Tmpgenc Questions

[steverae]

Having read a few posts regarding creating 1 disc VCD's (not SVCD) i have a couple of questions regarding features of Tmpgenc:-

1) What is Motion Search and what does it do

2) What is the difference between CBR and VBR apart from the encoding time

3) Would decreasing the audio bitrate from standard 224 to 96 reduce the filesize or not

4) How can you stop the little video glitches (when the video stutters for a fraction of a second) from occuring.

Hope this is enough for you all to get your teeth into.

[vcd4me]

First read this guide it will answer questions 1 and 2
http://www.vcdhelp.com/tmpgencexplained.htm

AS for the 1cdr vcd you will be making a non standard vcd and might have problems playing it on your dvd player, and you will loose a good amount of quality standard vcd=1150bitrate, If you do this you have to drop to around 900 I have not tried it yet but I hear it's not worth it.

QUESTION- Would decreasing the audio bitrate from standard 224 to 96 reduce the filesize or not
ANSWER- I don't think so but your not taking into accout the video file size,beside you'll have a more broad use for th standard 224.

QUESTION- How can you stop the little video glitches (when the video stutters for a fraction of a second) from occuring.
ANSWER- These glitches are they there before you convert or after you convert?

HOPE this helps
VCD4ME

[steverae]

Cheers for the info vcd4me.

Here's a bit more info :-

Firstly, i have tried to encode the 1 disk vcd, thats where the glitches are coming from. Thats why i was asking about the motion search as this seems to correct alot of the glitches.

I am encoding vcd's to 1 disk as i have loads and keep misplacing one of the 2 disks (bummer). I'm not so bothered about the quality as long as it;s at least VHS quality. MOst of my films are sourced from divx so you loose alot of quality anyway.

I was more concerned about the smoothness of the movie.

Thanks for the link re: tmpgenc, hopefully this will explain alot of info for me.

I am experimenting with using 2 pass vbr encoding using 1150 as max, 700 as min with 850 ave with motion search v.high . Hopefully this will fix the glitches.

BTW I know all about the XVCD format that these disks become and yes they will play on my DVD player, along with most others that support VCD/CDR. I have a syberhome ADL528, I'm so happy with this machine i think it would even play a beer mat.....

If you have any idea's re: the glitchs and can think of anything else i haven't already mentioned let me know.

Cheers

[vcd4me]

You said

I am encoding vcd's to 1 disk as i have loads and keep misplacing one of the 2 disks (bummer). I'm not so bothered about the quality as long as it;s at least VHS quality. MOst of my films are sourced from divx so you loose alot of quality anyway.

You will not even be close to vhs quality way below.Also that is probably why you are having the problem stick with the 2 vcds and just get a label maker or 2 disc case for 30 cents.

Talk to You soon
VCD4me

[69moons]

Steverae,

I've been encoding 1 CD VCDs for a little while now and here's what I know about a couple of your questions.

The audio rate DOES affect the resulting MPG filesize. If you are using 100% of a CD, every kbps of audio you lower allows you to raise the video bitrate by the same. In other words, if you lower your audio quality for a ONE CD VCD from 224 to 96 you can add 128kbps to your video CBR. I've never dipped below 128 but I guess that would depend on what kind of audio system you are playing the VCDs back on. I've read that you lose a lot of surround data if you dip below 192. I don't have a surround sound system, my TV is just hooked up to my stereo. And I can't really tell there is much of a drop in audible quality from 224 to 128.

As far as the quality of video goes, I've gone all the way down to 815 for a two hour movie and honestly, I don't think there is much of a visible difference. All I have is a standard 27" inch TV and on that I can't really tell the difference from a VCD I encode at 1150 or 900, honestly. Maybe people with more expensive A/V systems can tell but for me I'll take the convenience of having my movies on 1 CD anyday.

And concerning the glitches you have, you might want to see if using the NTSCfilm template as opposed to the NTSC template is causing them. Some standalone DVD players don't like 24fps VCDs. If you are using the NTSCfilm template to encode a 23.976fps DIVX file like it says to do in the guides, then try using the standard NTSC template instead. Don't know. Might help. It did for me.

[steverae]

VCD5ME & 69MOONS :-

Cheers for the advice. I've encoded 2 movies with 2 pass vbr encoding and i'll get them put onto disk and try them in my player tonight.

69moons,

And concerning the glitches you have, you might want to see if using the NTSCfilm template as opposed to the NTSC template is causing them. Some standalone DVD players don't like 24fps VCDs. If you are using the NTSCfilm template to encode a 23.976fps DIVX file like it says to do in the guides, then try using the standard NTSC template instead. Don't know. Might help. It did for me.

Wouldn't the movie start stuttering all the time since you are changing the framerate from 23.976 to 29.97. Just a thought, the 2 disk standard VCD's i create with the Film framerate play absolutely fine on my DVD player, it's just the 1 disk one's seem to stutter every few minutes.

I'll see how this new format has worked (just to recap)

352x240 NTSCFilm 23.976 fps
2pass VBR Encoding :-
1150 max
700 min
850 ave
Motion search highest possible (v slow)

I'll let you know.

BTW it took 6 hours to encode a 1hr 47min movie with these settings (wow) good job i was out at the cinema last night watching Starwars Ep2.

[Mirror_Image]

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