VHS to DVD - Convert AVI to 720X480 or 352X480? Differences?

[blade29]

Hello, I have a 90 minute AVI (20 GB) file from a VHS capture, the first half of a football game using Scenalyzer. I can only do a half at a time for the football game due to the 20 GB filesize. I'm looking to put about 2 hours and 40 minutes of video (onto 1 DVD. I use CCE to convert the AVI to DVD format (NTSC, 720X480) and use VBR, multipass, 3X, with the bitrate settings of 9000 Max, 3484 AVG, and 0 MIN.

It was mentioned to me that I should go with 352X480 (half D1 resolution).
Has anyone else tried converting their captured AVI to DVD with both resolutions (720X480 and 352X480) and what were the differences you noticed?

Is the 352X480 resolution compatible with all DVD players?

What CCE settings did you use for 352X480?

I'd like to stick with CCE because I also use filters to clean up the noise of the VHS capture and the speed of CCE. Please let me know. Thanks.

blade29

[andkiich]

You will have to do a test on your own to fully determine which you like better, but given that your source is VHS, whose resolution is closer to the 352x480 than 720x480, you might find little to no difference between the two. When capturing the AVI, the 352x480 will use less drive space.

half D1 is one of the standard DVD resolutions, so it should work on all DVD players.

I don't use CCE, so I cannot recommend any settings for you, but I'm sure someone else here might be albe to help with that.

[Donny661]

best way to resize your 720x480 to 352x480 would be to frameserve with VirtualDub or, better yet, AviSynth, but, if you don't want to bother with that, you can check the option in cce called "half-horizontal resolution". 720/2=352 , at least it does when you have to round to multiples of 16.

[rob1]

I'd agree- best way to decide quality is to try it both ways. That said, I do use 352x480 with lower bitrates. You lose a little detail, but you effectively double your bitrate.

However, I capture at full resolution and then resize. There's a bit of a debate over whether that's worth it with VHS or broadcast, but to me it makes sense to capture as much info as possible, filter and then resize down. (Also, I capture with the canopus advc, so it's moot!)

I do use CCE to encode. Only tip if you go half-res... You can make CCE take care of resizing by simply ticking the 'half horizontal' option (I believe in the video tab). If you choose to resize via avisynth (which is how I do it, though I've heard it's a little faster if you let CCE handle it) or simply capture at your target res, just be sure 'compliant dvd' is NOT checked- if it is, it automatically outputs a 720x480. (No worries, though- 352 is compliant.)

Might want to check this post on Doom9- it has some advice on bitrates at different resolutions and using different source material (link). It would suggest going with half-res at those bitrates. But yea- it comes down to your impression of what's best.

[blade29]

Great! Thanks everyone. I'll try both resolutions and see which one works best for me.

blade29

[SatStorm]

Something shocking now....
For VHS source, even 352 X 288 is OK...
Do some tests and see what looks better for you

I suggest: 352 X 288 ~1500kb/s, 352 X576 ~3000kb/s and 720 X 576 ~ 4500kb/s

[Barnabas]

blade29,

Don't waste your time on tests. If your source is plain VHS tape, 352x480 will look the same as 720x480 unless you are using SVHS.

[vcd4ever]

I always capture from vhs and tv using only 336x288 and i have no problems encoding this to a standard vcd with vhs quality. I have also captured a short movie from tv and in the same time also recording the same movie on my vcr in sp mode. I encoded the captured avi file to a standard vcd and compared the quality between the vcd and the vcr recording, the vcd was the winner. The sharpness from the vcd picture was much better than the vcr, the colours from the vcd was also much cleaner than the vcr. I don't think that i can blame my vcr for loosing the fight against the vcd because i paid 900 euro for it. My vcr is only vhs and therefore i used composite when doing the comparison. The reason for capturing at 336x288 instead of 352x288 is the tv's overscan area.

SatStorm,

I totally agree with you, 352x288 is ok for a vhs source and 352x288 is also imo ok for a tv source if you only want vcd quality. Your post and my post is realy shocking so anybody with a heartcondition should probably not read any of this

vcd4ever.

[blade29]

Thanks to everyone for their comments. Is there a bitrate limit for Half D1 Resolution (352X480)?

blade29

[rob1]

1/2 D has the same bitrate limits as full resolution (except for the size) if your going for compliant DVDs.

If I'm doing multi-pass, I set the limits at 9,000 and 300 (0 is probably fine too) and with an ave. of 2300 the peak bitrate generally tops out around 4,000. If I go with constant quality with a Q=35 I generally get an ave. around 2500 but the peaks can hit 7,000 on particularly messy sections. Either way generally looks fine with my source material (which doesn't have as much action as a fb game).