Best Svcd settings, using only two discs

[lhaney]

Hey guys, I am wondering which tmpgenc settings to use to get high quality svcds using only two discs. I always end up with a 2 gb mpeg 2 file that has to be split into 3 discs when I encode. I am only asking because I downloaded The Deep End from the net, already in vcd format, and it is an svcd, perfect quality, and only two discs. I loaded the mpeg from the cd to tmpgenc, and noted the settings, but I still came out with a bigger mpeg 2 file, and it was a shorter movie (The Deep End is over two Hours). Can anyone help me with this?

[Giuliano]

....Of course we are talking about 2 pass VBR and High quality motion detection, 224 Kb/s audio settings.

Now....
First step, get the total frame rate of your film.
Divide it by two, and play with the TMPGenc settings of the wizard, to find out which mazimum kb/s can be used to sotreyour SVCD onto your 80' CD.
You should also know if your CDwriter does support overburning and how much (90' ?, 99' ??), to exploit the feature to store more data i.e. to use a better byte rate.
In this case also try if your standalone player does play overburned SVCD..

That's the maximum you can get from a two discs SVCD, whatever is the lenght of the film.

Giuliano

[lhaney]

Thanks for the reply. I've tried to use 2pass vbr, and the encoding screen goes blank, and when I cancel encoding, it erases itself. When I put it back to constant bitrate, the movie shows in the screen again. Anyone know why?

[Douglesh]

Yes, because thats how 2pass VBR works, the first %50, the encoding preview will be blank, the 2nd %50 it will be normal. 2pass VBR 'analyses' the movie in the first %50, and encodes it in the 2nd. Of course this will mean that it takes twice as long to encode, as the same movie in CBR, or 1 Pass VBR (CQ/MVBR) but two pass VBR is definetaly what you should be using if you want high quality VCD's on two disks.

[lhaney]

Ah ha!! Thanks for the info Douglesh! I will try that method right now.

[Douglesh]

Personally, i think CCE's CBR @ 2000KBITS gives a very good result. You can fit about 100 minutes on 2 (700) cd's at 2000. As for CCE's One/Multipass VBR, i havent made a single working video stream without errors from about 50 attempts.

[lhaney]

Hmm....Interesting....I will have to reinstall cce to try that way so I can compare picture resolutions. I like good resolution, I just don't want to swap 3 discs!! Two is bad enough.

[lhaney]

Another related question: I encoded Meet the Parents from Divx to Mpeg-2 with 2 pass VBR, Average bit rate: 2000kbs, maximum 2500kbs, and it came out to about 1.7 gigs. But I cannot split it using tmpgenc's Merge and Cut feature. The slider will not move. Any advice? Thanks.

[shagrath]

Use the BBMPEG its the best SVCD cutter.

[lhaney]

I'll try that....thanks for the tip

[Douglesh]

You can split it, just not by moving the slider, you have to enter the value in seconds.

[lhaney]

Why didn't I think of that? Thanks Douglesh...

[frenetic]

Ugg...the MPEG Tools in TMPGEnc are sometimes buggy, beware. BBMPEG is pretty solid.

[DVWannaB]

While we are on it. How do you split a movie using BBMPEG? Thanks.

[baker]

cce avg 1700 bitrate.

Thats all.

Baker

[lhaney]

Hey, I am trying to encode using cce, and it gives me error message "couldn't find appropriate video codec for 'div 4' ". What's going on?

[Douglesh]

It probably means you have only got the decoder installed. Try to find DivX 3.11 alpha (the best divX codec) somewhere on the net, it isnt too hard. Download & install, problem solved.

[lhaney]

You the man Douglesh. Thanks again.