Fitting movies to 3 SVCD disks

[wtktrichards]

Have amassed quite a collection of VCD'S using TMPGEnc over the last year. Would now like to start creating films as SVCD from avi files. However TMPGEnc often wants to create 4 disk as a result. Is there something I can tweak to make sure that no more than 3 disks worth are created (any surprising loss in quality?).
Thanks

Will

[fantomlord]

Have amassed quite a collection of VCD'S using TMPGEnc over the last year. Would now like to start creating films as SVCD from avi files. However TMPGEnc often wants to create 4 disk as a result. Is there something I can tweak to make sure that no more than 3 disks worth are created (any surprising loss in quality?).
Thanks

Will

load the svcd template, and then the unlock template from the extras directory. then, use the bitrate calculator on this site to determine the bitrates to plug in to TMPG for however many of whatever size discs you want to use. that's all there is to it.

[wtktrichards]

Thanks, will give that a try.

[banjazzer]

that's all there is to it.

There is a bit more to it than this. If you load the standard SVCD template and then unlock it, you are left with the CBR template, which isn't the best way to create SVCD. I would suggest unlocking the SVCD template and saving it with another name. Then you can use TMPG's project wizard to create a 2-pass VBR SVCD mpg using this template near exactly the size you wish. I would suggest min and max bitrates for this of 750 and 2496, but there are no rules. 8)

[DanW]

I've been using a minimum bitrate of 350 and haven't noticed any blockiness in any of my encodes and I strictly convert from divx files. I also use a max bitrate of 2520, and an average of 1000.

Can you explain why you choose a max of 2496? Im not trying to question your methods..im just curious why that bitrate.

[banjazzer]

Can you explain why you choose a max of 2496? Im not trying to question your methods..im just curious why that bitrate.

Hey! Challenging me is fine - it happens all the time. 8)

I think the initial guide I followed used that, but as i said, there are no rules! I'm sure dropping the minimum is also quite in order, provided with 2-pass VBR you choose a good average, or with CQ you choose a reasonable quality setting. Maybe it was because some players have problems with 2520?

[DanW]

Could be. When I first started doing VBR encodes I read a forum post on here that said to use a max bitrate of 2496. Then I got adventurous and decided to go to the default 2520 that tmpgenc gives (more so I didnt have to enter yet another value on that screen) and didnt notice any problems with playback on my apex 5131, so I stuck with it.
I didn't know if the 2496 was some sort of a rule or what..but if you've got an apex 5131 it will read the 2520 just fine, and the minimum of 300 or 350 works well too.

I just noticed that the bitrate calculator on here gives a max of 2496 as well so there must be something to it.