I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but I'm trying to convert downloaded avi to svcd using TMPEGenc and it seems regardless of the settings including bitrate that I get choppy video and even more noticeably fluttering sound. I've used virtualdub to strip away the audio to a wave file, and then used the TMPEGenc templates for NTSC and NTSC film, with and without inverse telecine, VBR (used some calculator api to figure out what the avg bitrate should be set at) and CBR--->1200 - 1800 bitrate (to fit on 80 min CD-Rs). After the whole conversion process, the resulting mpeg is always the same when played back using windows media player- Like watching and listening to the movie through a running fan. The last avi was an xvid of 24.97 FPS and with/without AC3 sound (I have the AC3 filter codec and I think all the other appropriate codecs), so I must admit I never even bothered burning them to see what they would do in the dvd player. I have successfully used Nero 6 to burn svcds of the sopranos DIVX DVDrips, but I really want to try TMPEGenc and see what it can do because I found Nero kind of limiting as far as settings and control. I know there are so many settings and so many reasons things can go wrong that it's hard for someone to provide a complete answer, but has anyone had a similar problem? I'm open to even some of the more obvious reasons.

With Tmpgenc you first have to make sure that the Frame rate of the AVI file is the same as the Mpeg you are going to encode it to ,Meaning if your AVI is 25fps you have to encode it as 25fps and if it is 23.97fps you can to encode it as 23.97fps(or 23.97fps 29.97fps Internally) you can not convert the Frame rate with Tmpgenc or you will get Jumpy Playback..And when extracting the audio from your AVI I find it best to use AVI-Mux to extract the audio as an AC3 file then use Headac3he to encode it to Mpeg audio that you then Multiplex with the Mpeg video you encoded in Tmpgenc...But the Biggest problem Tmpgenc has is that is has really bad Bitrate controll ,Meaning that no matter what you set the Bitrate Tmpgenc will allways ignore it and use what ever bitrate it wants to, That is Probably why you are getting Jumpy Playback, I quit useing Tmpgenc for Mpeg2 encodeing for this Reason and that it is really slow, If you Know how to Frameserve with AVISynth or Virtual Dub then I would sugest useing CCE SP 2.67 for SVCD"s cuz it is a Better Quality Mpeg2 encoder than Tmpgenc and it is 5 times as Fast as Tmpgenc and it strictly obeys the Bitrate that you set, Pluss it has other advantages over tmpgenc but I won"t get into them right now, But you have to know how to frameserve to use this encoder, If you don"t know how to Frameserve then I would sugest useing the "MainConcept Encoder 1.31" it is Much faster at encodeing than tmpgenc and the Quality is Very simular to Tmpgenc and it has good Bitrate controll...And Finally Make sure that your DVD Player officially supports SVCD cuz not all Players support SVCD even though they support VCD...Good Luck

That was a very concise and helpful reply, thanks. I will try some other programs to encode my AVIs. I agree TMPGenc is reeeaaaallly slow.
I used Nero and it was faster and it actually worked, but as I mentioned lacks flexibility and control.
Just a question, instead of AVI-mux could I use the demux audio command in virtualdubmod, then besweet to convert AC3 to wav? I really don't want tons of different programs on my computer, and just in trying to burn SVCDs to watch on my DVD player (which is a Pioneer 3-disc changer and works fine so far for all VCDs and SVCDs even though it's at least 3 years old) I've already got BeSweet, BeSweetGUI, virtualdub, virtualdubmod, AVIcodec, DIVX codec, AC3filter, XVID codec, TMPGenc, G-spot, AC3 Machine, not to mention winrar, smartpar, different media and DVD players, etc, etc...I don't want too much crap cluttering up my system and I can't believe there is not more of a comprehensive, one-stop-shop solution to converting and burning AVIs that does a satisfactory job. That's my 2 cents as a newbie...
Thanks again for the help

Yes you can use Virtual Dub to extract the AC3 and then use Besweet to convert it to Wav or Mp2..There aren"t any good One Button Encodeing Programs because There are so many Different types of AVI files with So many different frame rates and resolutions and Audio formats that it would be impossible for a Program to be able to Convert them all to Perfect little Mpeg files..But there are Good Programs that can do a Lot, Like "Canopus Procoder" which can convert Pal/NTSC and accept Man different Formats and convert to many different Formats and it"s encodeing Quality is Really good, But the Drawbacks are that it is Slower than even Tmpgenc and it costs about $700 ..What I use to convert to Mpeg2 is Just AVISynth and CCE SP 2.67 cuz AVISynth can Convert Frame rates and resize resolutions clean up Low Quality Video and Many other Things and I use CCE which is 5-10 Times as Fast as Tmpgenc and it is a Better Mpeg2 encoder ...Cheers

Luisifer said, "If you don"t know how to Frameserve then I would sugest useing the "MainConcept Encoder 1.31" it is Much faster at encodeing than tmpgenc and the Quality is Very simular to Tmpgenc"

However, MainConcept also has a framerate bug. If you encode from say 23fps to 30fps it will quit before the end of the encode because it can't compute between the two framerates.

I'm told if you convert at the same framerate to mpg, that you can run it through again and change the framerate, but I've never tried that. Instead I use pulldown and leave the framerate alone. I don't think that works going from pal to ntsc. For that I would use Procoder anyway, which is the champ at that so far as I know.

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