SVCD skips on dvd player! (SmartRipper, dvd2avi, tmpgenc)

[Foles001]

I ripped 2 movies and used Smart Ripper, DVD2AVI, TMPGEnc, burned 24X with Nero. I made them SVCD's but took the birthrate down so it would fit on two cds (about 1250brate) and kept the audio at 224kbps. I just viewed them on Windows Media Player and they played fine. When i put the cd's in my Pioneer DV-444 the picture would get blockly whenever there was movement on the screen. This led to the audio going out of sync. I used the DVD ripping guide from this website and it seemed like everything was fine. If anyone knows what the problem is PLEASE reply!

[wulf109]

A bitrate of 1250 is much to low for SVCD. Macroblocking at that bitrate is normal. drop you audio bitrate to 128 that will give you a little more bitrate to put into video. Use 2pass-VBR encoding,it's very good at reducing blocking but the real solution is a much higher bitrate in your video.

[dausone]

Hey Foles001,

I had the same problem when I played back my SVCD.. DVD Rip.. on my Dvd player. The movie would play just fine for a good ten minutes then skip around a bit, and the audio would go out of sync. The problem was that my DVD player is not compatible with SVCD format!!! BOO!!! But I played the video on another DVD player and it worked just fine. There is a list of compatible DVD players on the menu right over <------- under OTHER. Check it out. Hope this helps, you might be stuck using (X)vcd's which isnt that bad and might give you better results since your bitrate is so low.

[RoopeT]

A burn speed of 24x sounds a bit too fast for me, my Philips DVD 622 is having playback problems with SVCD's burned @ 16x (with Yamaha 16x burner).

However, I don't think the burning speed is the real problem here, but the minimum bitrate used. Even though the minimum bitrate of an SVCD isn't limited according to the specs (an SVCD encoded with average bitrate of 100 kbps is in theory SVCD compliant), most of the players still have a minimum bitrate below of which playback problems occur. As you're using TMPGEnc for the encoding, you can check the "Enable padding below xxx kbps" feature, this should help.

The minimum bitrate is probably 700-800 kbps, or 1000 kbps at most. You have to make some test to find it out. I would still rather go for more CD's and get a lot better quality (and not having to worry if it plays OK). There have been some messages about Pioneer DV-444 minimum bitrate here (by Sue Denim), try if you can find them for more information.

[Foles001]

Thanks so much for the input guys... I found that if I want to keep a 2 hour movie on 2CD's then I just use a higher bitrate VCD (the "illegal" 1256kbps vcd on TMPGEnc works good). I'm not really picky about the quality anyway! Also tried a 1900kbps SVCD and I noticed a little slow down when the movie camera moves around a room fast. This problem is usllay solved by moving up to a 2000+ kbps. Thanks again for your replys!!