KDVD - Is this template a SCAM or what!?!

[Trenton_Net]

Hey guys,

I’ve recently bought myself a copy of LOTRs and I wanted to try and make a backup of it. However those kinds of movies run in the 2 to 3 hour range. So I was planning to ether split the movie into 2 DVDRs or just one disk with a low 3000 some odd bit rate as my average.

But the, some people started talking about KDVD. Does that template really work well, or is it just another one of those KVCD scams? The website says KDVD makes standard compliant files, however am I better off just doing a low bit rate encode compared to KDVD? Or for that matter, would splitting the movie be the only choice which would give anything decent?

I Just wanted to know how this KDVD template differs from say normal template, and weather it really works well, or if its just another BS “It looks like DVD Quality! No kidding!” like he did for those crappy VCD templates.

Thanks,

[JCPicache]

no way you're gonna get a relatively OBJECTIVE discussion phrasing your question like that

nothing beats trying stuff on yer own...

[bugster]

Like JCPicache says, only one reliable way to find out, suck it and see

[ZippyP.]

It's threads like this that start flame wars.

You'll get opinions that it works fantastic and others that hate it. There's no way you'll be able to decide except by trying it.

[whytless physh]

I recently encoded about 150 minutes of video (no audio - only video) using the KDVD 2.0 template. The video included both mono and color segments. I ended up with a 2.5gb file which was well within my requirements. I was satisfied with the quality. There were a few macroblocks and other minor problems mostly with crushed blacks. The artifacts actually appeard to a lesser degree in the original source so I can't complain. Trying the same video using a 2-pass VBR encode provided similar quality with a much larger file size, about 3.2gb.

Overall I'd have to say the template does what it advertises. You're not going to get pristine quality but it's better than (S)VHS or (S)VCD at full D1 resolution. In the end you'll have to give it a try to see if it will work for you.

[kwag]

But the, some people started talking about KDVD. Does that template really work well, or is it just another one of those KVCD scams?

Read my first post in this thread and see for yourself : https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=143444&highlight=kdvd

-kwag

[xzarkad]

There is also another option:

encode the movie in CVD (352x576/480) resolution. This resolution is DVD standard, and should play as a DVD in almost all standalone players.

If the bitrate is more that 2700 kbs, then there will be decent quality, although not as sharp as DVD. This way you can store several hours (between 2-4 hours) on one DVD-R. There are guides for this on this site.

[Raen]

I've been usng Kdvd-full for awhile now and it works great for me. Its not as good as the standard DVD template in TMGenc but to get longer movies or more then one movi per disk it works very well.

[abrakadabra]

I haven't really tried kDVD in full, but I did perform a test.
Encoding with a 10 min. clip of 720x576 25 fps with CQ at 40, 60 and 80 I used my std template.
Then I tried the same with the same template, but used the Quantesize Matrix from kDVD and compared filesize of kDVD matrix to default matrix

The result of my findings were:
CQ 40: +0.1%
CQ 60: -3%
CQ 80: -6%

I won't try to claim that the results will be the same for all movies, but this shows that at least some part of the kDVD template reduces size (same CQ=same quality???) for all acceptable bitrates (CQ 40 was very unacceptable in quality)


BTW: I just encoded LOTR (2 pass - 720x576) and put on 1 DVDR with 5.1 AC3
Plays with no visible flaws on my Pioneer 757Ai/Panasonic 42" Plasma