Below are featured all video formats that I have used over the years; whether I still use them or not, the infomation can still be of some interest.
One format that passed me by: I only ever dabbled with Super Video CD (SVCD) on one or two occasions. I abandonded this particular format because of the DVD player that I had when I started out with VHS conversions; the playback of the SVCD's soundtrack was always out of sync with the picture. Eventually I found what the problem was: apparently it was down to the DVD player, and there was a fix, but I had already decided not to bother with SVCD. As a result I'm only dropping a small mention to the format:
Above, Twisted Tales's "Fruitcake Of The Living Dead" (2004). It's a shame that I didn't persue the SVCD route as some of the Video CDs that I created may have been better as Super VideoCDs as they offered a better picture quality and better starting point when converting to DVD later.
The format that launched my video conversion interest: A standard VCD can store up to one hour ten minutes of fair quality video onto a standard 700mb CD. Picture resolution is set at 352x288 with a bitrate of 1150 k/bits per second. With VCD, action sequences can look a bit 'blocky'.
It needs to be noted that all the screen shots in the VCD section will look reasonably okay while in the native resolution (of 352 x 288) but when watched on a full size television the picture quality would be, as previously described, fair as the picture doesn't have the clarity and sharpness of better formats.
Below is a selection of screen shots which will show the differing qualities that I have managed from differing sources to VCD:
Where my original video capturing began; in the belief that I could save all of my VHS tapes to Video CD.
The source of the screen capture, above, is from my Shoestring VHS (released 1984). Because of the issues of general picture quality (mentioned above), and with a bit of hindsight, VHS does not really lend itself to VideoCD. It did it's job at the time, however.
Before I had a DVD recorder I had a digital receiver set-top box connected to my PC's ADVC-50 to record off-air. The screen shot, below, is from an Episode of the second series of the BBC's rather enjoyable Sea Of Souls (2005).
Somewhere I just had to include screen shots of Doctor Who (2005 - and long may it continue...) and the second episode of the first series, "The End of the World", gives me a good opportunity to show the limitations as well as what VCD can produce.
This screen shot (above) shows how VCDs have difficulty with high speed motion; something that the Tardis hurtling through the Time Vortex shows only too well. This blockyness is very clear in the red area...
...however, from the same episode, the second Doctor Who screen shot (below): did any of us old 'uns, brought up on cheap sets and visual effects, believe that Doctor Who would ever look this visually impressive?
At a time when DVD Burners were just too expensive and CDs were cheap, Video CDs were the popular media to convert our VHS to. For me, it was also a place to start and learn about video conversion.
Once DVD Burners and DVD media became cheap there wasn't much point in sticking with Video CDs. However, even when I got a DVD burner, I still made DVDs which contained VCD compliant files (MPEG1); some eight hours of VCD quality could sit on one DVD.
The reason I did this was that, in many cases, commercial DVDs of television series wouldn't be released for a few months after its initial transmission. Therefore, I would have a habit of recording a series to PC (digi-box/ADVC-50) and convert to VCD-DVD. I would then have a series to have, in Video CD quality on one or two DVDs, until the commercial release.
However, I haven't made any VCD video compliant files for quite a while now and the reason is Sea Of Souls series three. As described, I created a VCD-DVD for the series but it never made it to commercial DVD. So I am stuck with the format on an inferior format. I never made that error again.
Non standard Video CD (xVCD) is a Video CD where the settings have been played around with, for example, giving the picture a higher bitrate. This will mean less space available on the VCD, resulting in a shorter video, but an improved picture. This is very useful for more fast moving films as it would reduce the blockyness of fast moving scenes. Not all DVD players can play XVCD, but most modern ones will.
However, it still applies, as with VCD, that the over-all picture quality, even with the increased bitrate, can only be described as fair.
From another favourite of mine: Strange (2003; criminally left unfinished), is an xVCD with a bit rate of 1,600 K/bits per second which offers a better picture quality and less blockyness on action scenes.
It is still a fairly good picture when you consider that this was recorded off-air to VHS from a slightly poor analogue signal, there is some ghosting present, and that the VHS was converted without all the equipment I have now.
On the other hand an xVCD can have the bitrate reduced; the idea being that it allows a longer video onto a VCD but the picture quality will suffer. This was not something that I tried more than once or twice.
Above, from Heat Of The Sun (1998), the bitrate was reduced to fit a one hour forty minute video where the minimum for a VCD is one hour ten minutes. Even from this screen shot it is apparent (and not helped by the source being an off-air VHS capture) that the picture has suffered; even more so when viewed on a television.
I made xVCDs, mainly for VHS conversions, more than I did with basic VCDs, as the extra bitrate would give a better picture. It soon became apparent that I was wasting my time when DVD-/+Rs muscled in on the act. In fact, many of the VHS tapes that I converted to xVCD I have re-converted to DVDR anyway; a far superior end product.
Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) has a standard picture resolution of 720x576 (but others compatible: VCD's 352x288 for example) and can have a bit rate of up to 8000 k/bits per second. The standard is about two hours of high quality video that can fit onto a 4.7GB DVD.
However, by playing with the original footage in the encoding process, more than two hours can be fitted onto a DVDR. But the higher the bit-rate the better the quality.
This screen shot is taken from the BBC's VHS commercial release of Doctor Who: The Day of the Daleks (originally transmitted in 1973 and released in 1986), captured using my JVC VCR's Noise Reduction setting, cleaning up the picture, and at a bit rate of 5,500 K/bits per second. Very nice too, if I say so myself. Although, remember that this has a VHS source and will never be as good a picture as a commercial DVD.
View the full size version here
The screenshot, below, is from ITV's Lawless (2004), (Another appearance by Trevor Eve, but this production wasn't very good) was also captured off air using the Sony digi box, but as the full film was around two and a half hours long, the bit rate had to be lowered to 3,500 k/bits per second to fit on a single DVDR. Because this bit rate is a bit low for a full resolution DVD, in the encoding process, the screen resolution was reduced to what is called Half D1 (the resolution is 352x576).
When played back on a DVD player the resolution will be correct and still reproduce a clear picture.
View the full size version here
Below is The Quatermass Experiment (2005), this being the live broadcast. Oddly, the full size version of this picture shows an issue with capturing off-air via Freeview to PC and then encoding it to fit onto a DVD+/-R; the picture is fairly smudgy. This could be because of a couple of reasons:
The broadcast picture is already compressed (some channels compress more than others) and when captured by a PC, using a DV capture device as in this case, is captured as an .avi file where 1 hour of video is 13 gigabytes. When this is encoded to fit a DVDR the picture is compressed again.
Or could it be that my settings, or understanding, on the encoding software (TMPGnc) just wasn't right at the time?
Thankfully, in this instance, many of the problems seen in a still are not that obvious when watched on a television.
View the full size version here
Below is a widescreen capture from a DVD recorder which shows quite a nice off-air recording. This still would not be as good a picture as a full commercial DVD release but still good nonetheless. As stated here, a DVD recorder off-air capture is better than a PCs. The comparison between the last two screen captures would appear to confirm this.
View the full size version here
Xvid is a video compression codec (like MPEG2 is for DVDs) and it could have high resolution video at lower bitrates than that of MPEG2. I dabbled with Xvid for a short lived project for playing videos on a hand held PDA which I tried to use as a Media Player.
I found Xvid to be useful for conveting You Tube videos; the picture above is a BBC One trailer for Spooks from series five.
Having joined the ranks of the Apple users...
Having found that making Xvid files (above) for my PDA was okay it was not a perfect option as the PDA's screen wasn't very bright and the battery life was very poor. Therefore, not really an option for using my PDA when travelling. As a result I decided to try and see what my iPod could do for me. On a search of the internet I happened accross a free and very easy to use program called Video To iPod Converter.
The iPod delivers brighter and sharper picture and it's 80gb drive will hold an awful lot more than my PDA's 2gb SD card. However, while perfect for 5:4 video the screen size for a 16:9 video is a bit too small.
My first foray into H.264: Doctor Who's Children In Need 2007 Special "Time Crash".
When I got an iPhone the opportunity to experiment was too good to miss. This is an all round better video player than the (now redundant) PDA and the iPod Classic as the screen can accomodate widescreen videos more easily. To convert videos for the iPhone, VideoReD0 H.264 can also be used.
Cambridge Spies from 2003 was my first conversion for my iPhone to watch while I was on holiday (May 2010).
Interestingly, using the right App, my old XVid files can be played on my iPhone too.