Encoding settings (TMPGEnc Plus)..

[TheGame7]

My source is an avi from the Canopus ADVC-55 (scaled down version of the 100). The final DVD will is usually 3 to 4 hours in length.

1) When converting VHS to DVD, should the VHS be captured it 1/2 D1 (352x ) too? Or just encoded in this way and captured originally in full? (I have the hard drive space for the latter).

OK, now to the main questions.

I) If the source is Sattelite TV (in my case SKY+ using a S-Video cable), should it still be encoded in half D1? or should I opt for the full resolution?

II) On what occasions should CBR or VBR be used? What about the CQ that LordSmurf (or DigitalFAQ now..) uses? Do the recommended bitrates for each method vary?

III) I have been lead to believe 5000 is the max bitrate to use with half D1 and 8000 with full. Is this about right and it should be altered slightly to preference?

IV) What setting decreases the file size more so, the resolution, bitrate or the rate control mode?

Any help much appreciated.

I would love to hear the settings you use for either scenario (VHS and SAT TV)?

Cheers.

TheGame7

[bugster]

My source is an avi from the Canopus ADVC-55 (scaled down version of the 100). The final DVD will is usually 3 to 4 hours in length.

1) When converting VHS to DVD, should the VHS be captured it 1/2 D1 (352x ) too? Or just encoded in this way and captured originally in full? (I have the hard drive space for the latter).

OK, now to the main questions.

I) If the source is Sattelite TV (in my case SKY+ using a S-Video cable), should it still be encoded in half D1? or should I opt for the full resolution?

II) On what occasions should CBR or VBR be used? What about the CQ that LordSmurf (or DigitalFAQ now..) uses? Do the recommended bitrates for each method vary?

III) I have been lead to believe 5000 is the max bitrate to use with half D1 and 8000 with full. Is this about right and it should be altered slightly to preference?

IV) What setting decreases the file size more so, the resolution, bitrate or the rate control mode?

Any help much appreciated.

I would love to hear the settings you use for either scenario (VHS and SAT TV)?

Cheers.

TheGame7

I) If you really want to put 3 hours plus on a DVDr, use 1/2 D1 irrespective of source quality. Sky quality varies significantly across the channels anyway so the fact your source is Sky and S-Video is not a good fact to base any decision on.

II) CBR Vs VBR Vs CQ. Could start quite a long debate here. Personally, I tend to use CQ (quality setting 75 or 80) where file size is not too important and/or I am in a bit of a hurry. 2-Pass VBR allows you to accuratley predict the filesize, CQ does not. Quality wise I think they give very similiar results.

III) Those are reasonable figures to use as a starting guideline. Adjust to taste as they say in the cookery business!


IV) The only things that affect filesize are bitrate and playing time. Nothing else matters. If you are using a variable bitrate encoding then it is the average bitrate that matters. This is how 2-pass VBR allows you to accuratley predict filesize (you can specify the average bitrate to be used) and CQ mode does not. Resolution does not affect filesize as such. Lower resolution (such as half D1) allow you to use lower bitrates and still get good quality. Full D1 at 2500Kb/s looks pretty poor. Half D1 at this bitrate can look pretty good. Both would result in the same size file.


Hope this helps

Bugster

[Bondiablo]

When capturing with the ADVC always capture to 720x480 for NTSC and 720x576 for PAL, since that's the devices native resolution, unless maybe you're using software to do real time MPEG captures. Then convert to Half D1 if you intend to use a low bitrate. At 3 hours, if you use 192kbps audio, your average video bitrate will be about 3200kbps which should be good for half D1. If you're using VBR the minimum can be as low as 0 and the max should be about twice the average up to 8000 or 9000.

[TheGame7]

Thanks for the advice so far, keep it coming

On a side note, what do you think of this calculator:

http://dvd-hq.info/Calculator.html

Its the most detailed I have found yet.

Cheers.