mpeg1 settings??? HELP!!!

[rdf]

Hi, I've been trying to encode mpg 1 video so that it would be burned to an Autoplay cdrom that would be most compatable for PC computers. Using Procoder Professional I had originally encoded the settings for 640 x 480 (preselected mpeg1 setting) and playback on the computer was beautiful. Playback from the cd was also beautiful from our computer but was not always compatable on other computers. After searching and researching the forums I found people saying that the "golden rule" was to stay under 1500 kbits/sec. I re-encoded the video using the windows media file selection in procoder and made the video bit rate 2000 (just to see what would happen) and the audio 16, with the frame rate at 29.97fps, and made the size 480 x 360 (I was told to keep the size in blocks of 16). When I previewed this on the computer it played great and the quality was good. When I burned it to cd the playback was gittery. So I assumed that I had set my video bit rate too high, I then re-encoded the video at 1500 kbits/sec. and again the video plays back fine on the video preview, but turns out to be even more gittery when played back from the cd???

Could someone please put me out of my misery share mpeg 1 settings they have used to play back video from a cd that looks good and is compatable on most PCs. Or, if anyone has any other suggestions on what I could do to improve the quality.

Thanks

Rick

[yosik]

Hi,
Mpeg1 files are 352X288 for PAL and 320X240 for NTSC. Going larger is a waste of mem. As to bit rate, 1500 KBps is a good value, although you can go up to 2000. Just check that you are using MPEG1 and not MPEG2
Good luck
Yossi

[hbuyer]

Personally I use 368x288 for Pal, the reason is it maintains the aspect ratio, using 352x288 is for TV playback where VCDs require this aspect ratio, the DVD player handles the non-square pixels well, but computers play this back with a slightly distorted aspect.

If windows NT is a possible target do not go over this size, otherwise it will say it does not have the codec installed!

Using higher images size works well with Mpeg1, I would disagree that it is a waste of time going larger than the VCD settings, and quite often I use VBR 2500 kb/s (Variable Bit Rate max 3500). If I am using video in PowerPoint I usually use 800x600 (or 768x576) and VBR 2500. This works well off the hard drive, but may cause problems off a CD drive.

I would suggest using Virtual Dub to resize the video and frame serve to TMPGenc. If you want to use Procoder, then use Virtual Dub to create a separate file first, uncompressed video (very large file). Virtual Dub will do a better job of resize and change non square pixels if for example you have DVD footage. Virtual dub is free. For CD playback do not use VBR, CBR is better (constant bit rate). Unfortunately, CBR requires higher bit rates to achieve the same quality.

As a general rule, the less resizing you have to do the better, however, if you need a lower bit rate to playback smoothly off the CD, you will achieve a better video if you resize it smaller say 320x240 and use a relatively high bit rate, let the player and system resize the video.

However, for CD playback I would recommend Microsoft Mpeg4 V2. This will play on almost all Windows systems from Windows 98 up (and on 95 if they have their updates installed). It will provide the same or better quality as Mpeg1 and half to a third of the file size, so will not be an issue getting high data rates of the CD, and does not require the fast processors the latest Mpeg4 codecs do. It plays very smoothly on PII systems. Plus the encoder is free, look for Nandub (a cousin of Virtual Dub), you will have to look at some guides, but the defaults work very well (except the default codec is DivX3, so you do need to change it to Microsoft Mpeg4 V2, a simple check box setting).

[hbuyer]

A couple of other things, you can create Microsoft Meog4 V2 videos straight from the timeline using any video editor, but the quality is poor compare to Nandub, because Nadub does a two pass VBR. The second thing is Nandub creates VBR Mp3 audio, this is not good. You should use CBR audio, otherwise you can have all sorts of problems on different systems with audio and video playback, sync problems, video playing too fast etc.

Therefore, do a two pass video encode with Nandub, then load the video with Virtual Dub Mod and remove the audio track (by default Nandub just keeps the current audio, probably a wav file, though you can select to ignore audio) and mux in a new Mp3 audio file (crated separately, look for Besweet for a free Mp3 encoder). Make sure you remove the video processing in Virtual Dub mod, the default is full processing, which will create an uncompressed video.

A good place to look is Doom9.org, they have guides on Nandub, Virtual Dub, Virtual Dub Mod and Besweet, all free plus links to download them. Plus there are hundreds of resources on how to use these programs, just search in google.

[rdf]

Hi and thank you for your reply

Could you give me some examples of video,audio bit rates,fps, etc that you would use as MPEG1 and also as MPEG4 V2

Thanks Rick