Okay, I've got the Panasonic MPEG encoder. There are a lot of options to tweak the software, but the help file leaves a lot to be desired. I want to encode my VHS home movies to VCD for posterity. Does anyone care to post the settings they have successfully used? I would appreciate any sort of starting point.

-- Buzzard (buzz23@hotmail.com), March 13, 2000

Answers

Here is what i use:

VHS recording settings: *video bitrate : (I used VCD NTSC default setting) you choose what you want, just don't go over 2600Kb/s or your DVD players will choke on you.

*Frame Rate : 29.97fps(NTSC) or 25fps(PAL) *audio bitrate : same as default VCD. Normally it's 224Kb/s 44.1KHz 16bit stereo, but you can lower the bitrate(224Kb/s)...This is not going to save you any disc space since most of the file size belongs to the video! *frame size : 352x240 (NTSC VCD) or 352x288 (PAL VCD). You can choose whatever you like here up to full screen 720x480. NOTE: Most DVD players will play the 352x480 frame size on the left size of your TV screen since it's D2(half size format). 640x480 will shift your output to the left of the TV Screen. 720x480 will play with higher details then 352x240 on TV. Further note: NERO OR NTI WILL BURN ANY SIZE FRAME, BUT NOT EZ CD CREATOR. So if you plan to use other then VCD format you must have NERO OR NTI.

Special process:

*cut image : 2-4 pixels (bottom) *VCR head removal : 2-4 pixels(bottom)(Note must use the same pixels number as above). *Interpolation Highest quality (default settings)

Advance setting: *Natural Image *half pixel (motion estimation algorythm)(slightly blurred image but reduces the blockiness). *15,15,3 (default VCD). You can play with this settings here to further reduce the blockiness, but at the expense of blurry image. Play with the M & N like 15,3 or 12,3 or 9,3...don't go under the 9,3 settings :) *Forced I-frame(leave it alone if you don't know which of your frames in the clip is the one that has the most blockiness. If you do then choose that frame number to change it to reduce the blockiness in it). *Noise Filter: none to strong depends on your input quality( Medium for VHS usually). *Video Filter: Adaptive @ weakest to strongest ( Start with Medium. Change it to strong or strongest if you have a lot of blockiness in your result)

...Start with that and change it to your liking...have fun.

-- (wingstarzz@hotmail.com), March 13, 2000.