DVD CBR Rate for TMPGEnc Plus

[gatorguy]

I am converting a mess load of old VHS tapes thru an Canopus ADVC-100 to my PC into native DV format. I've made a few DVD's using TMPGEnc and maxed the CBR rate to 8000. Was wondering what level I should be setting that at for when I do these VHS to DV to DVD conversions (and get a high quality DVD). Also, is there a suggested CBR rate when converting Digital Video to DV to DVD?

Thanks in advance for any info!
Gatorguy

[bugster]

Why stick with VBR. If your source is VHS you wont improve the quality much above VCD standard. I would suggest encoding to mpeg-2 at CVD resolution (352 *480/576 (NTSC/PAL)). Using TmpGenc, I would suggest CQ mode, Quality value about 80, max bitrate about 5000, perhaps even less. This way you should be able to get 3-4hours of movie on each disk.

Remember, crap in = crap out. Basically you cant improve on the source so its not worth trying!

[SatStorm]

If you can do it non-realtime then grabb and encode as 1/2 D1 DVD (some call them D2 DVD). 352 X 576/480 that is.
For typical quality, use 2 pass vbr (or more) with min 1000 average 2000 maximum 3000. For super quality, use 2 pass vbr with min 2000 average 3000 maximum 4000.
The second one is overkill but is the easy way to go VHS - DVD if filesize is not concerned.

[Anonymous65]

For DV video to DVD, I would go with 720x480 at 4 or 5 Mb/sec CBR(about 2 hours per DVD-R). For super quality (no visual loss or artifacts), then use a bit rate of 8 Mb/sec CBR. (about 1 hour per DVD-R)

My personal reasons for using CBR are several:

* easier to calculate the size of a file or calculate time
* faster to encode (and decode)
* the human eye is more sensitive to still motion than high motion. You want higher bit rate on slow motion video because the human eye picks up defects easier, and less quality during high action video because the human eye cannot see all the details. So, constant quality video is a poor choice. I want perfect quality during low action video, and I can tolerate some artifacts during high action video because I can't see it anyway. This is why CBR is my choice for video encoding, and not VBR. CBR works the way the human eye works.

[SatStorm]

Yes, you right about this, but I wish to say that it is possible to support a slow motion scene decent, using a good lower bitrate and not the lowest possible. For example, using 2000 as minimum bitrate, is more that enough for 720 X 576, based my knowledge and understanding I have for mpeg 2 and the practice of the DVB transmissions! With the same logic, 1000 as a minimus bitrate, is more than enough for 1/2 D1 CCIR, which I believe is a better choice for VHS/SVHS sources!
DV source is a very good one, so I also suggest a full CCIR capture/encode (720 X 576/480). I believe an average about 4000kb/s is a very good value. It is also the standard for quality full CCIR DVB transmissions here in europe