MPEG2 Compression

phenixdragon · #1 07-11-2006, 05:45 AM

Does anyone know a great program to compress MPEG2 videos into smaller files while also retaining the AC3 audio? I use to have all my DVDs on my hard drives after awhile I was running out of space to I used VideoReDo to just encode the main movie files which worked great. But...now the movie files are too large again and need to be made smaller. But I want to retain the orgiinal AC3 audio awhile making the video smaller in size.

Any ideas? And of course I want the best possible quality from it.

stanger89 · #2 07-11-2006, 07:14 AM

IMO, it's a PITA to do what you want, and in order to get significant reduction in size (ie more than 2x reduction) you end up sacrificing quality. Easier to buy more space IMO.

That said, check out the combo of the WM9 VCM, DGIndex, and VirtualDubMod. WMnic might be able to do WM9+AC3 in AVI too.

Oh, and might want to try and download WMP 11, which includes the new WM9 codec with WM9-AP (which is the MS version of VC-1 used on HD DVD/Blu-ray).

Jesse · #3 07-11-2006, 11:56 AM

Hi,

Is there some reason you could not use DVDShrink? Maybe I dont understand all the circumstances?

tmiranda · #4 07-11-2006, 04:18 PM

TMPGEnc or CCE encoders will also do what you are looking to do. Both have a learning curve but do a great job of reencoding MPEGs. YMMV.

stanger89 · #5 07-11-2006, 04:55 PM

The problem with transcoding (DVD Shrink) or reencoding to MPEG-2, is that it's hard/impossible to get significant space savigns without compromizing quality, you can only go so low with MPEG-2.

If you're going to go through the time/effort/quality loss of re-encoding, you'd be much better off going to an advanced codec like VC-1 or H.264 AVC.

phenixdragon · #6 07-12-2006, 01:24 AM

Thanks for the info. As far as DVD Shrink goes it is rpetty good but personally I like Nero better for it. But like Stanger said, it only goes so far. I did try to create MI:2 all the way down to the smallest Nero will do and it came out to be 1.8 gigs where about 400 megs was the AC3. And the quality was up there. On a SDTV it looked very well and unless I was specifically looking for artifacts it didn't show.

I did check out WM9 VCM and from what I have read about using it that it doesn't handle AC3 so you have to split the 5.1 sound into 6 wav files. Which that's the problem I ran into. I ran into this link http://www.kehm.cx/Guides/dvd2wm9.htm and when I got to the besweet part that messed me up. I thought I had it figured out but it just wouldn't run.

But from everything I have looked at in the past day it looks like WM9 VCM is the way to go. But I am sceptic if I can figure out how to get the 6 channels down to wav files would actually play 6 channels through my receiver.

stanger89 · #7 07-12-2006, 05:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phenixdragon

I did check out WM9 VCM and from what I have read about using it that it doesn't handle AC3 so you have to split the 5.1 sound into 6 wav files. Which that's the problem I ran into.

The VCM is just a codec/encoder, it doesn't do anything by itself. If you do the following:

Open DVD/VOBs in DGIndex
Save Project (which will demux audio into a .ac3 file)
>Might need to create an AVISynth Script to deinterlace/decode
>Alternately look for VFAPI which can frameserve a saved project as an "AVI"
Open the AVISynth script (or VFAPI created "AVI") in VirtualDubMod
Add the .ac3 as an audio stream.
Then setup compression options and save.

There are some good guides over at Doom9 about this. Like I said, WMnic might be able to do WM9+AC3.

phenixdragon · #8 07-12-2006, 06:32 AM

Where is a link for Mnic? I was actually trying to find that earlier but I am not finding it.

I don't beleive I have used AVISynth or VFAPI so I will have to take a look at them when I get hom. VirtualDub I haven't used in awhile but I can play around with it again.

I am wondering though, could I basically just mux the audio and video, then encode the video, and then join them back together? I was thinking about a way and ran into this link: http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/for...ad.php?t=41243 Pretty much if I don't do the DivX step and encode it with WME I think it will accomplish what I am looking for.

I'll take a look at Doom9 again, I wasn't able to find what I was looking for but then again being up all night I get pretty tired. I need a better job.

***Edit***

Actually I did find WMnic so I will be checking that out later.

stanger89 · #9 07-12-2006, 08:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by phenixdragon

Where is a link for Mnic? I was actually trying to find that earlier but I am not finding it.

I don't have one, but I see you found it

.

Quote:

I am wondering though, could I basically just mux the audio and video, then encode the video, and then join them back together?

That's the basic theory, demux the a/v, re-encode the video to codec "x", mux the two together.

And if you try it, I'd make sure you download WMP 11, so you can use WM9 Advanced Profile.

phenixdragon · #10 07-12-2006, 08:14 AM

Cool thanks. I think I have it understood all in my head, just have to play with it.

Are there actually any known issues with WME? I did try a couple of thigns with it in which basically I used VideoReDo to convert a VOB to MPEG and it seems WME stop in the begining of enoding and the output file size is about 5kb. I tried it twice while at work and thats what happened. I remoted it from work but I should the system down after it did it a 2nd time.

stanger89 · #11 07-12-2006, 08:21 AM

I don't know WME seems flaky to me. There are a couple of nice GUIs out there, StaxRip and MeGUI, both of which can encode with X264 (H.264), not sure about WM9. I kind of prefer WM9 ATM because it's better supported ATM (Sage can play WM9+AC3 AVIs IIRC.)

nielm · #12 07-12-2006, 11:39 AM

Isn't this what AutoGK was built for: taking a DVD or MPEG2 file and compressing it to DIVX/Xvid in an AVI wrapper. I have v1.60 (the last pre-adware version) and it has an options to keep the original AC3 sound, or to recompress sound to MP3.

phenixdragon · #13 07-14-2006, 11:12 AM

Well AutoGK is pretty sweet but...DivX/XivD sucks for me. I can't play it through my Xbox 360 w/o having it transcoded on the fly which I don't want to do. I beleive you can keep the AC3 with it and I know how to, I just haven't tried it. So I was hoping to either compress it in MP2 or VC-1.

phenixdragon · #14 07-14-2006, 11:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

I don't know WME seems flaky to me. There are a couple of nice GUIs out there, StaxRip and MeGUI, both of which can encode with X264 (H.264), not sure about WM9. I kind of prefer WM9 ATM because it's better supported ATM (Sage can play WM9+AC3 AVIs IIRC.)

Ya WME seems really flaky and such a resource hog. Today I'm going to have time to play with it some more and see what happens. Maybe if I just encode the video with it that I won't have problems. I think possible the audio was messing it up as I have read some stuff saying how AC3 pretty much kills the app.

stanger89 · #15 07-14-2006, 11:28 AM

Plus, WME doesn't support AC3 output, so that's a no-go for me as well.

phenixdragon · #16 07-14-2006, 02:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

The VCM is just a codec/encoder, it doesn't do anything by itself. If you do the following:

Open DVD/VOBs in DGIndex
Save Project (which will demux audio into a .ac3 file)
>Might need to create an AVISynth Script to deinterlace/decode
>Alternately look for VFAPI which can frameserve a saved project as an "AVI"
Open the AVISynth script (or VFAPI created "AVI") in VirtualDubMod
Add the .ac3 as an audio stream.
Then setup compression options and save.

There are some good guides over at Doom9 about this. Like I said, WMnic might be able to do WM9+AC3.

So I actually tried this and I am running into a problem with the .m2v file that DGIdex creates. Or maybe it is working correctly and the next step messes me up. Basically I get a *vfapi.avi file, which takes about 5 seconds to make.

But while trying to open up the file VirtualDubMod it doesn't take the file. But I think what my problem is that I'm not understanding exactly what to do in those steps. I have only used the programs a couple of times and it was a pretty long time ago soooo...I'm confused.

phenixdragon · #17 07-14-2006, 02:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanger89

Plus, WME doesn't support AC3 output, so that's a no-go for me as well.

Hmm...well I'm trying to figure out how to just strip the video from the AC3 while having WME do the encoding on the video only and join it back but so far everything is a no go. I think actually WME was working this whoel time but it is just so freaking slow.

My idea right now is using VideoReDo, convert to MPEG and have WME convert everything. Once it is done then strip the audio and combine it with the AC3 from the orginal VOB. But uhh...I think it's going to take a day to encode.

stanger89 · #18 07-14-2006, 03:48 PM

Might want to take a look at this thread for how to get going with the latest WM9 codec

Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests)