Hi,

When I go to 'Settings" I see Bitrate on the 'Video' tab. The Bitrate is greyed out (meaning I can't change it). It is set for 1150 Kbits/sec and above, it says Constant Bitrate (CBR)


So are you saying if I use a different Bitrate I can get better results?

How do I actually chnage this Bitrate? As I said it is greyed out and unchangable.

The file I loaded in is an uncompressed .avi

Thank you for your help.

If you change the bitrate from 1150 (which you can do by loading the "Unlock" template), you'll end up with something that is not a standard VCD and may not play on your player (then again, it may). Higher bitrates WILL produce better looking video. Changing "Motion Search Precision" from Normal to "High Quality" may improve things a little. I have never heard from anyone that reported further improvement with "Highest Quality" (which is very slow).

Other things to try:

1. After loading the Unlock template, change "DC Component Precision" to 10 bits.
2. Under the "Advanced" tab, double-click on the "Deinterlace" option and set it to "Even Field (Adaption)."
3. Double click on "Noise Reduction" and enable, using the default settings.
4. Go to the "Environmental Setting" which is found under the "Option" menu on the main TMPGEnc screen. Put a check mark in front of "Interpolate YUV data from 4:1:1 to 4:4:4.

None of these will make a huge difference, I'm afraid. The "Deinterlace" (number 2 above) has the best chance of helping. The basic problem is that you are encoding in a lossy format that throws away a lot of information in order to fit an hour of video on a 650/700 MB CD-ROM. Something's got to give.

jhm

Does TMPGenc encode in MPEG2 as well as MPEG1?

I am stuck with VideoWave 5.0 software but it does have the advantage of including encoding software. I ran the same avi file (created in VF2.0) through both my MPEG1 and MPEG2 encoders. Both worked fine on a VCD played on my DVD player. The MPEG1 file, however, looked terrible with lots of pixelation. The MPEG2 file rendered from the same source was about 6 times as big, but looked a lot better. This suggests to me that video quality is really just a matter of how much data you put into your file.

My guess is that I am probably going to want to stay with MPEG2 encoding, unless TMPGenc is some kind of miracle worker in MPEG1 format. But if they can do MPEG2 as well, and they are as technically superior as some people say, then maybe I want to be doing my MPEG2 encoding using TMPGenc. Any suggestions?

Thanks, johnmeyer for some settings. I'll try those later.

Just how do you change the bitrate. I notice that my bitrate is always greyed out...not changable.

Steve

As I said in my original reply:

"change the bitrate from 1150 (which you can do by loading the 'Unlock' template) ..."

Also, in reply to PBurdett, TMPGEnc also does MPEG-2 and does it far better than VF. Also, you can change dozens of different parameters, whereas with VF -- because of the Sonic Foundry licensing agreement with MainConcept -- you have to pay extra $$ to get the pro version of MPEG-2 encoding in order to change the templates.

Thanks. Indeed TMPGEnc does have MPEG2, I installed it and have used it a bit. Unfortunately, it does not stay free. After a 30 day trial, one must go for the "Plus" software that costs money. After my 30 days, I will stick with the MPEG2 encoder I got in VideoWave 5. At least it will make that software worth something. I may use the TMPGEnc somewhat for MPEG1 (it definitely is better than the MainConcept equivalent), but MPEG2 is so much better that I can't see using MPEG1 very much at all.

I did not finish reading this whole topic so maybe someone made this point already.
That said, lets talk about cross stitching...you know, where you weave cute little pictures on a little plastic grill using colored yard.
Now say you're going to make a cross-stitch oh, say about 28in by 21in...about the size of your average tv. Now you want this picture to look good when you're sitting across your living room and its hanging on...oh say on your entertainment center. So you get a cross-stitch grill with small holes and a tight grid pattern and you weave away. It's beautiful...you enjoy it for many years.
Now, time goes by and this cross-stitch pattern is has become very sentimental to you're heart. But the old cross-stitch grill is wearing out and won't last much longer. So you decide to invest in a new cross-stitch grill and that you will transfer the old yarn (did I mention that you used super-industrial strength yarn, guaranteed to never wear out?) to the new grill. Now because this cross-stitch picture was so special, and because the price of grills has gone down, you decide to get a new grill that is twice as big as the old one to display the old yarn for everyone to enjoy. Upon beginning to transfer the yarn to the new grill though, you realize that if you want to fill up the whole new grill, you're gonna have to stretch your yarn across two holes vertically and horizontally on the new grill since it is twice as big as the old one.
So you finally finish and go back across your living room to enjoy the view of your old yarn picture on the new giant grill....YUCK! is all you can say upon first glance. The picture looks terrible...its all blocky, and the spots where you made a few errors in following the pattern are REALLY visible now. Suffice it to say, that you solomly wind up the old yarn and pass it down to your cat, Felix. Then you go out and buy a new cross-stitch pattern that is twice as big as the old one and start over again, stitching the large, detailed pattern onto your new large grill.

THE END

Now kids, can someone tell us the moral of this story?

I can hardly wait for the reponses.
Sincerely,
NinjaGrinch