Need to fit 2hr movie on 2 discs with good quality

[shinomen]

I recently purchased "The Mexican" DVD. I ripped it onto my hard drive and the only way I was able to keep good quality and not have macro blocks in really dark black scenes was to make the bit rate 1842bit/sec. But when I do this I have to split the movie into three different parts. (3 different cds) Does anyone know of a way to keep the quality but get it onto two discs using TmpegEncoder? I'm making svcds and I'm not really trying to put subtitles or any other jaz up there to take up space, strictly movie only.
I've tried to put another movie on two discs that wasn't as long but when I did I get those big macro blocks that I mentioned above, and the picture quality is not that great. I don't know every setting of TMPEGenc, so I was thinking maybe there was something I could enable or disable to help my problem.

Any input would be helpful.

Thanks,
Shinomen

[poopyhead]

unless u try to compress it into divx or similar, then you won't be able to get rid of come blockiness unless u approach 2000 bitrate...which means u'll have to use 3 discs...but that's wut i'm aiming for and 3 discs isn't all that bad

[hanibal02]

Have you tried the bitrate calulator that tells you what to set the rate to to fit on the # of Cd's you specify?

http://www.vcdhelp.com/mpeg2toprogressive.htm

[VideoGuy]

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

[nsdn]

u can't unless u go to VCD resolution.....with TMpge.

USE DVD2SVCD which uses CCE for the encoder....i can get 70 minutes of very good SVCD on a disk....@1.5M/sec, and i can not see ANY macroblocks...use at least 3 passVBR...u need a athlon or a P3 to encode with CCE

trouble is CCE is not freeware but if u look closely enuff around u might a demo & a fix.

[burk]

as i understand, you can only squeeze 39 mins of SVCD (svcd standard) onto an 80 min disc????????? hmmmm

[vitualis]

SVCD uses a VBR. You can fit 39 min only if you used CBR at the highest allowable bitrate.

Regards.

[burk]

aint the whole point of svcd the best possible bit rate?????????

[vitualis]

NO!!!!

The whole point of SVCDs is to attain the best possible quality within reason!!

It is completely futile to encode a SVCD at CBR at the highest bitrate. It is completely unnecessary. Multipass VBR at a much LOWER average bitrate (e.g., 1800 kbit/s and up) will yield pretty much the same quality. That is, the relative loss of quality from 2500 kbit/s CBR is insignificant compared to the benefits of increased playtime.

SVCDs isn't about just attaining the best possible quality acheivable in the standard. It is about using your judgement to attain the best possible quality for your particular application or purpose.

Regards.

[next]

<TABLE BORDER=0 ALIGN=CENTER WIDTH=85%><TR><TD><font size=-1>Quote:</font><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR><TR><TD><FONT SIZE=-1><BLOCKQUOTE>
On 2001-08-29 18:48:11, vitualis wrote:
NO!!!!

The whole point of SVCDs is to attain the best possible quality within reason!!

It is completely futile to encode a SVCD at CBR at the highest bitrate. It is completely unnecessary. Multipass VBR at a much LOWER average bitrate (e.g., 1800 kbit/s and up) will yield pretty much the same quality. That is, the relative loss of quality from 2500 kbit/s CBR is insignificant compared to the benefits of increased playtime.

SVCDs isn't about just attaining the best possible quality acheivable in the standard. It is about using your judgement to attain the best possible quality for your particular application or purpose.

Regards.

</BLOCKQUOTE></FONT></TD></TR><TR><TD><HR size=1 color=black></TD></TR></TABLE>

I agree. Especially with the comments on the trade offs involved with using your judgements for particular application or purpose. It could not have been better stated.

I get fantastic results with mpeg2 real time captures using CBR. The resulting file is always larger than using 3 pass VBR with the same (similiar) quality. But because I choose to accept the larger file I have no complaints. I prefer to essentially "waste" precious disk space on a CDR for the time savings accociated with my CBR captures. The quality is similiar and I complete the process real time as opposed to the extended encoding process involved with 3 pass VBR. Its simply a personal choice.

My goal is not to force a capture onto a single CDR. Or for that matter even 2 CDR's. I've always said that it is important to play into the strengths of your hardware. In my case I have a 3 tray DVD player. I prefer the increased quality (and file size) of CBR associated with real time mpeg2 captures and simply let the player take over. I'd rather let the player advance the disks than continue to try to figure out a way to jam it all onto one CDR.

Just a personal choice. I'm sure I could do better but at what time expence? Although my final product is very very good.

[nsdn]

Ok I have some admissions to make......the 70 mins of SVCD i got were 2.35:1 format....the average bit rate was 1.6M/sec using 4 pass VBR.....it seems since 2.35:1 only uses half the screen area then its nearly equivalant to doubling the bit rate for full screen (is that right?)

Also i was using 90 min CDRs

I am doing a full screen encode now...although it will not be a good test since i have set for 46 min per disk on 90 min cdr.....anyway i will tell u how it comes out.....I am using dvd2svcd.....i have a few movies to do yet so i will try and find one that is about 2 hours long and see how it goes ...but some of them i am converting from 2.35:1 to 16:9 which means there is still some dead screen

[Sully]

Exactly vitualis. In fact with SVCD you'll probally end up using a different bitrate with every movie you encode. It's not DiVX, but that's also the advantage of SVCD (IMOHO).

Another thing to consider is what you're planning on watching your SVCD with. TV or PC? For example on a PC media player produces more macroblocks during playback than say PowerDVD. A TV is much more "tolerable". But of course the point behind SVCD is watching it on your TV.

I recently put The Matrix on 2 CD's using CCE & 5-pass VBR. It looks good to me (even using media player). 70min. is about as far as you'd probally want to go though.

You also have to keep in mind that you need to add your borders when encoding a widescreen movie. If you don't you'll be encoding them with the actual picture too. In other words you'll be encoding black bars, which is a definate waste of bits.

One last thing. It's all a matter of personal opinion as to what looks good or not. That choice you'll have to make yourself. Keep in mind though... you're compressing a video file & as with ALL compressions there is going to be some loss. It all depends on much much quality loss you wish to deal with.

[shinomen]

I was thinking of trying the DVD2SVCD software but there's a couple of things that concern me. One: Do I have to have the full blown out version of CCE SP, or can I just download the demo from the website and (do what most people do to obtain software)? Two: Takes a long time (I can get used to that) and Three: I'm not only trying to rip just DVD's, but I want to be able to encode from an avi file to make an SVCD. Does DVD2SVCD let you do that, or does it have to be like the name says?

Also, thanks for the tip about adding in borders for widescreen movies, that totally slipped mind.