DVD to VCD Question??? Please help !!

[rjackson]

I have successfully burned 2 chapters from a movie to a CD...and thus made a VCD. The 2 chapters took about 52 minutes of time on an 80 minute CD.

The question I have is...If I convert these MPEG1 (VCD) chapters to MPEG2 (SVCD) will I still have enough room on an 80 minute CD to accomplish this? Will these SVCD chapters (2 of them) fit on an 80 minute CD...if the VCD did fine and took up 52 minutes of so?

Thanks for any comments.

[Ndb;-))]

Hi,

As std you will get 80min's on a VCD using 80min media and approx 40min using SVCD. This is if sticking to the std bitrates etc for the format chosen. You can get more by reducing the max bitrate and/or playing with the GOP etc, but it may get ugly and best to veiw a couple of guides first.

I find that SVCD is far more forgiving than VCD when reducing bitrates, but that's just me.

Kevin :P

[rjackson]

Kevin.

Thanks. This is where I get a little confused. I think I'm using 254 as my bit rate. DO I NEED TO GO HIGHER OR LOWER! Any suggestions on what I MAY try to see if it works?

Thanks.

[vitualis]

SVCDs don't have a fixed bitrate and the MAX bitrate you can use will give you about 40min of video on an 80min CD: http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd

As the bitrate on a SVCD is variable, you can essentially fit as much video as you want on one disc... however, at the cost of quality. Generally, you can probably fit up to 60min of video on a single 80min disc with reasonable quality (though it will depend on the source material).

If you want to work out the average bitrate to use to fill up a disc for a SVCD, try one of the bitrate calculators: http://www.vcdhelp.com/tools

BTW, the max. bitrate (for video) for a SVCD is of the order of around 2500 kbit/s (kilobits per second). You shouldn't go higher than this unless you want to make an XSVCD.

Also, there is generally no benefit in converting a VCD to SVCD. You will have WORSENED quality due to an additional generation of MPEG encoding. If you made your VCD from a high quality source (e.g., DVD) and want to make a SVCD, it is a better idea to also create the SVCD from the high quality source.

Regards.

[vitualis]

I find that SVCD is far more forgiving than VCD when reducing bitrates, but that's just me.

This is probably simply because you can encode SVCDs at a higher bitrate to begin with. Also, you can't actually go reducing the bitrate of a VCD without bumping into the -X- zone.

It is a matter of contention and is definitely subjective as to whether low bitrate XVCDs are "worth it" or give "watchable quality", but if you are interested in XVCDs, I suggest having a look at http://www.kvcd.net

Regards.