Looking to Convert DVD to Divx to save space

[rethdog]

DivX Pro 6.8 available as a free download

DivX has begun offering its most recent “Pro” version of its video software free of charge, apparently for a limited time frame . Both Windows and Mac OS X versions 10.3.9 or higher were available for download at the time of this writing.

Windows users can download the 21 MB package immediately and will receive a registration code upon installation in their email. Mac users have to provide an email address before downloading.

http://www.divx.com/dff/index.php?version=win
http://www.divx.com/dff/index.php?version=mac

Recommend articleivX has begun offering its most recent “Pro” version of its video software free of charge, apparently for a limited time frame. Both Windows and Mac OS X versions 10.3.9 or higher were available for download at the time of this writing.

Windows users can download the 21 MB package immediately and will receive a registration code upon installation in their email. Mac users have to provide an email address before downloading.

[mdnttoker]

i still prefer xvid

[dvd_maniac]

Originally Posted by mdnttoker

i still prefer xvid

I agree that xvid is still better than Divx...
But if I'm going to take the time to encode something for permanent archival, X264 is the absolute best. I get the same quality at less then 1/2 the filesize of xvid.

[evilpenguin]

HandBrake is really the way to go for DVD compression.

http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Just as easy as the Divx GUI, way more options, and free 24/7.

[mdnttoker]

Originally Posted by evilpenguin

HandBrake is really the way to go for DVD compression.

http://handbrake.m0k.org/

Just as easy as the Divx GUI, way more options, and free 24/7.

I use autoGK with xvid. how is handbrake compared to that?

[evilpenguin]

I'd consider Handbrake the spiritual successor to AutoGK in that they both embrace the one-click encode concept that too many tools ignore. About the only place where they're currently lacking (in the official release that is) is converting content from 30 fps to the original 24 fps (IVTC), but recently one of the Dev's tackled this and has a very nice patch for the next version that should take care of this.

[dvd_maniac]

Be interested to know how HandBrake compares to Staxrip for using X264???

[surge]

Originally Posted by dvd_maniac

I agree that xvid is still better than Divx...
But if I'm going to take the time to encode something for permanent archival, X264 is the absolute best. I get the same quality at less then 1/2 the filesize of xvid.

1/2 the filesize?
I have a few ripped movies that are about 700 megs. The quality looks very good and it has 5.1 sound.

You're saying I can get the same quality movie ripped to less than 350?

I haven't used Handbrake but I just downloaded it to check it out.
What preset are you using? If not a preset, what settings?

thanks.

[jlindborg]

I dunno - I've had much better luck with Dr. Divx using the pro package than with AutoGK or Handbrake - maybe I'm just old and slow. The Dr. DivX interface is much, much nicer in my opinion, especially the visual crop capability - simple sliders that even a dummy like me can figure out. My tests with Handbrake lately haven't shown much better compression using it's XVid option and the H264 compression often results in jacked up videos that stutter and such - those mysterious command line options to pass into the 264 compression CLI require you have an awful lot of insight into the process to get right.

i find stacking up a bunch of videos in Dr. Divx and letting it fly is easy as falling off a chair and the results are fine - two+ hour movie crunches down to under a gig with "insane quality" settings. I'm not buying that you can crank that down under 500 and not lose something or not have it take many hours to produce.

[MarcP]

I use FairUse Wizard.

http://www.fairusewizard.com/

Extremely easy to use and produces both Divx and Xvid files with whatever you want from the DVD. And it's free.

[mtyme]

I must be doing something wrong with handbrake. I've been trying to get a x264 compressed DVD to playback on the HD extender. I can either get the video to play back and have downmixed dolby 2.0 audio or Dolby Digital audio but black video. I've tried a few of the presets and tried some tweakin based on the forums and have had zero success.

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by mtyme

I must be doing something wrong with handbrake. I've been trying to get a x264 compressed DVD to playback on the HD extender. I can either get the video to play back and have downmixed dolby 2.0 audio or Dolby Digital audio but black video. I've tried a few of the presets and tried some tweakin based on the forums and have had zero success.

I've been using Handbrake. What container are you using? For H.264 video you should be using an MKV container. Do not use an AVI container. I can't support some of the more advanced features of H.264. Here are the command line options I use for X264 in Handbrake:

ref=3:bframes=3:subq=6:me=umh:mixed-refs=1:weightb=1:brdo=1:analyse=all:no-fast-pskip=1

This seems to work well on the HD Extender. Although I do have problems with the transcoder working for Placeshifter. I'm personally not so worried about that though. For the time being as long as my SageTV Client and HD Extender work I'm happy. Although it may become more of an issue in the future. I'll probably play around a little bit and see if I can't get something to work. I have pyramidal b-frames enabled, which is a High Profile feature. It could be that ffmpeg, which is used for SageTV's transcoder, doesn't support High Profile H.264. AFAIK, I'm not using any features that should break spec just some High Profile features, and they play fine on the HD Extender.

Probably before I convert any more movies I should do some testing though. It would be nice to nail down a specific setting that causes no playback in Placeshifter.

[Taddeusz]

Oh, just a note, for SageTV to playback MKV files that have been created by Handbrake you must run the files through mkvmerge. This is due to the fact that Handbrake does not add a cue table to the file. Mkvmerge adds a cue table as it's re-muxing the file.

Also, if you're using anamorphic conversion you must also add the command line option "--engage keep_bitstream_ar_info" to mkvmerge or else SageTV will not be able to read the aspect ratio of the output file properly.

[mtyme]

Originally Posted by Taddeusz

I've been using Handbrake. What container are you using? For H.264 video you should be using an MKV container.

That's what I"ve been using. If I just use the standard settings it will play in the HD extender but if I change the audio from AAC to AC3 the video doesn't work but the audio does. My goal here is to get the digital surround encoded in the video as well.

I'll try the other suggestion you had tonight to see if that helps.

[elinks]

For those who use Handbrake to generate H.264 video files, do you have the ability to utilize DVDProfiler for search cues and keep track of your video collection?

What steps are you using? Will your process work with other transcoders?

Thanks
elinks

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by mtyme

That's what I"ve been using. If I just use the standard settings it will play in the HD extender but if I change the audio from AAC to AC3 the video doesn't work but the audio does. My goal here is to get the digital surround encoded in the video as well.

I'll try the other suggestion you had tonight to see if that helps.

That's weird. All my MKV converts are using AC3 pass-through and they all work fine. I don't downmix my audio though, they are all using the original track from the DVD.

The main reasons I stuck with the original audio was 1)no loss in quality 2)5.1 channel AAC isn't well supported on SageTV or the HD Extender 3)The size isn't really all that different (for 5.1 audio it's a difference of a maximum of 384K/s for AAC vs a maximum of 448K/s for AC3). I'm more interested in quality over size so it didn't make much sense to skimp on the audio. For the H.264 video I use an average of 2000K/s which, with the exception of macro blocking in dark areas, to me is nearly indistinguishable from the original DVD.

I've also started to create files with the original DTS audio but since Handbrake won't do DTS pass-through I have to go through a few more steps to extract the DTS track and then re-mux the video with it.

[mtyme]

What options do you use with mkvmerge?

[jphipps]

I would say to buy more hard drives and stick with mpeg2... On my 60" HD tv, there is a big difference between divx/xvid and mpeg2 on the picture quality.... If you were going to convert some, comedy and some movies look ok with divx/xvid, but action/sci-fi and similiar show alot of artifacts when they are converted on the higher resolution TVs....

[Taddeusz]

Originally Posted by jphipps

I would say to buy more hard drives and stick with mpeg2... On my 60" HD tv, there is a big difference between divx/xvid and mpeg2 on the picture quality.... If you were going to convert some, comedy and some movies look ok with divx/xvid, but action/sci-fi and similiar show alot of artifacts when they are converted on the higher resolution TVs....

I would agree. That is the reason I'm using H.264 and an anamorphic conversion.

The only thing I have yet to fix is the blocking in dark areas. I'm going to work on that one.

[jphipps]

Did you get much savings from H.264? I started trying that, but it seemed like the hours it took to convert the video, did not really yeild much space savings. I was using Nero recode, is there a better tool to use?