DVD conversions/divx

Databoy · 02-25-04, 06:38 AM

Hi Guys,

After some time I am currently playing around again with conversions : DVD to avi/divx, avi/divx to ppc friendly format...

I have been reading again on this forum in the manuals, I have been checking out other internet sites, I have read a book a this subject ...

Still all is so confusing. The manuals that I find mostly work with older versions of software such as Vdub, older divx codexs ...

Last few days I have been trying to convert a DVD to divx with no such a good result. Or I have black borders to the left and right of the screen, or the quality is not that superb (I have jagged lines and stripes on arms, faces ...). On some sites they use this program, on another site they advise to use another one. Ok so far I have noticed that there are several programs and that they all do mostly the same thing, using this or that combination is sometimes purely a matter of taste. But I would like to know more about divx settings, which programs best to use, comparisons, and MOST OF ALL a recent manual to convert DVD to avi/divx and then to my Dell. A manual that explains every step and uses latest versions of divx codec and tools.

Can you guys refer me to some links or sites where I can get some good quality information. I would like to know some background, not just following a manual and selecting some options I don't have an idea of what they do. I would like to know why I use this or that setting.

What sites do you use to learn about this. Which codec, tool you use to convert this formats.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

troyg54 · 02-25-04, 07:58 AM

Hey,
I use dr. DivX to do my encoding. Its really easy to use. Select the video and then most of the settings you can keep. just lower the resoulution to ppc size and thats about all you have to do.
It encodes it with a divX codec and can be played with PocketMVP.
Linkys
PocketMVP
Dr. DivX

troyg54 · 02-25-04, 08:03 AM

oh yeah i forgot something are you converting directly from the dvd or do you have the files extracted to the HD?
Here is a program to decrypt the files and put them on your hd
DVDDecrypter

Databoy · 02-25-04, 11:18 AM

I use both ways. Some programs like DVDx can convert directly from the DVD so I don't have to rip it, others can only read VOB files, so I rip de disc using Smartripper

Databoy · 02-27-04, 07:22 AM

Okay, I ripped a DVD with Smartripper and I am playing around with FlaskMPG now. The function open DVD makes Flask crash over and over again. I tried with the ripped files, these files can be opened. I followed the manual on this site (DVD to avi guide) and I come up with huge file sizes. In the manual they use PCM audio. I have a DVD with a concert of 50 minutes. I have 4 VOB files, the first one being around 20 minutes. I use Flask and I have a file of around 200 MB. This is too much. When I try to use MP3 audio compression, the audio and video are completely out of sync. I tried both with 1 pass quality based with the quantisizer set to 6.3 as told in the manual, and I have tried with 1 pass, bitrate 150-200!! When using mp3 sound, the file is a bit smaller, around 100-150 Mb but still way to big. Normally a 1h30-2h movie should not be bigger than 650-700 Mb in good qualtity and this is only 50 minutes. What am I doiong wrong??? Please help!!!

bigds63 · 02-27-04, 09:29 AM

You might want to take a look at my site...(See Sig below) I have Guides that show you step by step pictures on how to do this ripping and converting of video for PPC, Plus how to stream TV on your PPC over your wireless LAN. Also I am currently a beta tester for KVMD that has made a program called Movie2Memcard the Version 1.1.0 can be found here http://www.handango.com/PlatformProd...oductId=101963 There is a free trial demo or you can buy for only 15.00 and you will also get free updates if you buy the software for there are other things that are in the works not yet ready for release. This is a very good program some what like dr.divx but will also do wmv8 for PPC2002 and wmv9 for WM2003...I highly recommend you check this out if you only want to use one program to do all your converting with....

Databoy · 02-27-04, 08:27 PM

do you have any experience or hints in just ripping dvd to divx for use on pc
this is were i am having most troubles converting for use on my pocket pc is no problem but i cannot seem to get the hang of making a good dvd divx rip on 650 mb

bigds63 · 02-29-04, 09:41 AM

Not sure if your talking about making a divx that will fit on a cdr and then later converting that same file down to size for playing on your PPC or what....You can convert straight to divx to play on your PPC but it will be way smaller than 650mb for if you make your divx at that size, your bitrate you would have to use would be of really good quality but would be to much for your PPC to play back...Please explain what you want to do and I can help you either way, It can be done using DVDx , I just need to know what settings to tell you.

Databoy · 03-01-04, 07:02 AM

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. Well actually I am trying both. I have a dvd and I want to make a backup copy on divx or xvid. Then I use this 650-700 mb to down-convert to play on my Axim!!
I have been having problems with the first thing, making the dvd fit on 1 cd-r with good quality and av sync. I tried Flask, DVDx and all the other programs, but or the size was over 1 GB or the audio and video were not in sync or other problems. Now I just tried with the Gordian Knot package and made a xvid movie of the dvd!! Works like a charm, perfect audio and video quality, perfect sync and it's just 700 mb!!!
Now I have converted this using Vdub for my Axim. I used 128 kb/s 1 pass, also tried 2 pass using the manual on this site. It works but video quality could be better!! Maybe use higher bitrate like 200-220 Kb/s???? What do you think?

Also I cannot find any place to download divx codec 5.0.3 I only find lower or higher versions (5.0.1) or 5.1. I am not sure if the latter is compatible with ppc.

sheepy · 03-01-04, 11:21 AM

Why not convert from the original to the pocket PC version? As you've got the original DVD that you're converting to make the xvid for your PC, why not also while you've got the VOB files ripped to your hard drive convert straight from them to the pocket pc version? VirtualDubMPEG2 or VirtualDubMod can both open the vob file directly, and if you get AC3dec (I think it's called) - an open source AC3 decoder wrapped in an ACM layer - virtualdub can also decode the audio for you.

For reference, these are the settings I use (although they're set more to get the file on my SD card rather than for best quality, I've not done full experimentation):

Resolution: 320x240 (or nearest multiple of 16 in the height if it's not 4:3 aspect ratio)
Frame rate: 25fps (mostly my DVDs are PAL)
Compression:
- Audio - 96kbps stereo MP3 for "good quality" sources - e.g. episodes of 24, 48kbps for older TV episodes that have pretty nondescript sound quality anyway
- Video - 265kbps CBR one-pass for better quality (looks pretty much perfect mostly on the axim), 205kbps for older crappier quality sources with less movement etc.

These settings give files of around 120MB per 45 minutes - so for films you might want to knock the video bitrate down slightly and maybe the audio bitrate too in order to get a film on a 256MB card.

Hope all that rambling helps some

sheepy · 03-01-04, 11:22 AM

http://fcchandler.home.comcast.net/AC3ACM/ -- this is the ACM AC3 wrapper that allows virtualdub to read dolby digital audio streams and process them for you.

on edit:

one more point - I tried variable bit rate encoding a few days back, and although this lets you target a file size better, you have the problem that in very fast movement scenes, the bitrate goes too high for the axim to decode, as it's variable bit rate, which gives better picture quality but, in my experience, many dropped frames.... CBR at 200-275kbps in my experience can be played back on an X3i with very few (usually zero) dropped frames.

one more edit:

I'm using xvid for my PPC versions - koepi's stable from 2002 - xvid-04102002-1.exe.

Databoy · 03-01-04, 01:17 PM

Hey thanx a lot for the valuable information.
I will test some more this evening. Did you say you used xvid on the Axim??!! Is this compatible with the PocketMVPlayer?

sheepy · 03-01-04, 08:12 PM

Yup, the latest xvid codec doesn't work, but the one that I mentioned (04102002 koepi) works a treat.

With the latest version of PocketMVP with the latest beta divx decoder "upgrade" the latest version of xvid MAY work, but I don't know, I haven't fully tried it yet. It should work from what I hear, and it does work with b-frame encoding which apparently allows better quality with lower bit rates... I've not played with any of that though, and I'm happy with my current setup so I'm loathed to mess with it... my desire to play will no doubt overwhelm that at some point before too long though

mark

Databoy · 03-02-04, 08:34 AM

Cool i will try this tonight
I encoded a movie in Xvid for my pc using Gordian Knot Package, I got the movie in perfect quality on 700 mb but when I try to import this in VDub, I get some error message that the audio was not correctly encoded, VDub tries to correct the problem but warns me for some audio/video desync.

I got the movie now on 60-100 mb (depending of the framerate), I tried with 150-200 kb/s which is more than decent. I also tried with 600 kb/s. Is runs smoothly on my Axim X5 and the image is really crisp, but of course the file size is huge.

AND, I got desync in audio/video. VDUb suggests to correct the problem by .... (don't know the exact error message, could post it tonight), but I should decompress de audio track and then recpmpress it.

Any thoughts?

Odie2004 · 03-02-04, 09:52 AM

I get the same error with some TV episodes from the web.

I 'd like to know if there's any faster/easier way of converting it apart from separating the audio and video streams and re-combining them.

Cheers
- Odie

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