avi to mpeg - bad quality

[frodekl]

I have made a movie in Adobe Premiere, and I wanted to make an SVCD to watch it on my DVD player.

I used LSX-MPEG plugin for Premiere to make a SVCD compatible file of the movie, and burned it on a CD. The problem is that the quality after converting avi to mpeg realy sucks! Everything looks nice when there is no motion on the film (people standing still etc) but a soon as there is motion, there are a lot of stripes on the film.

Are there someone that has experienced this problem?
Any solution?

[Treebeard]

I assume you have an AVI-Divx file.

Remember that the output MPEG can never be better than the original AVI file.

But try converting this way

http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgencsvcd.htm

[Mavrick]

Sounds to me like you are getting interlacing issues. When you are encoding to MPEG make sure you are choosing Field Order B First. It will still look funny on the computer, but when played on a TV it should look great.

As far as the MPEG never being as good as the AVI... This is not true... If you encode at a higher bitrate and use MPEG2, you can get great results.

[frodekl]

It is not an avi-Divx file. It's taken directly from my own camcorder, so the original quality is very good.

[va_bank]

I agree with Homer. TMPGEnc has worked the best for me as far as outputting VCD/SVCD MPGs. No matter what you do, your output will not be as good as the original, that's why I got a DVD burner.

[Mavrick]

No matter what you do, your output will not be as good as the original, that's why I got a DVD burner.

True, if you are ONLY talking about standard VCD or SVCD’s. But a DVD burner does not improve the MPEG quality, only the amount of data it can store.

If you are transferring old VHS or 8mm tapes to MPEG, then an XSVCD can look as good as a DVD.

i.e.
Capture a VHS or 8mm tape at 640x480res uncompressed AVI format.
Then encode the AVI to MPEG2 at 480x480 with a VBR of 4000. When you get the VBR of MPEG2 upwards of 4000, you are in the VBR of DVD.

The only hitch is you can only get 20-25min per CD at that bit-rate. (and your DVD player must support that) However, the quality is as good as the original video.

For most home movies 20-25min is ample time for most “themes”. Granted you could get much more on a DVD, but the quality will not improve because of the media it’s on.

[frodekl]

Here is an example from a movie!

The area marked with red is motion, the rest of the picture is not.
As you can see the quality is very bad. Now I have tried with TMPGEnc as well, but the result is the same. I have also tried with different "interlace" options.

[Mavrick]

That does look like interlacing with the wrong field order. I have never had much luck with TMPGE. The only thing I could ever get it to do right was burn up 3hours or more. I’m sure it’s a good program, because so many people here swear by it.

What I ended up doing was using my editor to make the MPEG file. Since then every thing has been very easy and it works every time. No need to use a 3rd party program to get what you want.

Try this: Download Media Studio Pro Trial from http://www.ulead.com/msp/runme.htm - use that to create your MPEG2 file. Just choose field order b first and play with the VBR.

Good luck!

[va_bank]

Mavrick,

It was my understanding that VCD's are encoded in MPEG1 format, and DVDs are MPEG2. If this is true, doesn't that make DVD to be better quality?

[Mavrick]

Mavrick,

It was my understanding that VCD's are encoded in MPEG1 format, and DVDs are MPEG2. If this is true, doesn't that make DVD to be better quality?

Yes, VCD's use MPEG1.

SVCD, XSVCD, CVD, and DVD all use MPEG2. The difference being resolution and the VBR they are encoded at.

[frodekl]

Finally I have a solution to this problem:

I installed the newest version of Adobe Premiere (version 6.5), it was supported with "Adobe MPEG Encoder" (with support for VCD, SVCD and much more). When I exported the movie with this encoder the result was A LOT better than TMPGEnc and all the other encoders I have tried. There is practicaly no signs of the stripes when something is in motion.

[Mavrick]

Glad to hear you got it fixed!

Sound like your "fix" is similar to mine. I like the idea of editing the avi and rendering the mpeg right inside the same program. I think it’s just easier,

[SatStorm]

The field order thing is very complicated...

There is no really any rule which field goes first, with 2 exeptions: DV is always bottom field first and DVB rips are the opposite (field A first).

With VHS/SVHS you are never sure: When I use a VCR with TBC looks like 99% is bottom field first and once a while the opposite. If I use a typical (non TBC) video, is just luck what to use...

[va_bank]

frodekl,

Great!

I just installed AP 6.5 myself and already did a couple of projects, but I have not used their MPEG Encoder - I wanted to get someone's opinion first. After your review, I'll definately give it a shot.

Thanks,

VaBank