Best way to encode AVI with dancing and lots of colors in it (music video)?

[detGB]

I captured the MJPEG AVI video @ 704x480 NTSC resolution using a Marvel G400. It has lots of fast dancing in it and it's pretty colorful.

Whats steps should I take to encode it to an MPEG-1 file that retains the best quality? (Please be as detailed as necessary.) Thanks.

[DrMordrid]

MPEG-1 will be a problem visually because of its low resolution. That aside I'd set it up at 352x240, 30 frames/sec, 200 kB/s video and 384 kb/s stereo audio.

You'd be better off getting an MPEG-2 encoder like Ligos LSX. MPEG-2 can do higher resolutions with excellent quality.

Since Avid Cinema came with your Marvel G400-TV you may be interested in this: Ligos sells a version of it's MPEG/MPEG-2 encoder as a plugin for for Avid Cinema that only costs $29.95 USD. This is a steal.

http://www.ligos.com

Another option is Uleads Video Studio 4.0. It comes with the Ligos Go-Motion MPEG-2 encoder plugin.

http://www.ulead.com

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 06 December 1999).]

[decibel]

...or you could try Microsoft's new MPEG-4 codecs (Windows Media Tools) and the "new" ASF format. The combination of MPEG-4 V3 codec and Windows Media Audio (wma) gives very good results (I use rates ranging from 700 kbps - 1440 kbps).

You'll find all you need here:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmedia/

.....and it's all FREE!

[detGB]

Thanks for the feedback guys. Here are a few other questions.

DrMordrid: Whenever I encode at any rate less than 1500 kB/s with LSX, the output starts to degrade significantly. Did you mean 2000 kB/s?

decibel: How do you actually encode anything with MPEG-4? I have the three options listed (v1 - v3) in both Virtual Dub and Premiere 5.0, but neither app will compress video in that format ('unable to start compressor' error). I have WMT installed as well as Media Player 6.4. What else do I need?

[DrMordrid]

I meant 200 kiloBYTES as a minimum data rate. This translates to 1600 kiloBITS, which is how the data rate is usually displayed in encoders.

Are you setting bits or bytes?

Dr. Mordrid

[detGB]

I'm setting bits.

[decibel]

RE: "How do you actually encode anything with MPEG-4?"

I use Windows On-Demand Producer from Sound Foundry ( avaiable for download at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...ad/default.asp ). Encoding to MPEG-4 in VirutalDub does not work yet. So you have to use either Windows Media Encoder (which ships with Windows Media Tools), Windows On-Demand Encoder or Adobe Premiere (Windows Media Tools comes with a plug-in for Adobe Premiere. Description of how to use it can be found at: http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum2/HTML/001316.html ).

... and make sure to make sure to make a custom template with the correct framerate to get optimal results (default is 15 fps).


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decibel

[DrMordrid]

Then the notation used in our posts is what caused the confusion. This is the proper nomenclature:

kb/s = kilobits/sec (note lower case b)
mb/s = megabits/sec

kB/s = kilobytes/sec (note upper case B)
mB/s = megabytes/sec

bytes = bits/8

If you are setting 1500 kilobits (kb/s) that calculates out to 187.5 kilobytes (kB/s) or .1875 mB/s.

If you are seeing reduced quality at this setting you now know why I suggested 200 kB/s, which works out to 1600 kb/s.

In any case 200 kB/s (1600 kb/s) was intended as a minimum. Most full version Ligos sofware can encode over 14,000 kb/s (~1.8 mB/s), which can produce very high quality video considering the resolution.

The only questions posed by using these higher rates would be:

1. do you have the full version?

2. would higher rates produce files to large for your purposes?

1 is easy to answer. 2 needs requires experimentation on your part.

Dr. Mordrid



[This message has been edited by DrMordrid (edited 10 December 1999).]

[This_Idiot]

Doc,

Just picking up on some loose threads here. The number of bits per byte depends on the O/S. Instance, GeorgeIII used 6bit encoding not 8bit, giving 24 bit words instead of 32bit. Somewhere I've still got a translation chart....

Also, although 1,024 bytes is commonly accepted as a Kilobyte (what you or I would call a KB although others disagree), there is wider disparity in the number of KB in a MB. Purists claim that is again 1,024, whereas the HD manufacturers claim 1,000. Well who's figures look better from a performance point of view ?

[fluggo99]

Programmers use the 1024 KB per MB spec. The hard drive manufacturers are the only ones to use 1000 KB per MB, because then they can claim more megabytes!

For audio in .ASF's, I still prefer Layer3 audio over Windows Media Audio. WMA just for some reason sounds way out of tune and washed out. I don't know, just aesthetics I guess.

What's a GeorgeIII?

And what's a good way to take a video with fields and shrink it down in MSP so that MSP doesn't blend the fields together? (The point being to keep as sharp a picture as possible by throwing out one field.) When I encoded the MMATFP video, I made the ASF encoder do the scaling because it wouldn't blend the fields, BUT I want to do the same thing with MSP's MPEG encoder. Is it possible?

[This message has been edited by fluggo99 (edited 11 December 1999).]

[salacious]

Just a point about the LSX MPEG-2 Encoder.

It doesn't handle the field order of my Marvel G200 correctly and it doesn't give you the option to change the field order (like bbMPEG). It may look right when output to a TV but to the interlaced picture but it is wrong.

Salacious

[fluggo99]

Nobody responds to my questions anymore...

[Biker]

Hi DetGB

Just a quickie. Responding to your original question.

I was really unhappy with Mpeg1 encoding using MSp5.0 the quality was absolute SH*T. untill someone suggested downloading a freebie a couple of weeks back.Its called "avi2mpg1" The quality for Mpeg1 is great. so good i would like to send whoever wrote it some cash, he has made me that happy.
(Thanks to This_idiot for recommending it)

Sadly i cannot remember where I got it?
Hopefully some nice person will tell you.

best of luck

Biker

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[Patrick]

Is this it?

http://www.mnsi.net/~jschlic1/avi2mpg1/