama]

What are your TMPGenc settings? For best results most people seem to like:

1) 2pass VBR (min=900, ave, max=2500) the higher the bitrate the better
2) Motion search set to high
3) Detect scence changes off
4) Soften block noise set to ~32
5) If you plan to play it on your TV interlace (instead of progressive)
6) Personally I also like to encode at 352x480 instead of 352x240, _I_ think it makes a noticable difference, but does increase the encode time a bit.

Anyone else have any hints/favorite settings?

[SiddharthM]

Pls let me know where in the software the above settings can be changes.....

[Vejita-sama]

Right, sorry. Look in the bottom right of TMPGenc and there are three buttons:

Settings Load Save

1) Click load, and choose the template you want (VCD or SVCD, or custom)

2) Once you load the template, click load again and look under ...templates/extra and load the 'unlock' template. This will unlock all the greyed out areas for the standard VCD template

3) Click on settings. From there you can find everything. I don't have TMPGenc opened, but the first tab allows you set resolution, encode method, and motion search.
The advance tab allows you to set interlace or progressive, and video source range.
The GOP tab has detect scence changes, and soften block noise.

Take a look at the guides at http://www.vcdhelp.com http://www.doom9.org and http://www.flexion.org/vcd the flexion site has LOTS of screen shots to go with their guides. Hope this helps some.

You can also try DVD2SVCD (there's a tread on it now) I haven't tried it but it sounds good, one step front end program.