Questions about avi to mpg from THE newbie

[RadiusRS]

I have downloaded a bunch of episodes of TV series using kazaa, some in avi format and some in mpg format. Being new to encoding I'm a little confused and haven't been able to seek the answers I find elswhere. Most of the avi files I have seem to be the only versions available on Kazaa (if anyone can recommend a good place to look for episodic TV anywhere else on the net I would greatly appreciate it). Most of these avi files have less than stellar quality (looks fine from ten feet away but as you get closer you can see artifacting, noise, and choppiness). Is there any way to improve this quality when converting to mpeg to put on a VCD? I always thought that the higher quality mpg file would "expand" an avi file much in the same way a zipped file is "expanded"; am I incorrect in this assumption? Is there any way to make a so-so image on an avi better in mpg? I am using TMPGEnc to encode. What exactly does raising the bitrate do? And I've already made one VCD using Nero from a file I downloaded already in mpg1 format. It looked fine when I played it from my computer using winDVD but when I played it from my DVD drive, I could tell there was a small loss in video quality and some barely noticeable choppiness (especially during camera panning; nothing serious but I'm wondering if it will play all right on other standalone DVD players). I'd really like to put these episodes on VCD so I can free up some hard drive space but I don't want to waste too much money on trial and error (already been through about 7 blank discs just to get that first VCD!). In the end, I would like to know how to make VCDs that can be seen well on regular TVs and what bases I should have covered when trying to make a TV/VHS quality VCD. Thanks for any and all help!

[dscrib]

Ditto to this question.

I too am a newbie trying to encode to VCD, and am having no luck getting any picture on a stand alone DVD player.

I've experimented with several settings, read a couple guides, but all I get it the blue screen of death from the DVD player (Pioneer D
DV 606d-- it's supposed to be able to play VCD)--plus the DVD player says it's playing a CD (I think once it said VCD, but never again, and no picture).

The counter on the DVD player is moving forward and stops at the end time of the clip (about 15 seconds), so it's reading SOMETHING.

Any suggestions?

The MPGs looks good on the computer (should it? Shouldn't I see interlace artifact that the TV can process?).

Okay, here is a specific question:

One guide said use the Standard MPEG-1 video-cd setting in the System tab, another said use the NON-standard setting.

Anyone? Anyone? Bueler?

[ATTT]

Hmm.. I am not that very exprienced with VCDs, but I have made a few VCDs and SVCDs.

What I have done is with some .avi (divx I suspect) and .asf files (?) I re-encode them using TMPenc to Pal SVCD format. During the re-encode I also used filters to smooth out some of the blockiness in the .avi files. Afterwards I use VCDEasy to create a disk image of SVCD then burned it using Fathom CD.

They played great on my LG set top DVD player, though one of the files that I re-encoded looked very blurry now (most likely due to the smoothin' effect. : ) ) I don't see how this should diferent from VCDs.

RadiusRS,

The higher the bitrate the better the mpeg clip will look. But then I do not see the point of raising the bitrate higher than the source, as the saying goes.. Garbage in, garbage out.

If you want to make VCDs with some mpeg files, try using VCDGear its pretty easy to use and it definitely makes playable VCDs. : ) I have done it myself.

Also buy some CD-RW they are very handy. Or even install Daemon tools as that will let you mount the CD image that you have created (to check the content) prior to burning the CDs.

Keep in mind that I do not use Nero to burn VCDs though, as I have read somewhere that it is not that good. Give VCDEasy a go, as its free with a couple of CD-Rw you can't reallly go wrong.

Again I still consider myself a newbie, so people might rip me to streds..

[mpb]

On a side note, please make sure you're using kazaalite and not kazaa. No need to corrupt your system with the BDE spyware. Get ad-aware off cnet.com and run a scan... and prepare to be horrified.

Kazaa lite runs the same P2P shell but with no spyware.

[wadebbie]

Most of these avi files have less than stellar quality (looks fine from ten feet away but as you get closer you can see artifacting, noise, and choppiness). Is there any way to improve this quality when converting to mpeg to put on a VCD? I always thought that the higher quality mpg file would "expand" an avi file much in the same way a zipped file is "expanded"; am I incorrect in this assumption?

Your problem is the source. mpeg is a sort of compression format. However it does not "uncompress" very well. .avi is a raw format but if the source is not good it will not improve when encoded. The only way to get a better end product is to get a better source.