Should I use VCD or SVCD???

[rbruner2]

I am planning to transfer a bunch of kid's videos I have (as in, VHS tapes) to CD so that I'll be able to play them on the DVD player I am going to get. Anyhow, I figure each children's video will fit on a CD, so it is a good thing to try.

My question is, which I convert to SVCD or VCD? I realize that VCD is roughly VHS quality, which would seem to be the first choice. But, I'm afraid that because of the differences in resolution that converting from VHS tape to VCD will be poorer quality. If, however, I convert a VHS tape to SVCD format, I am at less risk of losing resolution, etc. (Basically, my thought is that the resolution of VHS can fit into the resolution of SVCD. But the resolution of VHS does not map to the resolution of VCD without losing resolution in one direction.)

So, does anyone have experience doing this? Converting to SVCD is better quality...but will I notice a difference enough to justify taking twice as long to render?

[ticos2000]

It al depends on the quality of the input. I have tried different templates , set ups and to tell you the truth VCD gives me the best option since you ended up with less blockiness (sometimes none) and 1 hour of home videos organized with a fancy menu. SVCD is beter quality in terms of sharpen and good loking pictures but hate the blockiness during fast scenes. So after long nights and days of tests i do everyting with VCD. The quality you can achieve is better than VHS if your input came from DVDs ripped . If you take your home movies from your camera or from the tapes , you get the same quality as VHS but with the advantage that now is digital and could be preserve for at least 50 years....good enough ah??

hope this helps

Best regards from the beatiful colombia south america

Tico

[-=^SilentAssassin^=-]

I say VCD .... SVCD takes 3 times as long to encode with little to no difference in low quality video.

[Graham Meredith]

I agree, if your source is tape, SVCD isn't going to look remarkably better than VCD, and will only fit 35 mins on a 700MB CD, as opposed to 80 mins for VCD.

Graham

[SatStorm]

Of course, there is always x(s)VCD
If your dvd handle it, then go for SxVCD (SVCD with VCD terms), or CVD (322X576). CVD is better than SVCD (480X576) because is DVD ready solution. It is in fact Half-DVD, fully supported by more Players than SVCD! So, you will simply pass your CDs to DVDs in the future, without any more encoding, converting, etc...

VCD with VBR is also a good solution, but SxVCD has almost the same size, less blocks and much better colors!

[Mrhide]

Try both... then you'll see how SVCD are a pain to make...
and you'll stick up with Vcd...

[rbruner2]

I guess the issue is, when you input quality is already poor (VHS tape), will you get even WORSE quality by going to VCD instead of something like SVCD. (I want to stick to standard formats if possible so that I'm sure it will work in more than just the one DVD player I buy. (I'm planning to buy a Pioneer 503C, which is the 5-disc version of the 343, as I understand it.)

I would prefer to use VCD for reasons mentioned...particularly because of rendering time...but I don't want the resulting videos to be worse quality than they already are (well, as much as can be avoided).

Incidently, I'm not talking about home movies. I'm talking about children's videos (of which we own dozens) that are typically 30 minutes long and not available on DVD or we wouldn't want to pay for it again just to have it on DVD. You know...like VeggieTales, Sesame Street...etc. Stuff I own, but want to put on a CD.

[mijman]

**shudder** veggie tales..

Anyway, where was I, before that moment of sheer terror?

Oh yeah, I transfer lots of Videos this way, and use VCDs exclusively. But, you will want to tweak them slightly, with the filters menu in TMPGenc. I use the "Basic color correction" settings, Gamma between -30 and -45, and the Red and Blue +15 each. I have noticed a HUGE improvement. Besides, when you're dealing with children, the richer the colors, the better.