Quality

[Nick]

I am using Tmpeg to recode AVI files into a VCD version of MPEg.
But when i replay them on a DVD player the quality is very blocky,
Can anyone suggest a way of improving the quality

[lhorwinkle]

After two months of tweaking, I have found a way to get pretty good results.

I capture TV off the air with a Matrox G400 TV capture card. The resulting AVI files are in MJPEG format. I transcode them to MPEG-2 using TMPGEnc.

Getting the right TMPGEnc settings is the trick to getting good results. Some settings are obvious, some not. Here's what I use. I'm assuming you use NTSC/American format?

BTW, I have a nicely formatted MS Word document with a complete pictorial of these setups, if you want it. Email me at lhorwinkle@paris.com ... I'm not likely to see your reply here since I come here only infrequently.


LOAD THE VCD (NTSC) TEMPLATE.

SETTINGS > VIDEO TAB
Motion search: High quality (slow)
This is very slow, but that's the price you pay for quality.

SETTINGS > ADVANCED TAB
Source aspect ratio: 4:3 525-line (NTSC)
Noise reduction filter selected
Custom color correction filter selected

SETTINGS > VIDEO TAB > NOISE REDUCTION FILTER
Still picture: 20
Range: 2
Time axis: 20
Noise looks like motion to the encoder. Reduce the noise and you improve the picture.

SETTINGS > VIDEO TAB > SHARPEN EDGE FILTER
Horizontal: 97
Vertical: 122
VCD has limited bit-rate. Sharpness is sacrificed. So if you enhance the edges, you get a slight improvement (but not much).

SETTINGS > VIDEO TAB > CUSTOM COLOR CORRECTION > BASIC SETTING FILTER
Brightness: 10
Contrast: 30
Gamma: 0 (default)
Red: 0 (default)
Blue: 0 (default)
I find that both brightness and (especially) contrast need to be increased from the default. But this is entirely dependent on your source video. So expect to make changes to these settings.

SETTINGS > VIDEO TAB > CUSTOM COLOR CORRECTION > YUV SATURATION FILTER
Saturation: 25
As above, adjust to suit your needs.

SETTINGS > GOP STRUCTURE TAB
Default.

SETTINGS > QUANTIZE MATRIX TAB
Soften block noise:
Intra block: 35
Non-intra block: 35
This is very important. I have not yet tried other numbers besides 35, but you must do something. Without the soften-block-noise turned on, quality (blockiness) suffers.

[johnbmx4christ]

my way aint as good and i am gonna try the above..i make my own vids from a camera so its different ..i take the avi and put it into vdub and use the filters in that program first ..then when i go to encode in tmpg i also tweak those settings.i dont go into detail much so i will just say play around a bit.

[lhorwinkle]

Virtual Dub has more filters than TMPGEnc. If you need them, use them.

I mostly capture off the air. I need a noise filter, and TMPGEnc does that. By not using Virtual Dub, I save time by doing one process instead of two.

But if you really need filters, Virtual Dub is a gem.

[Nick]

I have tried your suggestions

I have narrowed the problem down to the reproduction of the file on the TV.
If i play the file on the PC and throgh a video out on the graphics card watch it on the TV it`s perfect.
But when played from the DVD player the quality is very blocky
i have tried another VCD that i did of stills and its fine, i have also tried another DVD player with the same reult

It appears to be how the Mpeg file is recorded onto the disc. the only files Nero will accept is Mpeg 1

Any ideas

Thanks Nick

[lhorwinkle]

What version of Nero are you using? I have 5.5

It accepts MPEG-1 files for making Video CDs and MPEG-2 files for making Super Video CDs.