[Yuriman]

Sorry if this isnt the right place....Ive never asked a question on this before. Anyway, to the point.

I am an encoding noob. I purchased a copy of DVDx, and currently am using it to to back up my dvd's to my hard drive. Right now I am happy with mpeg4, it seems fast and has good quality for it's size. I tried divx first, but the colors seem washed out. Im targeting for 768kbs(640/480, 24B rgb), any lower and it looks blocky. Even with this high bitrate, the movie is still small. I was wondering if there any any better codecs out there though, or if I should change something, maybe get better quality with lower bitrate? Sorry if im being vague.

Ohh, and im running it in P4 mode. I figured that meant that it used SSE2(which the Athlon64 does have, right?), but there arent other optimisations I dont know about are there?

[b0bby]

Originally Posted by Yuriman

Sorry if this isnt the right place....Ive never asked a question on this before. Anyway, to the point.

I am an encoding noob. I purchased a copy of DVDx, and currently am using it to to back up my dvd's to my hard drive. Right now I am happy with mpeg4, it seems fast and has good quality for it's size. I tried divx first, but the colors seem washed out. Im targeting for 768kbs(640/480, 24B rgb), any lower and it looks blocky. Even with this high bitrate, the movie is still small. I was wondering if there any any better codecs out there though, or if I should change something, maybe get better quality with lower bitrate? Sorry if im being vague.

Ohh, and im running it in P4 mode. I figured that meant that it used SSE2(which the Athlon64 does have, right?), but there arent other optimisations I dont know about are there?

shoulda dled dvdshrink, does the same as dvdx but its freeware. aside from that, based on everything you said, the best codec to use is xvid (specifically XviD 1.0.1-05062004, google it). divx has nothing on it. it's gonna give you the best true mpeg4 quality as possible. your bitrate is actually very low so the quality should be low as your getting. i use various programs but always encode 2 pass VBR with an ABR of 1300 kbit/s at 23.97 fps 624x256
for wide, 23.97 fps 608x448 for fullscreen. nothing is gonna give you better quality if you care about size or bitrates. throw all that out the window if you want good quality video.

-b0bby

[Yuriman]

Is DVDx better?

Ohh, and ive been using 1 pass, 23.97fps with 640/480. I have tried varying(spellcheck) bitrates but after 768 I realy dont notice a difference.

EDIT: Almost forgot, what advantages does using 2 pass offer? I realy dont know what it does hehe.

[Yuriman]

Ohh btw, I just finished ripping a movie, and it appears there was some color loss. The image seems to be a lot more "white" too. The blacks are now gray. How can I fix this?

[David]

Originally Posted by Yuriman

I am using xvid, ... --EDIT-- ..anyway is DVDx better?

Forgive me if I misunderstood your post but Warez is not a topic for discussion here.

Ohh, and ive been using 1 pass, 23.97fps with 640/480. I have tried varying(spellcheck) bitrates but after 768 I realy dont notice a difference.

EDIT: Almost forgot, what advantages does using 2 pass offer? I realy dont know what it does hehe.

2 pass goes over it twice, means better quality afaik.

I also recommend Xvid - I prefer it myself.

[Yuriman]

Sorry 'bout that.

[b0bby]

advantages of using 2 pass is as stated above. in variable bitrate (VBR) it goes through your video file twice and uses the average bitrate (ABR) as your files "bitrate". going through twice takes longer to encode but will yield better results 10 out of 10 times, yes thats ALL the time. the same concept is true for ripping audio also. VBR absolutely owns. if you have a bitrate viewer of some sorts, check out the bitrate for a retail dvd movie and you'll see its never the same for more than a second, thus VBR. thats as close as you'll get to dvd quality which is what we all strive for, well us quality freaks. and xvid is still the best codec for viewing on the puter.

[b0bby]

Originally Posted by Yuriman

Is DVDx better?

i can't say dvdx is better than shrink. i've only played with it at my uncles house back when the full backup version was legal or whatever. dvdx compresses a dvd9 (what retail dvds are made of, dual layer, 8.5GB, whatever other names they have for this) to fit into a dvd5 (the media everyone uses today, 4.7GB). dvdshrink does the exact same thing. lets you do full backup or cut out menus, foreign subs, etc. i know dvdshrink is freeware and does everything dvdx does but hence the word free.

[JigPu]

Another vote for XviD It's truly a great codec, beats DivX hands down IMHO.

And do the dual pass as well. It'll take twice as long, but trust me when I say it's worth it On one movie, I went from passible IQ with a single pass to good/great IQ with double pass. Not only does the VBR make a big difference on the quality, but since the encoder has already seen the data once, it has a MUCH better idea of when more bits are crucial to accurate reproduction

JigPu

[Outlaw Wizard]

what program do you use for making xvid out of dvd's

[Quest For Speed]

Here is a guide with a list of conversion tools that can be used.

[torque22]

The most perfect program for backing up DVD's is DVD shrink. And DVD decrypter for backing up to hard drive.

[Outlaw Wizard]

i seem to have a problem with some of the dvd i write i have a hard time reading them after i write them . my dvd either stop or lockup the dvd player . any ideas why it would do that .

[Jon]

Two-pass encoding allocates the bitrate more efficiently. When using 1-pass, you may not actually reach the full bitrate desired. It will be close, but it is a best guess scenario. In 2-pass, the first pass is used to do an analysis of where high bitrate is needed and where lower bitrates can suffice. It will then save the results when doing the second pass and can use any unused bits to fill in areas where there may be bitrate bottlenecks (or further take away from areas that need even lower bitrates to use later in the movie).

You will find the desired file sizes will be much more exact (unless 1-pass was using any excess bits at the end of the movie to get rid of them - depends on the application) and yes, quality will be a bit better - alot better in some cases (just reiterating what JigPu already stated).

[Jon]

Originally Posted by Outlaw Wizard

i seem to have a problem with some of the dvd i write i have a hard time reading them after i write them . my dvd either stop or lockup the dvd player . any ideas why it would do that .

If you're talking about a stand-alone player then it could be the media you're using. Some DVD players can be very picky about the disks you put in them. I tend to stick to RiData/Ritek and Taiyo Yuden as they work best for me and are considered among the best you can buy. There are others, but these brands usually come at a better price compared to other quality brands.

[Outlaw Wizard]

actualy i am talking about my computer .i can run the files off of my hd and it works fine .