TMPGEnc - 2-pass VBR Settings

[ejp]

I really don't know if this topic belongs in this forum, but it deals with "best settings" in a way.

I've had help a long time ago in regards to "best settings". But I want to know exactly how to calculate :

Average Bitrate
Maximum Bitrate
Minimum Bitrate

in 2-pass VBR in TMPGEnc.

I've looked around the forum for some answers, but haven't really found out anything. Maybe I missed something. So if anyone can help me out, PLEASE direct me somewhere that can answer my question. Maybe there's a calculator out there for this.

Thanks in advance.

[MythSpell]

Not to be snarky but... you really should look around the site just a little bit first. In the menu on the left side under the "OTHER" heading you will see "Tools". Just click on that. At the very beginning of that page are the calculators you are looking for.

[puertorican138]

Go to my topic and tell me exactly how long your movie is (minutes and seconds), how long is the media your burning on to, and how many CD's do you want to use.


Here it is:

http://www.vcdhelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=111936&highlight=

[banjazzer]

I want to know exactly how to calculate :

Average Bitrate
Maximum Bitrate
Minimum Bitrate

in 2-pass VBR in TMPGEnc.

max bitrate = 2520
min bitrate = 300
average bitrate = 2000 (for now)
Enable padding ticked

Use a version of TMPG 2.51 or newer, and use the Project Wizard. At step 4 select the *expert* button and choose 2-pass VBR. Makes sure settings are set as above. Click OK to get back to the Project Wizard.

Set the capacity of your CD. Adjust average bitrate to get 100% of disc space (200% for a 2-disc set), and encode. If you want a bit of leeway when cutting your mpeg then go for 95% (190%) of disc space.

[ejp]

Banjazzer...

you come to the rescue again! hehe, thanks.

but how did you come up with those calculations? are those, like, the "default" settings that people use, or what? and when you said "average bitrate = 2000 (for now)", what does "for now" mean?

thanks, again.

[banjazzer]

You can set the average to anything you like, because until you come to stage 4 of the project wizard you won't actually alter the average bitrate, but you need to enter some figure. Whatever you set it to, you will adjust it later. Assuming you want to get good quality you will be aiming for 50-60 minutes per 80 minute disc, so a starting figure of 2000 is as good as any. 8)

As to the max and min settings, you can go higher than 2520, but you may find you have problems with some players. According to the spec you can go to 2748, but TMPG is known to go above the max you set anyway! Min of 300 is open to debate, but I doubt you will notice any difference if you set this higher, and this has been used successfully by quite a few people.

[ejp]

banjazzer...

one more quick question. i was making the template for the movie. and then i started up the wizard to choose my template. then i realized that i had another template from another movie i was trying to encode awhile ago. i think you helped me out with that too, lol. i looked at the difference between the 2 templates and i found something interesting.

the 1st template, which was the template for my previous video, said the Bitrate for my Video Information was "MAX 2520 kbps".

the 2nd template, which is for the current video i'm trying to encode, said the Bitrate for my Video Information was "average 2520 kbps".

just in case this might help, the way i'm making my templates is by first loading "SuperVideoCD (NTSCFilm).mcf", then loading "unlock.mcf", then saving it as my new template. if i rememeber correctly, that's what you told me to do. but i just find it weird that the two templates were different. maybe i messed up with the old template along the way. could you please verify what the template information should say?

thanks again!

[banjazzer]

If you load up the standard SVCD template, it is set to CBR. If you switch to 2-pass VBR it comes up as default with max=2520, av=2520 and min=0. If you want to save a new template then just alter the standard one to the settings I suggested. If it's a recent version of TMPG you may get an option for max pass as *2-pass* or *2-pass(old-type)*. Use the newer one.

But really, you don't have to save a new template, because you can alter all this through the wizard at stage 4.

[DJRumpy]

Just a word of warning. 2748 is the maximum bitrate for SVCD. 2524 is the maximum bitrate for VIDEO. If you set video to 2748 max, you'll be creating an xSVCD.

2524 + 224 (audio) = 2748 Kb/sec

[SatStorm]

I strongly suggest to use @ lower bitrate a value at least 600kb/s when you use TMPGenc plus.
lower values maybe make the overall multipass file suffer!

[DJRumpy]

If your using SVCD, and you want decent quality, just use CBR, and set the bitrate to the standard 2524.

SVCD at this rate will net you around 40 minutes per CD with excellent image quality.

If you insist on trying to fit the movie onto one CD, then use 2-pass VBR, set the min to 300, the max to 2524, and the average somewhere between ( I would suggest somewhere around 1500-2000 to keep the image quality acceptable)

[banjazzer]

If you insist on trying to fit the movie onto one CD,

Who mentioned fitting a movie onto one CD?

Of cource CBR will give excellent results, but done competently a VBR SVCD will look just as good as any CBR one done at maximum bitrate. The difference is, with VBR SVCD most movies fit to 2 CDs, and occasionally you need to go to 3. With CBR at max bitrate you will be talking 3-4 CDs. Saving Private Ryan will need 5. 8)

I've only come across one movie of well over an hour (85 minutes) which comfortably fitted to one CD at high quality. Eraserhead, and if you know the movie you will realise why.

[DJRumpy]

Most people resort to VBR on SVCD to try to save an extra CD (whether 1, 2, or 3).

I've never had a problem with bitnoise on an SVCD, except for Star Wars Episode 2, and only in 1 scene on disk 3. I didn't encode it, so I don't know if they skimped on the settings or not. If your movie will fit comfortably on 2 CD's, using the max bitrate of 2524, but it will not fit on one CD easily, then I wouldn't spend time on VBR.

I agree, however that if your pushing up on 3 CD's, and a little squeezing could save you a CD, then go with VBR. I would also up the MIN setting to at least 300, or 500. Some players have a problem if the bitrate drops to low.