How to get the BEST VCD quality?

[gothviruz]

Fyi, this is how i normally work on my videos.
1) Shoot on my Canon MV500i
2) Capture using Studio 8, via firewire card
3) Edit in Studio 8
4) Render as AVI in Studio 8
5) Encode using TMPEGnc using the template wizard for VCD (MPEG-1, checked on Noise Reduction, Highest Motion Search)
6) Burn using Nero Express

I've been trying all sorts of softwares to get an acceptable good quality VCD (MPEG-1) but so far, most of the outcome videos are still pixalated. I've seen great quality, non-pixalated home video, on VCD but I really don't know how that is done.

I'm only interested in doin VCD (not SVCD or XVCD). Any advice?

[jdizzy40]

Pixilated on what your TV screen?

[ZippyP.]

What are your settings in the noise reduction window of TMPGEnc?

Do a forum search on virtualdub filters, smoothing, temporal and noise. You can frameserve from Vdub to TMPGEnc to avoid re-compressing.

[gothviruz]

Pixilated on what your TV screen?

Yup.. pixalated on TV screen as well as on PC when played in full screen

[Heavensent]

you get pixalation when the bitrate is not high for the video.
try making an svcd, the bitrate is much better.
and it will look sharper then vcd.
there is no getting around this bitrate thing,
you can try some filters or soften block noise,but you will allways
hit a point that the bitrate is just not right for the job.

[bugster]

Home movies are notoriously difficult to encode well to mpeg. Lots of motion cause by camera shake of hand held cameras just eats up the bitrate. As other suggest, some filters available in virtualdub or avisynth may help a little but as heavensent says, there is no substitute for bitrate.

You may get better results if you can reduce camera shake by using a tripod when filming, if thats possible in your situation.

[pc001]

I am in the same boat here. Trying to squeeze last drop of quality out for VCD (not SVCD, XVCD or DVD!) I have seen a few commercial VCD now that are exceptional in quality. There is a lot of motion and pan/tilt... There is very minimal pixelation! Why? I suspect the encoder they use is very high end ones... Perhaps that makes a difference. Another concern of mine is compatibility... Sorry, no suggestions, but I thought people from this forum will offer their TMPEnc encoding settings to share...

Sincerely,
PC

[poopyhead]

for TMPGEnc, you should set motion search accuracy to "high quality (slow)"

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otherwise, you may need to try out xVCD or SVCD.