Bitrates, VCD v SVCD

[fiiido]

Ok folks,

In the past I have burnt films as VCD and reducing the bitrate so it fits on one disc. I now want to burn SVCDs. My simple question is:

If I reduce the bitrate of an SVCD to fit on one disc will the mpg film quality be the same as if I reduced the bitrate to fit the same film onto 1 disc as VCD?

Is there any advantage of having 1 disc SVCD over 1 disc VCD?

[doubledeuce]

It is my understanding that for really low bitrates, mpg-1 is better than mpg-2. This indicates to me that VCD is better when the bitrate is down around 1.15 mps.

[theDruid]

I suggest you try making some samples, and see which you prefer.

One reason why SVCD's suffer from going down to low enough bitrates to fit a movie onto one CD is that they use a higher resolution than VCD's.

Therefore, there are more pixels to be catered for by the same low bitrate.

VCD's may look better because they use a lower resolution.

In general, MPEG-1 (VCD) was probably designed to use lower bitrates than MPEG-2 (SVCD/DVD).

It's fairly subjective though really - try some samples and see which you prefer.

cheers,
mcdruid.

[ronnylov]

Lower resolution is also better at low bitrates so SVCD with VCD bitrate will look worse than VCD.

[Gazorgan]

There is no way to typically fit a regular movie (90 minutes) onto a single SVCD CDR. Don't even try it. It's difficult to get a 1 hour Soprano episode onto a single CDR.

Lowering VCD bitrate to fit a movie isn't VCD, it's xVCD.

If your obsessed with single CDR movies (and it's an obsession) then search KVCD and have at it!