Playing problems with VBR SVCD encoded with TMPGEnc

[szilva]

Hi!

First of all, sorry for my bad English...

So, I tried to encode SVCDs with TMPGEnc 2.520 (the latest now), and ran into playing problems. Playback on my standalone player became jerky, especially when bitrate fell very low (eg. blank screen between scenes). On PC (PowerDVD, Mediaplayer) the playback was terrible with a lot of picture-freezing and so.

The encoder's setting was the default (300kbps-2520kbps VBR). When I tried to encode with higher minimum (600kbps or 1150kbps), the standalone played it correctly, but on PC it was slightly better than with default settings.

Please tell me how to set up TMPGEnc to generate correct VBR SVCDs!

Thanx: szilva

[johns0]

Use 2 pass vbr and a bit rate calculator to estimate the size to be close to 800 mb ~795mb

[szilva]

Use 2 pass vbr and a bit rate calculator to estimate the size to be close to 800 mb ~795mb

I have no problems with calculating. In my case average bitrate was 1700kbps. The movie encoded to a correct size, but when I want to play, it is not a good quality because of jerkies/freezes, especially not on PC. Or may I try another encoder?

[ronnylov]

If your player plays it correctly with 600 kbit/s minimum bitrate then just use this setting. Some players have problems playing SVCD with low minimum bitrate because of problems spinning down the CD rotation speed. Some players may also have problems with too high maximum bitrate setting. Make some test clips to test your max and min bitrate that your player can handle.

[szilva]

If your player plays it correctly with 600 kbit/s minimum bitrate then just use this setting...

Yes, I thought so, but clips encoded with TMPGEnc 2-pass VBR and minimum 600kbps plays jerky on PC (PowerDVD and Mediaplayer), however my standalone player plays it totally smoothly. But I want to watch moveis on my TV, not on PC

So, does the player have to play wrong a CBR 300kbps clip, if it has problem with too low bitrates? Or only if a VBR bitrate falls too low? I would encode some CBR clips at several bitrates (CBR encoding) to test my player, is it a right way to test?

[ronnylov]

I would test with CBR clips first. But when playing VBR clips maybe the CD drive has problems to slowdown and spin up even if it is OK at constant bitrate.

I have read somewhere that some standalone players DVD-drives have problem spinning a CD slower than 1X speed. If that's the case then your total bitrate should not be lower than VCD bitrates. If audio is 224 kbit/s then set lowest video bitrate to 1150 kbit/s. But all players are not the same so it depends if you want it compatible with your equipment or if you want it to work on all your friends players too?

Seems strange that it works on your standalone player but not in the PC. Mostly it's the other way around. Perhaps you can try another disc brand? Sometimes one type of disc may have read errors in the PC but still works in the standalone. I have seen this especially with DVD-R discs.

[szilva]

I would test with CBR clips first...

I will do the tests as soon as it will be possible. But I will make test clip not only with TMPGEnc but CCE too (see below, why).

Sometimes one type of disc may have read errors in the PC but still works in the standalone. I have seen this especially with DVD-R discs.

Yes, I've read about this, but in my case this is impossible, because I tried to watch the encoded video from my HDD, before it was written to any CD.

Otherways I did another probe. I left yesterday evening my PC on my workplace to encode the entire movie with DVD2SVCD, but the encoder was CCE, not TMPGEnc. CCE's bitrate settings were 4-pass VBR with min. 300, max. 2530 and avg. about 1600-1700 (calculated by software) kbps. The two SVCD-compatible mpegs had been made at night. Today I borrowed home those on SVCDs written onto CD-RWs. The files are perfect, playable without any jerkies or freezes on PC (PowerDVD as well as Mediaplayer), and in standalone player too.

Maybe TMPGEnc encodes something wrong???