audio bitrate question

[boboyo]

will encoding the audio of a divx to svcd at 160kbps instead of 192kbps give me a much better video quality or is it better to stick with 192?

[markrb]

You are only talking about a total of maybe 30Kbit. Not enough to even bother worrying about one way or the other. I would just stick with 192 audio since that is more likely to make a difference if anything will. Most likely you have well exceeded what the AVI will give you even at a low bitrate SVCD.

I don't like making full size SVCD's out of Divx files. I find making a VCD resolution (352 x 240/288) XSVCD gives me the best quality when using a Divx as the source. I also don't tend to go much above 1500Kbit either since I doubt the original is any better then that. Looks good enough to me and I can get much more on a disc this way.

Mark

[boboyo]

do you mean you create an mpeg2 file with vcd resolution or an mpeg1?

also do you find this better than using svcd resolution

the reason i ask is because i was under the impression that the svcd is a clearer picture because of the resolution

any further advice on this would be appreciated as this is what i do most (avi/divx to svcd)

[markrb]

Either, but I have taken to doing Mpeg-2 because I want to be able to keep the framerate regardless of if I change a PAL video to NTSC size.
Some Avi's I have are PAL and my DVD can play them, except the size looks a little funky so I alter it to fit NTSC size and keep the framrate at 25FPS. I have found if I do a Mpeg-1 with TMPG DVD2SVCD alters the speed to 29.97 and that screws up the way it plays on my TV, but if I use CCE and do Mpeg-2 it keeps it at 25fps. I have made a post on this in the advanced forum, but the great one hasn't seen it as of this time. Anyway this only applies if you are converting PAL video without changing the frame rate.

Yes I feel it is better then SVCD resolution source dependent. Most AVI's have limted info in them and the more you stetch and pull the worse it looks. Think of when you watch an AVI in a window and then resize it fullscreen. Many look great in the window, but crap fullscreen. Same sorta thing here. The bigger you make it the more info is required to make it look good. If it's a self captured 30gb file then there is most likely more then enough info for DVD size, but if it's a 350MB per 40 minutes downloaded file VCD is about as much as your going to pull before it really starts to show it's weakness.
Best way is for you to test it yourself. Try both ways and see what you like. In the end you are the one that has to be happy with it.


These are my current recomendations, but I plan to do some testing on my Divx TV shows. Some I will do in the next week, but then I go away for two weeks and won't be able to do any at that time. When I get back I will try to get some more done. At that time I will try and write something on my experiecences. I am pretty sure about the size, but whether mpeg-1 or mpeg-2 is better or if a higher bitrate will make much of a difference still is on the edge for me. I am also playing with some filters as well right now.

Mark

[boboyo]

if you resize to vcd then you are keeping the size when you encode but surely it is then the dvd player which stretches the image. is this not just as bad?

also if my divx is 640 x 272 & i resize to vcd does this mean i loose half of the horizontal resolution?

this may be obvious but i never quite understood resizing & would like to know

[ux-3]

Given the low encode time when coming from divx to vcd resolution, the surest way to settle these questions is to try first and debate later. NOTHING beats experience... Just use DVD2SVCD, and set the resolution to VCD. See what happens...

[markrb]

boboyo do whatever you want. Why come here for advice if you won't even try it?

And no the image is NOT stretched by the DVD player back to DVD size. Consider that a VCR has only about 240 lines of resolution and that plays fine on the TV.


Mark

[boboyo]

yeah ok!

i have been testing these resolutions over the last couple of days now but i wanted a bit of advice first so that im not wasting hours encoding something if you can tell me a better way beforehand

anyway...

...i have found svcd resolution to be superior when encoding 700mb divx movies - the vcd resolution tends to have less clarity.

I can only asume that you were refering to lesser quality divx files on which svcd resolution would be overkill

anyway thanks for the feedback

[markrb]

Actually almost any Divx file. Divx is an extrememly noisy format.
Have a look over at the General forum. I have been having a conversation on the benifits of Mpeg-1 vs. Mpeg-2, but some of the conversation has turned to Divx and how it's a poor source for Mpeg conversions.

Mark