How can I prevent distortion/pixelation

[shred]

My final product is to be SVCD

I am capturing interlaced video from my camcorder which will be encoded as interlaced as I intend to view on TV.

I am capturing avi at 480x480 using VirtualDub and the quality of the avi is excellent.

I am using NO filters in virtual dub, just basic cut and append.

I have tried two different programs to convert the edited avi to mpg2. Both using what I think are the highest possible settings for compliant SVCD.

TMPGEnc
======
Rate Control Mode = CBR
Bitrate = 2500
Motion Search Precision = Highest quality

Ulead VideoStudio
============
Quality = 50 (Highest possible)
Video Data Rate = Constant - 2375

In some frames of the output file there is obvious pixelation/distortion, especially in frames with a lot of motion. The quality is good-to-great for most of the video, but I just feel that it could be better.

Is there ANYTHING I can do to improve the quality of my mpg2 file, or am I already at the limits for SVCD and just have to live with what I have.

Thanks
shred

[ImaWeTodd]

How about:

1) Increasing the bitrate. You risk compliance, but not all DVD players support SVCD anyway so push it to 2700, or tune it to your intended player(s).

2) Crop to say 448 x 448 and add 16x16 black borders all around. I'm not sure of the exact TV overscan area, but your not going to see everthing anyway. The black area will encode much better giving more bits to the center where the motion is.

3) Cap at a smaller resolution and add borders to fill to 480x480. Basically same as above, but you would then see some black. I think you can use fitCD to help with getting the correct aspect ratios with an avisynth script.

[su]

Hi ImaWeTodd!

I've the same problem...
You've said that:
"2) Crop to say 448 x 448 and add 16x16 black borders all around. I'm not sure of the exact TV overscan area, but your not going to see everthing anyway. The black area will encode much better giving more bits to the center where the motion is".
How we can add black borders in TMPGEnc?

Thanks!

[ImaWeTodd]

The complicated way:

I use CCE. To add borders there you would create an anisynth file and open that in CCE instead of the avi. fitCD can actually create the script for you. I don't know your source (avi, d2v, eieio...) so no easy steps here. But I'm sure there is a guide for frameserving to TMPGEnc from avisynth.


The easy way:

I don't know TMPGEnc, but I did a forum search and found this:

Well, you just open TMPGEnc and go to settings, advanced, and go to where it says Clip, and click on the box, and double click on it. Then click on Video Arrange Setting, click on the Center (custom) option and make the following adjustments, 312 204, that will add the borders, it works perfect on my tv, although I have read that the "tv overscan" is differant for everybody's tv, so you may have to mess with it.

I believe your numbers would not be 312 204, but more like 448 448.

Hope this helps.

[su]

I'll try!

Thanks!

[shred]

Increasing the bitrate fixed it.

8000 played, but just barely. It was very "choppy" and the audio was cutting out.

5000 looked and sounded great.

3000 VBR looked good too.

I love my APEX Player! I'm just worried about what happens when it breaks (it will break) and I have to replace it. I hope I can find another player that can handle these XSVCDs.

Thanks again.

[thebach]

Pioneer will handle them and last a lot longer than an Apex. I sneezed on my Apex and it flew into pieces