Finally arrived at the end of my journey and achieved my goal of creating a good quality video playable off a set-top DVD player. It does involve multiple steps and additional software, but in my opinion worth the effort because there is a very noticable difference between standard VCD quality using mpeg-1 and
so-called Super VCD or SVCD which uses mpeg-2.
The following steps are just one way to go about such a project for those interested in creating better quality CD's and don't yet want to move up to acquiring a DVD burner. Most say SVCD quality falls somewhere between VHS and DVD. In any case it is superior to plain VCD.
Additional software required:
Nero version 5.0 or later
TMPGENC High Quality Encoder
PRELIMINARY STEPS
Do all your editing in Video Factory and ideally render to a lossless file type like AVI. If you are using Windows 98SE and your video is anything but short watch that you don't exceed the 4GB file limit. If your video is larger as mine was, instead render your final using the DVD 720x480, 8300 Kbps, MPEG-2 template.
BEGIN CONVERSION
1. Start TMPGEnc. Locate the browse button at the
lower right and select the final file you created
in Video Factory.
2. Click the load button and select the SuperVideo
CD NTSC MCF option. Click Open.
3. You should see SuperVideo CD NTSC MPEG-2 480x480
29.97 FPS CQ6S Layer-2 under the video preview. If
you do, you've picked the correct option. If, not
try again.
4. Click on the start button at the upper left.
It makes sense to use a different file name so you don't pick the wrong one in the later steps.
This application has a preview window and the display will be very choppy but it don't hurt the output. Because of the initial 480x480 size the image will look distorted. Don't worry about it, your DVD player automatically changes it back to the correct aspect ratio. Note: You should make a second render from VF using normal methods if you also want a copy to play off your computer.
Start up Nero
1. Click on the 1st icon on the Tool Bar which should
bring up New Compilation.
2. Scroll down until you see Super Video CD. The
default should be ISO 9660. If not, change to it.
3. Click on new (upper right) locate the file you just
created in TMPGEnc.
4. Drag the file from the right window pane to the
lower left window pane. ONLY this file. As soon as
you do Nero with either flag it saying it isn't the
correct format which means you made an error in
selecting the format in TMPGEns. Otherwise it will
immediate start to scan the file. Don't interupt it!
5. Once Nero is done checking to see if the file is
suitable for SVCD select the burn option from the
Tool Bar, then pick the disc-at-once option.
Click on Write and sit back while Nero burns the CD.
If everything goes well you'll have a high quality video that plays on many set-top DVD players.
Nero: http://www.nero.com/
TMPGEns: http://www.tmpgenc.com/
so-called Super VCD or SVCD which uses mpeg-2.
The following steps are just one way to go about such a project for those interested in creating better quality CD's and don't yet want to move up to acquiring a DVD burner. Most say SVCD quality falls somewhere between VHS and DVD. In any case it is superior to plain VCD.
Additional software required:
Nero version 5.0 or later
TMPGENC High Quality Encoder
PRELIMINARY STEPS
Do all your editing in Video Factory and ideally render to a lossless file type like AVI. If you are using Windows 98SE and your video is anything but short watch that you don't exceed the 4GB file limit. If your video is larger as mine was, instead render your final using the DVD 720x480, 8300 Kbps, MPEG-2 template.
BEGIN CONVERSION
1. Start TMPGEnc. Locate the browse button at the
lower right and select the final file you created
in Video Factory.
2. Click the load button and select the SuperVideo
CD NTSC MCF option. Click Open.
3. You should see SuperVideo CD NTSC MPEG-2 480x480
29.97 FPS CQ6S Layer-2 under the video preview. If
you do, you've picked the correct option. If, not
try again.
4. Click on the start button at the upper left.
It makes sense to use a different file name so you don't pick the wrong one in the later steps.
This application has a preview window and the display will be very choppy but it don't hurt the output. Because of the initial 480x480 size the image will look distorted. Don't worry about it, your DVD player automatically changes it back to the correct aspect ratio. Note: You should make a second render from VF using normal methods if you also want a copy to play off your computer.
Start up Nero
1. Click on the 1st icon on the Tool Bar which should
bring up New Compilation.
2. Scroll down until you see Super Video CD. The
default should be ISO 9660. If not, change to it.
3. Click on new (upper right) locate the file you just
created in TMPGEnc.
4. Drag the file from the right window pane to the
lower left window pane. ONLY this file. As soon as
you do Nero with either flag it saying it isn't the
correct format which means you made an error in
selecting the format in TMPGEns. Otherwise it will
immediate start to scan the file. Don't interupt it!
5. Once Nero is done checking to see if the file is
suitable for SVCD select the burn option from the
Tool Bar, then pick the disc-at-once option.
Click on Write and sit back while Nero burns the CD.
If everything goes well you'll have a high quality video that plays on many set-top DVD players.
Nero: http://www.nero.com/
TMPGEns: http://www.tmpgenc.com/