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VCD Help Please - Exporting Higher Resolution

G

GetSome681

macrumors regular
Original poster
Feb 2, 2002
123
0
Hey, I've browsed these boards for months, and finally decided to register. Now, I've read through a lot of stuff, and I find myself having some problems. I made a movie in imovie, and exported that just fine. I was trying to use Quicktime Pro to export that using the Toast VCD Plug-in. I do this, but everytime, no matter what resolution I export out of imovie, I get a VCD that is 320 x 240, and not the dimensions of my original imovie. Someone please help me!! It's actually very important that I make this VCD asap, hard to explain why, but I just can't get it! I even tried Cleaner 5.1, and couldn't do it with that either..still the 320 x 240..

Thanks everyone!!
 
Your never going to get a vcd resolution larger....

The reason your resolution is that low, is because, when you make a vcd, toast exports it to a format that can be read by a standard tv. There is no way of gettign around that, because a vcd is ment to be used by a tv. sorry..
 
Which versions of Toast and iMovie are you using??? Have you updated Toast lately?? I know that a Toast Video CD 1.2 update was posted just the other day. If you are still having problems, and I assume that you registered Toast, I would give Roxio a call and see if they can give you some help. Either that, or email them and list, in detail, all that you have done, and what you need to have happen. I have found that they are usually helpfull, and get back to people in a fairly decent amount of time. They might need some time to research your issue, but contact them.
 
Re: Your never going to get a vcd resolution larger....

Originally posted by miller250
The reason your resolution is that low, is because, when you make a vcd, toast exports it to a format that can be read by a standard tv. There is no way of gettign around that, because a vcd is ment to be used by a tv. sorry..
Click to expand...

That makes no sense to me.. How many people play cd's onto the tv?? Even then, more then a few tv's have resolutions higher then that. Maybe a 13", or 19" tv would look good with that resolution, but anything larger, or fairly new, will want higher resolutions. Also, I would imagine that more people would want to use the VCD with a computer, not the tv.
 
Wow..that's not good news...what if I were to use iDVD and burn a DVD..would I have that same problem, or woudl the DVD take up the full screeen on a tv? Actually, would the VCD take up the full screen on a TV if played on a DVD player? I pop it into my mac, and just using I think VCD player or something I get the small little picture..and selecting full screen just makes the screen black, and the little tiny picture in the middle. Anyone know about this? I need to find a dvd player capable of playing VCDs I guess..Thanks.
 
Originally posted by AlphaTech
Which versions of Toast and iMovie are you using??? Have you updated Toast lately?? I know that a Toast Video CD 1.2 update was posted just the other day. If you are still having problems, and I assume that you registered Toast, I would give Roxio a call and see if they can give you some help. Either that, or email them and list, in detail, all that you have done, and what you need to have happen. I have found that they are usually helpfull, and get back to people in a fairly decent amount of time. They might need some time to research your issue, but contact them.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I appreciate your help. I will contact Roxio and see what's up, but the fact that cleaner as well doesn't give me any options as to the output size, I'm curious now if this is true or not. I'm headed over to a friend's house right now that his dvd player supposedly supports cd-r/rw and vcd media..so we'll see what's up with this..if this is the only way..then I might be making a dvd instead...does anyone know if my friend's I think sony dvd burner will work with iDVD, etc...? Thanks so much, I appreciate all the time and help of you guys.
 
VCD/MPEG-1 is a fixed standard (320 x 240 NTSC - well, actually 352 x 240, but scaled to 320 x 240). I suggest you take a look around at http://www.vcdhelp.com - that will explain everything. You can create MPEG-1 video in Cleaner 5 at higher resolutions and bitrates but these are not compliant VCDs, and very few standalone DVD players can actually play them.

However, if you only wish to watch your video CDs on a computer, a far better alternative to VCD is to use Sorenson 3 Pro with Cleaner 5.1, 2-pass VBR. You'll end up with a very high quality QT movie. You can choose your frame size and bitrate, and it is possible to make a much higher quality video than any MPEG-1 file - at a similar (or even smaller) filesize. I'd suggest you encode the audio as mp3. Aside from the improved video quality, another advantage of this approach is that you will be able to take advantage of QT Pro's features (not available for MPEG-1) - creating chapters, subtitles, additional audio and video tracks, etc.

As for frame size, 320 x 240 is much better than you think! All video cards found in macs (and probably PCs as well) are optimized to scale up this size quite nicely. To test this, encode a brief snippet of video twice - once at 640 x 480, then another at 320 x 240. Watch both at full screen in QT Pro and notice what the differences are. You'll be hard pressed to tell much of a difference between the two sizes. This is strictly down to scaling abilities built-in to the card. And unless you have a VERY powerful processor (800 mhz G4 or higher), QT will choke on resolutions at or above 640-720. Plus, you'd end up with a much larger file size.
 
Again, Cleaner 5 will allow you to choose any frame size you wish. You are choosing the "NTSC VCD" option, which is a pre-set that makes COMPLIANT (352 x 240) VCDs. Do not use the pre-set. Choose MPEG-1 as your output, then choose your frame size and bitrate under "Encode". You will then be creating what is known as an "(X)VCD", viz., a non-compliant variation of the VCD standard. I doubt, however, that you will find any set top DVD machine that will actually be able to play this disc.
 
Sounds like you have done all that before. Great suggestions, and good knowledge to back it up. I wish everyone could post answers like that. :D
 
Originally posted by Pepzhez
Again, Cleaner 5 will allow you to choose any frame size you wish. You are choosing the "NTSC VCD" option, which is a pre-set that makes COMPLIANT (352 x 240) VCDs. Do not use the pre-set. Choose MPEG-1 as your output, then choose your frame size and bitrate under "Encode". You will then be creating what is known as an "(X)VCD", viz., a non-compliant variation of the VCD standard. I doubt, however, that you will find any set top DVD machine that will actually be able to play this disc.
Click to expand...

Wow, ok, now I see what you're talking about pre-sets. I thought the advanced settings were the pre-sets, and if you create your own mpeg format, and then do not check the "make toast vcd compliant" you can set your own resolution. This is good to know, at least I would as to playing them on a computer, as you said dvd players might not work..but I'm assuming they would still work on the computer. I will also try looking at the vcdhelp.com you informed me of, and I might even try making a dvd if i can borrow my friend's dvd writer, as I think that will give me a 720 x 580 resolution or something along those lines. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP..YOU'RE AWESOME!!!!!!
 
Thanks. Actually, this is the sort of thing I do all day long (I'm a filmmaker who has been archiving and distributing a lot of my material), so I've acquired quite a bit of knowledge about video compression and codecs.

Perhaps I didn't clarify a few questions raised:

1) You must be using QT Pro to get the fullscreen display option. Believe me, it's well worth paying Apple the $30 to get QT Pro (not just for this but for all the many other features you get; for a mere $30, QT Pro is the best value software in existence!)

2) A VCD will always display fullscreen on a DVD/TV set-up. I agree that any TV above 19" or 21" will begin to reveal artifacts. Keep in mind that the VCD was developed for television display and NOT for computer display. VCD was and still is very much a standard (displacing VHS tape) in Asia. The idea was to fit 74-80 minutes on a single, affordable CD.

3) Modern codecs - Sorenson 3, on2 vp3, 3ivx, etc. - surpass MPEG-1 in quality and filesize. The disadvantage of these is that no set top DVD player can deal with them. There was a rumor here before MWSF that Apple would release a consumer device - a set top DVD/MPEG-4/QT player. Just a rumor, apparently, but too bad. I think this could be an even bigger success than the ipod, if only Apple would do it! Certainly everyone I know would purchase one immediately. Apple could advertise this as a "Super Media Player". They would have zero competition in this field. (And they really should get on the ball with this; rumor is that M$ is thinking of following up the X-Box with a similar media player device.)

Oh well, I can dream, can't I?
 
Do you happen to know how long before QT 6 comes out??? I had QT 4 pro, but the number isn't valid for QT 5 pro. I would get the pro version of QT 5, more to save movie trailers and such to my hard drive then anything else, but don't want to have to do it again in 6 months when QT 6 comes out (or whenever it does). I know it is only $30, but every little bit helps. I'd much rather pay for great hardware (that's why I have Mac systems) then for software. Even then, most Mac software is cheaper then the peecee version (AppleWorks vs. M$ orfice/office).
 
Ha! I might just go from "newbie" to "regular" in this thread alone! :)

QT6, like the G5, is a subject of ongoing speculation. All we know is that it'll appear some day. Either soon or eventually. But that's Apple for you. The big rumor is that QT6 will take full advantage of MPEG-4. But considering Apple's (thus far) miserable implementation of MPEG-1 and non-existent MPEG-2 support in QT, I'm a bit skeptical. (I know that Apple did show off a fully MPEG-2-loaded QT at a Mac World last year, but MPEG-2 was conspiculously missing from the actual QT release. Licensing difficulties, and/or the MPAA breathing down their necks, I would guess.)

You might want to check the QT Pro page at Apple, though. When I purchased QT4 Pro, it stated explicitly that the code would also work for QT5 (which was released about six months later). And indeed it did work. If you purchased QT Pro for QT3, it would NOT unlock the pro features of QT5. I believe this is the usual Apple policy, allowing you to step up to the next generation of QT Pro with no additional purchase, but please do check and make sure. I haven't checked the QT Pro page in a while.
 
I was just going to say that the other day on tech tv (i dont know how old the show was) I saw a guy showing Apples Mpeg 4 Codec and he said it wasn't out yet. So maybe thats a hint at Quicktime 6 maybe for the quicktime live convention this month.
 
I took a look at Apple's QT Pro FAQ page. No mention of the QT5 Pro key being valid for QT6. Perhaps a mention of the current Pro key also unlocking the next version's is the best indication that a new QT release is imminent.

I expect that QT6 will be released in either summer or fall 2002, probably in tandem with a Photoshop (7.0) for OSX release. And maybe a G5 as well ..... (oh, well, had to throw that in!).
 
Certainly off-topic, but I did want to second AlphaTech's comment about Apple Works. Apple Works doesn't seem to get much respect even from Mac diehards, which is a shame. Why anyone uses M$ Office for Mac is beyond me. Apple Works is the easiest to use, smallest (no M$ bloatware here!) and most elegant word processor around (never had to use the spreadsheet, so don't quote me on its merits or lack thereof). (Not to mention the OUTRAGEOUS cost of Office for Mac...)

Also notice how the most recent version of Apple Works translates any MS Word document flawlessly, but I have NEVER ONCE succeeded in getting a PC version of MS Word to properly translate even an Office for Mac document!

Perhaps I should start this as its own thread.
 
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