Blocky Video

[marcopolo1]

I am currently using VirtualDub to save my films as avi, when I preview them in WMP9 (or something else), they're absolutely fine, my problems seem to start when I have loaded them into TMPGEnc.
If I preview them using TMP they seem quite blocky, I have tried loading the various standard templates (VCD,DVD,etc), to see if this makes any difference, which it does not so thought if I leave it to convert, maybe the outcome will be different, unfortunately this is not the case.

I get this with all films I try to convert, especially bad are cartoon ones. Am I missing something here.

Cheers

[marcopolo1]

Anyone?

[johns0]

You have to give a bit more of info,what`s the resolution and bitrate of the files to begins with and have you tried increasing the bitrate for encoding and are these captured avi or film type,interlaced lines you might be seeing?

[marcopolo1]

Here you go, 640x272, bitrate 1150, 30fps, MPEG-1 video. I want to be able to convert to play on my Sony RDR-GX7. I've been loading the PAL DVD template.

Cheers

Mark

[xtreemkareem]

There's your problem! First of all, 640 X 272 is not a valid playback resolution for anything. second of all, for 1150 kbps MPEG-1, that's way too high a resolution. 640X272 @ 30 fps means your source is a cropped widescreen NTSC avi, so you need the NTSC VCD template. Basically, load the VideoCD NTSC template. Then load unlock.mcf in the TMPGEnc extras folder. Save this new template as new.mcf or something. THen go to the wizard, and choose the new template under the "Other" templates. Load your file. Then, under advanced options, go to crop, go to the dsiplay tab, choose center, custom size and resize to 340 X 150 (just do it, it won't be too low, it will look right in the end. If it looks to squished, resize to 340 X 160, if too stretched, 340 X 140). Go to the video tab and set the bitrate to 1246 kbps. This will make your file an XVCD, but it will more than likely play as long as the bitrate isn't too high. ake sure framerate is 29.97 fps and the aspect ratio is 4:3. Make sure output resolution is 352X240. Close advanced options and under predicted file size, play around with the slider and audi bitrate to make your movie file fit one one or two CDs. Don't let audio bitrate drop under 128 kbps and don't let video bitrate drop under 950 kbps. 2 Pass VBR will give you best quality in either case. Choose a filename and encode. Go to sleep and your nightare (cross your fingers) shouldbe over and you will have a smooth VCD that will playback just nicely on your sony. By the looks of the forum post, your player wonn't playback VCD, let alone XVCD. Try it. If doesn't work, buy a 30$ Apex, it will definitely play the file back!

[johns0]

I would rather set the resolution to 352x480 with a bitrate of 2500 average and use mpeg2 and gop frames limited to 18 and burn as dvd,you get much better results.

[marcopolo1]

Johns0, now you've totally lost me, the video size looks wierd and as for GOP, well what does that mean, but I will be burning to DVD, can't be doing with VCD.

Cheers both of you.

Mark

[sacajaweeda]

If your source is really 640x272 then just resize it to 352x240 for best results. It's only about VHS quality but then so is your source, but it's a DVD legal frame size that closest matches your original source.