Hey guys. I'm the happy owner of a brand new dvd burner (hp dvd300i) so I need to learn up about the wonders of KDVDs. I'm fully versed in making KVCDs, but my main problem was compatability issues. Namely, my KVCDs would work perfectly on my machine but not on my parents or my brothers. For one, my brother has an old Pioneer that won't read MPEG-1 unless they are VCD compliant, any deviation in bitrate and/or resolution and it poo-poos. Then my parents have a newer Pioneer but it won't play MPEG-1 at all, it only takes MPEG-2. Also they have a nice big HDTV so it's better if I encode in anamorphic mode. Furthermore, 528x480 encodes look soft and blurry on their big HDTV. But my new Sony won't play MPEG-2 or SVCDs, so I prefer MPEG-1. I also have only a 20" TV so 528x480 is fine for me.

So now that I can make KDVDs I'm hoping I can try and make my encodes as compliant as possible. So what resolutions are kosher? The KDVD template obviously has deviations in Q matrix and stuff, so will that make them nonstandard as well? Also if my player won't play MPEG-2 KSVCDs or SVCDs on CDR, is KDVD any different?

I guess I'm just a bit confused and need some good links for me to read up on! Thanks

Hi J-Wo,

No, not at all
It's full DVD compliant KDVDs are standard compliant DVD MPEG-2 streams, but modified with our "Notch" matrix.
It should play on any DVD player.
If you use the KDVD full D-1 TMPEG template, those MPEG files will play on every DVD player.
Only half D-1 MPEG-2 files have been reported not to work on some players, even though 352x480(576) is a valid DVD resolution.
Some manufacturers are not following the DVD specifications completely

-kwag

Oh wow I did not know that! I was fooling around a little trying to make my first KDVD from an xvid source (I know, I know, wrong forum!). If I don't bother to do file prediction, will a typical 2 hr movie fit fine on a DVD-R if I just set CQ to 90? Or will I still have to do prediction?

I used Moviestacker to load my source file and set the resolution to Full DVD in order to get the right GripCrop lines. Now with KVCD mpeg-1 I know there is a difference in destination anamorphic settings, i.e. should be ON for a widescreen tv and OFF for a normal TV. What about for KDVDs? Is there a setting I can use so it will look fine on both tv systems?

Also I have noticed much more discussion about using CCE in this forum than tmpgenc. I seem to recall hearing that CCE is better for mpeg-2 and faster. Is this the case, are most people using CCE for their KDVDs?

You should be able to fit 2 hours, with some room to spare at that CQ If your DVD is anamorphic, make sure you also check anamorphic on destination. This way, you'll create a DVD identical to your source. Well, you'll really gain a slight quality gain with CCE, and more encoding speed.
To me, I've done many KDVDs, and I'm very happy with TMPEG's quality on MPEG-2.
I've managed to put up to 3 movies (~ 2 hours each ) at 720x480 on one DVD-R, and they just look excelent.
Hint: If you don't care about anamorphic, and you want your movie just plain old 16:9, then don't check the anamorphic on output, and you'll save tons of bitrate, useable for higher quality, or more play time on your DVD-R
Just make a small test encode of your movie at CQ=90, and see how it looks

-kwag