Video converting

[Blaineoliver]

I need a good video to convert my DVD library from vobs to a more space concious format, such as AVI. I want to preserve the quality incase i want to watch the films on my PC, but also be able to convert them for my ipod easily.

Any ideas guys? Im at a loss, thought avivo converter would help, i mean yes its fast, but it crashes now, and doesnt use gpu.

[pepsi_max2k]

I prefer Avidemux with custom Xvid settings, but dunno how much that'd help with the ipod stuff.

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Avidemux
for optimal settings

http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Nuvexport
for enconding / transcoding background. i wrote it for a linux command line program but all the basics are there. and yes, it took me ruddy ages to do all that...

[Funkstar]

My usual recomendatiion is having a look on http://www.doom9.org/ he has loads of guides and software. bound to find something that will work.

He does usually focus on quality rather than ease of use or simplicity.

[jackvdbuk]

autogk?

[Blaineoliver]

Yeh i got reccomended autoGK, using that atm, its blazingly fast. Faster than Avivo converter. About 25 mins per film from vob to avi (xvid) 1GB.

[arthurleung]

I have to note that in general the faster your conversion, the bigger the filesize (or less quality).
Though you have the DVD already, so quality is not really that important to you?

Would recommend MeGUI /w x264 at close to maximum setting. You'll be looking at about 3~9 hours to transcode one DVD though, at a compression rate of approximately 5:1 ~ 10:1 depends on quality.

It also comes with ipod profile.

I would say, don't bother to convert from the AVI to ipod, just make one for "quality" and one for ipod from the source.

[Blaineoliver]

It sort of confused me, because the virtual dub finished the first bit in 5 minutes, the second bit in 20 now the 3rd bit is taking 40 mins. I am looking for a 1GB filesize preferrably, and as im going from fairly uncompressed DVD, i was hoping an hour per DVD. Once ive seen the quality of the Auto GK i can see wether i need a different bit of software. I found that avivo converter was really fast to ipod format, but the sound wasnt there.

[arthurleung]

It sort of confused me, because the virtual dub finished the first bit in 5 minutes, the second bit in 20 now the 3rd bit is taking 40 mins. I am looking for a 1GB filesize preferrably, and as im going from fairly uncompressed DVD, i was hoping an hour per DVD. Once ive seen the quality of the Auto GK i can see wether i need a different bit of software. I found that avivo converter was really fast to ipod format, but the sound wasnt there.

First bit is most likely the studio clip VIDEO_TS.VOB
Second bit is most likely the menu clip VTS_01_0.VOB
Third bit is where the movie actually starts VTS_01_1.VOB

You can skip the first two bits.

As far as I know AVIVO doesn't include a sound conversion function (I seems to remember it doesn't support sound at all).

DVD is not "fairly uncompressed". You won't get a filesize smaller than DVD at the same quality using fast setting.

All software use either x264 or divx/xvid encoding. So it is purely a three-way tie between speed/quality/size. An hour per DVD (assuming 120 minutes film) will be about 60FPS. I think that is not going to be possible on your CPU unless you're going to use some very fast setting. That will definitely give you lower quality or a larger filesize (which you don't want).

Perhaps if time is really that important then you should just buy a 1TB external harddrive and you can easily store 200 DVDs in there.

[i4000]

I would recommend Handbrake (http://handbrake.fr), it's a superb tool that converts direct from DVD to avi / mp4 / mkv and many other formats, integrated H264 and a nice simple interface to boot. Easy to use, no complex sub-components to configure etc. However it does not bypass CSS encryption, for that you will need something like AnyDVD.

I have used handbrake & AnyDVD to convert my DVD collection into H264 encoded video for playback via PS3 / XBOX360.

[Blaineoliver]

I have a 1TB hard drive, and its taking up 300GB of it on films, which im okay with, wanted to try and reduce the size of this folder while i have plenty of free space, so i dont have to do it later on. IF you could give me the right settings to pick, for a 1GB ish size file, then that would do me nicely

[pepsi_max2k]

Okay.... if you really care about quality, what you get is purely down to the codec and respective settings used with it. All the above programs are just frontends to various codecs and filters, the speed should be the same for any program using the same settings, and your quality's purely down to what settings each program uses for each codec. So the more options you can change, the better chance you have of getting the best quality from a transcode. Personally I use XviD for everything, but you may find recommendations for a different codec specifically for .vob transcoding, but if you wanna go the XviD route then...

Use two pass encoding as it'll have the greatest affect on quality outside of bitrate. Unfortunately it at least doubles the time every encode will take. But it's worth it.

A bitrate of between 900 and 1000 kbps is pretty good. Much less than that and the quality degrades quite a lot, any more and the difference is barely noticeable.

Enable Chroma Optimizer if you can, just makes the image look a little nicer, and 1st pass Turbo Mode as afaik it doesn't affect quality.

If your DVDs are all progressive (which hopefully they are) then you can ignore all the interlaced / deinterlacing options.

Stick motion search at 6, VHQ at 4 as they're the highest settings. Enable chroma motion, 4MV and HQ AC if you can, lowers file size for no noticeable quality loss.

Set B-Frames to 3 (I forget why...) and enable BVHQ. Enable Qpel if you're not gonna be viewing the vids on anything that doesn't support it as it may improve motion.

For Quantization, use H.263 and a min = 2, max = 8 for all frame quantizers, and enable trellis quantization. i really should find the original guide I learnt this all from and seem even more clever...

For 2nd pass options, use I-Frame Boost = 10, I-Frames closer than ... frames = 1, ...are reduced by = 20%, max improve = 5, max deg = 5, high bitrate = 0, low = 0, overflow control = 5.

And that should give you the best quality you're gonna get outta xvix, though ymmv.

[Blaineoliver]

that is brilliant thanks! I am converting my first DVD at the moment, 50 mins per pass i reckon.