Creating Decent VCD's...Is it worth the effort?

[pp05629]

Hello...I have just recently set up my PC to capture and edit video, with the hopes of creating the video on VCD as an initial alternative to purchasing a DVD burner. I have had a difficult time creating the VCD's. The common problem is that the VCD's all seem to end up being jumpy and blurry. If the subject is not moving too quickly, the vcd looks ok. I did burn the NTSC XVCD sample from this site and it looks great on my Pioneer DV-440 DVD player. I just simply cannot achieve the same results with my video. So before swearing off on VCD, Video Capture/Editing entirely, I was hoping the VCDHelp.com members might have some suggestions.

My overall goal is to get a VCD that is of the same quality as the playback quality of the camcorder when it is connected to my TV. Is that realistic? Achievable with the tools available to me...the end consumer?

Here are some specifics of my setup:

- A JVC GR-DVL-505U CamCorder
- TMPGEnc v2.02
- Several Video Editing packages...Namely Ulead Visual Studio 4.0 SE, MGI VideoWave 4, and Main Actor v3.65.
- Nero v5.5 burining software.
- TEAC w512EB CD Burner.

1). When I capture from JVC DV camcorder, the resulting AVI file looks great on MS Media Player. Does that suggest that the quality of the avi file itself is good? The reason I ask is that each of the video editing packages above are special editions. Could this suggest that they may be capturing the video in an inferior manner from the camcorder?

2). Can Digital Image Stabilization (DIS) on a camcorder add to the jagged-ness or blurry-ness of an AVI clip?

3). There are so many settings for TMPGenc v2.02 that are very confusing to a novice like me. I have used the templates supplied with the package and some additional templates from this site. All have not improved the quality of the resulting VCD. Does anyone have a TMPgenc that was used to create the XVCD NTSC sample from this site? If I cannot get the quality to improve with that template, then it is probably the quality of the video clip.

4). Does the preview option of TMPGenc truly represent that the resulting VCD will look like after encoding and burning?


Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[Crazy_Mck]

Hi.
Just starting this stuff myself. I have been using TMPGEnc and have had a couple of bad videos - blurry/blutchy with fast motion things -- but it seem dependent on the template and only with 3rd party stuff. The templates that come with TMPGEnc work ok.

your main goal to get VCD as good as your camcorder output to tv may not be possible in pure technical terms but visually it should be close. If your corder is DV type then its out put is just about a pure as your going to get.
Once you take it from the camera and convert it to and Svcd or vcd format it it will be of a lesser quality do to the compression required.
1) yes your AVI capture format is very good.

2) don't Know, but i have my doubts -- once the video is recorded it, the stable is not applicable to the output to capture card. -- I think.

3) These are a lesser quality format then your AVI so some degradation or quality loss is expected -- I have a sonyD8 and my vcd's do not come close to its output, but are reasonable. I am still trying to burn a SVCD so I can't comment.

4) I don't think so -- Tmpgenc - like other software tend to compress and or use a lesser resolution in previews in order to get a high speed play back.

VCD's and Svcd are the poor man's high tech solution to recording on cd. You could do your stuff in the higher format but you are going to get less per disk -- much less -- as the compression is going to be less. Thus you have to start looking at more expensive DVD media or just put 10min per CD.
Maybe some of the more experince people can give better advice -- I just had the time to reply.

Good luck
Patrick

[pp05629]

Patrick...Just wanted to clarify that getting "close" on the quality of the VCD to the camcorder playback would be great. I will play with increating the bitrate to 3000 or more...just to see if there is a quality improvement on a short clip. I really do not mind the 10 minute CD...I really just want decent qualify on VCD for home movies.


Thanks for the reply.

[Dano]

Rule of thumb is The higher the compression, the worse the quality. I do not know if you are compressing prior to converting to mpeg. SVCD can handle a higher bitrate while still being compliant. There are a lot of settings you can tweak within TMPGenc to produce better results. I suggest you read the overview of TMPGenc:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgencexplained.htm

I am perpetually playing with these settings

Good Luck!

[Macros746]

If you are really trying to up your quality you are going to have to play with some of the filters either in virtualdub or in TMPGenc. When doing VCD, since it seems to tend a bit towards the blurry side, I ALWAYS use the sharpen filter at the very least. As to whether to use SVCD or VCD...I still lean towards High bitrate VCD especially for high motion video. So, in brief, experiment with filters (i suggest going into google and typing in Virtual Dub filters and be prepared to read ALOT of information....I learned huge amounts from this) up your bitrate and enjoy.

good luck

Macros

[pp05629]

I did have some success using Sefy's TMPGenc templates (SEVCD) and using a CBR setting with a 2500bps value that produced some decent VCD's. I will continue researching the various settings/techniques.

Thanks to all for your comments.