DV tape to SVCD - what sort of quality can I get?

[enzoweb]

I have a Panasonic DV Camcorder (NV-ex1), and a Sound Blaster Audigy DE sound card which has a Firewire port.
I used Movie Maker to capture the film as an AVI (25mbps) file and then converted to SVCD using bbmpeg. Finally burnt the SVCD to a CD using Nero. Plugged it into my DVD player and the quality was crap.
How can I achieve DV tape like quality? Do I need a fab capture card, or just fiddle with the software settings?

Ta.

[Shabubu]

If your transferring via firewire then you should get the same quality on your computer as on you tape, just make sure you cap to DV (and get win2k/xp as it will take a lot of space). Also bbMpeg can be kind of finickity, try TMPGEnc (free) or CCE (demo available) to see if it improves. Good luck

[enzoweb]

Thanks. I have XP, and the AVI takes up 3GB (17 mins of tape) which isn't a problem. I didn't play back the AVI, but assumed the quality would be good.
I tried TMPGEenc but it kept freezing. Also, the MPEG2 encoder part is time-limited.
So, if the AVI quality is as good as the tape, it has to be the encoding/transfer..

[nsdn]

Hiyah,

I have been fiddling with this for some time, and yes you can capture to your PC and send it back to ur cam with virtually no loss in quality.

But try and convert it to a usuable mpeg stream and I just can not get rid of the macro blocks on movement.

I have tryed using both CCE and tmpge at the maximum bitrates my DVD will handle (XSVCD) (3M/s average with 3.4M/s max using varible bitrate) and I can still see the buggers. Yet using CCE for DVD ripping I can do a SVCD @ 1.5M/s and see NO macroblocks AT ALL.

Don't ask me why....if u can tell me ..I would be gratefull

No one else in here seems to have ever had much success with DV to SVCD either.

I am going to try a programe one of these days that rationalises the colours in the DV capture and see if that makes any differance.

[enzoweb]

So is the quality dependant on the bitrate settings, and should I crank it up to the highest settings?

[WildStyle]

I capture from satelite to a Sony camera using
pass-thru to a Audigy card into Premiere using
the MS DV codec at 720 x 480. I save the avi
to my hard drive at 360 x 240. I load the avi
into Tmpgnc and encode a Ntsc VCD with excellent
results.

Not dvdrip quality, but better than an analog
cap thru my Radeon 64 vivo.

[Panash]

I've tried DV to SVCD conversion using Ulead VS4 to transfer.

Something to watch for is the A/B field order which will give interlace problems and blockyness.

I've tried a number of combinations of A field/B filed first and frame serving TMPGenc with AVISynth, with the A/B field first in both directions. I did find a combination that gave reasonable results but my impression was that the actuality did not live up to the hype as I still got a few blocks. In fairness to TMPGenc I did have it at its fastest settings as I was doing all this to explore WinTV-PVR interlace probs.

I seem to remember that I was using a swapfields command if that's any clue.

I'd be interested to know if you crack this.

PNsomewhere in there.

[Dragonsf]

I have no problems getting decent SVCDs out of DV. I'm using ULEAD MS 6.0 with these settings:
480x576 Framesize no interlace 160 KHz joint stereo 1600 KB/s video bitrate. So I can get 1hour on one 700MB CD. No macroblocks, stuttering or bad pictures.

[fingernailX]

IMHO-
2 most important tmpegenc settings for DV to SVCD
deinterlace even field adaptive
motion search accuracy highest quality slowest

It takes forever but it makes all the difference.

I have used both 2 pass vbr and cq 95% with these 2 to great success. I work at a college in Distance Learning with a crew of videographers whose skill sets vary widely. Brightly lit studio footage isn't very taxing. 'Gonzo' footage from a saltwater estuary on a cloudy day can be a bitch. I have encoded this footage with tmpegenc (12a) to both DVD specs and SVCD specs using above 2 settings with outstanding results for educational presentations projected to an audience over a LCD projector from a laptop with DVD rom. Quality was only slightly less than had we trucked a DVCAM vcr to the presentation.

[chjan]

hi nsdn,

>I have tryed using both CCE and tmpge at the maximum >bitrates my DVD will handle (XSVCD) (3M/s average with >3.4M/s max using varible bitrate) and I can still see the >buggers. Yet using CCE for DVD ripping I can do a SVCD @ >1.5M/s and see NO macroblocks AT ALL.
>Don't ask me why....if u can tell me ..I would be >gratefull

Yes, convert to SVCD from DVDs source is very better than from DV. The DVDs have more video information (bitrate > 6M/s) than DV (3.4 M/s), therefore encoder can use that much detail of video to get the good result.

>No one else in here seems to have ever had much success >with DV to SVCD either.

I gave up making SVCD from DV. I have firewire, DVC II and ATI TV wonder, never get any good from all equipments I have, even tried with TMpeng and CCE. Now Think DV is just for VCD. You can make any good VCD from DV.

[enzoweb]

Thanks, I'll try these settings. I also downloaded the Ulead DVD Movie Factory Trial and have tried that, but the quality is still poor - lots of stuttering everytime the camera moved. I do like its ease of use though.

[Shabubu]

I remember reading the colourspace of DV is 4:1:1, not 4:2:2 which may be a prob, there is a setting in TMPGEnc which changes this nd provides a little explanation on this.