Is it better to encode to 352x576 MPEG-1 or 480x576 MPEG-2 ?
 

Hi Guys

Is it better to encode to 352 x 576 MPEG-1 or 480 x 576 MPEG-2. Which would be the better quality?

Thanks in advance for your help.

It's better to do both at MPEG1. What will give more quality depends on the lenght of your source and how much motion it has...

[]'s
Vmesquita

Try doing a small sample clip at each resolution and see which one your prefer. :wink: Have you tried 480x576 MPEG-1 in your player to see if it works? Depending on the length of your movie and the difference in final CQ levels between the 2 resolutions you listed, I would probably use 480x instead of 352x. I prefer a sharper image, and 352x is a bit too blurry to me. But you should trust your own eyes to decide what is best for you.

-d&c

Thanks for your help.

But i thought MPEG-2 was better than MPEG-1?

Also i have trouble playing 480x576 MPEG-1 on my dvd player, is it possible to encode it as MPEG-1 and mux it as SVCD on bbmpeg? would that work?

Thanks again

It seems that MPEG1 is better than MPEG2 at low bitrate. But there is some debate about it.
It is possible to do that and it might work, however you might want to try 528x576 ou 352x576.

[]'s
Vmesquita

For my part the debat was very short : after months making MPEG2/SVCD for my KVCD, I once tried MPEG1/SVCD (only format supported by my player) : I never returned back to MPEG2 ! ;-)

Just test it : take a sample, encode it in both format with low bitrate and make your choice.

I have done samples, and it does seem that MPEG-1 is better (more sharper) than MPEG-2.

The problem is that on my philips dvd player i cant fast forward SVCD (it plays), but it doesnt allow me to fast forward (when i press the fast forward button it takes me to the menu!). Any Ideas

Thanks again

Hi bashi007,

Did you burn your MPEG-1 as SVCD or as VCD :?:
If you burned as VCD, try burning as SVCD :idea:

-kwag

i burnt it as SVCD. I suppose i could try and burn it as VCD, and see what happens.

Making chapters not good enough ?
I usually make 20 chapters evenly spaced, so it is pretty easy to skip
around.

MPEG-1 is better for ONE-CD encodings because of the Low Bit Rates. MPEG-2 is better at 2000kbps. For every resolution with very low Bitrates MPEG-1 is better but with high resolutions there is more compatibility with mpeg-2.

Hi all:
I'm trying to encode a camcorder capture, 37 minute long (feel strange, 37 min film in the 120 min forum...). With CalcuMatic ( :wink: ) I get an average bitrate of 2800... so I decided to make MPEG2 (max br 3000, min 100) for SKVCD.
But ( 8O ), my JVC player (new model, this year, performs well any KVCD I fed it) didn't show well first tests (burned on a rewritable CD), in high action shows in a step by step way (I don't know how to explain, sorry). When I made another test with max br 2800, played well.
With this average br, do you advise me to keep on MPEG2 (it's a family party recording), or change to MPEG1? If I burn on a recordable CD, will the problem disappear?.

Which resolution you have to choose?

I think you min Bitrate is to low. Use 300 or 700 at a average Bitrate of 2800kbps.

MPEG-2 for an average Bitrate of 2800 is the best choise.

Hi digitall.doc,

I suggest you keep it as MPEG-2, because you don't have to do any deinterlacing, and you'll get better quality.
Specialy at such a high bitrate.

-kwag

Hi EM, Hi Kwag, Hi all:
...sorry for answering late: soccer on TV, friends at home, going out with family,... too busy.

EM,
I'm encoding at 528x576
And never had a problem with min bitrate 100. Do you think this is the problem, and that's why my dvd player didn't read it well?

Kwag,
I'll keep MPEG2, but I cannot go above max bitrate 2800 (my dvd showed an image each several miliseconds, as it had emptied its buffer and waited ti reload), and I still didn't multiplex audio, maybe I will have to go down... Why am I having this problem, can it be due to CD being rewritable, or am I doing anything wrong?.

If you can't go over 2800kbps you can use CBR at 2800 and the result is better than CQ. Use the standart Matrix and GOP.

Your problem can also be the Buffer size. Choose Automatic or 224 for MPEG-2. Perhaps it can delete your problem.

Thanx EM,
I'll try your suggestions. The first one: you mean CBR 2800, standard SVCD matrix from TMPGEnc (not SKVCD), and standard GOP that comes with TMPGEnc SVCD matrix, don't you?.
I hope it will fit in a CD. I'll test it.

Use the Wizzard and you can set the Bitrate to one CD. Use SVCD Template and it's better for with a short Film like yours.

Hi Encoder Master (Santa? :lol: ) and all:
long time ago since we posted in this thread. Well, here again to post my experiencies and ...problems.
As I read CQ gives better quality than constant bitrate or 2-pass variable bitrate, I kept making CQ. I followed EM advice and tried to change VBV to automatic first, and VBV 224 second, and then tried with MainConcept leaving VBV as is, and changing to 224 also. Results on my standalone disappointing in a way:
+ TMPGEnc with VBV automatic, gave me similar results like VBV 224: first, it lasted a bit to begin playing (showed the first 3 seconds lasting 5-8 seconds, didm't measure it), and then the "step by step" effect in high action dissappeared (right :wink: ) but the scene plays like in slow motion
+ MainConcept with standard VBV: with min bitrate set to 1000, MAX 3000, average 2800 and CQ 3, it played smoothly (can't say if it slowed a bit, but I think not), and with less blocks in fast tracking scenes (I also tried TMPGEnc with min 1000, max 3000 and CQ 60, similar filesize, but much blockier in the same fast tracking scenes)
+ MainConcept with VBV 224:
- with min 1000, MAX 3000 and AVG 2800, no difference
- why not raise max?: min 1000, MAX 4000, AVG 2800, maybe slightly slowed when playing high action scenes
- min 1000, MAX 4000, AVG 3500: definitely slowed, even in not so fast scenes

Conclusions (from my experience, reproducing in my JVC standalone): MCE makes better in fast tracking scenes, less blocks, smoothier. Changing VBV doesn't look to completely solve my bitrate problem. Do you think that my player doesn't support avg bitrates higher than 3000, or max bitrates higher than 3000?, or am I doing anything wrong with encoding, muxing, burning?, or should I burn a test in a CD-R instead CD-RW and see what happens?. I would like to know if I can raise avg and max bitrate for my short home made films, to get better quality, but I don't know how. Can you figure a way I could try now?.

As always, thank you for being patient with me.

Only on resolutions above 352x240(288). For 352x240(288), CQ_VBR produces the best quality (less artifacts).

-kwag