VCD Quality

[stevenr21]

Ok I am not very experienced with VCD's, but I did rip Pearl Harbor and play the VCD on my DVD player on my TV. The quality of the picture was crappy. What is the point if I can't get a better picture from VHS. I used the progs from the guides on this page which is very easy to follow. And I am not dumb I know I did it right. What I am asking is what do I do to make my movies look like DVD's?

[Anonymous65]

If you want your movies to look like DVD, then you will have to record them as a DVD VCD is not the same as DVD.

[vhelp]

stevenr21,

. . .or, you can try and make an xVCD in 352x480 resolution instead w/higher bitrate
and non-interlace.

. . .or, (if you dvd player support it) you can try you hand at xSVCD 352x480 and see
what your quality is like. I don't care much for ripping DVDs these days. As, I'm
quite bored with it now, and have pretty much all my DVDs on CD-R's now anyways.

IMO, VHS quality VCD's R not one in the same. . .
what do I mean? Well, maybe, it means that what you're not gonna get in your VCD's
in the snow-effect, like you see in your VHS when played back. Other than that,
you're on your own as to BLOCK'less encodes. It takes time and trial-n-error to
reach the point where you are satisfied with the least amount of BLOCKs you can
afford to accept as your final VCD encode.

I can't explain it, when it comes to the, (why when your 352x240 VCD is played on
your TV) that it looks stretched and BLOCKy. And, (why when your 352x480 VCD or xVCD
is played "stretched" on your TV, that the 352x480 plays w/ sharper quality then your
352x240 non-stretched version, even though the 352x480 is stretched [de-stretched]
down to 352x240 is still a sharper quality) I can't explain this, yet! Maybe
someone else can. But, IMO, the 352x480 is the best display (even for VCD when
encoded as an xVCD) And, no! I'm not saying to take a 352x480 and encode it to
352x240!! I'm saying to encode your final to 352x480!! ie, 720x480 and encode to
352x480. But, you'll have to play around with the bitrate/audio and other settings
to get it to work on your dvd player. I couldn't get any of my xVCD's to play
correctly on any or my dvd players, and that was pretty much the reason why I went
straight for the xSVCD side instead (give or take a few other reasons)

With a clean source (DVD/Satalete) your final VCD/xVCD, etc. will come out pretty
good. But, you have to learn how to CONTROL the BLOCK (or at least minimize it to
a point bare-able to your eyes, but also depends on many other factors as well)

The one thing I just can't accept, is the blurryness of the VCD's! I can't stand it,
and IMO, will only hurt your vision in time. But, many encoders out there like to
use the VCD (or xVCD) because of less space consumption or they just don't want to
spread onto so many CD's and/or don't care about the quality at all, but just want
to see the movie. Many reasons and/or factors involved here.

But, for me, I'll only go with SVCD or higher because I want quality, and I want to
maintain as much of my vision as possible (long-term speaking). . .
.
.
To make a long story short. . .
Just recently, I showed my eye doctor two CD's. One was in VCD (that I created)
and another in MY xSVCD (that I created). I was quirious as to what she would say
in BOTH quality of TV play. As an eye doctor, she quickly point out, "how can you
stand watching this kind of video?" she asked me. Right away, she noticed how
bad the VCD was (and I did my utmost make the VCD the best quality I could)
and I said, "Don't you think the quality is good?" ...she said "You'll go blind
watching this all the time!..." I then said that this isn't what I watch at all!!
But, there are many, many people out there that actually watch it and admit that this
kind of quality is good! and acceptable! "...at the expense of your eyesite?..."
she said. "...I guess" I said. "...I don't want to watching this kind of
stuff. . ." she recommended! I said that I agree, and that I don't watch it at
all! And then I showed her my xSVCD (the same clip) She said, "Now that's MUCH
better!" Well, enough said on this!! I was just curious on testing my eye doctor
on this matter. But, I gotta share this. . . whe she said. It was soo ironic!! Ok,
she said "I don't want you to watch this kind of CRAP!!" ...he, he, he,
he.. . . . .
I laughed so hard, cause I cought the ironic'ness of it all!! He, he....

Well, I have NEVER seen ANY VCD as sharp as my xSVCD's. ...EVER! At least
not the 352x240 1150bitrate ones! Ok, at least not the ones I've D/L'ed and
the ones I've done on my own!

Now, back ta your question.
You can get close to DVD quality, but NEVER DVD quality! Never! But, you can
get close to it!! I have a clip at my website that is close, but NOT DVD
quality!!! IMO, it's close, but NOT!!

stevenr21, should I be under the assumtion that you saw a clip somewhere's
and it looked DVD like?

Other's may differ here, but that's ok, cause VCD is VERY subjective here.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: vhelp on 2001-12-21 23:06:04 ]</font>

[bilbogod]

I'd have to challenge these assertions, but on one basis only.. I'm assuming you ripped Pearl harbour off DVD?? My collection totals over 1500 movies, and I would be the first to complain if the quality was not pretty damn good. I find that vcds created from a dvd source should look excellent.. I can't relate to all this stuff about blocks, artifacts etc. It just isn't there on my 19inch Fisher 4:3 t.v. set. I have used nothing other than standard TMPGenc templates, and I'm trying hard to convince myself that my SVCD efforts look better. As I've said before, I'd bet money on it that none of my friends could notice that I wasn't playing a DVD even if I told them..

[vitualis]

VCD quality from a DVD rip is generally excellent. The video quality is approximate to VHS quality...

It does depend somewhat on the material. At times, it will look substantially better than VHS. At times (when artifacts are obvious), VHS will look better.

The audio quality is definitely superior to VHS and is near CD quality.

How good your VCD looks on TV does depend somewhat on your decoder (i.e., your stand-alone player). Some stand-alone players are better than others.

For example, try playing back your VCD MPEGs on your PC with WMP at full screen: (1) with full "video acceleration" and (2) without any "video acceleration". In terms of perceptable artifacts, the decoding process (+/- any filtering?) can make a HUGE difference.

Regards.