Need help making VCD/SVCD, many problems. Please help!

[LTT]

Where do I start? I've been trying to use VCDEasy to rip SVCD with multiple tracks/chapter stops. I load in the mpeg2 encoded file, tell it to add chapter stops at every 5 minutes, and let it generate the .bin and .cue files. I then burn it with CDRWin and put it in my Apex AD-1500 DVD player. The movie plays fine, but no chapter stops! I hit the forward or reverse buttons on the remote and it will just start the entire movie over. On the DVD player compatibility page on this site it says my player supports SVCD chapters, so why can't I get it to work? Should I use another program besides VCDEasy?

My second problem is that I'm having movie quality issues when converting from DIVX to VCD or SVCD. I've been trying this for the last few weeks, ever since I got my DVD player, without much success. First I ripped an hour and a half movie to MPEG2 at about 1500kbps. Fit it on 2 cds with Nero, and sat down to watch it. It played fine, but the picture was HORRIBLE.

Next I tried converting a two hour movie at the highest MPEG2 bit rate that TMPEG would let me. I also checked GHOST REDUCTION and NOISE REDUCTION. Just barely fit this movie on three 80 minute cds. Sat down to watch it, and the picture quality was almost as bad as the first movie! Big blocks all over the screen, especially in darker scenes!

Next I tried converting a hour and a half movie to VCD since I wasn't seeing the extra quality of SVCD I figured I should just save my time and disks. Had this thing on two disks in no time at all. Sat down to watch it tonight, and the picture quality really wasn't any worse than my SVCD attempts. However the picture would pause while the audio kept going, and then the video would skip around and get all off sync with the audio. It was the worst thing I've ever seen.

Now I've seen very good VCDs and BEAUTIFUL SVCDs, but I can't even get an SVCD that's VCD quality. I've got other VCDs and SVCDs from my friends that look perfect in my player, so I know I'm just making these things incorrectly. I feel like I've wasted the last two weeks of my life here trying to figure this stuff out. I'm going to try the latest DIVX-to-VCD howto that I just found on this site tonight, but it really doesn't look any different than the others I've been looking at.

I'm sorry for the huge post, but somebody PLEASE tell me what I'm doing wrong here. What step am I leaving out? What program should I be using? Please help.

Thanks in advance

[Toolman]

Damn... you really saved your problems huh

i cant answer all of youre question's. but i try to help you a get started again....

1st:

"Chapter problem..."
Try to use Ulead DVD moviefactory...
This proggy is so easy to use it will get your trousers wet
it's only a 30 day trial, but ive your smart, you know what to do
Just make sure you use the standard settings that Ulead uses, if you do not, it will not recognice the VCD/SVCD and you have to start all over again, not where you aiming for, is it??

2nd:

"terrible SVCD's"
I have the same problem here as you, my SVCD's look worser than my VCD's... hope to find out though what i'm doing wrong here....

3rd:

"The video skip"
when you encoded the VCD, did you check whitch FPS the movie was, you have to make sure that if its:
23 fps = 23.976 (NTSCfilm)
24 fps = 24 (PAL)
29 fps = 29.976 (NTSC)
i had the same problem, i encoded a 23 fps movie to PAL.... not a very pretty sight:
For the audio-part: Make sure you extract the audio fisrt with vritualdub,
and also check that it is 44.100 mhz.... not 48.000 mhz... this could cause problems to


Hope that i cleared things up for you,
and that the both of us may live happely ever after .

if not, i'll ne hearing from you

good luck

[sean madison]

SVCD blocks and bad pic quality-

There are 2 reasons and some answers to fix this-
1-
If u are converting from divx to mpeg-2, you will have a loss of quality but not much
2-
If the resolution of the source is smaller than 480x480, u will have a problem.
3-
if the bitrate u are using is WAY to low but from your posts, u say u over there usin over 3000 so lets see what i can do.

I have encoded 2 movies and here are specs-
1 of em was in a res of 640x272 and the other was in 352x240 and i encoded em both in 480x480.

The 640x272 turned out superb using CQ_VBR- min-0 max-1100 qu-52
this was from a dvd-rip divx avi

The 352x240 i encoded using also CQ_VBR min-0 max- 1300 qu-50 and this was from a camera.

I encoded both of these in svcd standard onto 1 cd and picture is just as good as original.

The dvd-rip i used NO filters but i did do this-

Most dvd-rips are in widescreen ok
When you go into advanced in tmpgenc in the settings and double click clip frame, most peopleset there screen to full screen keep aspect ratio.

Now i do this sometimes if im like really tired and dont feel like foolin around with it but when i got time, i do this-
First set it to full screen keep aspect ratio in the arrange settings tab in clip frame.

Look and see if the movie is touching the outside border vertical wise.
What i mean by that is most movies are widescreen which means that there are black bars on top and bottom(horizontal), if the movie is touching the border vertical(on both left and right hand side), choose center custom size, and make it have a small black border around the left and right hand side.

This will NOT be shown on the tv as that black broder on elft and right hand side is cut off by the tv, thats why u need to squeeze it a little bit.

Now i make all movies in widescreen to make it look more professional so u can do this too.
By doing this, it makes the video just a little bit smaller BUT still fits entirely on the tv.
I use 4:3 display in both video and advanced tab.

See if that works. If it doesnt, im me on aim (click my profile) and send me a small clip and i'll perfect it for ya.