To try, or not to try. That is the question. MULTIPASS vs. T

[homerpez]

OK, let the debate begin.

I'd like to know people who have tried both of these scenarios, and see what works best for people. This is for VCD (SeVCD's technically), using VBR MPEG-1 at a relatively low AVG bitrate, but high MAX.

I'm very interested what you can do with this, as I've noticed a little something about DVD's... the AVG MPEG-2 bitrate on may of them is only 1000-1500 bitrate! Certainly if you can get perfect quality on a high res picture, you can get "good" quality on a lower-res picture. I'm talking blockiness, detail, motion distortion, etc. though I know just by going to 352x240, you will lose some sharpness.

Here's the options:
VBR settings of about 0 MIN, 900 AVG, and 2500 MAX.

1- TMPGEnc, MPEG-1 VBR, 2-PASS. I've done this method plenty of times, but I'm still hoping for better. I've been told that you should not only use "soften block noise", but also a "sharpen" filter to yield a non-blocky result. I need to try that. Toolame for audio (though I have to remember to not have TMPGEnc remux it at the end, or sound goes to crap again.

or

2- Cinemacraft encoder, MPEG-1 VBR, 4-pass (or more!)... Does doing more passes allow for better detail since bitrate should be allocated better? This would be using the very complicated frameserve method, and again using Toolame for the audio (muxing the end files with bbMPEG).

Who has tried either, and which is better? I'd appreciate any response...

[VidGuy]

IMHO, CCE 3-pass (by the third pass, CCE is not changing very much, so more tends to be a waste of time) is hard to beat, plus the bitrate is right on, making space calculations a breeze.

HOWEVER, I have not had good luck with VBR MPeg1 unless I burn it as a non-compliant SVCD rather than a non-compliant VCD - The Pioneer DV-333 chokes on VCD whenever the bitrate gets too low, and I haven't been able to make padding or forcing a minimum bitrate to help it (basically if the screen goes to black, the sound goes all squirrely until the video comes back).

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: VidGuy on 2001-07-17 09:26:17 ]</font>

[homerpez]

Odd thing is, I haven't had luck with CBR MPEG-1! Must be your player...

I run on an Apex 500W, works with just about everything put into it. Actually all my other "VCD"'s are VBR MPEG-1's too, but made with TMPGEnc.

Now all I'm trying is to make them with CCE instead, hopefully to make them sharper-cleaner-better using similar bitrates (0 MIN, 900 OR SO AVG, 2500 MAX)...

I made some stupid mistake in my .avs file, where it linked to a non-existant video source... and tried to encode anyway! For several hours!!! Now that I got it right, I'll have my first test run tonight...

[hitechjunkie]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-07-17 09:24:09, VidGuy wrote:
HOWEVER, I have not had good luck with VBR MPeg1 unless I burn it as a non-compliant SVCD rather than a non-compliant VCD - The Pioneer DV-333 chokes on VCD whenever the bitrate gets too low, and I haven't been able to make padding or forcing a minimum bitrate to help it (basically if the screen goes to black, the sound goes all squirrely until the video comes back).</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

i've run into the same problem with VBR MPEG-1 on my JVC 523GD, but only when using VBR max bitrates of less than 1300 or so and a film framerate, which i've tried using for my half-vertrez 352x240 XVCDs.

if i use a 29.97fps framerate on my half-vertrez VBR 0-1150 MPEG-1 XVCDs, then the stuttering problem due to the sudden dip in bitrates does not occur (as often?).

if i create a full-vertrez XVCD (352x480, 640x480), then i'll usually use a VBR of 0-1900+ and a film framerate and the resulting XVCD will not stutter on playback.

someone mentioned a problem with multiplexing in TMPGEnc as the cause for the stuttering and suggested multiplexing with bbmpeg instead. haven't tried it yet...