June 28, 2001 11:58 PM

See if your playback system can handle SVCD's. If it can't, get a new system.

Seriously, SVCD's are so much better and what comes off the TiVo nearly matches the spec. In fact, the only modification you need to meet spec is the sound conversion to 44.1MHz. You can leave the sound at 192kbps, or up to 224 standard for VCD. You can likely find hardware that supports leaving the audio exactly as is.

The video you don't change at all, unless you want to re-encode with VBR and I would only suggest that if you started with "Best" quality.

Check out http://www.vcdhelp.com/svcd.htm for a SVCD/VCD comparison chart.

Personally, I don't notice any tinny effects in the sound, rather the few things I can successfully extract (And I have a lot on my HD with very little success) invariably have audio/video sync issues. I've even ported the 2.0 changes necessary to Gary Steele's ConvertStream, and while I can successfully extract far more shows, the sync problem is even worse.

June 29, 2001 12:58 AM

Originally posted by dranch:
who DOES support SVCD?

The $99 Apex you passed up.

Seriously, it's a Chinese standard and there's some political issues around that concept. It's also the perfect format to rip DVD's to, so it has the MPAA upset. IMO it'll be more widely adopted as time passes, or something better will come along. The SVCD format in this case has the benefit of not requiring the tivo source file to be modified so it's still able to be munged if a new format comes along.

June 30, 2001 10:37 PM

Originally posted by Fugg:
which tivo quality setting matches svcd?
svcd=2.4meg, right?

All of them. The only differences in TiVo quality levels is bit rate, which is a direct correlation to size.

SVCD is a normal CD burned with a MPEG2 video stream, I generally buy 800meg CD's. You can cut MPEG2 streams up with no loss and no need to re-encode and still be able to regenerate the original file later.

July 2, 2001 4:26 PM

http://www.vcdhelp.com

Tons of information on converting and burning CDs.