Using DVDx to create movies?

03-22-03, 12:55 AM

I have a program that I bought recently called DVD Copy Plus. It's put out by 321 Studios and is not much more than several smaller programs distributed on one CD, with a tutorial. However, it's not really helpful in telling how to make PPC movies.

The copying software is SmartRipper, which is common enough, but the conversion software is called DVDx. I can't figure out how to create movies in either AVI, Divx, or MPEG format that are small enough for the Pocket PC. (150MB or less, preferably.)

Has anyone had any experience using DVDx? I know I can use the software recommended by PocketMatrix, but I'd like to try out this program since I paid for it.

Jer · 06-15-03, 09:46 PM

I'm new to this and trying to use DVDx. Haven't quite figured out the settings. Waiting for a settings post from someone that has got it to work.

06-16-03, 08:51 AM

It's actually quite easy if you want DVDx to make a portrait view movie for Pocket PC. If you want it rotated for fullscreen, you're back to using VirtualDub. Anyway, here's how:

1) Open a movie (duh). Either use the Open DVD Root button, or if you've already ripped it to hdd, use Open IFO and select the .ifo file for that movie.

* Please remember that there is a Help button on each of the following dialogs, which will explain each option.

* I'm only touching on the 'important' settings. There are others you can play with too; use the help button for explanation of the other options.

2) The Input Settings dialog should appear automatically; if not, click the button. DVDx is pretty good at figuring out which index and angle to use automatically, so you shouldn't have to fool with it at all. Same with the audio track, unless you specifically want a non-standard track to be used. Select the desired framerate; I would suggest sticking with NTSC. Under 'Save your DVD drive' you can select how much cache to use, either RAM or hdd, to save continuously using your dvd-rom during the ripping/re-encoding process.

3) Output Settings is where we get to select our a/v codecs, etc. AVI (DivX, YUV...) should already be selected, as well as the Lame MP3 codec. Click Audio Lame to select bitrate, etc. Then select the DivX 5.0x codec if it isn't already selected. You'll notice that DVDx does support 2-pass encoding, but does not require it. Fill in your settings for Pass 1 (check 'enable 2nd' to get to the Pass 2 settings).

Now under the 'Export Settings' column we set the output screen size, zoom, and resize filter. You'll note that there is no 'resize calculator' so you will need another application to give you the exact screen size if you don't know what it should be already. Again, DVDx will only output portrait view video, so for PocketMVP if you want to keep the skin, you maximum width will 236. If you want the full 240 width, the skin will disappear. Select an appropriate Bicubic resize filter. For max frames, 10000 is probably already set there, this will rip ~ 6:57 minutes of the DVD to let you see how your settings will look. Once you get everything just the way you want it, click the 'Whole' button to select every frame. For 'Volume don't exceed' select infinite, since we are storing anything we're doing directly to hdd and we don't need to worry about fitting it onto a VCD, etc.

4) Select Destination

5) Encode

That's it!

Jer · 06-16-03, 02:46 PM

Would you mind attaching screen shots of your input and output settings?

06-16-03, 03:41 PM

Ok, how do I do that? I tried the IMG tags but the images didn't show up. Can I use multiple images in the Attachments box?

Jer · 06-16-03, 04:14 PM

I believe you can only attach one image. If you have a website, you can put it there and link to it thru an img src call. Last, but not least, you could email it to me and I can post it.

06-16-03, 11:17 PM

The screen size I have there was for a portrait view of the South Park movie; other movies will need different screen sizes.

06-17-03, 11:15 AM

Thanks for the help! I'll give this a shot--

Jer · 06-17-03, 11:44 AM

Talyn,
Thanks for the screen shots. I was using all the wrong settings. No wonder I couldn't get it to work. How do you determine the screen resolution for landscape?

06-17-03, 02:29 PM

I cheated :)

I already had the Southpark movie ripped and I made a desktop DivX with DVDx with the default screensize. When I opened it in VirtualDub and applied the Smart Resize filter, it gave me the new portrait view screensize.

Jer · 06-18-03, 10:58 AM

Talyn,
I used your settings and the .avi file was viewable. The problem is that it's 650Mb. If I set the volume not to exceed 200Mb, it throws a 2nd pass error. Have you encountered this?

06-18-03, 11:11 AM

My Southpark movie came out to be 121mb encoded at 160Kbps DivX, but I had gone back into VDub to resample the audio to mono 32Kbps MP3 whereas DVDx will only use the Lame codec in stereo. (Also notice on my screenshot, 128Kbps is selected for Lame - I don't actually use that bitrate.)