CXD Conversions Look Pixelated with Low Bitrate???????

[videodude333]

Hi

I know there has been a big discussion from time to time over the bitrate in convertxdvd and the project settings sp,mp ect ect, so please dont hate me for bringing this question

Just to clarify I usually put 2 movies on a standard dvdr 4.5gb and I have always use the Automatic setting and let CXD decide whats best.

Now my old tv was a hd ready 26" so I used to watch all my coverted dvds via dvd player on it and they looked fine and I was very happy with them. I have since had to upgrade my tv as it broke so now I have a 32" full HD tv and ;lay my dvds via a sony bluray player. My commercial dvds look fantastic when up scaled and I'm very happy with them but my dvd-r's look really bad (pixelated) at the scenes with lower bit-rate (darker scenes). I know that CXD uses VBR and in less complex scenes it reduces bit rate and ups it in more complex scenes so I think this could be my issue.

So My question is , is this because of the lower bit-rate that they look bad and pixelated? and also Can i improve on this in future conversions by changing the project setting from Automatic to SP and using dual layer 8.5GB discs instead of the 4,7GBs?

(P.s I know that HD in a newer tech and looks Superior ect but at the moment I'm happy with DVD for various reasons and if I can get my conversions looking like my commercial Discs do on my 1080P TV I would be happy.)

any help/advice would be great.
Thanks

[deadlyshadow]

Hi

ConvertXtoDVD does not use VBR, It uses CQ

changing Project setting to SP or Using dual Layer DVD barely have positive effect because ConvertXtoDVD uses CQ (I Have tested several times)

Just prey one day VSO team believe that Bitrate has a great rule in Video quality, when almost half of a DVD is empty more bitrate may not have negative effect

Regards

[videodude333]

Hi

ConvertXtoDVD does not use VBR, It uses CQ

changing Project setting to SP or Using dual Layer DVD barely have positive effect because ConvertXtoDVD uses CQ (I Have tested several times)

Just prey one day VSO team believe that Bitrate has a great rule in Video quality, when almost half of a DVD is empty more bitrate may not have negative effect

Regards

Thanks for the reply. Thats a shame as Its a great programme. so if I use 8,5GB discs then CXD will not up the bitrate as I will have more space to play with?

I guess im going to have to try another programme as the pixelation in the dark scenes is very bad and the bit rate for these is reading below 1mb in parts, very dark scenes with no movement is something like 0.4 which is just pixel blocks.

[deadlyshadow]

Hi

ConvertXtoDVD does not use VBR, It uses CQ

changing Project setting to SP or Using dual Layer DVD barely have positive effect because ConvertXtoDVD uses CQ (I Have tested several times)

Just prey one day VSO team believe that Bitrate has a great rule in Video quality, when almost half of a DVD is empty more bitrate may not have negative effect

Regards

Thanks for the reply. Thats a shame as Its a great programme. so if I use 8,5GB discs then CXD will not up the bitrate as I will have more space to play with?

I guess im going to have to try another programme as the pixelation in the dark scenes is very bad and the bit rate for these is reading below 1mb in parts, very dark scenes with no movement is something like 0.4 which is just pixel blocks.

I Agree

[igor_lvk]

To gain max possible quality you should use SP-mode, 2-pass and best quality option. Never use auto mode.

[videodude333]

I had uninstalled this programme but I will reinstall version 7 and try it on those settings. Will those give the best quality possible using a 4.7gb disc? (sp project/2passmode/best quality checked)

Thanks

[igor_lvk]

I had uninstalled this programme but I will reinstall version 7 and try it on those settings. Will those give the best quality possible using a 4.7gb disc? (sp project/2passmode/best quality checked)

Thanks

Maybe, but i recommend You to use old 5.3.0.24 version. It uses max bitrate and you will give the best possible quality.

[deadlyshadow]

I had uninstalled this programme but I will reinstall version 7 and try it on those settings. Will those give the best quality possible using a 4.7gb disc? (sp project/2passmode/best quality checked)

Thanks

I don't think you can get much better with these settings
ConvertXtoDVD nature hates bitrate even there is plenty of free space

[ROBERT46055]

burnnova iv been testing it out it is a good program the guilty of the picture is beater and it will compress just as good with less guilty loss from aiseesoft programs

[videodude333]

burnnova iv been testing it out it is a good program the guilty of the picture is beater and it will compress just as good with less guilty loss from aiseesoft programs

Does this programe give better results than CXD? Im starting to use 8,5gb discs and what to put 4 hours on each disc with maxium bitrate/quality.

[igor_lvk]

I had uninstalled this programme but I will reinstall version 7 and try it on those settings. Will those give the best quality possible using a 4.7gb disc? (sp project/2passmode/best quality checked)

Thanks

I don't think you can get much better with these settings
ConvertXtoDVD nature hates bitrate even there is plenty of free space

No, man. I got exellent quality with these settings. I easy put up to 4 movies on 4.7Gb disk.

[videodude333]

No, man. I got exellent quality with these settings. I easy put up to 4 movies on 4.7Gb disk.

Are you using 4.7GB divs or 8.5GB discs? Usally 2 movies is a max for me per disc (4.7GB) but I have noticed on the hd 1080p tvs the darker scenes go all pixeleated due to CXD using very low bitrate on these parts. This doesnt happen with AVS2DVD programme but I wonder will a 8.5GB disc fix this and allow CXD more space to play with when applying the bitrate throughout the conversion.

[igor_lvk]

No, man. I got exellent quality with these settings. I easy put up to 4 movies on 4.7Gb disk.

Are you using 4.7GB divs or 8.5GB discs? Usally 2 movies is a max for me per disc (4.7GB) but I have noticed on the hd 1080p tvs the darker scenes go all pixeleated due to CXD using very low bitrate on these parts. This doesnt happen with AVS2DVD programme but I wonder will a 8.5GB disc fix this and allow CXD more space to play with when applying the bitrate throughout the conversion.

I don't think you've got pixelated scenes because of low bps. Maybe it's all in upsacaling method of your TV.
Here is an examples of may experiments. I always use SP-mode, 2-pass, bq-option and lanczos filter. Ofcourse there's some blocks in fast movement in several scenes but it's not very critical.
I must say that late 7.0.38 version is quite good. Provides better quality with low bps. It's a bad way to think that auto mode will bring you better quality instead of SP-mode.

[deadlyshadow]

No, man. I got exellent quality with these settings. I easy put up to 4 movies on 4.7Gb disk.

Are you using 4.7GB divs or 8.5GB discs? Usally 2 movies is a max for me per disc (4.7GB) but I have noticed on the hd 1080p tvs the darker scenes go all pixeleated due to CXD using very low bitrate on these parts. This doesnt happen with AVS2DVD programme but I wonder will a 8.5GB disc fix this and allow CXD more space to play with when applying the bitrate throughout the conversion.

I don't think you've got pixelated scenes because of low bps. Maybe it's all in upsacaling method of your TV.
Here is an examples of may experiments. I always use SP-mode, 2-pass, bq-option and lanczos filter.

is these screenshots quality good?

[igor_lvk]

is these screenshots quality good?

You think that it's bad???

[deadlyshadow]

is these screenshots quality good?

You think that it's bad???

it depends on your source, but screenshots quality is not good

[igor_lvk]

is these screenshots quality good?

You think that it's bad???

it depends on your source, but screenshots quality is not good

Ofcourse it depends of the source, but on old TV 4x3 it looks very good.

[videodude333]

Yeah the old crt style tvs are very forgiving and anything looks well on them but the new HD TV are not as easy going. I think 4 movies on a DVD4.5GB would be overkill and look way too pixelated on a 32" 1080p TV.

I still think it's the low bitrate that is causing it to look very pixelated on the 1080p TV. When I play it back on the 720p HD ready TV its looks fine and quality looks very very good it's only on the 1080p it's gets pixelated.

Upon testing with other programs when higher bitrate is used at the same dark scenes they look fine . I think that by setting project to sp on a 8.5GB disc is going to be the best option here even if I set the custom use disc size to around 7700mb to keep inside safety zones I think it should try to keep the bitrate higher and more consistent across the whole movie therefore giving a better finished conversion.

[deadlyshadow]

see this log file, Output DVD that creates with "SP" Encoding Option is smaller than "Auto" (MP)

[videodude333]

Another Test again with 2 full length movies on 1 4.7GB disc and this is my conclusion , CXD when on auto settings seems to lower the bitrate in darkerscenes. This seems to show up more pixelated on 1080p 32" screens when played back and is not notciable on old crt screens or HD ready screens at 26" or below. Also on a side note the disc space is not fully used up and this doess not matter to me for reasons (A) the remaining disc space I wont use anyway and (B) I am more concerned with reducing the pixelsation in dark areas than filling or not filling the actual disc space.

Now same test with sp mode enabled and 4.7GB disc and dark areas seem to be more imroved where the pixelation is concerned and also CXD has used more bitrate in these area's than on the auto setting so this is telling me that the sp mode is forcing cxd to ise more bitrate wher eit can so therefore we get a better result.??

Now Im awaiting 8.5gb discs to test the same test only with a larger disc so in theory judging from my other tests CXD should give the best overall bitrate/quality its going to give for 2 movies on a dvd (apx 4hours give or take) with the settings at sp and disc size at 8.5GB.

My question is if I change the filter from lanczros to another like linear would this help reduce pixelation or is this a waste and jsut keep lanczros as my default?