Highest Quality XVID to DVD

[Merkaba188]

I know converting a lossy XVID to a DVD is not the best way to go, but that's what I have to deal with. I personally put all of my XVIDs onto a USB flash drive and stick it into the USB port on my Philips DVP5990 standalone, but I have a ton of XVIDs I want to share with friends who don't have an XVID player. I normally use NeroVision, but it has horrible quality and choppy playback from PAL to NTSC conversion.

So far the easiest way I have found to do this was to use HCEnc using FAVC as the front end. For audio I just retained the AC3 audio that was already in the XVID. For the HC Options I used the Quality preset, 2 Pass VBR, and changed the CPU Core from HC Built In to MultiCoreEnc Number 4. I didn't touch anything in Advanced Scripting and used the default MPEG matrix. It encoded a LOT faster than NeroVision, but I would have to say that there was no real improvement in quality. The end result was pretty grainy and pixelated.

What would be the best software to use that will give me the highest image quality possible? I have a quad core CPU and 4GB of RAM, but I could care less about encoding speed. From what I've read, HCEnc should give me the best quality? Are there any settings I should change in FAVC, like something in Advanced Scripting or changing the Matrix?

[DJRumpy]

No DVD encode should look pixelated with 10000kbps bitrate available. Are you sure your source is not the source of the pixelation? Make sure you examine a problem section in VirtualDub or something similar so you can view it frame by frame. 2-Pass should be fine for DVD encodes, although you might squeeze a bit more quality out with 3 pass (purely optional as the gains are minimal). You did state encoding time was not a problem.

You should set your min bitrate to 2000 and your max video bitrate to at least 9,500 kbps (allows 448 for audio bitrate so you don't exceed the 10,035 total bitrate spec).

I've never used HCEnc, but I would think any MPEG encoder worth it's salt would be able to encode without pixelation at DVD bitrates.

[guns1inger]

Post screen shots of the source, and corresponding frames from the HCEnc encoded version

[Merkaba188]

It's hard to tell on the computer screen, but you can really see it on TV, and yes I tried more than one television/dvd player. The video seems to be choppy and stutter on certain spots on the DVD as well.

VDub wouldn't let me open up the DVD, so I just stopped the video at the same spot (right after the title). The same spot does not mean the same time though. It seems that the HC final product runs slower than the original XVID. There is no part missing, but the times are different. The screenshot above had a 3 second difference, and as I went further to the end of the movie stopping at the exact same spot in the film there was a 19 second difference. But, the DVD only has a 6 second longer runtime than the XVID... ?

I think it's time to switch to different software.

[julesh]

I've worked through just about everything, and found HCenc to be about the most reliable and high quality encoder available, and better than average performance, too. I doubt switching to something else is the panacea you're hoping for.

Can you post your settings, so we can see precisely what you're doing? I note that you're resizing the input... are you using avisynth to do that? Can you post your script?

Regarding the time differences, you should expect an ~4% slowdown in a PAL->NTSC conversion.

[guns1inger]

I suspect the Xvid screenshot comes from an overlay display that has the brightness turned down, and the mpeg-2 shot from a non-overlay display. When I look at the Xvid image in photoshop and brighten it up is it not a solid black background.

What is the total running time of the video (and hence the bitrate of the re-encode. If these are episodes, how many to a disc) ?

If this is FAVC as a front end then it is using avisynth to do the resize, and should be using pulldown to change the format. If it is not FAVC, what is it ?

Bottom line - the source is not as good as you would like to believe it is, and re-encoding it to a larger resolution is not going to do it any favours.

[Merkaba188]

The settings I'm using are the default FAVC settings other than the few changes I mentioned in the original post. It's and XVID movie with two parts, CD1 and CD2. Julesh, now it makes sense that the time difference is probably due to what you mentioned. Gunslinger, I agree with you that putting an already lossy XVID to DVD res is probably why it looks so poorly.

The one thing I did realize is that during encoding there were a couple small and large mismatch errors during the second pass, and where it showed what was going on in FAVC it showed the pulldown showing "-" instead of "x", which I think means there was no pulldown being done for some reason.

So far I've used FAVC doing a 2 pass, avs2DVD doing a QUEnc 1 pass, and ConvertXtoDVD using whatever the high quality setting uses.

Strangely enough, the ConvertXtoDVD had the best quality. FAVC/HCEnc was the next best, and avs2DVD/QUEnc was the worst. You would think ConvertXtoDVD would be the worst, seeing that the other 2 made 4GB DVDs and ConvertX only made a 2GB disc.

The only thing is that they're all still choppy like in NeroVision. What other program out there uses HCEnc that will force the pulldown method? I must have screwed something up with FAVC.

[guns1inger]

Do it manually. Use AVI Demux to join the files first, then use FitCD to create a basic avisynth script to resize. Set it for NTSC output, then remove the ConvertFPS/ChangeFPS statement before saving. Manually encode with HCEnc at 25 fps, then apply pulldown with DGpulldown using the custom 25 -> 29.970 fps setting. Author and you are done.

Of course, how smoothly it plays back is down to your player, as it will be creating the missing frames on the fly. Format conversion rarely produces completely clean or smooth results. Much better to get a player capable of playing PAL and NTSC material.

[Merkaba188]

Will using pulldown by doing it manually make it pretty distinguishable compared to using a 1-click method? I'm not talking quality difference between ConvertXtoDVD and manually encoding, I'm just talking about the stuttering from PAL->NTSC. I really can't stand the choppiness, but to be honest, ConvertXtoDVD is really not that bad considering. Plus I can fit 2 movies on a disc compared to other methods.

If it will considerably reduce the choppiness I'll give it a try.

[guns1inger]

FAVC and DVD Flick and ConvertXtoDVD all use the pulldown method where they can. If you are still getting choppiness then either they cannot apply the pulldown method (you cannot pulldown to reduce framerates, for example), or your player is causing the issue when it plays back the files.

Simplest method if to get a multi-format player instead.

[jagabo]

Note that many players and editors don't correctly calculate running time with unusual pulldown patterns like ike the 3:2:3:2:2 pattern used for 25 fps to 29.97 fps.