MPEG1 vs MPEG2 @ 352x288

[antmills]

Hope someone here can help.
What would be the difference between encoding a 352*288 capture as mpeg1 or mpeg2 ?? would there be any noticable difference in quality ??

[Heavensent]

it depends on what bitrate you use.
mpeg 2 looks better with high bitrate, if you intend to make the bitrate
lower - i whould go with mpeg - 1 capture.

BUT, if you are using SOFTWARE REALTIME ENCODING to mpeg, the qulity whould not be grate.
the realtime mpeg compression via software is not that good yet.
(in my opinion anyway)

you are better off capturing to avi and then converting to mpeg using
tmpeg or cce.

if you are using HARDWARE REALTIME ENCODING its a different story. it whould look realy good, but its not very cheap yet...

[antmills]

I'm gonna be encoding 1/2 hour TV shows, 1 per cd so bitrate will be about 3000kb/sec with audio at 224, I've been using MPEG1 VBR for this and have had great results, have also converted from DIVX movies and had fantastic results but was wondering if encoding at MPEG-2 VBR would be better ?

[Heavensent]

i whould say that it whould look better,
if you are using the bitrate as you Mentioned above.

just try a short clip to see if you like it.

[sunmanking]

hi,

i would suggest:

if you grab from the VCR or TV --> MPEG1
if you grab from higher quality sources (e.g. DVD) --> MPEG2

i don't think it makes much sense going to MPEG2 when
the source you're grabbing from is not a high quality
source... i mean i don't think you'll make it much better.

i am still in awe at the HIGH quality you can get with MPEG1
if you configure properly the settings.

greetings,

sunmanking

[Vejita-sama]

Point of fact MPEG1 and MPEG2 produce the exact same quaility at the same bitrate and resolution. What makes MPEG2 supperior to MPEG1 isn't the quaility but the features that are supported: multiple angles, multiple audio formats, DTS, selectable subtitles, interlaced source, etc. etc.

The whitebook standards for VCD and SVCD are different. But for xVCD and xSVCD, if you choose the same bitrate and resolution the video quality is the same.

However, not all MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoders are created equal Most people think that TMPGenc does a better show at encoding MPEG1 than CCE (and vice versa for MPEG2).

If you want to make sure that most standalone players will be able to read your disc, xVCD is the way to go.