VHS to SVCD or DVD Again!

[Ace Zoot]

Here is what I am trying to do, (Take old 8mm and VHS home movies and put them on disc)
1)Capture old 8mm flim using a JVC Digital video camera.
2) Capture that to my computer Using Pinnacle studio 8.
3) Edit / cut/ etc the film to what I want.
4) Burn it to SVCD for now with the option of burning it to DVD when I get one later.

So the big questions are
1) At what res do I capture the film from the camera (8mm on tape) to computer? I know the 8mm film was low res so what do I set the capture at?
2) I read about using Mpeg1 and then using TMPGenc to up the res to 720x480 still Mpeg1. Does this help or is it a wast of time because it is a copy of 8mm film.?

If this works I will try it with old VHS home movies too. Any ideas on resolution settings??

Please keep it simple and easy for me for I am the King of Newbies.
Thanks in advance.
ACE

2.4ghz
512 ram
Gforce Ti 4200 x8
80 gig hd
Pinnacle studio 8
Nero 5.5
alot of time to kill

[Vejita-sama]

If you plan to capture, edit, then encode (which is the norm) for best results you want to capture in teh highest resolution and bitrate you system can support (uncompressed ideally but a 'lostless codec' like huffyuv or picvideo is a good choice too). Since you source is VHS/8mm you'll want to capture at ???x480 (normally 640x480 or 720x480)

MPEG1 is a video codec. You can have MPEG1 files at any resolution and bitrate. However, in order to make a 'white book standard VCD' you encode at:

VCD - MPEG1 352x480 video = 1150kbit/s & mpeg1 layer 2 audio 44.1khz at 224kbit/s

SVCD - MPEG2 480x480 video = 2520kbit/s & mpeg1 layer 2 audio 44.1khz at 224kbit/s

CVD - MPEG2 352x480 video=2520kbit/s & mpeg1 layer 2 audio 48khz at 224kbit/s

DVD - MPEG2 (720x480, 352x480, or 352x240) and either PCM or AC3 audio. Bitrates vary but video = 6000~8000kbit/s and audio 48khz at 384kbit/s

Notice that the CVD standard is supported under the DVD standard. So a lot of people have been making CVDs, so that down the road when DVD burners get cheaper they can (more) easily transfer from CDR to DVDR.

CVD gives a higher kbit/pixel ratio then SVCD but has full vertial resolution (which is what really counts to the human eye). I would recommend it over SVCD, esp for VHS/8mm captures.

Notice thou that the video bitrate for VCD, SVCD, CVD is MUCH lower than the DVD bitrate (~7500kbit/s). That greatly effects quaility of your encode.

Final point, if you go with DVD you'll want to look into some DVD authoring software. To make basic menus and stuff like that.

[nick1977]

I agree with the previous poster that CVD is probably the way to go fitting your requirements. That said, I would seriously recommend investing in a DVD recorder now, as the nature of the material you want to encode (interlaced, and probably quite noisy) means that the max bitrate of 2500kb/s might not be sufficient to avoid blocking.
Still, you can experiment with it and see if you are happy with the results before you decide.

Nick

[Ace Zoot]

Thanks for the info. I will take my time to make sure I understand what you said. Thanks for helping out a newbie!!

[Ace Zoot]

I forgot what is CVD? By this I mean is there another name? I am using pinnacle 8 and there is no CVD burn available. Do I just need to match up the Info for CVD to something it offers or do I need to get another program??
Troy

Mpeg 1 or 2? Which is best for DVD players??

[mats.hogberg]

CVD is SVCD, but with half horizontal resolution, thus looking good at lower bitrates. It's no standard like (S)VCD, but most players that play SVCD also plays CVD. If you use 48 kHz audio, you can use it to create a DVD directly without reencoding or anything.
As CVD is no real standard, it's unlikely to show up as an option in "pointandclick" packages, but isn't hard to accomplish using TMPGEnc.
A "real" DVD is MPEG 2, even if VCD MPEG1 can be used just like a CVD MPEG2, provided that the audio is in 48 kHz.

/Mats

[SatStorm]

@ mats.hogberg

CVD is a standard. It was in China at least.
SVCD come later and it is full compatible with CVD by law there.
For your Info, SVCD adapt some things from CVD as is, including the subtitles. That's why there are CVD and SVCD (philips) subtitles!
In 1998, there was CVD players in the china market and also many commercial CVD discs produced in China, untill 1999.

[mats.hogberg]

OK, You're correct, but at least where I live, I've never seen a DVD player where "CVD" is in the specs, even if "VCD" and "SVCD" is common. But as you point out, our Chinese friends may have.

/Mats

[SatStorm]

Yes, you are right, only few standalone players state about CVD compatibility.
I have seen "CVD" only to a few R2 DVD standalones, like Comet, Yokohama, Cyberhome, Amoisonic, etc.
Amoisonic has also a realtime desktop CVD recorder still in production!