SVCD 480x480 goes beyond edge of tv...

[Bill]

First, I have been playing around with making SVCD's from home video. My computer is a P3 866 with an ATI all-in-wonder 128 agp. I use VirtualDub to capture and encode using the PicVideo Mjpeg codec. Afterward, I have used TMPGEnc and Cinema Craft Encoders to convert the captured video to SVCD compliant clips. Finally, I use Nero 5.5 to record the mpeg clip to a cd. When I play back my SVCD on an Apex 500W DVD Player, the cd plays with no problems. However, the video itself seems to be cropped off a little at the top and bottom edges of the TV. When I play back the mpeg on my computer, there is more 'realestate' in the scenes of the video than what shows up on my TV. Is this normal? Is there a way to keep the video from being cropped off on the TV? I have been using the 4:3 Display and Fit to Screen options in TMPEnc and just 4:3 Display option in Cinema Craft Encoder. Both produce the same results.

Second, I like using the Cinema Craft Encoder to create the Mpeg clips because I can encode using a multi-pass vbr that does the conversion faster than TMPEnc 2-pass vbr. I believe that a multi-pass vbr conversion produces a noticeably better quality Mpeg clip than a constant bit rate conversion does. However, when I convert my captured video to Mpeg using a multi-pass vbr and then record to cd with Nero, Nero complains that the Mpeg isn't compliant. Is an Mpeg clip compliant only if a constant bit rate is used? I don't get the complaint when I convert my captured video to mpeg using a constant bit rate. The bit-rates that I use in a multi-pass vbr conversion come from a bit-rate calculator at the following url. Can these suggested bit-rate values be whats causing my Mpeg clip to become non-compliant? Could someone suggest a way for me to use better estimated values so I can produce compliant SVCD's. Even though they still play back okay when they are not compliant, I want to make sure that I can play them back on any SVCD/VCD/DVD stand-alone player.

Bit-rate calculator url: http://www.vcdhelp.com/cinemasvcd.htm

Thanks for your help.
Bill

[P-Tingles]

I noticed my VCD's were also croped a little off the top & bottom. I thought it was my TV (an older big screen)
I used Nero 5.5 - apex 660 DVD player.

[Furble]

From my understanding there is always an overscan on the sides and top and bottom.

Also this overscan can be different on different TV's so what might be perfect on one TV might be out on another.

Furble

[vitualis]

That's right.

You should always keep all the important video information within a 10% border on video clips that you intend to display on TV, otherwise, you are at risk of them being cropped off.

Although you could resize your video and add a border, it is best to create your video that doesn't have anything important on the edges in the first place.

The Demo VCD that can be downloaded from the VCDImager website has a number of test screens designed to measure in pixels and percentage, the amount of cropping occuring in your DVD player + TV setup.

Regards.

[Bill]

Here’s a little more information that I have come across about my problem with my SVCD’s being cropped off when I play them back on my stand-alone DVD Player. When I first capture the video using my ATI All-In-Wonder and VirtualDub in W2k, the video is captured as 480x480 like it is supposed to be. I double check this by playing it back with Windows Media Player 6.4. Besides being obvious, Windows Media Player shows it as a 480x480 video clip in the detailed information section. Then, to finish turning the captured video into a SVCD compliant video clip, I use TMPEnc v12a or v12g or sometimes I use Cinema Craft Encoder v2.50. When I play back the resulting mpeg in Windows Media Player 6.4 after the conversion, Windows Media Player displays it as a 640x480 video clip rather than 480x480 and the detailed information also shows it as a 640x480 video. This leads me to believe that even though TMPEnc or Cinema Craft Encoder are converting my captured video to an Mpeg compliant video for SVCD, they may be changing the dimensions of my video clip from 480x480 to 640x480. When I burn this to CD-RW, Nero 5.5 finds the Mpeg to be SVCD compliant and thus no complaints are shown and I can burn the video. I wonder if it is possible that TMPEnc and Cinema Craft Encoder are changing something in the captured video so that when they complete the conversion, the video isn’t really a compliant video, but Nero thinks it is because of what TMPEnc or Cinema Craft Encoder are doing. Maybe this is a problem with how my ATI AIW captures video also? Any more views on this subject would be appreciated.

[fandos]

testing