Final Cut to VCD/SVCD, which export options to use?

[ebreider]

Hello everyone. I am both a newbie and not such a newbie anymore.
I have been following many discussions in this forum on VCD and SVCD
and tried out many different suggestions I have found here already.

At this stage the only time I have managed once to get a good working VCD was by exporting .avi from Final Cut and then using a PC (TMPGenc) tool (shriek!?) to create the mpg files (using the wizzard for VCD without altering any options), which I then used in VCDbuilder (nice tool!) to create a menu etc.

I think this option only worked because I had made many smaller .avi files which ended up in many small .mpg files... but now I have one 11 gig file for TMPGenc to work on, it doesn't seem to want to take it anymore.

Anyway, this is just some background complaining, obviously I want to be able to only use the Apple G4 that is at my disposal.

The DVD player used to play the many coasters I have made on is a Philips 711 which has the very last version of the software put in (at great expense by Philips as a new chip had to be soldered in!)

The G4 (500 mhz) has a CD burner, lots of harddisk space, FCP 3.02, Toast 5.2, DVD studio pro (so it has some extra encoders installed, I never use DVD studio pro), there is no quicktime pro of any version but I assume that DVD studio pro has caused the same features to be added), it has FFMPEGx (I am about to install the H version, but haven't used it yet), OSX 10.2.2 and now I can not think of anything else I should mention that is relevant. Oh yes, I am working with PAL DV source material!

Now please keep in mind that I really have tried many many many different ways of creating VCD and SVCD according to what this discussion forum has suggested, and mainly I have tried
various settings in FFMPEGx, the tool I have used most to experiment with.
I have had FFMPEGx create the image files but also used VCDbuilder to do that for me.

At the end of the day the problem I have with both VCD and SVCD is that the picture jitters and in the case of SVCD the sound jitters as well. (Apart from that one method using the PC for VCD creation. Never managed a good SVCD with that method either.)
(and by the way: I have used DVD studio pro to try abd create a mini-DVD as it was referred to here by someone... but that hasn't worked at all so far... I think my DVD player won't accept that idea...)

I think VCD is good for when the picture matters less (music videos) and it is nice to get one hour on one CDrom. SVCD I would like to use for short films.

Questions:
1) Has anyone got a foolproof method of creating a VCD and SVCD from DV PAL source material?
(and keep in mind that you shouldn't assume anything about my understanding of various settings in ffmpegx!)

2) When I export from FCP:

a) in case of exporting to AVI (for the PC conversion tool) I have some options for video compression, I usually choose DV-PAL

b) in case of exporting to MPEG2 there is not a lot of choice, but I leave the quality/bitrate setting to what it defaults to: 9.8, field dominance to automatic.
c) in case of exporting as a quicktime file (should I?) there is a huge list of compressors to choose from. Which o which one to take?

I realise this is not a very good problem description but I hope it does give you an idea of what my options are and what I already have considered.

Perhaps you can give me some new motivation for continuing my quest
because frankly I am near to giving up on it.

Thanks for your help!

EB

[havema-1]

I have had good results with plain MediaPipe or configuring MediaPipe via MissingMPEG Tools. The (X)SVCDs play OK on on my Pioneer 444 standalone DVD player.

I have SVCD on a Macintosh memo and cookbook and preconfigured MediaPipe templates at:

<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/SVCD_on_a_Macintosh.txt>

<http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/MediaPipe_templates.sit>

FFmpeg X (h) has a very nice GUI but I haven't got any version of it to work properly with PAL. Progressively encoded SVCD stutters and it with interlaced output it seems that the fields are in the wrong order because motion scenes are very jittery.

Major, is there a problem with PAL output in FFmpeg X or is it just me? I think I have tried every combination but the interlaced output always jitters and progressive output isn't good either.

FFmpeg X also seems to scale the output differently than my MediaPipe templates because it adds black borders to the left & right (VOB Letterbox is not selected). TV overscanninng covers those borders but my straight PAL 720x576 to 480x576 scaling doesn't add such borders and AFAIK my templates maintain the original aspect ratio.

With MediaPipe note that to encode interlaced SVCD, you must at the moment (200212) set and save the DV-encoded input QuickTime file's high quality flag with QuickTime Player 6 by opening the file in QuickTime Player Pro and selecting Movie/Get Movie Properties/Video Track/High Quality/High Quality Enabled.

If you prefer to encode progressive SVCD, it is also best to set and save the input QuickTime file's high quality flag and use a deinterlacer before encoding MPEG2. Note that if you want progressive output with MissingMpegTools 0.9.1, do not set the input QuickTime file's high quality flag, because MMT 0.9.1 doesn't use a deinterlacer (not setting the high quality flag acts currently as a deinterlacer). My preconfigured progressive MediaPipe templates have a deinterlacer.

[ebreider]

Does anyone out here know if there is a way of setting the quicktime's high quality flag without actually having quicktime pro unlocked? I have Final Cut Pro, DVD studio Pro installed which apparently does give me access to the stuff you get when you buy quicktime Pro... so I would be reluctant to have to buy QTpro just for that one indicator if that wasn't necessary.... Thanks! And since it is getting very close now (in Amsterdam at least) happy new year everyone!

EB