PAL/NTSC 352x288/240 is a valid DVD resolution but I'm unsure whether I should encode it as MPEG1 or MPEG2.
MPEG1
Things were clear for a few days but now I'm confused again ;)
Encoding and authoring PAL 352x288 1875 kb/s CBR MPEG1 for a DVD seemed to work fine until I ripped the MPEG1 back for other uses. The DVD successfully played in Mac OS X's DVD player and on a Pioneer 444 standalone.
But I then noticed that QuickTime Player couldn't show the image of the VOB file or of the MPEG converted from it via MPEG Streamclip (a very fine app BTW). (You can force QT Player to open a VOB by keeping Option-Command keys down while dragging the VOB on it).
Please correct if necessary:
I then learned that the terms "MPEG-1" and "MPEG-2" not only designate two different VIDEO formats, but also two different CONTAINERS for these video formats. One could call the MPEG-1 container "MPEG system stream" and the MPEG-2 container "MPEG program stream".
The MPEG-1 container is expected to hold MPEG-1 video, and the MPEG-2 container is expected to hold MPEG-2 video. But I can put MPEG-1 video in MPEG-2 containers and still be ISO compliant. I *can*, but obviously I can't expect it to work in all applications.
This is where the problem with the QuickTime Player came from: the VOB file is ALWAYS an MPEG-2 container. But there is a number of DVD recorders that put MPEG-1 video in VOB files anyway. Also many DVD authoring apps will accept and put MPEG-1 into the VOB (MPEG-2) container. (I heard that DVD Studio Pro rejects any MPEG-1 file, though).
Apple's QuickTime Player (and the related MPEG-2 Playback Component) can't handle MPEG-1 inside a VOB but Apple's DVD Player can because they use different engines for playback.
I could fix the MPEG container issue by demultiplexing the file and then remultiplexing it with MPEG Streamclip. THEN the QuickTime Player showed the video part in it.
I also learned that reporting whether a file is MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 is also difficult: what should an application say if the CONTAINER is MPEG-2 but the VIDEO is MPEG-1? QuickTime Player reports MPEG-2 (not entirely wrong because the VOB container is indeed MPEG-2).
...So it seems that it is better to use 352x288 MPEG-2 video although some sources say that only MPEG-1 is valid for a DVD at this resolution??
<http://www.dvddemystified.com/dvdfaq.html#3.4>
BTW, the page above says that MPEG-1 video rate is limited to 1.856 Mbps (just as Steven recalled).
Or can VOB used as a valid container for MPEG-1, too??
-- Matti Haveri <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> <http://www.sjoki.uta.fi/~shmhav/>
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