Ok I'm currently converting Stargate SG-1 to generic xvid with audiocopy and decided to just make each episode 1 CD in size or 700 megs. I'm using the 2 pass method and am getting inconsistent files from the results. I'm still kinda new at this so if I'm wrong then somebody please correct me but some of the episodes are 699 megs like I would think they should be and some are 509 megs or 524 even while 1 CD or 700 megs is selected for file size. 509 megs is quite a bit smaller than the target size and I would expect the video quality to reflect this.

Is this a bug in 5.0.1.5 or am I doing something wrong? Should all files tagret size be pretty close when DVDFab is finished? I haven't tried this in DVDFab v4 because this is one of the Series that wouldn't sync up after conversion in the past.

Thanks
Chris

Fixed file size is designed for movies that must fit on a given media (like on a CD). The file sizes are as close as I would expect them to be for a 40-42 minute episode. I suggest you use the fixed bitrate option and adjust the rate with the slider. It will display the file size in the adjacent box. You will get better results I think. Take note of the "bits/pixel" column in the size list. This higher this number, the better the quality of the copy (more or less). It will change as you move the bitrate slider up and down. I move the slider to get at least 0.3 bits/pixel and let the file size be whatever it is. There is no real virtue in a given size unless you need it to fit on a certain device, and you can control the size more precisely with the bitrate slider.

I was originally trying to target the .3 bits/pixel or higher but got the compulsive Idea of making all the episodes the same size even though it goes against my better judgement as I prefere quality over size myself. With all these TV episodes I figure it would be better to convert them to avi rather than save them as dvd tp play with my MG-35 over the network. I'm not as picky as with them as I am with actual movies (I like to keep movies as uncompressed ISOs to play) but that's not as practical for 10 seasons of SG-1 plus any othe TV series I have. Anyways, I was wondering if DVDFab encodes any differently if fixed bitrate is selected versus fixed file size even if the bits/pixel are the same say at .3 like you suggested? From experience is .3 the lowest you'd recommend?

Thanks

Chris

It is the lowest I use. For really outstanding quality in an MPEG-4 format, try one of the H.264 profiles if your media device will play .mp4 files. It is amazing if you choose a large screen size and keep the bitrate up. Not sure about the encoding parameters, but I would suspect that if the same codec is used, the results would be similar. I covet your SG-1 boxset.

Thanks alot Signals for the input. I do like to experiment with things so will take you're advice while playing around here, unfortunately the MG-35 doesn't seem to support h264 or i would most definitely use it if the quality is better. I don't have the nice all-in-one all 10 seasons of SG-1, I have the individual single sets when they were 5 disc per season in standard DVD cases so all these things take up a lot of space as well LOL...I'm still tempted to find that special box set if just because it takes up less space to store!

Thanks

Chris.

OK this seems strange, I just redid episode 6 for the third time and set it at a fixed bit rate and .3 bits/pixel and the resulting file size is exactly the same as the settings for 700 megs or 1 CD. Fixed bit rate says file size should be 775 megs with .3 bits/ pixel, with it set to 1 CD or 700 megs the bits/pixel drop to .264 yet both encodes yield the same file size of 509 megs even though it should be over 700 I would think. Seems DVDFab isn't recalculating files I have already encoded when I redo them. I'm cautiously posting this problem I seem to be having as for me using Vista has caused some programs to forget or not change settings after I change them so maybe DVDFab isn't to blame.

Thanks
Chris

One other question, is a 2 pass conversion still needed if using a fixed bitrate?

I think the problem may be with DVDFab because while using the generic avi profile on the same video it doesn't matter what I change my bitrate to, the resulting file is the same. I even doubled the bit rate which put the bits/pixel over 5 according to DVDFab and the resulting file had a bit/pixel of around 265 according to gspot. When I tried the H.264 profile I got the results I was expecting but when I went back to generic and tried to encode the same episode, I get the same results no matter what the settings say.

I never use two-pass. I cannot see the difference and one-pass H264 looks better than 2-pass xvid to me anyway. No matter where you set the slider, the encoder will only use the bitrate it needs and can accommodate to encode the source material. I fail to understand what difference the file size makes anyway. The predicted file sizes are estimates only. I have my default bitrate set at 2400. I have never had a movie encode at that rate. They usually come out between 1200 and 1800, depending on the screen size.

OK I'm now using DVDFab 5.0.2.0 and I still can't get consistent results no matter what I seem to try while trying to convert SG-1 Season 7 to generic avi with audiocopy. My file sizes are all over the place...if I tell DVDFab to make each episode fit 1 CD, only a few episodes meet the target while others are almost 200 megs smaller than the target. I've tried every which way to encode...fixed bitrate, fixed file size and I even set the bitrate for one of the problematic episodes to 4000 just to see what would happen and the result was a 524 meg file and the bitrate never got higher than 1900 while gspot scanned it. I've tried this in XP and Vista. I guess I'm asking if this is a bug in the program or since SG-1 Season 7 was a problematic series for audio sync that Ting had to write some special code for the series.

I know you always go for bits/pixel Signals but I can't get this series to work that way except for the 10 and 4 minute extras, they work fine with whatever I set to encode.

Thanks
Chris

Hi cmazz
I asked Ting, one of the developers of DVDFab about this once and he gave me the explanation I gave you in post #9, possibly slightly mangled by my memory. More than that I can't tell you. When the bitbuckets are full, they're full and the file will not get any bigger.

So it would seem then that I can't increase the video quality if I needed to by making the file larger on these videos or by increasing the bits/pixel. Please forgive my ignorance in this area as I'm still new at this part of using software to rip to xvid hence all the questions. I will stop worrying about this and get on with my converting an I have yet so actually see SG-1 Seasons 7 thru 10 because I fell behind when it was on tv and SG Atlantis came on. LOL

Thanks a lot Signals for your help.
Chris

Again, try H.264 it really looks great.

I did and I agree with you that it does look better at least on my laptop screen. I won't even mind the longer encoding times if my media player could handle h.264 but the MG-35 can't I'm watching and reading about newer models of players that can handle that format but they all have their little quirks and problems that one would hope can be fixed with firmware. Heck the MG-35 finally got some firmware just the other day that will allow me to play uncompressed high bitrate ISOs over the network without stuttering and I only had to wait over a year for that! LOL

Thanks Signals
Chris