Problem encoding for VCD or SVCD...

[Debsam]

Ok, I'm a real newbie who is trying to educate herself from this forum. The info on this site has been a tremendous help to me, but I'm out of my league with this problem and need help. I'm trying to encode and burn cd's using TMPG and Nero 5.5 from avi. files. I have a Panasonic CV52 player that seems to have no problem playing either VCD or SVCD. So the first VCD I created I encoded using the defaults on TMPG. It was a 111 min. movie that I burned on 1 CD-R. It turned out ok, but quality was pretty poor. Any quick movements were pretty blurred and like in slow motion. So I encoded again (after reading posts here saying always use 2 cd's when burning) and made a SVCD. I clipped the movie to fit on two cd's and burned the first one as a test. Once again I didn't make any changes to the default settings used with TMPG. It was worse than the VCD. It was so choppy it would play one second, then pause, play another second, pause again. So I came back here and read more info for better quality SVCD and used the suggestions I found listed here for changing the settings for higher quality SVCD's (found here http://pwp.netcabo.pt/0165394101/TMPGEnc_Template.html , but when I started encoding, it was going to take about 50 hours to encode half of a movie, because I only have a 400mhz processor. So, what other options do I have? Is there a setting I can change in the VCD format at TMPG that will improve the quality of the action scenes, or is there a setting I can change for SVCD that will not be so choppy, but won't take 50 hours to encode.

[ranma_st]

How did you burn a 111 min movie in a CD-R? Did you use the VCD template when encoding int TMPGEnc?

[Debsam]

My mistake, it was 185MB, about 71 mins. So it just barely fit on a VCD. But the quality isn't great.

[ranma_st]

If you get a 185MB about 71 mins movie, you are not using the VCD template when encoding in TMPGEnc. Are you using that template?

If you use the VCD template in TMPGEnc it is almost sure that you will get a bigger file but a much better quality.

When burning in Nero, did you use non-standar VCD for your files? Try with standar VCD that will improve you quality, but first you have to encode the movie as a VCD.

I really don't know which parameters are you using in TMPGEnc

[tenders]

svcd's will give you better quality than vcd"s. if the file you are trying to encode is not of good quality then your svcd/vcd won't be either. i use CQ mode in tmpg. it gives me vhs quality and it takes on average 18 hrs to encode,which i think is pretty good for this 333mhz.

[Debsam]

Yes, I used the VCD Template in TMPG. I just tried it again to see if the 185MB movie would fit on a 74 min. cd-r and it did. I didn't change any of the settings it loaded with the template. I checked Nero, and I selected Video Cd option, and the Create Standard Video CD option is already checked, so I'm sure that's what I used.

Tenders, what is CQ mode in TMPG?

Thank you both for trying to help. I actually watched the movie yesterday (Stuart Little 2) and it was OK, but the quick moving scenes were really blurred, and darker scenes showed alot of pixilation. I also played with the SVCD again, and it's weird but if I press the fast forward button once (which is very slow fast forward and still plays the audio portion) it actually almost looks normal. The sound was a little behind the video, but I think if I new how to slow down the recording speed a little, it wouldn't be too bad.

[tenders]

i take it stuart little 2 was from a cam,judgeing from the file size of 185megs. these "cams" are usually crappy quality no matter what you do. your better off sticking to dvd rips. try one and you will see a huge improvement. i tried to post a link on CQ for you,but i guess all the bugs aren't out of the forum yet,and since i only type with one finger,this is too much for me to explain.

[Debsam]

I downloaded this movie from the internet, so I'm not sure how it originated. Maybe that's the problem and I need to try another movie. Still not sure why it was so choppy when I encoded for SVCD.

[tenders]

choosing the incorrect framerate will make it choppy on your standalone dvd player. try searching for and d/l a dvd rip movie of your choice and encode that 8)

[Lost_Soul]

Movies less than 600mb are pritty much crap especially those 100mb
.avi files of screeners. Not worth downloading, and encoding it to vcd or svcd won't do any good.