KVCD compromises - either poor quality or large file size?
 

I have been ripping DVDs for a long time. I use Sefy's classic guide and have always ended up with excellent VCDs.

I came across KVCD sometime back and wanted to try it out for the only reason that I can fit in one whole movie into one CD.

My procedure was

Ripping VOBs - SmartRipper
FrameServing - DVD2AVI (save as .d2v and .wav files)
Encode - TMPGEnc (using the .d2v and .wav files)
Authoring and Burning - VCDEasy (chapters from ChapterXtractor)

I did everything in the Sefy's guide, except used KVCD templates while encoding using TMPEnc (which is the best ever I guess).

But the KVCD that comes out, the video quality is not as good as they claim, has some kind of breaks in audio every few seconds.

Then I tried Red M's guide step by step, now the video quality was excellent but the filesize is nowhere the predicted size. It was almost one and half times the size predicted (ie) to be able to fit into one CD.

My main issue is to fit one whole movie (be it 120, 180 or 360 mins) into one CD, though almost always I want to fit only 120 mins.

Any comments/suggestions ????

Re: KVCD compromise - either poor quality or large file siz
 

The recommended program chain here for KVCDs is more like: DVDdecryptor>DVD2AVI(.d2v & AC3 files)>Avisynth>TMPGEnc(using .avs file, video-only)>BBMPEG(mux your .m1v and 112or128kbps .mp2 audio file you created with HeadAC3he)>Burning Program.

Try using 44.1khz audio instead of 48khz, if that is what you did. If 44.1khz audio still doesn't work, then maybe you need to use a SVCD "header-trick" during muxing or else encode as MPEG-2 instead of MPEG-1 for KVCDs to work on your dvd player. Have you tried the KVCD Compatibility Test CD on your dvd player yet? (you can find it in the "What's Happening" Forum). The test cd is helpful to determine which kvcd templates will play properly in your player at their default settings (you may need to tweak some settings to get certain templates to play correctly...or some simply may not work at all on your player).

Don't use TMPG version 2.59 if that is what you used (it muxes files too big). If you mux your KVCDs with TMPG, you must mux as VideoCD(non-standard). You need to use filesize prediction to obtain the right size file to fit onto your media. Try the latest version of Kwag's CQMatic tool to find the right CQ level to use during encoding in TMPG.

We do this every day here! :wink: It is usually easy to fit ~120 minutes of widescreen material onto 1 CDR using the kvcdx3 resolution (528/544x480) and 112kbps or 128kbps audio with good quality results. For 180 minutes, you will need to use 352x240 resolution and the LBR KVCD template, and quality will only be near standard-vcd quality, but still good enough for some people. If you follow the current methods used by everyone here, you will reach your KVCD goals in no time. :) Good luck.

-d&c