VCD encoding

[bretter34]

Hey friends, Correct me if I'm wrong. To build an mpeg1 video file that will play on a stand alone dvd player, I must be at 352 h x 240 v @ 29.97 frames/second, right? But tell me, is there a preferred setting for the kbit/second? VCD help says 1150 kbits/second. Can I bump that up to lets say, 5000 or 6000? I know it will play in computers, but if I do bump it up will it play in the stand alone dvd player? If any of you have the ultimate recipe for mpeg 1's that look good in PC,s MAC's and DVD players, and play in all three, please let me know what it is. Thanks,
Bretter34

[snowmoon]

The standard is FIXED at 1150. Changing it will result in unpredidicatble results on VCD compatible DVD players, but should play fine on your PC.

The resolution/framerate stadards for VCD are..

352 x 240 @ 23.976 NTSCFilm
352 x 240 @ 29.97 NTSC
352 x 288 @ 25 PAL

[Treebeard]

it depends on your standalone dvd player as to how high you can put your bitrate. check the compatability of your dvd player on the left under dvd players. if you want better quality i'd look into making SVCD's instead of just regular vcd. quality is 2x better at minimum

[bretter34]

SVCD... OK! LSX has a preset for SVCD. it's 2414 stream data rate for video, and 128 for audio. Will that work on a stand-alone DVD player? The frame size must remane at 352x 240 right? Hoping someone has the recipe for me??? I'm burning alot of test CD-R's.
Thanks,
Bretter34

[snowmoon]

Check out the HOW-TO guides and use cd-rw.

I would use TMPGenc over LSX unless you are using interlaced materal.

[Treebeard]

definately use tmpgenc if its progressive movie. as far as resolution. a svcd is 480x480 standard. but when you select the template it will default to this.

[bretter34]

my end users might be in their office, or at home, that is why I'm trying to come up with a solution for a movie that's burned to a disc. I have burned mpegII's onto DVD. with DVDitLE, I can check the CDVD option to allow playback in a computer CD drive, but that eliminates playback on a set top DVD player. SO, I have moved onto Video CD's or SVCD's. Thanks for your responses. Still, I have checked the user guides, and really haven't been able to locate what is the very best solution - a video movie on a CD-R that will play on a set top DVD player, and, in a pc, and mac. I am currently rendering an mpegI file with the DVD presets of 352 x 240, at 1150 kbit/second. Just finished burn ... video quality looks like what I expected - not very good. I will now burn the same with 3000 kbit/second and see what that looks like. Then, I will burn an SVCD. Any recommendations on the settings for an SVCD...Will an SVCD play in a PC CD-ROM drive? A PC DVD drive? a mac? A set top DVD player?
Thanks again,
Brett

[callatis]

Being concerned for quality I was trying to get the maximum of it out of a VCD. Therefore I had the XVCD option.
2500Kbps, 352X240, 29,9fps, 224 for audio and it holds 40 min on 700MB CDR.
It played excellent on Pioneer and Panasonic. Checked the DVD players compatibility list before deciding what format do you choose. Some people said SVCD was better for them. There are less players reading SVCD than XVCD and for me … I couldn’t see the quality difference except I could fit only couple of more minutes on the CDR.
I moved to DVD+R and I am using 4000Kbps. Much better picture. And also I notified that the encoder from Ulead DVD Movie Factory is faster and the result appeared to me much better then encoding avi to mpg2 using TMPGEnc.
This makes me believe that even for mpg1, Ulead might be a better alternative. Just try encoding one minute test film using both techniques, burn them and compare the quality of it.

[snowmoon]

SVCD will NOT playback on a PC without additional software like PowerDVD, WinDVD or other SVCD compatible mpeg-2 player.

What exactly are you trying to do, how long are the video's? If they are short enough you could make a hybrid disk. VCD for DVD's and a Divx .avi file + player for the PC side ( still leaves mac people out in the cold ). VCD can look descent if encoded from good source. What is your video source?

[bretter34]

I am putting together 6 to 8 minute corporate marketing video's formatted to CD-R. My video source is mini DV - Canon XL1. My non linear editing system is a custom built PC - lots of juice and storage, with a Matrox rt2000 card. Adobe Premiere 6.0 for editing. System works really goo. I'm just concerned about burning a master CD-R for duplication. I have to get it right before I send it out for 250 clones or more. Most end users will playback on the PC they have in their office - most likely a CD-ROM drive. Some will take home and want to play it, so that's why I'm trying to get the best CROSS PLATFORM solution possible - if possible??? The mpeg1's look good when the video is rendered at 5000 kbit/second. I understand standard for stand alone DVD players is just 1150 kbit - Video looks grainy on computer. I'm rendering VCD at 3000 kbits, but don't know if stand alone DVD players will play it. I think the SVCD, or XVCD options will need to have player software added to the CD-R for them to play in a computer, right? Wow, I have been working on this issue for two months, and finally am getting some help.. Appreciate all your ideas. Waiting for more. Thanks!!
Bretter34

[callatis]

Just read my other post.
Most DVD players won't read more than 2500Kbps.

[Treebeard]

there is no way to make sure it will play on xx amount of different dvd stand alone players. Some dvd players are not compatible at all with vcd or svcd. As far as needing some software to play svcd, that is correct end user will need software to play a svcd and fewer dvd players support svcd than vcd's.

[snowmoon]

Your best bet is to go all out and do it up as...

VCD with additional file on the VCD for PC playback as .avi or .wmv and .mov/quicktime file for MAC's. Since VCD can accept additional files without breaking the format it's probably the best combo.

At only 6 minutes sure the VCD won't be the best, but it will be good enough. Like you said most people will be playing it back in their PC or MAC.

Oh and if you are doing true replication ( ie pressed disks ) the likleyhood that DVD player will play them are extremly high ( as opposed to cd-r's ).