SVCD vs. XSVCD

[12Boiler34]

Hi Guys

As I understand, the big advantage of XSVCD compared to SVCD is, that it allows you to use higher bitrates, so you can use a higher resolution.

My question is: if I use a higher resolution (720x480 instead of 480x480), but the standard max. Bitrate for SVCD, will there be a quality improvement?

1. Res. 480x480, bitrate (video) 2520 kbit/s
2. Res. 720x480, bitrate (video) 2520 Kbit/s

Which one will result in a better quality ?

Thanks for any suggestions

[SatStorm]

No, 720x480, bitrate (video) 2520 Kbit/s gonna look worst!

480x480, bitrate (video) 2520 kbit/s is better

[snowmoon]

Quality is a subjective test, but you can generaize based on a number of factors.

Increasing the resoolution without a increase in MAX bitrate will look worse during action shots or other "Complex" scenes.

Generally you can say Q is and approximation based on the following.

Form Factor is based on pixels/second so

VCD = 1
CVD = 2
SVCD = 3
DVD = 5

Complexity factor is from .5-2 where 1 is a standard movie, .5 is C-Span, and 2 is a animated action movie.

Q = OutputFileSize / ( minutes * formfactor * complexity )

This is just an estimate, but as you can see jumping from SVCD to DVD will lower your quality level unless you are dealing with a very simple c-span encoding.

[12Boiler34]

I understand. Thanks!

[reman]

.5 is C-Span.

Dont be so mean! They have action...look at their lips!

[reman]

Interesting question. I noticed that XVCD does look better then a SVCD or VCD due to more lines even at a given bitrate. What you mean is that the bitrate per line equates to less so the visual artifacts are more noticable - in theory.

In reality, that is very subjective to the video and the settings in TMPGenc. I have found that a 640x480 DivX looks alot better at 704x480 then 352x240 even at the same bitrate. The quality setting also makes a huge difference.

Goto http://www.kvcd.net and do a little research there.

[snowmoon]

I often use a sharpen or median filter to add a little punch after resizing the image. I find it brings a little more life to the image. Also PC viewing and TV viewing make huge subjective diffrences since TV's are prone to exagerating diffrent problems with the encoding than the monitor.

720/704x480 will produce more mpeg artifacts than a 480x480 mpeg.

[jkl]

less bits per pixel looks worse during action scenes. but i did notice that at the same bitrate, a lower resolution looks sharper(just a little) but more blocky on a 42 innch tv and a higher resolution looks less blocky but more blurred. i only made one test like this so i won't argue this point, but i feel bitrate is more important than resolution if the difference in resolution is just one step up or down.