How: Better quality picture of (X)VCD out of DV AVI

[idrive]

Hello All,

Well I did it, I bought myself a DV camcorder.

You can bet that I was anxious to burn what I taped on a VCD.

I was somewhat disappointed when I saw the result on my DVD player: The picture quality was "so-so"

I used the tutorial to created the MEPG-1 file in TMPGEnc.

Thing is, I know that my source is good quality (9 GIGs for 45 minutes of tape) and I know that I will have a drop in quality since the hole thing will fit on a CD-R.

Basically I want to know how can I "boost" the picture quality by playing with the settings of TMPGEnc ? Is XVCD the answer ???

H-E-L-P !!!

[ronnylov]

Have you tried SVCD or CVD? I suggest CVD which is a kind of SVCD but with non-standard resolution 352x576 for PAL or 352x480 for NTSC. Since you want to fit 45 min onto one CD-R you should be able to do this without exceed the bitrate limitations of SVCD/CVD. But your source is DV and that's hard to compress with good quality. I suggest deinterlace and encode as progressive video. That will save some bitrate and you should be able to get an acceptable result with CVD when using TMPGEnc as encoder.

[idrive]

Ronny,

My DVD player does not play MPEG-2 file, so I'm stuck with MPEG-1 (VCD).

What is CVD? Will TMPGEnc do that ?
How do I deinterlace and encode as progressive video ???

Thanks a bunch !

[ronnylov]

CVD is a kind of SVCD but with lower resolution, and it is MPEG2 like SVCD. If your player doesn't support SVCD then it won't work with CVD so you are stuck with mpeg1.

Deinterlacing is a method to remove the interlacing lines that will appear when capturing full vertical resolution. There is a deinterlace function in TMPGEnc that can be used, or you can use external software like virtualdub or avisynth. But if you are making VCD then you will use half vertical resolution and you don't need to deinterlace.

Progressive is another name for non-interlaced video. Look for more info about interlacing and other nice capturing help on this site: http://www.lukesvideo.com

Perhaps XVCD is an option in your case. Try mpeg1 with higher video bitrate and see if it works. You can also try the denoising filter in TMPGEnc, and select soften block noise in the quantizer matrice tab.

[Faceman101]

VCD is progressive,also if you do use CVD (best choice under DVD), do not deinterlace. You will loose quality that way.

Do a search and look around at other's methods and results.

[MpegEncoder]

Perhaps XVCD is an option in your case. Try mpeg1 with higher video bitrate and see if it works. You can also try the denoising filter in TMPGEnc, and select soften block noise in the quantizer matrice tab.

I definitely agree, use the "Soften block noise" option with the standard values. Also make sure to select "Use floating point DCT", this makes encoding take a little longer but with better results. I also use "Highest quality" even though lots of people believe there is no noticeable difference from "High quality". This gives me excellent results for VCD.

[hwoodwar]

Idrive:

Your DVD player does play MPEG-2 files (to some extent.) All DVDs are encoded in MPEG-2 format.

As far as CVDs, I have always suspected that since CVDs are half D1 (full-sized DVD) resolution that some DVD players that play VCDs, but not SVCDs may play CVDs. I finally had this confirmed a few weeks ago. I saw a post saying that the person had successfully played a CVD on a DVD player not compatable with SVCDs. Therefore I strongly suggest you try making a short (maybe 5 minutes) test CVD and try it out on your player. Unfortunately, the link to the CVD demo file this website is not working at the moment. The easiest way to make a CVD is to take an SVCD template and change the resolution to 352x576 for PAL or 352x480 for NTSC.

[ronnylov]

VCD is progressive,also if you do use CVD (best choice under DVD), do not deinterlace. You will loose quality that way.

Do a search and look around at other's methods and results.

You may get better results at lower bitrates (as it is when trying to fit 45 min from a DV source on one CD) if you deinterlace. I agree that interlaced look better on a TV if the bitrate is high enough, but then the bitrate should be at least 3 mbit/s at half D1 resolution and then we are talking XCVD or DVD. But if you can get CVD to work try some different clips, deinterlaced and interlaced and at different bitrates and choose the one that you like most. Interlaced gives smoother playback but more compression artifacts at a given bitrate. You may need 20-30 % higher bitrate when encoding interlaced.

It is correct that VCD is progressive only.

[Faceman101]

Why are you telling me this?

If you are going to watch on TV, leave interlace if your source is interlaced.

[wpeter01]

@idrive

I am actually struggling around with that issue over the last 6 months. My solution is: use VCD template, VBR Max Bitrate 2,3 MB/s, Motion precison search high quality and you can get easily more than 60 min on one CDR. The results are pretty good, but I think it depend a bit from the movie material. You have to keep in mind that you are encoding at 352 x 288, this limits somehow the result anyway.

Finally I tried also making a CVD which in my opinion is also a good alternative. I used max birate 2,3 MB/s and constant quality CQ65 and I was able to bring 65 min in very good quality to 905 MB. Fortunately my CD burner can handle those mpg files.

Hope it helps.

BTW, I am using Tmpgenc for the encoding process and VCDeasy for burrning. I will never use Nero again because the results were significantly worse than with VCDeasy.

[ronnylov]

Why are you telling me this?

If you are going to watch on TV, leave interlace if your source is interlaced.

I am telling you this because it's a fact that interlaced encoding not always is better quality wise. That's why you should try both and choose the one that's best in this case.

[Dijkemente]

Try making a MPEG2 and the do the Header Trick in TMPGEnc. This will give your MPEG2 file a MPEG1 header. Not all players will play this but just try it and see if it works.

[edsmith77]

hwoodwar,
Just a quick question. My DVD player does not play SVCDs. However, it does DVD and XVCD without problems. Question: If I go the CVD route what burning program is needed. I currently use VCDEasy and it only allows VCD and SVCD. Thus, if CVD is 1/2 DVD does that imply I need a DVD burning program to burn CVD onto CD-R? or what burning program can be used?

Ed

[Dijkemente]

With the headertrick your DVD player thinks it's playing a VCD eventhough it's a SVCD.

[energy80s]

Thus, if CVD is 1/2 DVD does that imply I need a DVD burning program to burn CVD onto CD-R? or what burning program can be used?

Ed

Just use Nero with it's SVCD template and uncheck the "Make Compliant Disc" box.

[edsmith77]

Thanks to all.

Ed

[omicron]

@idrive

I am using Tmpgenc for the encoding process and VCDeasy for burrning. I will never use Nero again because the results were significantly worse than with VCDeasy.

can you elaborate - was the burning process a pain but the image quality relatively identical, or do you mean the actual image quality was clearly better with VCDEasy / CDRAO ?

I am asking because I gave up trying to get VCDEasy and my Adaptec SCSI card to coexist peacefully - I mean, I gave up trying to fix my ASPI conflicts and author in VCDEasy then burn with Nero, but if I could get a quality boost by fixing my ASPI conflicts then that looks worth a try.

Thanks

[MpegEncoder]

Nero burns CDs just fine. VCDEasy is much better at the authoring process (putting together the disk image). I use TMPGEnc to encode, VCDEasy to author and Nero to burn. The results are excellent.

[omicron]

If I get you right, you suspect that wpeter01 is saying that Nero is a miserably poor AUTHORING tool, and that wpeter01 is not hinting at all that Nero would be a disastrous VCD BURNING tool....

I am working like you (TMPGEnc -> VCDEasy -> Nero), but as I never did it any other way, I lack comparison points.

Wpeter01, can you clarify your point then ?