CVCD guide

[DeXT]

I don't know if there is already a CVCD guide available in english, but since I've seen some people with trouble in IRC, I'll give you some notes (you have original guides in www.vcdsp.com (spanish only).

CVCD stands for "compressed VCD", and is just a VCD with VBR MPEG-1 video. This gives an extra quality which will allow you to encode an entire movie in just a single CD, with good quality. This will play fine in almost any non-standard VCD capable DVD player.

Recommended settings are (NTSC):

Video: MPEG-1 video, 352x240, 4:3, 29,97 (or 23,97 with IVTC), CQ_VBR (w/settings Q=90, max=1150, min=250), VBV 112 KB, motion estimate search (fast) or your favorite one.

Advanced: this depends of your source (non-interlaced or interlaced), aspect ratio 16:9 (if anamorphic) or 4:3 (if not), full screen (keep aspect ratio), configure IVTC if needed.

GOP: 1-5-2 (default)

Quantize matrix: default. You can try checking floating point DTC and/or soften block noise for extra quality.

Audio (if used): Layer II, 44.1 KHz, 128 Kbps (224 needed for some players). I personally use BeSweet for audio encoding.

System (if used): MPEG-1 VCD (non-standard).

You must adjust CQ_VBR settings depending on movie length. There are some calculators around. Q parameter can also be lowered to get some extra space. I personally make most movies with CQ_VBR settings at: Q=50-60, min=250 and max=900 or so. The quality is still very good. You won't believe it until you see it (I didn't).

These settings are also meant for anamorphic resizing with TMPG (so I check 16:9 in source aspect ratio and 4:3 as destination, with full screen (keep aspect ratio). If you previously resize with VirtualDub or the like, leave it at 1:1.

Sorry about the fuzzy IVTC settings, I encode only in PAL and here we don't need IVTC or deinterlacing. I've tried to adapt it to your NTSC video system. Just use your usual stuff here.

There is also a "CVCD as SVCD" profile, but I'm not interested in that (I prefer standard SVCDs here).

Hope this helps.

[MrRochie]

Greets and thanks for the info. Your settings are a little different that the ones in the template from aadroid. Do you have a template for Tmpg settings? Much regards..

[DeXT]

Hi there. I'm afraid I haven't got a template with these settings. However, you can put all the parameters I've said and save it as a new template, or make the required modifications to an existing CVCD template (previously unlocking it). These are the settings I personally use for CVCD encoding (apart from the NTSC stuff).

I know some people use sightly different parameters. As an example, most people prefer doing resizing with VirtualDub so in TMPG they just leave 1:1 as aspect ratio. Since I resize with TMPG I put s.a.r. 16:9 and dest.a.r. 4:3. Almost nobody seems using this but it works great, it's fast and simple.

If you have any doubt feel free to post it here and I'll try to help.

See you.

[MrRochie]

I appreciate your reply. In your settings above you say that the CQ_VBR (w/settings Q=90 max 1150 min 250) then a little farther down you have Q=50-60 min, max 900 for your personal settings. I am relatively new to this. Which setting works best for you and where can I find a calculator? I have a tempremental Sony DVP 300 player that only plays vcd sometimes. I tried several settings and templates and wound up burning many coasters. I want to give your method a try. For some reason my player takes a nonstandard vcd and blows it up huge but it plays ok on my computer using powerdvd. Go figure. :confused: :confused: Anyway enough rambling Thanks again

[DeXT]

Ok, well I think your problem is due to the following fact: your Sony DVD player probably does not support non-standard VCDs. This is very common for old players (such as my Samsung 709). I'm afraid you won't be able to do CVCDs for this player. The only thing you can do is standard VCD: just load the VCD template from TMPGEnc and use it (it has a fixed bitrate of 1150 Kbps in CBR). You won't be able to fit more than 74/80 minutes of video in a single CD, though.

Of course every non-standard VCD will load and play fine on your PC since the PC is not limited to constrained MPEG parameters.

About my settings, well the first settings I point out are the starting ones, valid for approx. a 1h30 movie. This must be adjusted to the total movie length. A 2h15 movie would require as low as 750 kbps. There are some calculators aroud, I usually adjust size by looking at file size once the progress bar has raised to 5%, and then calculate the final size to see if it will fit fine or not on a single CD.

[MrRochie]

Just wanted to let you know that your settings worked on my Sony (havent figured the birate out yet) and nero burned it as a compliant VCD. I was looking for a better quality VCD and I had heard through this forum you could fool your player to think it is playing a VCD when in reality it is playing a vcd with svcd quality. That would be really nice. I hate to give up a really good Sony DVD player just for a few vcd burns. Anyway thanks again if you come up with any more great ideas for us peeps with old players please post.