My problem is that I can take a regular DVD and convert it to a picture perfect VCD. I am talking superior quality and sound, but when I download avi file from kaaza, the picture is never quality as a VCD. Is there a way I can uncompress and re-encode to get the quality I want without taking up all the space on my hard drive. I have pretty much all the basic programs from Vdub to Flask to TMPGenc. If it can be done with one of these great, if not let me know the software I need. Thanks, Chris
That is ridiculous otherwise the wheel wouldn't have been invented. There has to be a way to improve the quality of the downloaded files by recompression or some other technique.
sorry re-encoding movies into other formats always lose quality, why do you think when encoding dvds into say divx or vcd, the quality isnt as good? same rule applies to what youre trying to do theres really no way around it.
Well, That kinda bums me out because I have been kicking out VCD's for a couple of months, but I still wanted to improve the quality to get the best I could. The VCD's are in-between a VHS and DVD even after re-encoding with the best encoders. So, I guess I have to live with OK. Thanks for the suggestions. If you come up with anything new on the subject let me know. Thanks again.
You can only go so far with vcds. If you really want to up the ante, quality wise, id suggest creating svcds or even better divx movies. Divx quality compared to that of a vcd/svcd is wholly superior(my opinion). But if you watch your encodes on a standalone dvd player then divx isnt for you. So the next best thing is definitely svcds.
Sorry poweredup, I disagree. I can take a poor quality avi into v-dub, and come out with a winner (MOST of the time, not always). And, I get the best results when I CHANGE the Codec. Try this: Open V-dub, video->filter->(I'd start with brightness/contrast), be careful, a little bright goes a long way), go from there. Next: video->compression (try another Codec, esp DivX) experiment a little. You have to remember that your getting crap (not to mention a Trojan or two from Kaaza). Good luck.
Yeah, Jimmy X, I have been playing with recompression and using the various filter with Vdub. I even have the extra filter package you can grab which is pretty nice and my movies are getting better. I have even tried uncompressing and recompressing a whole movie using my codecs to get the best quality. Don't waste you time. I get everything looking very good except for the fast motion scenes and then everything starts blurring. Anyway, thanks for the ups. Chris
crfenoli, I think what lymph was trying to say in his quaint way was that your encode can never be any better than the source. Think about it. By re-encoding something that's already been encoded, it's only possible to loose quality, not gain quality. So if you're going to re-encode then there should be a different reason for doing it such as: 1) re-encoding vcd to divx to conserve space, or 2) re-encoding divx to s/vcd to be able to watch it on your standalone dvd player. You cannot improve the video by recompressing it. Remember that in order to compress it, data is shaved off. It would be impossible to put data back that's no longer there, if you get my meaning. The only way you can make a change is by using the filters which may give you a "better" quality. This would be similar to waxing a car that has an old paint job. Comparably, as it would be better to get a new paint job, so would it be better to buy the dvd and do a fresh backup of it in your desired format. If you choose to go the cheaper route and "wax" the video, then you are just trying to fix what the previous "owner" let happen to it. lol
I can't believe they still post me as a neebie. I should be the master of the realm, but anyway. OK guys, here is the ticket for all of you who said that better quality cannot be achieved. If this were true, then the wheel would have never been invented. So, listen up all you disbelievers. You are right that re-encoding even with filters in VDUb will only get you so far, but we were all looking in the wrong direction. What I have been doing is taking the avi file and converting it to a MPeg2 using Tmpgencoder. Then, demux the file into an M2v and mpa file using the MPEG TOOLS in TMPgencoder. Take your video and audio and place it into IFOedit to make the IFO files. From there you can go to Xmpeg 5.0 flask and under options use the best compressor with motion deinterlace to get awesome quality. This whole process takes me about 4-6 hours. Then, once you have a great quality mpeg1 file you can go straight to VCD or use TMPGencoder to convert to MPEG2 to make a SVCD. From there it straight forward to Nero Express and voila! you have the quality you want. I prefer the SVCD it takes longer granted and for most movies you must use 3 discs compared to 2, but if you have the time the quality is worth it. So, Hail to the King. Who said research and persistance doesn't pay off. Oh yeah, IFOedit is a free program. Elecard has a pretty decent MPEG2 decoder and player for like 20 bucks. The file splitting can be done with avi & mpeg file splitter or with VDUB. Remember that VDUB does have a lot of new really nice filters that can be downloaded so go to there home page and check them out they really help for quick solutions. Hopefully, this will help alot of people out there so pass this info on. Chris
Ok heres my view but first crfenoli, you are encouraging piracy in your last post and thats against the rules so you'll probably be banned soon, unless of course you edit the message or something. Quality improvement can be achieved in some ways like brightness or something but very unlikely when you are talking about encoding one lossy compression to another!! VBR encoding produces the best quality IMO and the opinion of about 95% of movie encoders!! I find the best results come from using DVD2SVCD with CCE SP. Also there ar a few things u can do to make sure you have a better quality output like, if you are encoding SVCD the frame size should be 480x576 (PAL) or 480x480(NTSC) but if you use the VCD framesizes 352x288(PAL) or 352x240(NTSC) and burn as non-standard, it should play abck and will definately have nicer quality! Also the number of passes you make are a big issue, i have gone as high as 8 pass encoding and man the quality was just the slightest tad off dvd!! Anyway's i'm planning on writing a guide on quality issues soon so check it out when its done!
Dela, Sorry I didn't know about the rule you were talking about and I don't know how to edit the message, but from now on I will remember your advice. Secondly, the encoding isn't lossy at all in fact I have near DVD quality without the multipass component which takes increadibly large amounts of time. I don't know how long it took you to run 8 passes but I bet it wasn't a fast process. Also, I have found a template for TMPgencoder called kingvipers codec which gives great quality and know allows me to put a 120 minute SVCD on one CDR. It is pretty cool. Also, these programs I am using are pretty fast except for the actual MPEG2 creation amd all my codecs are the latest. I surf quite abit.
Well lossy compression doesnt mean anything about the quality. Like mp3 is a lossy compression! The 8 pass encoding for an hour and a half movie took me about 12-14 hours! 4 pass is just fine so that would take about 6-8 hours. I encode when I sleep so it doesnt bother me!
