how 2 reduce blockiness ?

[oxide]

im using TMPGenc 12h using the NTSC VCD template (default settings). can any help ?

[aldus4]

I presume you don't want to make an XVCD out of your VCD, therefore increasing the bitrate is not an option. You could try using the smoothing filters in TMPGEnc. Go to >>setting>>quantize matrix>> and check the "soften block noise" box - the standard values should kept as they are on 35. This should improve your video output. Best to do a 1 minute test. Do check that the "motion search precision" under the video tab is set to "high quality - slow"

[ams30gts]

well....i use a higher resolution like 720x480 (xvcd)...that always seemed to be the best for me...then i jus play with the video bitrate and lower the audio bitrate

[oxide]

just a quick question. if the source file is a bit blocky, can u reduce blockiness of this ?

[aldus4]

If your source file is a bit blocky the most you can hope for is achieving the same grade of blockiness in a conversion. You can never make something better than it is. What you can do however is un-sharpen or soften it slightly, which may look better for the viewer. Its like photography using a soft-filter or a standard UV filter using a bit of Vaseline on it - even ugly people can look quite good, if you apply enough Vaseline <grin>.

I would like to state for the record that I am not employed by or affiliated with Vaseline and do NOT recommend people using Vaseline on their mpegs!

[koinhelgo]

food for thought.....
I copied my pulp fiction video and it was slightly blocky after encoding with div-x codec and full screen on media player.
I re-encoded the file using bit rate of 550 instead of 910 cos I wanted it on one cd and it is much better on full screen.
Don't know why - have only been ripping in real time for three weeks so I am still experimenting.
Anybody know why I got a better quality file.

[homerpez]

koinhelgo: My guess is that you went from a DivX resolution (which was probably real close to a 640x480 type frame), and drop it down to a VCD resolution (352x240 or something close to that). Whenever you do this, and apply the right filters, it can sort of "mask" some defects of your source video. So when you play it on a normal TV, some of these defects will appear much less glaring (some of which is just because you're lowering resolution).

But basically those who say "you can't get a better conversion than the source" are right. I always have to capture MPEG-2 (with my Radeon board) at 640x480 res just so I'm able to get rid of some noise by dropping the res down to 352x240 during conversion.

By the way... are you sure that's ~500 bitrate for a VCD? That sounds awfully low, and I know for a fact you don't need to drop that low... I do mine as SeVCD's (XVCD), at 352x240 res, 128k Layer-2 stereo, MPEG-1 VBR, 300MIN, ~700 to 900 AVG, and 2300MAX, and they will fit on one CD (just change the AVG bitrate). 500 sounds impossible!

I did a 2 hour, 6 minute movie the other day, where the AVG bitrate had to be only 720 or so to fit on one CD. TMPGEnc produced nasty blocks, and I had to get CCE to do the job here, finally I was pleased! (Noise, but no blocks!) But 500?...

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: homerpez on 2001-08-10 09:06:46 ]</font>

[homerpez]

...or are we just talking DivX to DivX here? Not VCD?