What causes encoded movies to get blocky sometimes during playback

[lonewolf454]

Can someone help me make a better movie, let me explain...

I have been using DVD2SVCD, and usually with good results, and I will note much better via DVD2SVCD than I ever acheived with SmartRipper>TMPGEnc>DVD Movie Factory. I am using CCE SP 2.50.

I have been using the setting of video: 2400 max, 550 min, max avg 2200; audio at 192 ,on approx 85-100 minute movies,
and setting of video:2400 max, 550 minimum,max avg 2200,audio: 160 kbps, on approx 110-130 minute movies.

Havent burned any movies over about 130 minutes becuase the quality of the encode to keep it reasonable I would have to use 3 cds...

Quality is at 17 for high action movies and 20 for low action movies. I tried sharpening on Perfect Storm which was a longer movie, but couldnt really notice a great improvemnt vs standard 3-4 pass vbr encodes.

Burning via fireburner at 2x (my cdwr support faster speed, but coasters are made quite frequently then)

Question is, how can I improve the overall quality of most if not all movies I am encoding, as I stated before, results are real good but sometimes movie messes up (blocky) and sometimes a slight glitch in audio. Sometimes it is just the player, if you replay the same scene it doesnt do it, but sometimes it is in the actual encode.

I notice it more on longer movies, they will fill up both cds. Sometimes the shorter movies dont quite fill up the second disc, so I dont know why the program didnt utilize the full second disc to improve the quality somewhat...

Case in point: Rocky movie didnt quite fill disc 2, but the whole movie played excellent up until the fight at the end with Apollo Creed, the movie screwed up and was hardly unwatchable, at the best part of the movie. Iam sure it has happened to you...

Thanks and good luck to all.

Also, is there a program (utility) out there that will tell you how many minutes of an encoded movie actually made it on the disc?

[mrbass]

you need to play your .bin .cue file with daemon tools...virtual drive and play them back with windvd or powerdvd. If it doesn't get blocky then you can elminate it being your dvd hardware problem. Lemme guess Panasonic?

I believe those two mentioned above will tell you total minutes.
No need to ever waste any cds here using daemon tools.

[JFerguson]

I've seen this effect with bad burns. Been burning my images at 12x with a Plextor 12x10x32 for months with no problems.

Tried burning one with a Lite-On 32x10x40 at 16x (on 16x media) and saw the effects you describe at certain points during playback.

Went back to using my Plextor (until I have more time to figure out what's up with the Lite-On)...

[lonewolf454]

No not Panasonic, just a standalone Sanyo DVD player. Some movies look real good with no pixelization, others pixel all the way thru a little bit. How can I eliminate that even if movie isnt as clear? The pixelization is the worst.

Sometimes it is in the encode but other and most times, it happens at playback. This would be the player doing it but why? How can I elimate the pixelization (blockiness) problem.

Just burnt Time Machine and most of it on first disc was terribly blocky and audio cut out some. I used sharpening of 2 if that makes a difference and Image Quality 19. 3 pass vbr

Thanks