Quality of different KVCD templates?
 

I recently backed up the movies "Insomnia" and "Murder by Numbers" - the first was full screen, and the second movie was letterbox.

I used the older 704x480_1CD template, and since I have an Apex 1500, changed the framerate to 29.97.

Both movies fit on one KVCD (used HeadAC3he for audio) and they both look good (changed the CQ setting to 40 on the first movie, left it at 50 on the second).

However, here's the question - would I be better off using another template? (I play the movies on a standard 32 inch Sony and a 27 inch HDTV). I've also used the LBR 320x240 on other movies, but the 704x480 looks much better... and I've used the KVCDx3 templates too, but haven't tried lowering the quality setting enough to fit the movie on one cd. Would the quality be as good or better than the older 704x480 template I am now using?

Just looking for opinions...

By the way, the file prediction works great with these templates too!

Thanks, --Tony K.

Hi tonyk,

If you can live with 352x240 VCD resolution, and you want absolutely almost blockless mpegs, use the LBR with MAX bit rate of 2,300 if your player supports it. Run it through the prediction formula, as you already have, and enjoy the best quality VCD(KVCD) :wink:
If your movie is a drama type, then you can use the higher resolutions. If it's a very high action movie, the x2 and x3 will eat a lot of bit rate, and you'll have to split the movie in 2 CD's.

-kwag

Re: Quality of different KVCD templates?
 

I too have a APEX player that can play only 29.97. I'm assuming you used DVD2AVI and if you did, did you turn off forced film to get the d2v at 29.97?

Thanks Kwag - I'll compare with a higher bitrate in the 352x240 template. In your opinion will this be better than the 704x480 1cd template?

Hi 2Cool -
I saw some other messages/discussions on using "Force FILM" or not in DVD2AVI, and I've always set it ON, even though I change the framerate in TMPGEnc to 29.97. I >think< that I had a problem with some ghosting and almost an interlaced-look if I left "force film" off and then encoded. It seemed to clear up when I set force film on.

Of course, as mentioned in the other discussion, any panning isn't smooth when the movie is encoded at 29.97 after using force film in DVD2AVI - for example, look at scrolling titles on one of your movies - with mine they seem to jump a little - but overall it seems to me that I get better encoding if I leave force film on, and at least we can watch the KVCDs on the Apex!

Cheers, TonyK.