How to reduce "blockiness" in MPEG video file?

[t0lik]

Hey guys, I need some advice: I have a few VCDs, which video quality is ok, but as you know, you can see those "blocks" on the object's edges and on dark places in the scenes. I'm trying to create DVD's out of those VCDs (so instead of 2 or 3 CDs per movie, I only have 1 DVD disk), but during the process, I want to try to reduce the blockiness as much as possible, or enhance the video quality as much as I can. Anybody knows of a plugin, a program, or a technique that can do that?
I have Premiere 6 and AE 5.5 (Windows).

Thx

P4 1.8A @2.4Ghz
120GB RAID 0
512RAM
WinXP Pro
NTFS
Geforce3 TI200
Pioneer DVR-A03

[djtrixx]

First you have to realize that you are not going to get a better quality film by reencoding a vcd to dvd resolution & bitrate. I have not personally tried, but I'm assuming once the damage is done, you can't change it. (correct me if I'm wrong) It is possible, however to burn your .mpg's to the dvd. I haven't checked the guides here for this application, but I have seen it on vcdhelp.com's site. Also, this guide is not for actually reencoding of the file, just simply shows you how to fit about 450 minutes of vcd on a single dvd-r.

http://www.vcdhelp.com/vcddvdr.htm


Hope it helps./..

[t0lik]

Well, I realize that I won't be able to make too much change in video quality, but I'm sure there is a plugin or something that can smooth out those mpeg compression "blocks". Please, anyone know what can I use to reduce the blockiness effect?

[djtrixx]

you "could" try to reeencode to dvd format with tmpgenc, although your file size will definetely be bigger. Just use a bitrate calc to make sure you don't go to big....