Divx, XVCD which is the best for archiving home video ?

andy

I would like to archive my home video to cd's but I don't know which one I should use XVCD or divx. I would like to store maximum of 45 minutes video in a 80 min cd. The followings are the settings i will use

XVCD encoding:
Resolution: 720x576
Vbr 1 pass, max birate = 2400, q factor = 5 (using CCE) (I may try to pump up to 3000 but not sure if my Hiteker 600A can support or not)
Mpeg 1

Divx:
Divx 4.12 (divx 5 is too slow on play back in my 800 Mhz P III computer)
Mpg3 audio, 128 kbs, encoded in besweet
resolution: 640x480 (i may have to use resolution 704x576 but I'm not sure if it can be still played smoothly on my computer or not)
average bitrate=2160

Could anyone please advise which format is the best, mpeg 1 or mpeg 4 ?

first, iirc, xvcd is mpeg2 and not mpeg1.
mpeg4 is much better than mpeg1 and from mpeg2.

but that depends on the bitrates. if you use high bitrate mpeg2 then you'll get a good quality (i.e. in dvd).

the only reason to go for xvcd or svcd or vcd is to be able to play the clip in a stand alone player. if that doesn't concers you, then you should definately go for mpeg4 (divx or xvid).

if you want it to be playable on a stand alone player then:

eventhough you player may support xvcd, i suggest to go for svcd.

svcd is VERY good in it's higher bitrates (as in 45 mins on 80mins cd), it's compatible with much more stand alone players, and the quality difference will not be too noticable probably from xvcd (svcd in 480x576).

it also has good support for interlaced content (but that depends on your actual clips. i.e. are they interlaced or not).

so in svcd there's much to gain, and very little to loose over xvcd .

hope that helps.
cchers
avi

xvcd = non-standard vcd

vcd is mpeg1 ... thus xvcd is also mpeg 1 - just outside of vcd standard.

mpeg2 is SVCD, mpeg2 outside SVCD standard would be XSVCD.

If you are only going for 45 minutes on a disk go with xvcd.  You can play it on your stand-alone DVD player, and transfer to VHS for friends easily if you have VCR hooked to DVD player (switchbox ect).  If you keep the resolution at 352x240 and pump the bitrate up over 2000 you will get a good quality picture, and if you stick with xvcd(mpeg1) you will have better compatibility with DVD players.  SVCD at 45min will also give an excellent picture, even a little sharper, but it is not as compatible and takes about twice as long to encode.

Mordant, I agree with you on the naming conventions, but other than that Avih is absolutely right. I would like to add though that de-interlaced Home-DV easily blurs even if mpeg-4 yields far better quality at low bitrates than mpeg-2.

An alternative is to make both (I do). Do DVD compliant mpeg-2's at a nice high bitrate, save them on CD-R for later piece-wise DVD authoring. You know you'll own a DVD burner in a years time, the way prices are going  Meanwhile you can whatch you're deinterlaced Mpeg-4's on your PC.

cheers

1st, yes, i guess i was wrong when thinking xvcd was mpeg2. thanx for correcting me.

regarding interlaced content. i had success playing interlaced clip, and DEINTERLACING ON THE FLY to get 50fps (pal)!!  (using avisynth script). it needs a strong computer for realtime avisynth, but some applications do a real good deinterlace at RT, such as dscaler (although for live tv and not video playback).

i suspect we'll have codecs (or ffdshow) that support deinterlacing on the fly in the near future, and then, you'll be able to store the clip as interlaced with an interlaced-aware codec (such as xvid), and play it with double framerate, deinterlaced a-la dscaler.

cheers
avi.

Are you talking about the SeparateField field function in avisynth? That would give you 50 fps but at half y-res, no?

BTW I too have high hopes for the future. That's the great thing about computers ... things happen *snap* *snap*

cheers

well...
DivX is not better than mpg video.
mpeg video is tried and true and absolutly no encoding artifacts sneak through.  He wants to ARCHIVE his video's  He does not care about space that much which is why I would suggest:

X(S)VCD's
mpeg-2 video (you can use tmpeg its a good encoder)
720x480 29.97fps etc etc
You do not need to interlace it

Also make some mpeg-2 X(S)VCD files at CBR one at 3000Kbps 3500Kbps 4000,4500, and 5000Kbps.  Make then short 1 minute video's and make an SVCD (turn off standard compliance in nero) then test weither or not your DVD player can handle X(S)VCD's and what bitrate it can support.  This way you get maximum resolution and maximum quality.  Then to archive your movies make them at CBR and whatever bitrate you decide your player can handle

Originally posted by poopity poop
well...
DivX is not better than mpg video.
mpeg video is tried and true and absolutly no encoding artifacts sneak through.
This is very bad formulation, at least....  And saying 'absolutely no artifacts' is ridicoulous.

Yet, I agree that it's best in this case to encode S-VCD (Mpeg2).
More important question is how to make it...I've never seen encoding artifacts in an mpeg-2 stream.  I've seen some in every single DivX stream, even DivX5.  
I'm not talking about blocking and ringing around edges...that's just compression doing its thing I'm talking about a blantent block of mis color most noticable in subtitles sometimes

christ allmighty ...

What was that?  You disagree with me?  Then disagree with me and let's talk about it, dont; use the lords name in vain.  Its not like get upset and getting quot;violentquot;(as violent as one can get on the internet) ever helped resolve things

It's just ... that I don't know where to start.

DivX is not better than mpg video.

That's quite a mouthful. Comming from a man that has never ever seen a single encoding artifact in an mpeg (2?), words like white cane leaps to mindmpeg video is tried and true and absolutly no encoding artifacts sneak through
(I understand that your talking about mpeg-2)

Cinepack ... Now THAT's tried and true. See the glitch in the argument?

He wants to ARCHIVE his video's He does not care about space that much ...

How can we assume to know? The man wants 45 mins on an 80 min CD ... that's what we know.

Now, you have an impressive number of post and any newbe will probably be fooled to think that your giving good advice, so please start doing just that.

You know we could go back and forth all day about number of posts and who is right and who is wrong.  The fact is, most of encoding is opinions.  I don't care that I have a bunch of posts, I can see that you know what you are talking about but who cares...if you really want to start a pissing contest(a.k.a who knows more) I have nothing to prove

this will be my last post here