My new personal recomendations for DVD2SVCD DVD conversions I have seen many threads asking "what is the best setting to use?". Well it really isn't a simple answer. Everyone has their own opinions on what is good and what is acceptable. I tend to favor a higher quality image over speed or size. Not long ago I listed my personal settings and this became a wonderful thread that ended up resolving an issue with Avisynth. I have since done further testing and tweaking of my personal settings. So keep the following in mind when reading them.

1. DVD to SVCD only. (Not for AVI's or VCD's)

2. I often use 90 or 99 minute discs to be able to push the bitrate higher.

3. These settings are not official and are not endorsed by DVD2SVCD.

---Audio--- 48 not downsampled. 224 or 192 only. I will not go lower.

---Video---CCE 4 Pass VBR--- Avg bitrate never below 2000. I adjust the number of discs or disc size to make sure it is always above 2000. Sharpen filter on all DVD material at a setting between .3 and .6 mostly at .4 Image Quality Priority at between 22 and 24 CCE Anti-Noise filter at 12. For personal reasons I increase the contrast and brightness using Donald Graft's Tweak filter. I have yet to fully test the DVD2AVI built in luminace settings that may make the Tweak filter unecessary.

The biggest change is the Image Quality Priority setting. I find that a higher setting then the default 17 reduces the amount of noise around the edge of foreground objects to a great degree. I was always wondering why to my eye I thought TMPG was better in this regard until I remembered a post by Kedirekin that he said he always uses a higher setting. I meant to do some tests at that time, but got distracted and forgot about it. I have to give him the credit for the settings I tried and liked.

As soon as I am able I will make an FTP server and create 2 short mpg images one at the default 17 and one at 22 and you can see for yourself. If you would rather simply do a short chapter test yourself and watch it on the PC in fullscreen mode.

All the other settings I leave at default.

A quick note on AVI's. I do not do many and my tests are limited at best, but I have seen no difference when using sharpen on an AVI source. I would not bother using it unless it is a high bitrate AVI. Most downloaded AVI's are not high enough quality to have it matter, even up to 800mb multiple files. On multi gigabyte captures I bet the results would be better.

For information on the Image Quality Priority setting, what it is and what it does, download the CCE manual from the CCE homepage. It is a pdf on 2.64, but most all the information applies to 2.50 and 2.62 as well. If you want to know more about what CCE does I highly recommend it. __________________

RE: My new personal recomendations for DVD2SVCD DVD conversions it takes about 12 hours for the encoding part with these settings and 6 pass VBR. would i be better off just doing a 6 pass vbr or lower passes with these settings? i have an athlon Xp 1700 and normal with default settings and changing the bitrate only i get about 1.2 in cce with the settings recommeneded here i get about .76 so what do u recommend? here is what u said last time... but that thread is locked now! :-) ---Video---CCE 4 Pass VBR--- Avg bitrate never below 2000. I adjust the number of discs or disc size to make sure it is always above 2000. Sharpen filter on all DVD material at a setting between .3 and .6 mostly at .4 Image Quality Priority at between 22 and 24 CCE Anti-Noise filter at 12. For personal reasons I increase the contrast and brightness using Donald Graft's Tweak filter. I have yet to fully test the DVD2AVI built in luminace settings that may make the Tweak filter unecessary. The biggest change is the Image Quality Priority setting. I find that a higher setting then the default 17 reduces the amount of noise around the edge of foreground objects to a great degree. I was always wondering why to my eye I thought TMPG was better in this regard until I remembered a post by Kedirekin that he said he always uses a higher setting. I meant to do some tests at that time, but got distracted and forgot about it. I have to give him the credit for the settings I tried and liked.

As soon as I am able I will make an FTP server and create 2 short mpg images one at the default 17 and one at 22 and you can see for yourself. If you would rather simply do a short chapter test yourself and watch it on the PC in fullscreen mode. All the other settings I leave at default.

Movies that are less then 2 1/2 hours i fit on only 2 cd's myself but my bitrate dosen't go below 1600kb/s mostly i've noticed most movies are 2 hours or less so the bitrates are around 2000kb/s most the time With my settings i get awsome results can't complain i know that my view is anything below 16000kb/s i'd be strapped to make a call if making a vcd would be better because svcd when you start getting 2 low in the bitrates starts 2 look worse then a vcd would of... as i've said before that what looks great 2 me might not 2 someone else so it's all preference. __________________ You should keep your friends close, but keep your enemy's even closer. xp1900 (oc xp2100+), 512megs ddr pc2700, (3) 40gig WD HD, 24x10x40 lite-on, geforce 3 64mb. xp1700 (oc xp1900), 512megs ddr pc2100 ram,(1) 30gig (1)80gig WD,40x12x48, geforce 2/pro 64mb.

How can I encode just one (some) chapter(s) - for testing purposes for example?

1. Start DVD2SVCD and go to "DVD Rip" tab.

2. Make sure "Activate DVD ripping" is enabled and "Use Internal routines" is ticked also.

3. If you re-rip previously ripped *.vob files (e.g. ripped with Smartripper or DVD Decrypter) from your harddrive then make sure to specify a directory for the "Rip to folder" path that is different from the one that holds your already ripped *.vob files.

4. Go to "Conversion" tab and load the appropriate *.ifo file from harddisk or from the DVD by hitting the button with the folder symbol or the one with the CD symbol on it.

5. After the *.ifo file is loaded and parsed by DVD2SVCD the "Movie length" pulldown will show the total time of the selected movie.

6. Click on the "Movie length" pulldown and a little window titled "Select chapters" will appear.

7. Now mark only those chapters you want to convert with DVD2SVCD - you should hit the "None" button first to unmark all chapters - just makes it easier.

8. Now close the "Select chapters" window by hitting the "X" button and the cumulated time of all marked chapters should appear in the "Movie length" pulldown.

9. Hit the "Go!" button to start the encode of only the selected chapter(s).