vcd or svcd

[bambam]

Hi,
i have a avi file that have these information (take from Avicodec)

File : 699 MB (699 MB), duration: 0:57:00, type: AVI, 1 audio stream(s), quality: 71 %

Video : 639 MB, 1568 Kbps, 29.970 fps, 512*384 (4:3), DIV3 = DivX v3 MPEG-4 (Low-Motion), Supported

Audio : 60 MB, 148 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 0x55 = Lame MP3, Supported

I would like to know what information is relevant to decide if i should use a vcd or a svcd to preserve the better quality.
Thank you for your help

[ZippyP.]

512*384

That's probably the most important stat, next is the fact that you have only a 1 hour video in a 700MB file which means it should look pretty good.

You don't want to upsize your resolution when converting your video, not by much anyway. Upsizing causes blockiness but downsizing reduces sharpness. Your choices are: 352x240 (VCD), 352x480 (CVD), 480x480 (SVCD) or 720x480 (full DVD).

Your video closely matches CVD so I would try that, next I would select SVCD. There's CVD templates for TMPGEnc in the Tools section of this site, D/L and put them in the TMPGEnc template subfolder, they'll be there when you next start the program. You burn them as a regular SVCD and they work on most SVCD capable players.

Hope that helps.

[bambam]

Thank you for the answer

You are right, the video look good, this is why i want to keep the best quality
but there is a few thing i don't understand. Isn't the "bitrate" is a value that is very important ? in this case would that be 1568 Kbps ?

I have a 4:3 tv at home so i wondering if a resolution of 480x480 would look crappy on my tv. Will i get black bar (like wide screen format) Or will i loose some information since the original video is 512*384.

[ZippyP.]

Isn't the "bitrate" is a value that is very important ? in this case would that be 1568 Kbps ?

I have a 4:3 tv at home so i wondering if a resolution of 480x480 would look crappy on my tv. Will i get black bar (like wide screen format) Or will i loose some information since the original video is 512*384.

The bitrate of the avi isn't relevant to the mpeg you create as they use different compression schemes. For best quality use the highest bitrate possible for SVCD (2500 kbps) CBR encoding and you will have to split your file over 2 disks. If you really want it on one disk, I would use CVD res, 2-pass VBR, 1600 avg. bitrate with 200 min and 2500 max. (In TMPGEnc you can adjust the average to fill a disk, or use a bitrate calculator from the Tools section.)

480x480 is the number of pixels and doesn't affect the display aspect ratio (DAR) on a TV. Use Full Screen (keep aspect ratio) and the video will fill your TV as the original is 4:3 aspect ratio.

[bambam]

Ok i see
so if want to keep the best quality for a conversion avi to (s)vcd
Can we say this basic rule:

If the video has a resolution of 480x480 and higher i should use SVCD
and if it is lower i should use VCD.

[ZippyP.]

Ok i see
so if want to keep the best quality for a conversion avi to (s)vcd
Can we say this basic rule:

If the video has a resolution of 480x480 and higher i should use SVCD
and if it is lower i should use VCD.

That's about it, if it's not too far off you can go up in res. Don't forget about CVD (352x480) res as well, the nice thing about CVD is that it is a valid DVD resolution (unlike SVCD) so it's easy to put on DVD later.

[bambam]

Ok great
I do not really know about CVD so i will read about it on the site and maybe give it a try

Thanks a lot