Dr. M: Non-standard VCDs?

[Patrick]

My brain is hurting from info overload...

I just read about CVD at the VCDhelper site. Any comments on this format and/or what is expressed in this article in regards to quality comparisons to SVCD?

CVD: What is it, how to test it, & what to expect!

[Snake-Eyes]

Did some tests tonight using your suggested settings, Flying Dutchman..

First of all, let me thank you again. The resulting SVCD videos that I used during my testing showed much better quality than prior attempts I have made.

Now on to the actual tests, mainly concerning NTSC DV to VCD and field order questions.

I spent probably the better part of two hours installing the software for this work on my system (I haven't had any capture / editing / conversion software installed since the last rebuild). For these tests I used Pinnacle Studio DV 7 as the capture program, VirtualDub to do the editing (er, well, filtering, since I didn't do anything else with it), and TMpegEnc for the final conversion to SVCD format, as well as reinstalling my Nero Burning ROM software and applying the latest software update (5590) so that I could actually produce the test disc.

After installation of all the software and patches, I took the latest miniDV tape that we'd shot while back visiting my parents last month, captured it using the standard DV codec (Full Quality DV chosen from Studio DV's capture options), then selected an ~2 minute segment of my children and wife having fun in a wading pool. This segment was then output (using SDV7) to an AVI file, again using the DV codec, so that the resulting footage would be unchanged from what was on tape.

After finding out that the latest VirtualDub doesn't come with the DNR filter, I did some searching on the web, and then installed that. At this point I followed your advice for settings, along with the basic frameserving instructions from vcdhelper.com, and frameserved the short clip to TMpegEnc.

More fun. I tried to dismiss the wizard and select the settings I needed for the output SVCD from the Settings button for the output file, and for some reason, every time I tried, I got nonstandard SVCD warnings from Nero for the resulting MPEG, specifically stating that there was streaming data.. After three unsuccessful attempts (and still scratching my head about WHERE to change anything in TMpegEnc concerning streaming output..), I went back to using the wizard mode.

From the wizard I selected 'Super Video-CD NTSC', and produced my first MPEG2 using the standard settings except for one change- I selected Interlaced (Field Order B, Bottom Field First). I then proceeded to restart the frameserver, repeating the encoding process twice more from TMpegEnc, using Field Order A for the second video, and the default Non-Interlace setting (in other words, all wizard defaults) for the last video. Then I made my test SVCD from Nero.

Nero gladly accepted all three MPEG2 videos as being SVCD compliant (*scratches head again*), so I burned my disc. I already knew that neither my Sony DVP-NS400D single DVD player or my Sony DVP-CX870D 300 disc changer would play SVCDs, but for kicks I inserted the disc in each. I got what I expected with those two players- basically, nothing but an error message. Heading on back to the master bedroom, I inserted the same disc into my Magnavox DVD825AT, where I also got what I expected, at least partially. I expected it to play the disc, and it did. What I didn't expect was the major improvement over past attempts at producing VHS or near-VHS quality SVCD CD output.

Thankfully I had that thought when making the test disc of checking each of the interlaced field orders / noninterlaced possibilities, because I was able to watch all three videos back-to-back. The first movie I made (Field order B, Bottom Field First)was nearly perfect, except for some minor blurring of the output (maybe lowering the DNR is in order?). The second movie (Field order A, Top Field First) was extremely jittery when any sort of rapid motion occured, and the third was jittery too, but not to the extreme of the second.

My verdict overall- your settings are great, though I probably need to tweak a bit for each segment of video I plan to put on disc. Second, at least for Sony NTSC miniDV camcorders, the footage is interlaced, with the bottom field first (unless it's something with the codec itself..).

Thanks again!

[Flying dutchman]

CVD is simply SVCD at a resolution of 352 pixels horizontally. Most SVCD compatible players will play it. It's a bit like VCD with twice the vertical resolution. Less resolution at the same bitrate means less motion artefacts. That's the reason why why I also crop off 16 pixels around my SVCD's. But CVD is slightly less sharp than SVCD on my TV.

Yet it has the advantage that, if you use 48000 Hz audio, you can use the same file for DVD creation. For PAL, that is; for NTSC, playing DVD files with mp2 audio isn't a mandatory feature that every player supports. (In practice, most do...)


BTW, does anybody know a freeware mpeg-2 multichannel audio encoder? That's within the SVCD specs...

[Peter B]

You will find a mpeg2 multichannel encoder now comes with the latest version of DVD2SVCD, avaiable at doom9, also the phillips web site has a free encoder and samples, I don't have the link but you can find it in the doom9 forums. I think they are the same encoder but I haven't checked.