Converting AVI to DVD MPEG

[Jake802]

Guys I am trying to setup some cartoon AVIs for dvd. I believe I am gonna end up using TMPEnc for the final conversion. I would like as little pixelation or quantization(not sure what u call it but im talkin about the little blocks that show up). I am just wondering what would be ideal to use for bitrate, should I use CBR, VBR, or what, and lastly should I do anything with the quantize matrix? Thanks for any input!

[kschang]

In general, use the animation/CG QM should do quite well. VBR 2-pass will give you the best quality, at least for the video. There should be a preset for the QM, at least.

[bugster]

cbr vS vbr IS A topic that has been covered many times before, usually without agreement.
Basically it all boils down to how much playing time you want to fit on one DVD. If it will fit with CBR at a high bitrate (80 mins at 8000 should fit one one DVDr), then CBR is fine. Anything longer consider VBR with the average set to suit the playing time. If using Tmpgenc, consider using its CQ mode. It rpoduces excellent quality results much quicker than 2-pass VBR. The downside is you can't be sure of the final filesize which can end up with several attempts to optimise the settings if the 1st attempts are too big or too small.

[Jake802]

"In general, use the animation/CG QM"-what is that? where do I find it?

[kschang]

You DID say you're going to use TMPGEnc, right?

[jimmalenko]

You DID say you're going to use TMPGEnc, right?

[ing]TMPGEnc01.jpg[/img]

[Jake802]

Thanks

[ZippyP.]

I am just wondering what would be ideal to use for bitrate, should I use CBR, VBR, or what....

To expand on the bitrate issue:

If the CBR bitrate is high enough then you gain very little quality by using VBR. What's "high enough?" That depends on the resolution, the type of video (e.g. high or low action, home video with lots of camera shake, animation) and how fussy you are.

Try a small CBR test sample at different rates and see what rate you think is needed. As you get more experienced you will learn your preferred settings. If the CBR bitrate is too low you can fix that by reducing the amount of time you put on a disk or by switching to VBR.

Personally I use 2-pass VBR (if required), it takes twice as long but the final file size is predictable.