LSX Encoder
This is the last article in my series on MPEG encoders. Also.. the encoder can be used to create both VCD and SVCD, but the images will correspond to the settings for a SVCD. Just to remind you: VCD is MPEG-1, Video bitrate: 1150kbit/s, audio bitrate 224kbit/s. SVCD is less limited: overall bitrate must be 2600kbit/s or less, that's all there is to it. This encoder is one of the fastest, however it's quality can't quite keep up with CCE and TMPEGEnc. If you're about to buy an encoder you might consider CCE which is unfortunately a bit expensive. If you can't spend that kind of money then the LSX might be your choice... or you accept the slow speed and go for TMPEGEnc which can beat CCE if you use the right settings.
All free software described below can as always be found in my Rippacks.
The LSX-Mpeg Encoder can't read avs files by default so we have to patch it. Naturally this program is a command line based tool so copy it to the directory of the lsx encoder, start a command prompt, go to this directory and type "avs_patch mpeg2enc.exe". Then start the patched LSX encoder.
Load your avs file (you must have patched the encoder first!!!!).
An
information window like this will appear. Check if the settings you chose
in FlaskMpeg are alright. If not stop Flask Frameserving and change them
(note: these are SVCD settings... for VCD the settings are of course different).
Once again: VCD is 352x288/240 (288 for PAL, 240 for NTSC) and the framerate
is 25fps for PAL and 29.97fps for NTSC. SVCD is 480x480/576. No pulldown
for SVCD this time I'm afraid. But strangely frameserving at 29.97fps
is no problem this time..
Check if all the settings are correct in the above picture. Press the Advanced button to fine-tune your encoding session.
If you're encoding a VCD I suggest you simply load the
corresponding profile, so press Control + P and select MPEG1 VideoCD PAL/NTSC.
Remember:
Video CD means 224kbit/s audio, nothing else! SVCD is a bit more flexible
so you can lower the audio bitrate if you want to (and if you can't hear
the difference in any case).
Don't change anything that isn't being mentioned in this
guide if you're not sure what the options mean.
Verify
that you you have aspect ratio 2 which means 4:3 and the right source
video format set.
This
settings do not only change the encoding time but also the quality. I
haven't done extensive testing but 2KBug, who runs the probably most comprehensive
collection of XVCD and SVCD guides, did and he suggests that you set Program
performance mode to Slow, since it almost takes as long as Normal speed
but the quality is better and Very slow is in fact very slow but the quality
is not that much better.
And
of course our favorite: The bitrate. So once again: VCD means 1150kbit/s
Constant Bitrate. SVCD can be anything up to 2600kbit/s minus audio bitrate.
Amoedium would ask what settings are best and I'd have to answer I dunno.
Run a zillion of tests to find out. I neither have the time nor patience
to find out the ideal settings. They may very from movie to movie in any
case. If you pay me $300 an hour and buy me a room full of 1.1GHz T-Birds
we can talk about it but otherwise forget about it!
Now start the encoding by pressing on the green arrow.
After that you'll get a lot of warnings which you can ignore.