XVCD Quality

[raceman3]

I have a couple questions about creating xvcd's, bare with me I'm new to this. The video quality I was getting from NTSC VCD's were not up to par with what I expected, ghosting and image clarity were the biggest issues. The same video dubbed to VHS looked much better. My source is from a Sony DV camcorder downloaded via firewire and the specs are NTSC 704X480. I use TMPGenc to covert from AVI to MPEG and Nero to burn. First question, Should I be setting the Full Screen or the Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio. What about Ghost and Noise Reduction ? I've tried 352X480 with a CBR of 2000, High Quality, Full Screen and the results were very gittery. Tried CBR of 1500 and the audio was terrible and the video choppy. I'm playing these on a Sony DVP-NC600 and I'm not sure what the max bit rate is which is another problem. Any ideas what the best parameters might be or do I just keep trying different combinations

[ktnwin]

It sound like your original video does not have the quality of digital tape.
I created XVCD all the time and the quality is fine.
Try using CQ_VBR of 80 (min 800, max 2200) and see if you could achieve better result. Also make sure that your DVD player support VBR for MPEG-1

[raceman3]

I'll try your sugestion tonight, but shouldn't I at least have the same quality that i get when i dub it to VHS ?

[thxkid]

The resolution of SVCD is 350 lines while VCD is 250 lines, so yes it should look as good, but I use the same bitrate from a SVCD for VCD so I get a good looking XVCD. I set mine at 2520 CBR 100, audio at 224, res at 352x240, it would be better if you could go to SVCD, if your player will support SVCD you get a much sharper picture. I set SVCD at 2520 CBR 100, audio 192, 480x480 res. great great results.

[ktnwin]

I have tried XVCD, SVCD, CBR and VBR.
For me, XVCD with VBR works the best.

With XVCD, the picture does not look as sharp as SVCD but it is still very clear and there is no blockiness even for motion scenes.
Encoding is twice faster too for XVCD.

Encoding to SVCD takes some extra care (field order). With wrong field order, the SVCD will play with lto of jerkiness.

[kinneera]

Keep in mind that an XVCD can be higher resolution as well as higher bitrate. 352x480 or 352x576 can yield very good results with a bitrate between 2000 and 2500, especially VBR. You just have to be sure your player can handle it. (The vertical resolution is by far the greatest contributor to the extra clarity of the SVCD format.)

[BlackWinterDay]

Not to sound completely out of my tree, but I am limited to *x240 with my ATI TV Wonder card. I have found that xVCD's captured and encoded at 480*240 look far superior to xVCD's capture and encoded at 352*240. While I'm sure that a higher vertical resolution would help my xVCD's, I think that horizontal resolution is just as important.

[kinneera]

You may find that the benefit derived from extra horizontal resolution is less noticeable on TV playback, but anything that looks better to your eyes is your decision as to whether or not to use it. The details about how TVs display images horizontally versus how they draw the vertical lines tend to make the horizontal resolution less important (but not irrelevant, of course).

[next]

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On 2001-09-17 23:41:29, BlackWinterDay wrote:
Not to sound completely out of my tree, but I am limited to *x240 with my ATI TV Wonder card. I have found that xVCD's captured and encoded at 480*240 look far superior to xVCD's capture and encoded at 352*240. While I'm sure that a higher vertical resolution would help my xVCD's, I think that horizontal resolution is just as important.
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Yes, I agree....the 480 will produce much better results. But please, no reference to trees please.

[raceman3]

thxkid:

What do you mean when you say 2520 CBR 100 ? I see where I can change the CBR to 2520 but what's the 100 referring to ? Also should I be setting the source aspect ratio to match the actual source video or for the out put i desire ?

[BxB]

Getting back to the original problem (!) I agree with the previous poster that you may have problems with the source. Have you tried looking at the video with a software player on your PC? If so, does the AVI look good in the first place?

I haven't noticed much difference above 1450kbps with CBR. But in any case the problem is usually pixellation when there's motion, not ghosting.

[hitechjunkie]

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On 2001-09-17 21:54:47, ktnwin wrote:
I have tried XVCD, SVCD, CBR and VBR.
For me, XVCD with VBR works the best.
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that's been my experience, as well...

[raceman3]

The AVI looks great and now that you mention it, it does seem to be a pixilation issue, just not sure how to correct it