40 minutes of SVCD/CVD on an 80 min. Disc

[bbeiler]

My goal is to capture 40 min. of Hi8 video in SVCD or CVD format onto an 80 min. CD. I am looking for the highest video quality I can achieve. Currently I capture using Virtual Dub with Huffy compression (lossless) at 352X480 or 480X480 depending on what I will then encode at. I have read that because it is only a Hi8 source there is no need to capture at higher resolutions. However, my computer can handle up to 720x480 so if someone can prove me wrong, I will change my capture settings. I then use TMPG to encode. I have used CBR at 2546 with Audio at 160 (these settings will allow the 40 min. I need on a disc). I have also tried VBR, however, I'm not sure of the benefits (at the cost of encoding time)since my standalone can only go up to 2700 anyway. I tried CVD and SVCD with little success. The quality is not what I like.

My questions are. Should I be spending my time tweaking with CVD or SVCD. I know CVD has the added bonus of putting encoded material on a DVD, however, with the average bitrate I mentioned (2546), if SVCD is better than I will go with that. Secondly, what other settings can I tweak to get better results?

I have read the VBR-CQ has been getting good results. Anybody experiment with that?


If I soon can't get "origianl source like" quality out of my Hi8's (which look outstanding on the tape) I will have to buy a DVD-Burner and crank the bitrate to 3000/4000. Then I guess I will have to decide between 352X480 or 720X480

Thanks for any help.

[SatStorm]

There is nothing you can do....
Unfortunatelly, the nature of your source, don't allow good results with CVD and SVCD.

Personally, for such difficult situation, I go -X- .
I suggest a 2Pass VBR encoding, @ CVD/halfD1 DVD frame size (352 X 576/480) with 1500 min 3500average 5500maximum. That is way -X- for CVD (about 20min per disc) but it is the only way for a good copy...

You can also try 1500 min 3000average 4500max. This is enough most of the times (and if your source has less action moves)

If you have CCE, then you can try a 4 pass vbr with an average of 2600. Minimum 600, maximum 5000. (about 37-39 min. per CD that way)

So, better go a buy a good cheap chinese standalone which supports -X- formats, or it is time for a good DVD-R burner!
Sorry...

[ronnylov]

Since you have a Hi8 source your resolution is higher than CVD, it is probably near SVCD resolution. But the bittrate to fit 40 minutes of SVCD on a 80 min CD-R is not high enough to create really good quality of home video at SVCD resolution. So you will probably get a better result with CVD resolution but it won't be as good as your source. You can try denosing filters and perhaps deinterlace to save som bitrate but it still won't be very good.

The best results I've seen so far is by encoding with Canopus Procoder at mastering quality setting. This way the SVCD can be pretty good but the price of the encoder is higher than a DVD-R burner so the DVD-burner is a better option compared to buying Canopus Procoder.

So I agree with the post above. You can try XSVCD or XCVD or get a DVD-burner. I have the Pioneer A04 and for my home videos I use the 704x576 resolution and encode with VBR 6000 kbit/s average or CBR 8000 kbit/s. The quality is almost as good as the source. With halfD1 resolution (VHS source) I can get good quality home videos with 4000 kbit/s bitrate.