XSVCD at VCD size

[avdmb]

Thanks to the new option in DVD2sVCD, it is now possible to encode an XSVCD at SVCD size (picture of 480*480/576) or VCD size (352*480/576). This means that at constant pixel quality, the bitrate used when encoding at VCD size can be 3 times lower than at SVCD size. Notice I am talking here about XSVCD, so MPEG2 video usually VBR encoded.

The advantage is that it is easily possible to encode a movie at low bitrate (esily fitting in 1 CD) without the hassle of playing with low bitrate matrix, face pixellisation issues, ... The drawback is the fact that using less pixels at VCD size makes the image less sharp.

I tried some parts of movie at VCD size and Avg bitrate 600, and I am quite impressed by the quality of the result on my TV set. I am curious to know if anybody tried and what is their feedback.

[phuntyme]

I am looking for exactly this feature to re-encode an AVI file which has a res of 352x240 but is 84 min in lenght.

heh lucky I stumbled across your post, otherwise D2S gonna think I'm another one of them dumb f*ks ;)

I'll let you know how I go with it.

[chainsaw135]

@avdmb have you tried using sharpen to help with the dullness? Try like 0.40 or 0.60 between that if your up to testing that is. I find between .4 and .6 is mostly what i use with great results for making movies more sharp.

[avdmb]

@chainsaw135. Following your proposal, I tested with standard SVCD encode (480*576) with sharpen=.4. I ripped with 3 different settings :
. simple resize, no sharpen.
. bicubic resize (0, 0.6), no sharpen.
. bicubic resize (0, 0.6), sharpen = 0.4.

I then viewed randomly the 3 encoded movies. At first sight, little difference. After several careful viewings, the movie encoded with sharpen=0.4 looked indeed sharper. Main difference was the sharpening of the background. Thanks for the interesting tip.

Coming back to VCD size encoding, I compared the 3 options offered by DVD2SVCD : VCD (half size), SVCD and DVD. Definitely, spatial resolution is important. With only 352*288 pixels (VCD size), it is not possible to get the details offered by the other higher resolution formats. I therefore definitely drop this alternative.

[chainsaw135]

well i'm not 2 suprised with your tests, i myself back in august or so did some tests on vcd before i started with svcd, and like you i found that a vcd is better at lower bitrates then a svcd, also i'm glad u like sharpen i've found it makes it look more like the dvd and less like a vcd/svcd:)