Hi...

First off, it is great to have "askme" back!

When I burn a movie that I have downloaded from the web in *.avi format with Nero 6.00 UE to a svcd/vcd format the result is a movie on the TV that is very poor quality. Specifically what bothers me the most is the severe artifacts being seen. Additionally, when the TV camera moves during the program the picture looks like you are watching through a mirage. (no clarity)

Now, I know that I am not going to get dvd quality in vcd format, but is there anything that I am missing, anything I can do to make the picture somewhat more clear? What about codecs? I really don't know too much about them. What I have downloaded to this point is "Nimo codec pack", and "Divx Pro 5.x" and installed them on my ibm net vista, running windows xp pro (no burner) without a lot of success.

What about media? I am using Sony 700mb, 80min high speed 1-48x discs. Is this considered a decent medium for svcd/vcd movies?

Also, can anyone recommend a good quality file splitter (share/freeware)?

Any help or advice you can give me would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in Advance,

D

When I burn a movie that I have downloaded from the web in *.avi format with Nero 6.00 UE to a svcd/vcd format the result is a movie on the TV that is very poor quality. Specifically what bothers me the most is the severe artifacts being seen. Additionally, when the TV camera moves during the program the picture looks like you are watching through a mirage. (no clarity)

Now, I know that I am not going to get dvd quality in vcd format, but is there anything that I am missing, anything I can do to make the picture somewhat more clear?


VCD quality isn't very good, but that sounds terrible! Note however that you are taking a video file that is already compressed (probably with divx) and then compressing it using a different encoding system, thus taking away from the quality. But it shouldn't affect the quality to the extreme you are describing.
What program are you using to encode? That makes a big difference. For windows-based systems, there is a program called TMPG Enc that is supposed to do great MPEG (VCD) and MPEG-2 (SVCD & DVD) encoding. The program is closed source but freely downloadable... however the MPEG-2 encoding will be disabled after 30 days.
On the other hand, there is the encoder in the program "dazzle movie star" which does an absolutely TERRIBLE job of encoding MPEG video. :)


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What about codecs? I really don't know too much about them. What I have downloaded to this point is "Nimo codec pack", and "Divx Pro 5.x" and installed them on my ibm net vista, running windows xp pro (no burner) without a lot of success.


Well having the divx codec is a must in order to play divx movies. But as far as VCD quality goes, the big issue is the quality of the VCD encoder codec. VCDs MUST be encoded with MPEG-1 compression, which is much lower quality than divx. If you are only going to be playing the videos on your computer, then just use divx.


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What about media? I am using Sony 700mb, 80min high speed 1-48x discs. Is this considered a decent medium for svcd/vcd movies?


Hmm... personally I don't notice any difference with different brands... maybe a CD-R expert will give you a different opinion, but they all look the same to me :)


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Also, can anyone recommend a good quality file splitter (share/freeware)?

Can you clarify what you are looking for? Do you need something to split one large video stream into smaller files or a general purpose file splitter/joiner?




hope this helps...
~psi42