What resolution should I be capping at?

[Murp0s]

I'm capping TV Sitcoms to be encoded as VCDs. I'm using VDub and PicVideo's MJPEG codec. I've been capping at 352x480 with 2:1 cubic vertical reduction (don't really know why, think I read about it somewhere) with MJPEG set at 20. The results have been fine but I'm wondering if 704x480 at 20 would produce better quality? Should I let TMPG resize it when it encodes or should I do it in VDub before the encode?

If the max reso of a vcd is 352x240 I can't imagine a higher cap reso would help... I made some test clips but it is hard to be objective since I know which clips are which.

Thanks!

[vhelp]

hi Mup0s,

I would say, to continue using your 352 x 480. For tv, specially those sitcoms, they are all mostly fullscreen. Are these from Satellite or Cable ??

In any case, (and depending on your providers quality level) your current
resultion is fine. And, I would encode to CVD (352 x 480) resolution for
DVD, if you are plannign on archiving to DVD disks.

Now, you could go for a higher resolution, but for this type of source, and
the quality level (which is low anyways, for these tv shows) I would continue
w/ 352 x 480 :P

That's about it for me,
-vhelp

[johns0]

For myself i found capping at 640x480 and then encoding at 352x480 produced a sharper picture then when i capped at 352x480 and encoded at 352x480.

[Murp0s]

Thanks guys!

Some of the shows are digital sat and some are digital cable.

[Ego_Shredder]

I've done hundreds of captures over the last two years or so and I find there is a huge difference between standard VCD resolutions and bitrates, compared to 704 x 480. I use 704 x 576 PAL (I live in the UK) and the picture quality is sharper, clearer and less fuzzy, especially on things like text and trees etc. I also use the PicVideo codec at 18 or higher.

Most TV sitcom programmes are 30mins and I tend to use 704 x 576 MPEG-2 at a VBR (variable) video bitrate of 4000 maximum / 600 minimum at 100% quality inside my encoder TMPGEnc Plus. This will fit on either a 80min CDR or a 99min CDR. I keep the audio at 224 and sometimes higher at 384 if I have enough space on the disc. Depending on the programme, I can sometimes squeeze 40mins on a 99min CDR but usually I get about 30mins.

If I am capturing sport, I will drop to 480 x 576 PAL (Standard SVCD) and keep the rest of the settings as described above. This means the lower resolution benefits from the extra bitrate, so the picture is not full of macroblocks when the action becomes frantic.

The only time I encode to 352 x 288 PAL (standard VCD) is when I need to fit a film or long programme on one CDR disc. I usually have a MPEG-1 VBR video bitrate of 2000 max / 300 min at 100% quality. Not all DVD players can handle these files but most players can if your bitrate is lower.

When I buy myself a DVD writer, I will encode full DVD resolutions and bitrates. At present the most I can do is 720 x 576 PAL, MPEG-2 VBR 6000 max / 600 min at 100% and audio at 44.1/16 384 bitrate.


Ego

[SatStorm]

The capture framesize unfortunatelly is a huge issue. It depends on the hardware, the drivers, the system you use, to what you wish to encode, etc
Very general speaking, 704 x 576/480 is the safe mode for all cards.

The resizing now, is another issue. The general rule is bicubic for enlarge, bilinear for reduce. TMPGenc only use Bilinear resizing, this is not the best solution for all sources. It works just okey if you capture 704 x 576 and resize to 352 x 576, but not so well when you resize to 480 x 576 for example....
The "safe mode" here, is resizing with virtualdub (or avisynth) and not TMPGenc. The safe method also here, is the use of the Lanczos resizing.

[lordsmurf]

The "understanding your source" guide at lordsmurf.com covers this