Bitrate for DVDrips to SVCD?

[KevN2002]

What is the best setting to use here? TMPGEnc sets it automatically at 2520 CBR, but I prefer the 2 pass VBR. However when that is selected, I think it keeps min. and max. bitrate at 2520, so isnt that the same thing?

[Olli]

Yes that would be the same thing as CBR
I have used

Min 1150
av 2000
max 2500

I get good results with this ....

[adam]

Yes that is the same thing as CBR. You simply have to input the proper settings yourself.

For SVCD the max should be either the limit set by the standard, ~2.500kbits (factoring in 224kbits audio this is the highest you can reasonably go) or the limit that your dvd player can handle. If your willing to make non-compliant disks than you can go as high as you like.

For min setting this should be equal to the lowest amount of bitrate you think you will need to encode the least demanding scene in your movie, the ending credits for example. If you set it to 0 the encoder will basically just pick it for you. A good min to use is about 300kbits. This is probably lower than the encoder would ever use, but it prevents the encoder from doing somthing really strange and only assigning like 50kbits. There is no benefit to raising the min value, in fact it decreases quality. The only reason to raise your min above 300, or 0 for that matter, is if you find that the encoder is not assigning enough bitrate during low motion/detail scenes or if your dvd player for some reason cannot properly play very low bitrates.

For the avg bitrate setting you have to calculate that depending on how long your movie is and how many disks your willing to use. You should aim for 45-55 mins per disk but it is possible to fit more if your willing to sacrifice some quality. If you are only going to be putting ~40 mins per disk than you should just use CBR. The quality will be the same as VBR and it will take less time to encode. Keep in mind though that some movies are more compressible than others. Fullscreen movies need significantly more bitrate than widescreen ones. Action movies do not compress well and 50 mins on one disk might even yield poor results. Low motion/detail movies like chick flicks do not need nearly as much bitrate and you might be able to get away with over an hour per disk. Anyway, keep these things in mind and get a bitrate calculator from the tools section.

If you are going to be using a relatively low bitrate, ~1.6-1.7mbits, than you may consider creating a CVD instead. Load the SVCD template and then load the unlock template and set the resolution to 352x480/576 instead of 480x480/576. The resulting disk will be backward compatible with the SVCD format and will play correctly on your SVCD compliant dvd player. The lower resolution helps to offset the lower bitrate.

[NewTekBuzz]

WoW Adam...
Thats was alot to take in for a newbie like myself. So if you go with a VBR the software will assign based on action in the movie? Right now I use 2520, the default (witch is a CBR, right??). If I set my S/W up for VBR I might be able to save on CD's?? T.I.A.

[adam]

Basically yes. That is the point of VBR. The encoder attempts to distribute more bits to fast movement or high detail scenes, basically anything that would need more bitrate to look good. In order to free up this bitrate it takes it away from scenes that don't need it as much, such as the credits for example. If you encode in CBR than the credits get just as much bitrate as the most bitrate intensive scene in your movie. Its just not a practical way to encode, but if your movie is short enough or you don't care about the number of disks you want to use then CBR at a high setting is fine.

Using VBR you can get just as good a quality as with a high CBR setting, but you can do it in a much smaller filesize. A two cd VBR encode can look just as good as a three or four cd CBR rip.

One thing that is for sure is that you should not just use the default VBR settings in TMPGenc of min, max, avg set to 2520. This is really no different than CBR and yields no additional advantages but it takes twice as long to encode. Either stick to CBR 2520 or adjust your VBR settings to something more reasonable such as 300-2000-25000, but of course calculate the avg bitrate according to your movie.

[NewTekBuzz]

Thanks Adam. Incoming dumb question.. why set max b/r so high?? 25000 or did you mean 2500.

[adam]

sorry that was a typo.