I wanna know what will give the best results. Capturing at high (3mbps) MPEG then encoding to VCD MPEG with Panasonic Encoder 2.3 and using its filtering capabilities, or capturing at high (3mbps) MPEG with an M-Filter installed and then using Panasonic Encoder 2.3 without using the filtering capabilities, OR capturing to AVI using the PicVideo2 codec and then converting to VCD MPEG using Panasonic 2.3 and its filtering capabilities?

I would like some opinions and suggestions on my questions, prefferably from someone that has done these processes before. It is to my understanding that capturing to AVI using the PicVideo2 codec is just as good as raw AVI but takes up MUCH less space.

Thanx

-- MrVCD (mrvcd@juno.com), February 24, 2000

Answers

I can verify that the picvideo codec is excellent. They used to have a useable demo for download. It has a range of compresion settings, between 1-20. I usually go for around 4, and I cannot tell the difference from an uncompressed AVI, and the file is MUCH smaller

-- John Vickers (johnvick@ihug.co.nz), February 24, 2000.

MrVCD, I've both the hardware and the software you've mentioned above. The answer to your question is no. So far i did not find any benefit in using both of these product together. Use either one or the other but not both. If you have a poor quality source the software encoder can help you more with higher bitrates capture in mpeg or less compress AVI. The M-filter can also do that but you will need a high end encoder card for that, and no encoding afterward. Either ways the end results are the same.

Higher bitrates do not always means better quality. Too high of a bitrates can sometime backfire on you due to limitation of hardware encoding power and the mpeg1 encoding scheme. I've found that mpeg1 began to create random noise along the edge of an object after 2200kbs to 2500kbs (depends on the hardware encoding engine and capture software, especially if you have noisy video), this artifact will show up after you ran it throught the panasonic encoder as hallows around the object or blurry images. Play with your hardware and find it's sweet spot in order to get the highest quality you can get from it. Once you're satisfied with that then you can think about what to do with it next. Ran it through the encoder or just simply burn it straight to VCD. If you must then put both options on the VCD and watch it on your TV to make a decision as to what to do next.

As for Mpeg or AVI that will depends on what is your hardware native encoder is. If your hardware native encoding power is AVI then, i'll stick with AVI. If your hardware native is mpeg then that is what it does best. lnguyen

-- (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), February 25, 2000.