XVCD

[antoniosgubba]

Ok...I followed this guide https://www.videohelp.com/tmpgencxvcd.htm to make an XVCD...but my resultant XVCDs encoded at 2000kbs look identical to a standard VCD at 1150kbs ...I expected the video to be noticably better quality. If I make an SVCD at 2000kbs then the quality is much better than VCD...how come my XVCDs look like VCDs?...anyone know if I'm missing something?

[puertorican138]

If I make an SVCD at 2000kbs then the quality is much better than VCD?

Yes, the SVCD will look better because of the resolution (480x480) compared to (X)VCD's (352x240). The SVCD will also be more sharper. :P

[zedolfblack]

What's the quality of the original source that you're encoding from?

A low quality source may not have that 'extra quality' to begin with and no amount of higher bitrate xVCD will produce anything better than a standard VCD.

Analyse the source and determine it's video bitrate to establish the maximum bitrate that is worth using to re-encode it.

Martin.

[antoniosgubba]

Thanks for the replies...the source is a dvd ripped DivX movie...very nice quality when played as a divX on my PC or on my TV via an svideo cable from PC to TV. I've tried doing sample clips from the movie in VCD, XVCD(at 2000kbs) and in svcd(at 2000 kbs)... The VCD plays back nice and smooth, but obviously the picture is not very sharp...the XVCD seems to be identical to the VCD...but the SVCD (at the same bitrate as the XVCD) is much sharper picturewise...however the SVCD is a little jerky (no idea why )...so I hoped XVCD would be the solution. Encoded all the samples with TPMGenc by the way.
Even though the XVCD and SVCD are the same bitrate is it possible that its because of the resolution (as mentioned above)?...I'm gonna try making a sample XVCD at the same bitrate (2000) but I'm gonna up the resolution and see if thats any better.

[antoniosgubba]

Ok...done it...TMPGenc encodes VCDs at 352x240...and even though I was upping the bitrate to 2000 in my XVCD the resolution was still only 352x240...I've just encoded a small sample from the movie in XVCD at 2000kbs...but this time I increased the resolution by a factor of 1.5 to 528x360...this time it looks much sharper than the VCD and has no jerkyness like in the SVCD. Only problem now, will this XVCD in this resolution still play in my DVD player?...guess I'll only find out by burning it and trying ...unless anyone knows for certain that it WONT play...therefore saving me making a coaster!

[antoniosgubba]

Oh...I just thought of something else...does increasing the resolution increase the resultant file size?...or is purely bitrate that determines file size?...if it does increase file size I'll have to rethink whether it'll still fit on 3 cds as I'd worked out.

[Blacksmith]

I make my Xvcds at 720x480 and they play great on my player.

[antoniosgubba]

Didnt work ....the XVCD at 528x360 plays great on my PC, but I burned it to CD and tried it in my DVD player...I could hear the audio OK but the video was just a mess of coloured stripes with the occasional glimpse of picture behind...I also tried the resolution at 704x480 (original VCD was at 352x240 in NTSC film so I thought doubling both axies would make it play ok)...with the same results on my DVD player....could it be because these resolutions are not compatible with DVD players?...if so does anyone know what resolutions are compatible?...I'd try some more but I'm getting a collection of coasters here.

[vcd4me]

OK
I can't comment on the xvcd thing but as far as your svcd being jerky try switching the field order from B to A. I had problems and once I switched the field order I had a great looking svcd.

Also puertorican138 is right about the resolution svcd is 480 x480

Hope this helps

Signed
VCD4ME

[antoniosgubba]

Thanks vcd4me...I'll give that a try...as I say, the only reason I've tried to make an XVCD is because of the jerking on playback (both on my PC and on my DVD player) of the SVCD I made...If I can make a smooth SVCD then even better
Just to clarify...the jerking upon playback is hard to explain...but its sort of like the movie skips a frame every few seconds...more noticable when the camera is panning from side to side...also, when playing back on my DVD player (Samsung S224 with a normal non-widescreen TV) the black bars above and below the picture seem to be wobbling up and down slightly, which is quite annoying!

[vcd4me]

antoniosgubba

Just to clarify...the jerking upon playback is hard to explain...but its sort of like the movie skips a frame every few seconds

That is exactly how I would describe the playback bfore I changed the fields .

Also don't burn at more than 8x

Good Luck and let me know how you make out

Signed
VCD4ME

[antoniosgubba]

Sounds promising...I'm just encoding a short sample now...I'll post back if it works Ok

[antoniosgubba]

Oh well....tried changing the field order...think the jerkiness was slightly less...although still noticable...and the black bars still wobble up and down. Thanks for your help anyway ...I might have to stick to VCDs!

[vcd4me]

Try using a diffrent brand of disc and also try playing the disc in another player.

WHat guide are you using anyways?
What is the video source?

Talk to you soon
VCD4ME

[antoniosgubba]

I'm following the guide for making an SVCD on this site.
I've made several SVCDs before that played great using this method.
The video source is a DivX movie in ntsc film...very nice quality when played as a DivX on my PC.
I'm only using cheap CDRs...but they play fine with the other SVCDs I've made.
One thing I've noticed is that the SVCDs I've made before that played great were all in PAL 25 fps...sooooooo...I just had an idea!..I've just used virtualdub to convert the DivX movie from 23.9 (ntsc film) to 25 fps (PAL)...I just made a short sample and it plays beautifully smooth!..of course the audio is now totally out of sync as I expected it would be, so what I need to do now is shrink the original audio by about 5 minutes so that it becomes the same length as my new PAL version of the movie.
I've tried using Headache (appropriate name that!) and also Besweet to do this on other movies in the past...but I find both of these programs incredibly complicated and have never managed to do it correctly!...is there a simple way of shrinking the audio with another program?
Thanks again

[vcd4me]

Slow down

You are making svcds but when you download these movies are the svcd quality bitrate.

Do you check the files out to find out what format they actually are .I mean are they ntsc or pal before you begin

hope this helps
VCD4ME

[antoniosgubba]

Yes the source is deffo high enough bitrate to support an SVCD copy...and its deffo in NTSC film...( checked in virtualdub under File/File information)...as i say, I've just made a beautifully smooth and crystal clear short sample SVCD by converting the movie to PAL25fps with virtualdub....the new PAL movie is about 5 minutes shorter than the NTSCfilm one, which means of course that the audio is now way out of sync....I can extract the original audio into WAV with virtualdub but I just need to find a way to shrink this WAV to match the length of the new PAL movie and then I can multiplex the sound and audio using TMPGenc mpeg tools.....all I've managed to produce before from this movie is jerky SVCD playback...so I've already improved on this ...just need to sort the audio now.

[antoniosgubba]

*****Update*******

Ok...after a lot of trial and error I've come up with a really nice SVCD. Maybe the way I did it could be a solution for a lot of other peoples problems with jerky SVCDs..although this is mainly aimed at people in the UK with PAL equipment..(even though my DVD player and TV are "supposed" to be NTSC compatible)

First off I loaded my NTSCfilm (23.9fps) DivX into virtualdub..extracted the audio as a WAV and then converted the video ONLY to 25 fps. This of course shortened the movie by about 5 minutes so the next step was to shorten the audio to the same length....for this I used Sonic Foundry Sound Forge 6...just open the original WAV and select Timestretch and enter the EXACT length (to the nearest 100th sec if possible) of the new 25fps movie..then save as WAV.

I then had a 25fps video source and an audio WAV exactly the same length...I used TMPGenc to make an SVCD using these sources.

The result is astonishing!...perfect, sharp and jerk free playback on both my PC and via my standalone DVD player..whereas before if I made an SVCD from the original NTSCfilm source the result was awful...very jerky and also the black bars above and below the picture wobbled up and down annoyingly (I tried everything, including altering the field order, to no avail)

I am a happy bunny ...hope this method can help anyone else having problems with jerky video.

Gubba