SVCD on philips standalone players

[bugeyes]

Hi.

I have some music clips SVCDs that I
recorded using SmartRipper>DVD2AVI>
TMPEGEnc>VCDEasy sequence. They are
recorded as a sequence of tracks, each
one originally an mpeg2 file.

They work very well in all standalone
players I tested except the Philips one.
After some tracks it shows a perceptible
A-V delay that is kept till the end of
the SVCD.

As I could see in this site there is a
lot of similar cases reported.

I would like to know if someone among
the experts did identify the little bit
of non compliance of these mpeg2 files
that causes the problem?
Is there a way to avoyd this problem
by changing some settings at the encoding
stage with TMPEGEnc?

Thanks for the help.

[SuperFabius]

I have a Philips DVD750. I noticed that this player "doesn't like" bitrates near the max value of SVCD specs.
I'm not an "expert", but I suggest to try a test using CBR 2000 (or lower).
If this works fine, you should lower video bitrates.
Hope this will help.

Bye

[bugeyes]

Hi SuperFabius

It seems to me that the bitrate is not the problem
since I use the followings options on TMPEGEnc:
-Constant quality (65 to 85)
-Max bit rate 2520
-Min bitrate 0
-Sound bit rate 224
-Motion search- Highest precision

With these settings I get the following bitrates:
-Minimum 650 to 1400 (never goes down to 500)
-Medium 1100 to 1744
-Maximum 1500 to 2100
This is far from the spec limit.

Thanks

[Justinus]

What software did you use to check the video bitrate? I'm not sure about TMPGEnc whether it's likely to go beyond the max bitrate like CCE or not. I recommend you to use Bitrate Viewer to check M2V's bitrate.

[Mars-L]

Might sound strange, but have you tried 44.100 KHz insteed of 48.000 KHz for audio and use Stereo insteed of Joint/Dual/Mono.
I'm wrestling with the same problem for my parents Philips 701 for over a year, and still haven't found the exact solution. Some (X)SVCD do play some don't.

[Justinus]

Depends on which software you use to encode a video stream. CCE is likely to go beyond the max bitrate and that sometimes makes DVD players don't play properly. You can control an audio stream well but better check a max bitrate of output video stream. You may have to reduce the max bitrate a bit more.

[keith]

I had a philips 751 (very bad player). But to solve the a-v sync problem just push "pauze" and then "play". Your movie shall be sync.
Never encode movies higher than 2300 total bitrate.
For other problems with your Philips player just visit the "philips syndicate".

[bugeyes]

Hi Justinus.

I used the Bitrate Wiewer to check the files.
The minimum value was taken from the graphic.

I will keep searching for the solution.

Thanks

[Mars-L]

Originally posted by keith
For other problems with your Philips player just visit the "philips syndicate".

And where do I find this Philips "syndicate" ?

[keith]

http://philips.ianc.net

Don't forget that the max bitrate on a philips dvd is 2200 inclus the audio. So if your audio is 192 you'll have to deduct it.
If you are using pulldown you'll have to lower your video-bitrate with 25%.
The easiest and best way to make svcd (xsvcd don't work on a philips) is to use "dvd2svcd" with cce.
Good luck.

[Mars-L]

Originally posted by keith
http://philips.ianc.net

Don't forget that the max bitrate on a philips dvd is 2200 inclus the audio. So if your audio is 192 you'll have to deduct it.

Thanx.
2200 ?? MAX ??
That's low....
So for SVCD only 2000 is the (about) max for video bitrate ?

[Mars-L]

Originally posted by keith
http://philips.ianc.net

Don't forget that the max bitrate on a philips dvd is 2200 inclus the audio. So if your audio is 192 you'll have to deduct it.

Thanx.
2200 ?? MAX ??
That's low....
So for SVCD only 2000 is the (about) max for video bitrate ?

[bugeyes]

Hi.
I dont believe Philips would limit its player to
2200 since SVCD standard is about 2700
(video+audio).
I think we have a measurement problem.
It can be in TMPEG at the encoding limits or
at the bitrate checking software (I used Bitrate
viewer and Rempeg).

See these tests:
Original VOB size(a+v)- 352.272 KB
TMPEG encoding video only (m2v file) :

TMPEG bitr settings - file reduction - (bitrate viewer val) -(rempeg val)
CQ75 - (1000-xxxx-2000) - 21% - (706-1242-1769) (1630-2380)
CQ75 - (1000-xxxx-2520) - 23% - (713-1365-2176) (1790-2895)
CQ75 - (0000-xxxx-2520) - 21% - (471-1273-2079) (1700-2906)
2PVBR- (600-1400-2400) - 19% - (778-1147-1780) (1510-2658)

As you can see Rempeg gives always higher values to the
bitrate (med and max) than Bitrate viewer. And the peak
values from Rempeg are very high, with video values exceeding
the spec for a+v in some cases.

Newbie conclusion: you cannot trust bitrate checkers.

Question: Is there any stuff that can give good lectures
from mpeg2 files bitrate?

Thanks

[RoopeT]

I've struggled quite a bit with my Philips DVD 622, this is what I've learned from it:

- With my original firmware (v.2.9.6) both VCD and SVCD playback problems

- Updating the firmware to v.4.15.O-0 solved most of the playback problems (+Rew/Ff working), still having problems with SVCD subtitles

- Updating the firmware to v.4.15.V-0 didn't solve SVCD subtitle problems but introduced a new bug in mp3 playback -> I downgraded my firmware back to v.4.15.O-0

- The player is very sensitive about the maximum bitrate AND minimum bitrate. Anything over 2720 or below ~ 1000 can cause playback problems.

- TMPGEnc doesn't respect the given bitrate limits always in CQ VBR mode. TMPGEnc doesn't multiplex your SVCD's according to Philips SVCD specs, but according to chinese specs. This causes Rew/FF problems and inability to use time search and inability to make chapters with for example VCDEasy. If you want to use TMPGEnc for your encodes, encode video and audio separately and multiplex them with bbmpeg (This is also how DVD2SVCD does it).

Philips DVD firmware updates can be found @ http://www.euroservice.pfr.philips.com/assistance/dvd/sommairesoft.htm. Some more firmware versions can be found @ http://philips.ianc.net/ (the new Philips Syndicate site). Here's also a Philips DVD player firmware forum and some instructions about upgrading your firmware. Note that some Philips DVD players come with an upgradable firmware chip, some doesn't.