Your Tips, Tricks, and Tweeks for retaining A/V quality?

hi,
if i'm having trouble fitting the entire movie on a disk (it's a big movie), should i lower the bitrate or raise the Q-factor??

changes to either of these settings can output files with wildly unpredictable file sizes. i found reference to a CCE file size "guesser" on doom9 but it forces you to use some settings in order to make the calculation, and i don't want to use those settings... does anybody know where to get hold of a better "guesser" tool??

 

I would raise the Q Factor by 5 or 10 depending on how much too big the File is....

Are you useing the "Low Bitrate" Matrix?? as this really helps keep the Bitrate down....

You can also try the "First Pass of Multipass VBR" encodeing mode...
This will allow you to Set the Max, Min, and Average bitrates and encode in one Pass, This way you get a Better prediction of the File size and it takes the same time as One Pass VBR and CBR...
It is Good to get a Bitrate Calculator so you know what Average bitrate to use based on the Length of the Movie...

Cheers

 

i'm actually using the "Very Low Bitrate" matrix...
but i am only off by a couple hundred MBytes, so i just need to tweek it a little. i didn't know which setting would have a bigger effect on quality, but i will try raiseing the Qfactor next time.

i already use a bitrate calc, but it is useless for "1 pass VBR" mode... i have tried the "1 pass of Multi VBR" but it actually takes 2 passes. one pass to create a .vaf information file, and one pass to encode. how did you get yours to encode just as fast as "1 pass VBR"??

 

I think you must have used the Wrong Setting in CCE because the "First Pass of Multi-Pass" only takes one Pass and it encodes and Makes the Vaf file all in that same Pass...
In the Regular "Multi-pass VBR" setting it takes a Pass to make the Vaf file and then encodes in the Next Pass but the "First Pass of Multi-Pass" setting encodes in One Pass.....

Cheers

 

sorry, you're right... "1 pass of Multi VBR" takes just as long as "1 pass VBR".

so if the encodeing time is the same for these two modes then what is the advantage of "1 pass VBR"?? are the file sizes that it creates really that much smaller when the quality is the same??

 

Well I actually prefer the Quality Compared to File size with the "One Pass VBR" but it is hard to Predict the File size were with the "First Pass of Multi-Pass" you can predict the File size and the Quality is Good as Long as you don"t set the average bitrate too low.. So they both have there advantages and Disadvantages.....

 

ok, cool. thanks for the input.

 

I like my way more, (sorry)

1) bought a S-VHS recorder with TBC (has s-video out)
2) bought the ADVC100
3) capture with WinDV
4) encode with CCE basic
5) encode audio to AC3 with Besweet+GUI
6) author with DVDLab
7) print on Vertabim printable's with Epson Stylus
Photo 900 printer

Recently i also have a satellite receiver, (quit my UPC cable contract)
and have DVD quality recordings from live tv, (on a 70 cm CRT) and that's enough for now, later i buy something like a Dreambox, or the Kaon KVR1000 which can also record analog video (full PVR), but these are still future plans...

 

Were are the "Tips and Tricks for retaining A/V Quality"??

 

Well i guess that's my point, you start with "it" in a
very early stage with this, which saves you work, and
time, i guess what isnt there, you don't have to filter
or remove, okay, you are right when you say: that's only in a ideal situation, but most of the time, filters, will also remove some quality, the resolution of a pc monitor is a lot better than a regulair tv, (CRT) and i noticed, recording tv broadcast on my JVC (it has build in noise reduction)
smooths out some noise, and this is nice, but it also
reduces a little bit the resolution, but i guess that's the "deal" you take by this..
I'm now very happy with my sat. receiver, the quality is better than most of my pre-recorded VHS tapes, so when there's a movie, that i've got only on VHS i record it "live" and burn it on dvd.
Also, when i transfer a vhs to dvd, it appears to look better on dvd, because of the JVC's noise reduction, what does not please me is, i can't switch off the noise reduction, well who said it would be easy ?
Also, it's wise, to keep up to date with devolpments,
you can't compare quality from a vcr, that's made 10
years ago, mechanical, software, en electronics keep
getting better.
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]Bedankt, Thanks,

Fugitive.[/small]

 

fugitive2, i'm sorry but i don't really understand your post. are you saying that your "trick" for retaining A/V quality is to buy a satellite receiver??

how much did it cost?? can you hook up a VCR to it?? have you tested the quality against other units such as a simple $50 video stableizer?? you have not told us the make or model number...

 

Not exactly, but what i meant is, before doing any
filtering, try to avoid getting noise in your video
signal,
using a S-VHS vcr for it's s-video connection,
and the use of build in noise reduction of the vcr.
it safes long filtering time.
keep connection leads as short as possible, you don't
have to buy any "Monster" cables that way.
If possible, switch off the rf-modulator of the vcr,
in some cases this modulator causes interference,
(you're using most of the time the scart connection)
filtering removes sometimes the finer color tones,
loosing depth this way.