DV > PAL XVCD

[VCDWotcha]

Would really appreciate some advice on XVCD authoring as I feel I've hit a brick wall.

I am trying to convert a PAL 720 x 576, 24 Bits, 9739 Frames, 25.000 Frames/Sec, 3641 KB/Sec, miroDV2av file (from my Camcoder) to XVCD. (I would try SVCD but my stupid Philips 710 player will only do VCD).

I've been trying to encode using TMPGenc following the basic XVCD authoring guide on the site. But, I've not found a resolution/bitrate that looks any good. I;ve tried all sorts of combinations but no joy. Am I pushing XVCD too far ?

If I encode at 720x576 with 2500 CBR I get blocks everywhere (looks really bad).

[Dave B]

I'd drop that resolution down a bit. 720x576 is not only instandard for VCD, it requires FAR more bitrate to sustain any sort of quality.

I don't know if your Philips player supports instandard resolutions but you might like to try 352x576. This resolution allows you to keep both fields of your source video and should give you less macroblocks than a full 720 horizontal resolution at the same bitrate.

Once you have encoded your VCDs, don't bin them straightaway if they look a bit "blocky" on your monitor. VCDs were designed to be played on a standard TV so crack out a CDRW and try a few settings out.

You may also like to try some of the TMPGEnc templates under the "Tools" section of the site to see if they give you better results.

[Pachycephalic]

Try reducing your framesize to standard VCD 352 x 288 and using the template http://www.vcdhelp.com/TMpegXVCD_2PASS-VBR.zip not forgetting to add the audio.

Have found this template is brilliant at producing excellent XVCDs with source from both DV camera input and for backing up VHS tapes without losing quality. Only drawback is that it can take some time to compile but results are definitely worth the wait.

[VCDWotcha]

Many thanks,

I'll give your suggestions a try and see what happens.

I'm wondering if part of the problem is the interlacing of the original source avi (obviously it's come from a DV cam). Is TMPGenc properly de-interlacing the stream before compression ?

I'm not sure how the whole process works.... if it was a progressive format, each frame would contain a snapshot of 1/25th of a second. With an interlaced source, each frame contains 2x1/50th of a second with a 1/50th second interval. Does TMPGenc account for this ?

I wonder if my problem is that my DVD player/TV and the xvcd file are somehow out of synch. ?