conversion of vob to divx results in horrible quality

hi guys
i jus ripped a movie file from a dvd using DVD decryptor
i wanted to convert those resulting vob files into avi....and used WinAvi 7.7 for it....
i chose DivX 5.0.2
how ever the resulting avi file turns out to be horrible quality and of course a very low size
is there a prob with my settings or should i use a diff sw for conversion?
please help

 

See next post.

 

Hmmm... There are many methods used to encode DivX. Using VirtualDub is the most popular. Although a conversion from DVD to DivX using VirtualDub will require extra steps.

Can I ask, what was the final size? Can you tell me more about the settings you used? bitrate? encoding mode? single or multipass? pve? etc. etc.

I usually go for 1500mb per movie and this retains excellent quality and this way I can fit 3 movies per DVD.

P.S. If you are going to use DivX 5... I would use v5.2.1. DivX 6 has also been out for quite some time now.

 

You might also consider a program called Mpeg Mediator. Import all your VOBs together, choose the video/audio plugin settings (it will use DivX and mpeg3 audio), and it will output your movie in better than real time. Much as I love VirtualDub, it's not as quick as Mpeg Mediator!

 

DivX is DivX, doesn't matter what app you use you are still using the same codec and therefor encoding speed is the same. Only thing that will differ is the decoding speed and DGDecode is about as fast as anything else.

 

True to a certain degree. As long as the processes in front of the codec (filtering, frame serving etc.) aren't the bottleneck. Like Celtic_D said the decoding speed can slow it down. For example if I use TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress to encode DivX it takes about 20% longer then using DGDecode-->AVIsynth-->VirtualDub.

Anyway I think quality was the main concern from the original post.

 

it came up to hardly 300mb....
it was DivX 5.0.2
screen reolution was 352x288
a bitrate 128kpbs sample rate was 44100
i dont know abt the settings it was default....
but when i convert a normal mpg to avi....its not a prob....
oonly vobs to avi in winavi seems a prob
btw does Mpeg mediator do that? converting vobs->avi??

 

First of all the resolution is too low. It should be 720 x 400 (16:9 aspect) or 720 x 304 (2.35:1 aspect) or 720 x 544 (4:3 aspect).

Can I ask... This application you are using, does it crop the black borders off the movie file? Or can you still see a black border around the movie?

Cropping is another way you can conserve wasting bitrate thus improving video quality.

300mb is very low for a full feature length movie. As I said I usually go for around 1500mb but you can still retain decent quality at around 700mb.

As far as the bitrate goes. What you mentioned were the sound settings. 128kb/s is fine, although I prefer 192kb/s as I like to retain very high quality. Again if you are looking for smaller file sizes then 128kb/s should be ideal. The sample rate of 44.1khz should really be set to 48khz as that is what the original DVD soundtrack is.

 

Have you ever tried the .vob files on your pc,did it normal?
And how much about it?

 

it is playing in next-to-perfect quality
it is about 2.20GB it is crystal quality

 

Was my advice no good?

 

Yes. It will take the full set of VOBs and output an avi movie using whichever codec you select.

 

@Ryu

your advice did work for the quality....though the picture seemed to be moving in stills at some scenes.....i dunno why thats happening......
but it plays normally on vobs

 

I am not sure why that could be happening. It must be the application. Does it give you direct access to the DivX codec settings?

I am not sure of this mpeg mediator program as I have never used it... But collarme can you tell me, does this application have filtering options like crop, resize, noise removal etc.? and does it have a tab which allows you to alter the settings in the DivX codec? If no to any of the above, then it isn't the best choice.

Also, in reference to your above statement about DivX output in real time. There is only a couple ways this could happen... 1) The resolution of the video is set quite low. 2) The DivX quality settings are set low. As celtic_d said, you can't make the codec perform any faster than if it was recieving a direct feed of video.

I have found the method of using dgmpgdec as a frameserver, AVIsynth to filter, and VirtualDub to encode as the fastest method so far... And I have tried many different ways.

 

I would have to say try it and see. Mpeg Mediator has the easiest resize/ crop features I've come across. You have access to all DivX and audio settings through the plug-in configuration, and I've never had to use noise removal or any other video-cleaning filter when I'm converting VOBs to avi- I think it's fair to assume that the DVD is going to be of a reasonably high standard to begin with. I have used Vdub's filters on 'dirty' AVIs but never on VOBs.

 

I know a 700MB avi file usually can convert to a 4.3GB or 4.7GB DVD.
Maybe 300MB can convert out about 2GB.And i think you can try other audio or video codec for the conversion.maybe useful

 

June... He wants to convert from DVD to avi, not the other way around. Besides, there is no set rule as to what size avi results in what size mpeg2 (DVD). It's all about what settings you use, well it's all about the bitrate to be exact. Mpeg2 allows up to 9000kb/s to remain DVD compliant... A feature length movie using that bitrate would result in anything around 6gb and above.

Collarme, I just had a look at mpeg mediator. It seems a useful application for someone newer with encoding but it is far too limited in funcionality for advanced usage. For example resizing doesn't even display the pixel resolution. I know you can do this in the actual DivX codec itself but I would much rather use external filters. WIthout sounding rude... Do you even know how to crop & resize DVD's with keeping as much resolution as possible? The resolutions I listed are almost exclusively the only ones used.

In regards to filtering, yes DVD's are quite clean but...What about framerate? What happens if you apply telecide to NTSC interlaced material... Can you delete duplicate frames with mpeg mediator? What about subtitle overlay? What about boosting sound volume through dynamic compression or normalization (as 5.1 ac3 tracks are almost always too low in volume)? I could list many, many more filtering options that any decent encoding application has but sorry to say in my view mpeg mediator isn't one of them. By the way it isn't any faster then using VirtualDub via dgmpgdec.

In credit, it could be a good tool to start with... To get a feel for the DivX codec.

 

I just had a look at mpeg mediator. It seems a useful application for someone newer with encoding but it is far too limited in funcionality for advanced usage............. Yes, I agree.


WIthout sounding rude... Do you even know how to crop & resize DVD's with keeping as much resolution as possible...............I only very rarely convert VOBs. Usually I just drop in an Mpeg (from WinTV capture card or DVD recorder) that I have already edited with VideoReDo and the only resizing I do is to create a sort of 14:9 aspect ratio to play on a widescreen TV through a Liteon network player, as the network player doesn't have an option to 'squeeze' the picture if it's a 4:3 show.

n regards to filtering, yes DVD's are quite clean but...What about framerate? What happens if you apply telecide to NTSC interlaced material... Can you delete duplicate frames with mpeg mediator? What about subtitle overlay? What about boosting sound volume through dynamic compression or normalization (as 5.1 AC3 tracks are almost always too low in volume)? I could list many, many more filtering options that any decent encoding application has but sorry to say in my view mpeg mediator isn't one of them................Again I would agree but I don't think the OP would really be considering these points either. (Well not yet at any rate!).


There is one thing I'd like to ask. Is it possible to use VDub to convert NTSC to PAL?

Thanks.

 

What is OP?

Ok... When talking about converting NTSC to PAL... An avi is never really either of those formats. As there are a few things that make these standards unique...

PAL: 25fps, Resolution: 720 x 576, usually progressive.
NTSC: 23.98fps or 29.98fps, Resolution: 720 x 480, usually interlaced.

To convert to avi it's usually best to work with a progressive source. So PAL is already there. With NTSC you will have to determine the type of interlacing removal needed, in most cases it will be 3:2 pulldown. That is 3 frames of progressive, followed by 2 frames of interlaced material. Once this is removed you will be left with duplicate frames. That is where you it's best to decimate these frames leaving you with video of 23.98fps progressive.

In regards to resolution, again avi is best used with square pixel, so lets say for example you have a movie in 16:9 widesreen. You may have to crop 2-10 pixels off around the edge to remove black borders. Once this is done you would resize to 720x400 to retain the 16:9 aspect ratio.

Yes, VirtualDub can do this type of filtering but I don't really trust VirtualDub's filters. As I've already mentioned I use the method of dgmpgdec (to framserve)-->AVIsynth (to filter)--> VirtualDub (to encode). I use this method 9 times out of 10. For the 1 time out of 10, I use TMPGEnc 3.0 XPress (usually for Digital TV captures) as this application has a good batch save feature, where even after running an encode, you can open up the entire encoding settings again (including filters) and it will have kept all the choices you selected thus allowing any minor tweaks if the encode wasn't quite satisfactory.

 

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