Hi Gang

Well, after a healthy dose of burnt coasters, I finally managed to get my Apex 1500 to properly display output from the new x3 template!

The trick (which Kwag mentioned might work for another player) was to change the resolution from 524x480 to 544x480. I then burnt the disc as a non-compliant vcd and it played perfectly. I was also working at 29.9 fps, but this is mainly because I was encoding an NTSC TV show! All other aspects of the template were left normal. I'll try the 24fps and report back.

It is important to note that I did NOT have to demux/remux the file as an SVCD - something that is normally perscribed when getting these templates to work with the 1500.

Kwag: Given this discovery, what resolution changes might be made to other templates to make them work? Even with demux/mux, I couldn't get perfect playback with any other template. It would either be jerky or, more frequently, I'd get garbled video in the top 3/4 of the screen with the bottom 1/4 being blank.

Also, if this is the ONE template I can get to work, what can I do within the settings to get better quality? Believe it or not, increasing the quality slider from 35 to 70 only resulted in slightly better video...


Thanks!
Mojo

Hi Mojo,
The CQ settings are pretty maxed on all teplates. What you get, is basically a larger file size , by increasing the value. But no visible quality gain. Maybe on HDTV's you'll notice a slighter increase in quality, but it's really not worth it.
-kwag

Thanks for the tip, Kwag.

But if I've got room to spare on the CD (I'm encoding TV shows), do you have a suggestion for improving quality? Will simply increasing the max bitrate work?

Uh oh... maybe I spoke to soon!

I just had an extended viewing session of my KVCDx3 encode on the Apex 1500, and while it looks great for the most part, there is a 'tearing' issue with fast-motion scenes (even simple pans).

It's not mpg noise - the picture tears with horizontal streaks, and it's NOT the mpg file - it's the player.

I tried the disc in my 600A and it did the same thing.

Am I pushing the players to the limit as far as how much info they can display (meaning is the bitrate too high)?

Keep in mind this is a FULL SCREEN encode, so there's a lot more info coming across than in a letterboxed movie.

Anyone have any ideas on how to fix this?


Mojo

The max bit rate is already pretty high at 2,500Kbps. Increasing the max bit rate will reduce the almost "null" blocks on extremely high action scenes. You will not see any difference on regular scenes, even if you increase the MAX to > 10,000Kbps. The bit rate is just not used by the encoder.

-kwag