Encoding Divx to 2-pass VBR problem!

[PlaiBoi]

I have Monsters Inc. which is a realy good quality divx dvd rip. I want to make a (s)vcd out of this movie so that i can watch it on my dvd player. How can i convert it and not lose any quality. I tried encoding to standard vcd and the quality was horrible. I tried encoding it to svcd 2-pass VBR but it wouldnt encode. The screen area where it shows the video as its encoding was just black and it indicated ont the progress bar that no frames had been encoded. I opened up the encoded file and it was just black. I want to keep the quality the way it is because it is really good. I have the apex ad-500w so i can play xvcd and everything. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

btw, i have TMPGEnc 2.53 Plus. And i have divx 3.11 codec and divx 5.0 codec.

[Shurik]

I tried encoding it to svcd 2-pass VBR but it wouldnt encode. The screen area where it shows the video as its encoding was just black

That's just the way TMPGEnc works during 1st pass. Just wait untill >50% (i.e. 2nd pass starts) - and you'll see

[PlaiBoi]

OK...now i get it. Thanx. Any reccomendations on the second question? On how to keep my quality.

[JJamez]

The quality depends on the bitrate you encode at and what encoder you use.

Best case is using CCE at 3 or 4 pass VBR, and spreading the movie over at least 2 CD's - since its a cartoon, I'm assuming its about 90 minutes long so 2 CD's should be fine.

With TMPGEnc, quality wise, you're better off using an older version - anything pre v2.0 should be better, but I'd be guessing at which is best. You're going to get blocks in dark areas in TMPG, there's no way around that that I have found. And as above, spread it over 2 or 3 CD's - get a bitrate calculator from the 'Tools' section to eliminate the guesswork.

JJ

[PlaiBoi]

Is CCE the best for getting good quality encodes? Should i encode this to VCD or SVCD?

[KaBoNG]

With TMPGEnc, quality wise, you're better off using an older version - anything pre v2.0 should be better, but I'd be guessing at which is best. You're going to get blocks in dark areas in TMPG, there's no way around that that I have found.

The "blocks in dark areas" problem with Tmpgenc is my biggest knock against an otherwise nice product. Has anyone got any suggestion to improve this?

I have tried high bit rate and variable bit rate settings and 100% quality and none of it fixes the problem.

It's not really "macro blocks" but rather what seems to be an over-amplification of very faint "noise" in the dark areas of the source mpg/avi stream.

Should I use CCE with a Flaskmpeg front end instead? How is CCE at mpeg1 encoding (I only see references to its wonderful mpeg2 abilities)?