Alright! I finally got my Mission Impossible 2 movie to encode all the way through. I ended up transferring the ripped dvd files to my other computer (1.1 Athlon) and the whole process only took like 5hours. Something wrong with 1.5 Celeron Laptops ay!

I used DivX 5.05 this time (adware) cos 5.03 wasn't working properly. In the decoder properties I put the settings up to maximum quality. I don't know what film effect is, so that is left at off (default).

Anyway, I followed the tutorial exactly. In the Vidomi video Codec Settings, I put in DivX networks 2pass, like it says and in the divX codec parameters I selected High Definition profile. I didn't select the frame rate or resolution or any other settings in there. Am I supposed to?

Anyway I've ended up with a 500mb file thats extremely bad quality and very blocky! I set it to one media cd in output and 699mb. Someone help me out here

Thanks!

Sounds like you just set the bitrate too low for the source. Try dropping the res or filtering it to make it more compressable.

Mission Impossible 2, thats just over 120mins. That should fit quite nicely onto a 702MB CD-R.

Depending on you audio setting (say 96kbps) you could set the video codec to around 715kbps.

I personally can't see the facination with Vidomi, apart from the fact it's supposed to do everything automaticly.

I use MPEGmediator 1.5 myself, and do a manual 2pass. Manual 2pass is quite straight forward when you get used to it!

Why not give it a go. Start with some small encodes first.

Thanks people. I think the problem was in the DivX encoder settings. In the performance/quality settings it was on medium and the bitrate was 100 something. So no wonder

Anyway I encoded again and got a reasonable quality 700mb file at 1024Kbps bitrate at 29.9fps, 720x288 and sound was at 128Kbps. Its still a bit blocky though when you put it into fullscreen mode in WinDVD. Why???

I prefer better quality video than sound. So if I was to do it again, to get better video quality what should I do? Is putting it on 2 cds really worth it?

Also whats usually the best bitrate to encode video to? I see DivX allows it up to 8Mbps. What happens when you put it up that high?

Thanks!

720x288?? Surely you mean 640x288?

I would assume that it is a film source so I would encode at 23.976fps.

Also using vorbis audio you can get better sound at a lower bitrate.

If you aren't doing 2 passes then I would suggest doing so.

Also as I said you might want to try some filtering to make the source more compressable.

You might also want to consider dropping DivX and trying Xvid, RV9 or WMV9.

Xvid. whats that like? Do you know the official site for it? is that better than divX?

I just watched the mi2 movie I made and realised that it cuts short about 10mins to the end (not incl credits). I wonder why it did that!? Would that have been Vidomi stopping at exactly 699mb??

I checked again with avi codec to see what fps it was and it is 29.9fps and 720x288res. Is that good or bad?

Where can I get that vorbis audio thing? I'm using Franhauffer Mp3 or something.

...

One of the problems with Vidomi, despite it's claims that it's easy to use, is that it can generate all manner of daft pixel image sizes.

MI 2 has an aspect ratio (AR) of 2.35:1. On an original pixel image size (OPI) of 720x480 or 576. In order for you to obtain the best possile copy you should generate a copy at this pixel image size.

However, if you did you would end up with a left to right squashed image. Which would look great on a 16:9 TV or 16:9 PC monitor (yes please!) but not so good on a 4:3 TV or 4:3 PC monitor.

Yes I know you can alter the aspect ratio in many software players, but if you want to create copies that can be viewed via a variety of software players including WinMedia player try encoding at 720x416 (For movies with AR's of 2.35:1, 1.85:1 and 1.77:1)

I've got nearly 100GB of movies at this pixel image size and when viewed either via a PC monitor or 4:3 TV (via Sigma Xcard) they all look great.

But as I said before, play with your encoding software settings using small files at first.

I try and make most of my 90-100 min encodes fit onto a 80min/700MB CD-R. And my 100-140 min encodes onto a 99min/900MB CD-R.

XviD is awesome, however you won't find binarys at the official site. Is it better than DivX? Well if I said yes I am sure we can quickly find someone to reply no.

Never used Vidomi so no idea.

720/288=2.5 it should be 640x272 or 720x304 assuming a 1:1 aspect.

Not from an NTSC region personally, but I would think that the DVD would be from a film source and that you should therefor encode quite easily at 23.976 saving yourself some bits.

If you want to use vorbis audio then you will need to ditch the whole AVI container as well as vidomi?, which may not be a good idea despite what I think.

I have to agree with celtic_druid, XviD is awesome.

There's a massive array of tweaks available with the codec. It's just a shame it doesn't work with my Xcard.

By the way if you crop a 2.35:1 aspect ratio image to 720x304. You will infact crop a tiny bit of the image away. It's fine to use this setting on a 2.40:1 image but this AR is still a bit rare at the moment.

I think I might do a 'How To' post about aspect ratio's and why they are the size that they are!

I would prefer to make a 1:1 copy of the dvd, keeping as much quality as possible. I don't have a dvd writer so it has to be divx, xvid, vcd etc.

The dvd was in 720x480 resolution. Do you lose quality converting it to another resolution as said above?

Maybe should I be converting to S-VCD instead or something??

I had a look around for Xvid. I can find the codecs from xvid.org but I wouldnt have a clue on how to compile them or whatever. Where is a nice .exe file

I had a look in Vidomi, there doesn't seem to be anywhere I can change the output resolution. Except in the DivX encoder settings...and as soon as you set them in there, it resets itself when you exit.

Didn't I just say that you won't find any binarys at the official site?

There are various binaries that you can download, however I couldn't be bothered posting links when you could just find them yourself using google.

When I said 720x304, I didn't mean crop, I meant crop and resize (I did say 1:1 aspect which is not possible without a resize).
720/2.35=306.4 so 304 is not that far off.

If you want a 1:1 copy, then get a DVD burner, even then you may not get it, although in the case of MI2 I have it down on my list as movie only so it will at least fit without re-encoding if you leave out the extras.

If you drop the resolution, then yes you will loose quality, although encoding at a higher resolution if you don't have the bits to spare will lead to worse quality than the lower resolution.

If that is true about Vidomi, then I would ditch it right this second, it doesn't sound like it allows you to encode NTSC film material at 23.976fps either.

Well actually........... celtic_druid.

720/2.35 does equal 306.4. However if you applied the same formula to calculate the aspect ratio's for 1.85 & 1.77 you would end up with 389.2 and 405 respectively. Which is way off the mark.

If you live in say a PAL country and watch a true 16:9 (1.77:1) DVD on a 16:9 widescreen TV or PC monitor. Provided you have your DVD player software (and/or hardware) configured correctly, you will find that the resulting image will completely fill the 720x576 pixel frame, not just 720x405 pixels.

This is why many people get confused when setting up their encoders and end up using all sorts of filters etc to make encoded images look better.

Copying DVD images is a bit tricky because all 'widescreen' DVD's are formatted to fit onto/over a 720x576 or 720x480 background. DVD's are manufactured like this so they can be viewed, at their best, on a 16:9 (1.77:1) widescreen TV.

This is why when if you view DVD's on a 4:3 (1.33:1) TV, via a stand alone DVD player. You have to reconfigure the DVD players output (using the DVD players own software) to tell it that it's hooked up to a 4:3 (1.33:1) TV.

Unfortunately, PC DVD playback software is (in the main) configured for 4:3 PC monitors and as such causes confusion during encoding especially to newbies.

I've been reconfiguring video frame sizes (in telecine) for years.

It's a real shame that there are so many encoder applications out there. Each one has very different ways of inputting the source image. And if the source ain't handled right, the resulting encode ain't right!

I really must write some info about this....... happy encoding everyone.

As I said, resize, not crop. Although pixels may fill the full 720x576 it is resized on playback, if it weren't then it would be 1:1 and not 16:9.

I am talking about converting from 16:9 to 1:1 for PC playback. All the resizing is done before encoding and none on playback.

Any mucking about with the original image even resizing, results in a loss of quality. Resizing, without a doubt, makes the encoded image softer.

However, resizing an image horizontally causes less distortion than resizing an image vertically.

Ooops!

....... but I forgot to add. Resizing a full frame sized encoded image on playback is ofcourse fine.

You ever tried Lanczos Resize?

as I already said.
As we have already seen, if he encodes at full res with a bitrate designed for 1 CD then he gets a blocky encode, the only way to avoid this will be to smoth the whole image out.

As I already said, he will get a better overall result by dropping the res, that is for the same bitrate, if the bitrate was increased then obviously a higher resolution would be possible.

Unfortunately WinDVD won't let me take a screenshot of the quality. Its shocking believe me...

I've got Xvid codec installed now. Can someone tell me -exactly- which settings I should use for it? And how to do it? I don't mind if the movie has to fit on 2cds.

Nice n easy please And I want high quality if possible.

Thanks!

If you plan to use XviD, then you are going to need to do lots of reading, experimentation and tweaking to get the best out of it because there are no magic best settings.

Guys, dont forget an AVI pixel is square while a mpeg pixel is not and is different for both NTSC and PAL Without going into reams of technical chit chat, have a read of the avi to svcd tutorial and in perticular Note ! at the bottom http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread....threadid=59489

As for Xvid codec and since its updated almost daily/weekly, its difficult to set any best of settings. A tried and very stable binary can be got from either http://roeder.goe.net/~koepi/xvid.shtml or http://nic.dnsalias.com/

As for the discussion is DivX or Xvid or WMV or..... the best, I would suggest all haveing a read of a codec comparision done recently by Doom9. Its essential reading at http://www.doom9.org/codecs-103-1.htm

Hi ChickenMan

Thanks for the post. I read the 'codec test' on the doom9 site a few days go and the information is very informative.

I too have carried out some tests. However, I encode the 'video content only'.

The movie I use for testing is StarWars 2 (137mins). As I've found that a codec has to work a lot harder with this film than with the Matrix - There's just too much green and not enough colour!

All my tests have been encoded at 720x576 (yep I live in the land of PAL) and the codecs I have tested are RM9, DivXPro 5.0.5, WM9 & WMV9. I had wanted to test Xvid but I could not manage to make it function correctly using 2passVBR.

The main reason for encoding the 'video content only' is because I've found that one manufacturers codec at say 615kbpsVBR 2pass does not generate the same file size as another manufacturers codec at 615kbpsVBR 2pass. For instance WM9 at 615kbps generates the same file size as WMV9 at 619kbps (full bar), RM9 at 626kbps and DivX at 629kbps.

The differences may only be slight but when encoding at such low bitrates it could make quite a difference.

I am happy to supply CD's of my test's for you to pick apart.

@ooops!, you would get better compression if you cropped out the borders... They maybe just black but the pixels on the edge are hard to compress.

You are right ofcourse.

I should crop the back away and create a clean edge. I mean the whole point is encoding the image, not a load of black.

Have you done any comparative testing of codecs using 'video only'.

I would be interested to know if more people have experienced variances with the finished file size, after setting different codecs to the same bitrate speed.

The bitrate to file size differences become even greater when you encode true 16:9 (1.77:1) images.

Use GordianKnot! It's much better and gives you far greater control over the encoding process. Also, it's easy to use.

http://gordianknot.sourceforge.net

Update:

I used the dvd-> divx guide on another site and everything is now sweet! I have an awsome quality Starwars Ep2 backup that I burnt onto 2 cds.

http://www.afterdawn.com/articles/ar...anamorphic.cfm

Seems to be the best way for me to make a dvd->divx rip. Vidomi didn't really work at all.

Lessons learned:

1) Don't use Vidomi for video encoding. (Gives inferior quality divx)

2) Don't use Beta versions of Cdex. The 1.4 release version is stable enough to make the good quality encoded sound. (1.5 versions stuffed up!)

3) Use a stable version of VDub. Version 1.4.13 (build 14328) worked just fine for me. (1.5 versions stuffed up on me at 100%)

4) Don't have the VOB files on another machine and try and encode the movie using resources from over the network. Chances are some moron will shut the other machine down and you will have a stuffed movie. (Happened at least 3 times until I figured out what was going on).

5) Buy a new hard drive, so you don't stress yourself out by having to delete/move files so it will have room to encode the movie.

6) Don't use the damn GAIN divx bundles. Because the damn thing slowed down my PC and made it freeze up every 5mins (Windows XP)

7) Definitely celebrate once you've made your first good quality DVD rip. Cos damn, this has taken me about 3-4weeks!! First I used vidomi to make a divX of my Mi2 dvd and that turned out crap and I have ended up doing about 10 stuffed encoding sessions.


Cheers

Well done PoWa,

May I ask what pixel size you used in the end. And what player you are using to view the output?

After you've done a few more encodes with DivX you will no doubt want to try out some different codecs.

I've done some test encodes with the very same film all onto one CD. So far I've encoded to DivX, RMV9, WME9 and WMV9.

In my opinion WMV9 looks the best, however it is the slowest encoder out there. Check out my encoding times:-

DivX5: 1st Pass: 02h 41m 18s / 2nd Pass: 02h 26m 03s
RMV9: 1st Pass: 03h 45m 30s / 2nd Pass: 04h 15m 17s
WME9: 1st Pass: 05h ??m ??s / 2nd Pass: 12h 13m 04s
WMV9: 1st Pass: 05h 14m 06s / 2nd Pass: 23h 45m 13s

And this is with a P4 2.8GHz processor!