Horizontal breakup in action sequences

[Tommoz]

I have backed up a dvd movie to SVCD using TMPGenc in DVD2SVCD for the first time. The playback quality was poor on my DVD player with "blockiness" and horizontal breakup in even moderately fast sequences. The playback quality in PowerDVD on my PC is much better with none of these symptoms, although it's not as good as the ripped VOB files. I have since read just about all the guides and help available on this site and others so I know my CQs from my VBRS etc ! Having done this, I learnt that Constant Quality is not the best option for encoding SVCD and tried 2 pass VBR but no improvement.
I know my DVD player is capable of playing SVCD because I burnt an SVCD containg the PAL "Blue Streak" demo and it plays faultlessly.
I have used the same CD-Rs throughout, the demo plays fine so it can't be the CD-Rs. Burn speed, even at 1x makes no difference and I've tried with CDRWIN and Nero. I'm getting quite a collection of coasters now, so it time to admit defeat and ask for help !
Any ideas, thanks.

[bugster]

This may be a field order issue. Try reversing the field order in TmpGenc and re-encoding.

[RabidDog]

Burn a short(less than 30 mins) sequence to a cdrw(CDRW!) and use CBR at 2520. This will show how good svcd could be, because your using full bitrate all the time. Maybe you are using a bitrate too low. I find anything less than about 1400(vbr) will be unaccepatble.

Use cdrw both for cost and environmental reasons



CDr take over a thousand years to break down in the environment.
But only a day ot two in the hands of your kids.

[Tommoz]

Thanks for the suggestion Rabidog. The min. bitrate for VBR was set to 300 "out of the Box", which seems way too low from what you say. Tried at 2400 CBR using CDRW. There seems to be an improvement in slow sequences, clouds in the sky have better colour definition and no big blocks of white but fast sequences are still blocky with what I can only describe as horizontal break up. I know it's accepted the max parameter 'cos you can see it displayed at the bottom of the screen while TMPGenc is encoding. I'm begiinning to wonder whether there's something peculiar about this dvd so I'm gonna try backing up another DVD with CBR at max setting.
Bugster, thanks for your suggestion, but how do I know what to reverse to as the field order interface in DVD2SVCD was set to "automatic" which is presumably the default ?

[bugster]

Bugster, thanks for your suggestion, but how do I know what to reverse to as the field order interface in DVD2SVCD was set to "automatic" which is presumably the default ?

I Don't use DVD2SVCd much, so can't give an exact answer for this, but does it have top field (or A) first and bottom field (or B) first options. If so, try a short test encode with both settings, the 'automatic' option may be getting it wrong.

[Tommoz]

I have now tried every possible combination of parameters and no improvement. You might begin to think there's something wrong with my DVD player (Mico Diamante 3000 with 1.1 firmware upgrade) but it plays the sample available at http://www.vcdimager.org/pub/vcdimager/examples/test_svcd/test_svcd_pal.zip
perfectly. It would be nice to know what combination of tools created this sample as it's near dvd quality.

What also gets me is that every bin/cue file I create plays faultlessly via Virtual Daemon manager! AAAAAaaaaaaarrrrrgggggghhhhhhhhhhh !

[FOO]

The main difference between your computer and your TV
is the computer displays both fields at the same time so
you cant tell if the field order is backwards.

Of course the "blockiness" has nothing to do with that,
I have heard that some DVD players can't play SVCD at or
near the spec bitrate. If the decoder is losing it it will look terrible

I have made SVCDs at over 2600kbps and they really looked
bad on my ancient Pioneer 333

[Tommoz]

Thanks FOO. I understand your point about the decoder not being able deal with a high bitrate, but this would mean the overall picture quality would be terrible for an SVCD recorded at high CBR. As advised earlier I made a backup at 2530 CBR and with low movement shots, the picture's fine but anything moving or changing quickly just breaks up. To prove my DVD player will play SVCD I guess one test would be to play my 2530 CBR SVCD on a DVD player that is known to play them well and see what happens. If anyone ones to play a copy of my SVCD and feedback the results I'd be grateful.