[MacDV] VHS to VCD or SVCD

[Zane H. Healy]

> I have been doing a lot of VCD's and I am about to embark on a project 
> of converting about 13 hours of VHS material to digital. In the past I 
> have used both my EyeTV to import the video and I have also used my 
> digital video camera to record from the VHS tape and then imported it 
> into iMovie. I have burned both DVD's and VCD's and because of the 
> source material, the results were comparable, with the VCD's being a 
> lot easier and quicker to make.
> 
> I followed the discussion about video quality, but I am still confused 
> about SVCD's. What exactly are they? Are they recorded to CD media or 
> DVD media? I assumed that the S just meant a "super" quality VCD. Am I 
> correct? I tried burning a SVCD just for a test, but never got past the 
> encoding. I don't know whether I didn't wait long enough or the machine 
> froze. I know that encoding a DVD for burning takes forever in iDVD on 
> my 12" PowerBook. What is the advantage of SVCD over VCD?
> 
> Also, in the discussions of burning on a mac verses a pc, why would the 
> quality of VCD's or SVCD's be better when burned on a pc, if they are 
> the same thing and will play on a regular DVD player? If macs are 
> supposed to be the premier video machines, then why would the quality 
> differ? The software?
> 
> I am sure these questions sound inane, but I am very confused by these 
> issues and would like to understand them.

Actually you ask a lot of very good questions.  

I'll start with the Mac vs. PC question first.  I've been using my XP system
to make VCD's and DVD's for the last 18 months.  I've got a $50 program I
use to do the actual encodes called TMPGEnc Plus, I then burn to CD-R using
Nero.  The quality of these encodes totally blows anything I've been able to
get Toast or any of the free apps away.  There are a couple apps I've been
able to find on the Mac that look like they might offer the level of quality
I want, but as they're $600+, I'll continue to use my WinXP system to make
VCD's.  It's not realy a question of Mac vs. PC, it's a question of the
quality of the VCD encoders available on the Mac (and there really aren't
that many available).

Now for the question of VCD vs. SVCD vs. DVD.  Think of it this way:
	 VHS = VCD (MPEG1)
	SVHS = SVCD (MPEG2)
	 DVD = DVD (MPEG2)

The resolutions for VHS tapes and VCD's are identical, and with really good
encoding a VCD is better than a VHS tape (I've seen commercial DVD's that
look worse than the VCD's I make).  They're 252x240 pixels for NTSC and have
a 1150Kbit/sec bitrate.

Think of SVCD as a cut down DVD, for NTSC they're 480x480 pixels, and a max
of 2600Kbit/sec.  They look a lot nicer than a VCD, but they are a lot less
compatible.  A lot of, maybe even most, DVD players won't play SVCD's.

I like VCD's, they're cheap and faster to make than DVD's, I just wish there
was a decent and affordable encoder on the Mac.  I really think Apple should
offer a good MPEG1 encoder as part of iMovie or iDVD.

			Zane