Video on CD....?!?

[joshfl81]

I am somewhat of a durfer when it comes to video. I currently have many videos I have done that need to go on to a Cd for playback on a multitude of different systems, but most of them PC based. I am using a RT2000. I have been told Mpeg2 is the way to go but everytime I have used the included Cleaner 5 software to do it; I and up with a Mpeg1 file. No mater what I do I cannot get a clean smooth video. I need the frame rate to be as high as posible and all video needs to be smooth since the main footage is of machines and robots. Thanks for you help

[Brian Ellis]

Josh

Are you wanting a VCD, an SVCD or a CD with a file on it that is playable across most platforms?

If the last-named, I recommend the Indeo 5 series codec. This gives a good image (esp. full size) with reasonably small file size.

If a VCD, then MPEG-1 is the answer. If an SVCD, then MPEG-2, but it takes roughly twice the space of a VCD.

[joshfl81]

I am looking to have a file on a cd that will play on many differnt platforms. There cannot be extra required software on the other computers that it is played on. I need to encode it quickly and the average movie will be 3-10min so not too long. It will have audio as well and that needs to be at a decent quality. Also the frames need to be pretty close to 29fps.
~JOSh

[mikiem]

Hi

From the sounds of it, you might be best off using something like SpruceUp to record dvd on CDs, simply because they include a version of windvd that loads purely into memory. Won't cure your problems on every platform, but I don't know of anything else that does not require the viewing platform to have some sort of video player installed.

You'ld still have the problem of having to go to mpeg2 however, and there I'm afraid (least with cleaner) I can't be any help.

mikie

[droopy]

Hi yah, just my 2cents on this.

You could also use WinOnCD 3.8. By default it will put a software player on the burned VCD or SVCD which will work properly on all windows platforms.

WinOnCD also comes with a lot of writers these days.

[Karen St Martin]

I had this same problem some time ago (how to send video to friends that is playable on their machines). My solution was to use the DivX codec. It gives incredible compression without sacrficing quality. Of course, this requires that my friends system have the codec, but it is free, small and easily installable. So far, this has worked very well.

[joshfl81]

Premier

Is there something I can use right out of Premier that will put it in the right format....29.7fps, lower data rate, crisp image, high resolution?

~Josh

[Sciascia]

OK , my 2 cents, since I just went through something similar. I needed to create a portable cilp of a weekly promo, about 15-30 seconds each week. I went through all of this hassle installing mpeg2 codecs on all of these machines and optimizing my encoder settings to make it look as good as possible while still being small enough to email. I ended up going with MPEG1 for several reasons.

1. It can playback on 99% of desktop computers out there today. No extra SW to buy or install. WMPlayer works fine.

2. For lower bitrate videos (maybe N/A for you) it loos pretty close when using a decent encoder.

3. If you use the right settings you can author a VCD that will play on DVD set top players, almost any computer without extra SW and the quality is still decent (not perfect but definitely good)

4. Authoring SW and encoders for VCD are free or cheap.

5. MPEG1 video will embed into Power Point presentations very nicely. This was what did it for me.

To answer the Premiere question,

Panasonic used to make a plugin for Premiere, but it was only MPEG1. It looked pretty good though.

CinemaCraft makes a plugin that will do both MPEG1&2. I think it runs about $89???? Best qulaity option here.

Ligos makes a plugin that has gotten some high reviews. $100??? Fairly new so it should be solid, MPEG1&2.

You can use AVSynth to frameserve from Premiere to TMPGEnc or BBMPeg encoders. This option is free, but not as good quality wise as CinemaCraft.


My suggestion is to try TMPGEnc 12a. It is free and the quality is good. Do some experimenting before you buy anyting.
DivX is fine if it is only for PC's and they have to have it installed (not too bad), but for only a few minutes of video, VCD makes more sense for quality. DivX also requires a little more CPU horsepower than MPEG1 for playback, so they can't be running a 200 MMX machine.

[joshfl81]

Next...

OK, I bought the Ligos plug-in and it seems to work pretty good for videos that are not full screen and what not. These videos are used as part of proposals for an engineering firm I work for; so they dont not have to run at too high off quality and not at a full screen. I also would like to run some videos at full screen in the best posible quality, these will be for use for trade shows and corporate presentations. I was talking to a friend and he spoke of Mpeg2 to be the best choice for this. Now here are the issues... What is the frame rate and data rate I should shoot for? What are some other specs I should try to reach? Your help is keeping my job!
~Josh

[Karen St Martin]

Josh,

You say that the Ligos encoder works pretty good for videos that are not full screen. What happens if you use it for full screen clips? I use it for everything from 352x240 to 720x480 and it outputs excellent quality no matter what the frame size.

Karen

[mikiem]

Hi

RE: fps and such, I might be preaching overkill, but you might want to check first with the trade show folks within your company and see what equipment they use there. Reason I ask is there seems to be a fair amount of wide screen and/or hdtv usage at trade shows.

Otherwise, just standard TV stuff, go for 29.97, as Karen writes: not problem with Ligos (just do full size with fields), and you should be able to get around 5 or 6 vbr I'd think on a CD if your projects are so short. IOW, if you can use the bandwidth, take it.

mikie

[Anatoly Neverov]

You should use standard MPEG1. Here are the profiles:

PAL
Video:
1150 kbit/sec
352 x 288 pixels
25 frames/second
Audio:
224 kbit/sec

NTSC
Video:
1150 kbit/sec
352 x 240 pixels
29,97 frames/second
Audio:
224 kbit/sec

These files will be played in practically any computer with very decent quality. I'd advice you to make an *.avi file, and convert it into MPEG with TMPEGEnc. The quality will be better than LIGOS. If you will burn them onto a CD as VCD 2.0, they'll be played in any VCD player and 99% of DVD players. It is the best solution if you will distribute them to many people and don't know what hardware for playback they'll use. If you write to me personally I'll teach you how to make autorunned CD's.

[Mance]

I agree with the VCD format for compatibility, almost anyone will be able to play it. However I'm not happy with the VCD's I've been able to make using my equipment (Radeon AIW and Sigma DVR). I've gotten some from the net that were quite impressive, almost but not quite VHS quality when played full screen to a TV. I've yet to capture raw and offline encode for VCD, so it's no wonder mine have been mediocre.

When I want full screen at the best quality I can get, and am not too concerned with compatibility, then I use MPG2. My Sigma DVR, which does a better job than my Radeon AIW (on a PIII-800E), defaults to 4500kbsec VBR for MPG2. At that rate I can fit about 15 minutes or so on a 700meg CD-R. If captured from a good source (like a miniDV camcorder) the results look just like the original. With TV (and it's noise) the capture is near identical to the original. For doing TV I'm now using 4000kbsec VBR and can fit 22 minutes per CD-R, which is a half hour show without commercials. The CD's I'm making are not authored as anything, they just have raw MPG files on them.

If you need for someone to be able to read your MPG2 files but don't have the software to put a built in DVD player on the disk (mentioned in the above replies), then you can use the Elecard codec. The newest one on their site is bundled with their own player that you have to install (although it will still install the system codec that will allow Media Player to play the files too), but the previous one was just a system codec that you could install or uninstall on the fly (very convenient). It does however put a tiny icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen. I still have a copy of that one, but the newer one buncled with their player is at:

https://www.elecard.com

[Anatoly Neverov]

But please read what is the task: "I currently have many videos I have done that need to go on to a Cd for playback on a multitude of different systems, but most of them PC based." Nothing is better than MPEG1 in this case. Decent quality and almost full compability with any hardware. A lot of computers just can not play MPEG2 files or the playback is ugly.