My homemade videos are better on VHS than (s)VCD

[lmichiel]

I'm using a Miro DC10+ to capture my analog homemade movies.
These are saved into AVi files which are using the Miro MJPEG codec.
These AVI files can't be handled by TMPGenc directly so I convert them with Ulead Videostudio to mini DVD compliant mpeg files (bitrate 4000)
Any vcd or svcd I create both with Ulead or TMPGenc is worse than the video recorded back on a straight VCR

I have ripped a DVD to VCD using DVDx and that resulted in a great VCR quality movie so I know it must be possible to get the same results but please can anyone tell me how.

At this moment my largest homemade clip is 39 minutes and I want to fit this on a 80 min. CD

cheers
Leo

[Anonymous65]

If you go to SVCD, the resolution is higher than VHS. So, if the SVCD doesn't look as good as the VHS, then the capture and conversion preocess is not done right. Doing it right, even going to VCD should look like the VHS tape. I have tested the resolution of a VHS VCR and a VCD, and they both have almost the same resolution, BUT only when it's done right. Most VCD's look horrible! Ulead Videostudio has a poor quality VCD encoder (Ligos). DC10+ capture card has low detail and sharpness (at least the card I tested). So, those two combinations are not the best choices to make a VCD. But, if you use the DC10+, use the best capture setting, and turn up the detail/sharpness control so you get a sharp image. Then convert the file in Tmpeg using the default template for VCD or SVCD, and you should get a faily good VCD (or SVCD) file. If you install a Mjpeg encoder/decoder Tmpeg should be able to read the file directly, but not sure about this. Doing another conversion before Tmpeg will kill your quality, unless you can convert it to an AVI file.

[thxkid]

WOW I don't know whats going wrong, I capture my Hi8mm home movies with WIN PVR as a uncompressed AVI at 352x240 at 29.97, audio 22050 16 bit stereo, use ulead media pro 6.0VE with the HollywoodFX Silver transitition plug in, edit my scenes, add my music output the finished product as a AVI uncompressed video use TMPGE to encode to a XVCD at 2520 bitrate, burn it onto a CD-R, upto to 39min. on a 80min. Then I play it back on my DVD player on a 36incher and it looks perfect, sharp, no artifacts and the music I add is even in Dolby Surround.
I usually fit about 7-9 video's on a VCD and I have over 12 family VCD's I have done in the last 2 years, the ones in the last year look perfect.
I have also been doing rock and country music video's from DVD, Satellite and laser disc like this also with very good results, done about 12-15 VCD's so far.
I personally found out that the more the AVI is closer to being uncompressed the better the end result of the finished MPEG is.
Some of my very 1st video's where I used Compressed AVI codecs like Indeo 3.2, Indeo Raw 1.2, Indeo 5.11 I notice I have some block artifacts in my finished VCD.
The size is way different at 5 minute video using Indeo 3.2 is about 400MB the same length in uncompressed AVI 1.4gigs.
So I recently got a 30gig hard drive so I would have plenty of space for large files, I use Virtualdub to capture now to get past the 2gig limit in windows media player and the 4gig limit in windows98.

[Beavis]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-09-05 11:09:48, lmichiel wrote:
I'm using a Miro DC10+ to capture my analog homemade movies.
These are saved into AVi files which are using the Miro MJPEG codec.
These AVI files can't be handled by TMPGenc directly so I convert them with Ulead Videostudio to mini DVD compliant mpeg files (bitrate 4000)
Any vcd or svcd I create both with Ulead or TMPGenc
is worse than the video recorded back on a straight VCR
</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

Are you saying that you're taking a compressed MJPEG file, converting it to a high bitrate MPEG file, and then re-encoding that again to a VCD / SVCD lower bitrate file? I would expect some quality loss in such a process.

[flaninacupboard]

hang on........... mini DVD compliant files? well if its using 720X576/720X480 then i would expect the bit rate to be higher than 4000kbps. that could be the problem