SVCD compared to DVD

[sheydel]

how is the audio and video quality of sVCD compared to a regular dvd?

[K2]

That a subjective question.

SVCD is good
DVD is excellent

Technically,
look at the table at the end of What is SVCD section on left.

[vcd4me]

If ripped from a dvd a svcd will have the same stereo sound. Like when watching on tv with a standalone dvd player.The sound should be identicle.

Svcd is stereo.

DVD can be stereo,dolby digital, or dts . That of course doesn't matter if you don't have surround sound sytem.

As for video svcds encoded at 2000 and above kbps are good but not as good as dvds which are vbr 3000-6000kbps. This of course is subjective like K2 said.

Hope this helps
VCD4ME

[ZippyP.]

Well, SVCD standard resolution is 480 X 480 and DVD is 720 X 480. So DVD can have sharper, better video. DVD bitrates can be much higher than SVCD in order to support the higher resolution, 2 or even 3 times. So DVD's can hold the equivalent data as 6 SVCD's. In practice, a well done SVCD can be near-DVD quality.

Many DVD's have AC3-Dolby encoded surround sound audio. In practice, so can an SVCD, but it is not a standard and isn't common. If the DVD is not Dolby encoded (or you don't have a surround sound system), then the audio quality DVD to SVCD can be the same.

8)

[Gazorgan]

My SVCD backups are indistiguisable from the original DVD (Except that the SVCD's don'thave the annoying commercials at the beginning you can't fastforward through). This is based on my 27" TV and a Dolby-surround Stereo (not 5.1, but 2 channel mux for L/R/C/R). My SVCD's are in Dolby Surround (downmixed from the original 5.1). The video quality is excelleant due to multi-pass VBR ( with a nonstandard max of 3000, so technically they are xSVCD's ).

Now, I tend to have 3 or 4 disk encodes instead of 2 or 3. That is I fudge the parameters to not drop below 2000 for an average bitrate. I have a lot of widescreen that are encoded in letterbox, so the black bars just mean an even higher average bitrate (constant black bars dont' require much bandwidth).

I do have a number of 2 disk encodes of my kids movies (100 minutes average) that I can tell aren't perfect (my earlier work). I know from experience to look for crawling backgrounds, but no one else seems to be able to tell the difference in side by side comparisons.

[poncho]

hi...well I made some SVCD from DVD and the quality is great....of course the sound is just Dolby Prologic, so I can payl it in my DVD player...but still is not a DVD quality , I do it in Three CD's and is good...
The sound is good but far from the 5.1 digital from DVD ..
So. DVD is best quality sound
DVD is better than SVCD video quality
And the world its going to DVDR or DVDRW or ....well someone of them...

The SVCD is great for some bakups of videos with quality not "excellent" and for people, I am one of them, with not enough money for the DVD recorder...

I will keep using SVCD for a long time and backup my DVDs, for allow my friend watch it...and keep safe my DVD collection...
Atte
Poncho

[Nitemare]

Variables, variables, variables... As mentioned many times, if you have no dolby surround sound system then audio quality is the same. If you have a regular run of the mill TV that isn't huge (or digital) the video quality is totally indistinguishable from the DVD. (even crappy VCD looks good on a 13" TV) My SVCDs look DVD quality on my CRT 27" TV.

Encoding has a lot to do with it too. Ripping a DVD at 24 fps progressive and making your SVCD at 24fps with the pulldown option ALWAYS looks better than 30 fps interlaced. Skimping on bit rate to make fewer CDs will degrade the quality too.

When done correctly, SVCD is easily as good as DVD to your naked eye ... you know... depending on those variables.