Clearest DVD Rips

[dudeman316]

I am currently using AutoGK to rip my DVD's so I can easily watch them on my WD TV Media Player. But I notice that they look a little grainy or fuzzy. I was given a couple movies on DVD-r from a friend that was encoded by Axxo, and noticed that those were crystal clear & they were about the 700 mb size range, ( I am not a pirating movies, it was given to me from a friend, I am simply wanting to backup my DVD collection to HDD). So my question is how can I get my movie rip crystal clear like that with that small file size?

[jman98]

Easiest solution - buy a gigantic external hard drive, rip to ISO and store the ISO on the hard drive. No conversion - no quality loss. The WD TV can play DVD ISO files.

If you simply must encode to Divx/Xvid, then maybe there is some Axxo forum where they might discuss their methods. Then again, sites that regularly encode to Divx rarely are interested in sharing their quality methods with outsiders, so they might not tell you. I don't know. Given some of the limited information I found out about Axxo, I doubt that whoever is behind it is going to be willing to tell you how they do it. You could use GSpot and compare your video with theirs and see what is different.

[src2206]

Easiest solution - buy a gigantic external hard drive, rip to ISO and store the ISO on the hard drive. No conversion - no quality loss. The WD TV can play DVD ISO files.

If you simply must encode to Divx/Xvid, then maybe there is some Axxo forum where they might discuss their methods. Then again, sites that regularly encode to Divx rarely are interested in sharing their quality methods with outsiders, so they might not tell you. I don't know. Given some of the limited information I found out about Axxo, I doubt that whoever is behind it is going to be willing to tell you how they do it. You could use GSpot and compare your video with theirs and see what is different.

what a reply!!!!

Anyway, on a little serious note, I would also suggest that you use GSpot for both the types of files- so called Axxo ones and the ones sourced from the "sunny side", and then compare their settings. You can post the screen shots here too, but I am not sure whether Mods are going to be angry or not.
One more thing, as far as I know these people use some Custom Matrix which you will never know and chances of finding it out by trial or error method is also nearly impossible.

[Supreme2k]

You are not talking about ripping. It is conversion.

It is still pirating if a "friend" gave them to you.

[src2206]

It is still pirating if a "friend" gave them to you.

And mods are watchin'

[dudeman316]

no understand I am wanting to convert my library of dvd's to divx/xvid with the same clear quality, i was just using the axxo file i have as a comparison. I will try Gspot out & see what I got. And I have a few ISO's that do play nice, just after a while the size clogs up my HDD.

[Dv8ted2]

no understand I am wanting to convert my library of dvd's to divx/xvid with the same clear quality, i was just using the axxo file i have as a comparison. I will try Gspot out & see what I got. And I have a few ISO's that do play nice, just after a while the size clogs up my HDD.

Bringing up Axxo is unnecessary information and makes you look guilty by association. I also recommend gspot to identify what codecs were used. The rest can be figured out by using a bitrate calculator.

[poisondeathray]

Was it the same DVD? you can't compare different encodes from 2 different sources. For example, yours might be 2x as long and 1/2 the bitrate. Or an action movie vs. a slow moving drama - the former will require much more bitrate.

Since you have a WD player, consider using h.264 instead of xvid - much better quality/compression

[dudeman316]

To be truthful I cant even remember what movie it was, only reason I brought it up was it was so clear, I was impressed by the low size & the good quality, I will have to dig out the disc & see which movie it was & use gspot.

poison, what proggy is best for h.264?

[jimdagys]

What kind of software is Axxo?

[dudeman316]

ok lets forget I brought that up, appartently thats a bad word around lol.

[Dv8ted2]

What kind of software is Axxo?

It is a movie release group.

[Dv8ted2]

ok lets forget I brought that up, appartently thats a bad word around lol.

You can't forget that you brought it up. It is best not to post that information in the first place. Once you post it, it is public information available for all to see.

Once you mentioned that, you have introduced doubt in our minds and lead to questions such as are they really your dvd's or did you download the files? I think you will see what I am referring to.

[dudeman316]

I apologize, I can snap a photo of my video collection & post it on here, I have about 3/4 of them unpacked & on the shelf.

And again, I am just looking to convert my DVD collection to a smaller file size so I can store or my HDD & play back on my WD Media Player & the quality be as clear as possible. That's all folks

[redwudz]

Just guessing, but maybe a two pass encode and a smoothing/deblocking filter thrown in. Those type of files are usually 700MB file in Xvid format You can make up a short representative clip from one of your DVDs and try different encoder settings to see if you can duplicate it. AutoGK is a good program, but you have to dig a bit deeper in the encoder settings sometimes to squeeze out the best quality in a small size. I find doubling the size to about 1.4GB makes the quality much better and it's a lot easier.

Sometimes MediaInfo or Gspot will tell you what program was used to encode a file, so try them. Also look at the bitrate and the audio specs. Sometimes you can use lower quality audio and have more room for video bitrate and better video quality.

For easy H.264, I use FairUse Wizard, but there are others that may give you more control. BTW, H.264 encodes take a long time, even on a fast computer.

And give your friend back his disc. And read our rules before posting.

[wcb4]

Once you mentioned that, you have introduced doubt in our minds and lead to questions such as are they really your dvd's or did you download the files? I think you will see what I am referring to.

If he had downloaded the movies, he would not need to know good encoder settings, since they would already be encoded. All he wants to know is if anyone knows what software/settings the pirate groups use as they are good quality. Weather we like them or now, weather he owns any of their movies or not, he has seen one by a well known group and thought the quality was good and wants to get at least that good. No need to throw stones, lets all play nice.

[Dv8ted2]

Once you mentioned that, you have introduced doubt in our minds and lead to questions such as are they really your dvd's or did you download the files? I think you will see what I am referring to.

If he had downloaded the movies, he would not need to know good encoder settings, since they would already be encoded. All he wants to know is if anyone knows what software/settings the pirate groups use as they are good quality. Weather we like them or now, weather he owns any of their movies or not, he has seen one by a well known group and thought the quality was good and wants to get at least that good. No need to throw stones, lets all play nice.

There was nothing nasty or mean in what I wrote. I am not throwing stones. I am merely pointing out that he was skirting the rules of the website.

[dragonkeeper]

Dude,
Gotta ask a dumb question, did you view both of these on the same TV? Reason I ask is my nephew is always looking at movies he's downloaded and to me they all look fuzzy on my 52".But the do look reasonable well on smaller TVs. That's why i don't download, I don't want to spend an hour and a half looking at a fuzzy picture. At this juncture i have a strong disdain SD DVD. And have been replacing my favorite movies with Blue Ray. (IF the quality has been judged to be fair. you can go here (http://bluray.highdefdigest.com) to get reviews of Blue Ray movies, they not only rate the movie but also the video and audio quality among other things).
Now back to your question when using Xvid to convert movies i used the following rule of thumb. 500MBs for the first hour of a movie then add 250MB for each 15minutes of footage there after (so the typical hour and a half movie came out to be just over a 1 gig, around 1.25GB once the 5.1 Audio was added). With this i received what i thought were great results. Additionally when encoding action movies you may want to alter that formula to compensate for the fast moving scenes. Before i encode a movie I always test a small section to see what the finished encode will look like. If you are familiar with Avisynth you can create a script to open your video files and add the following line to the end of your script Trim(10000,15,000). This will force the encoder to only encode frames number 10,000 to 15,000 (you can use Vdub to find an action sequence and use it's frame numbers in place of what i have here). If you do this you should have great looking xvid encodes each time.
Also if you are watching these on a big screen i suggest you use ffdshow to upscale the video so that it looks better on the big screen there is a simple guide here (http://filesharingtalk.com/vb3/f-movies-tv-18/t-upscale-video-ffdshow-340430) and more in depth one (has pics) here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=922773)

But if you have a computer that's up to it (at least quad core @ 2.3Ghz and 2GB ram ) i suggest that you use X264 instead. I've made the switch and the difference is night and day.

[lacywest]

It is still pirating if a "friend" gave them to you.

So ... Mr dudeman316 ... you need to have your "friend" take them back now ... now that he has showed off how
well he can convert them to Divx or Xvid ... and then it wont be pirating anymore.

Im sure ... he was only trying to show you how good the quality can be when converting DVD movies to Divx or Xvid ... is done right.

The DVR-MS ... 7 GB ... videos ... that MS MCE 2005 makes ... can be reconverted with ConvertXtoDvd 3 ... and look great.
Or ... use Divx Author 1.5 ... and squash them down to 350 megs ... a 1 hour TV show ... and before you do the conversion ... use same program to edit out the commercials .... quality settings include ... "extreme quality" ... Both programs work great ... I know ... I am using them.

[dudeman316]

1st thanks all for answering my questions.
2nd thanks wcb4 for explaining what I needed to explain a lil clearer
and I will try Fairuse once I update rebuild a new PC.
My Next question would be, I like AutoGK, what can I change or tweak in it to get better quality & keep my movies to about 1.5 GB to 1 GB?

[src2206]

1st thanks all for answering my questions.
2nd thanks wcb4 for explaining what I needed to know a lil clearer
and I will try Fairuse once I update rebuild a new PC.
My Next question would be, I like AutoGK, what can I change or tweak in it to get better quality & keep my movies to about 1.5 GB to 1 GB?

Try this: http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/autogk_page1.html

The size will depend upon the movie length. In autoGK set the quality 75% and you can get the best size-quality ratio. Otherwise, during setting up the AGK project press ctrl+F9 to bring the screen for Advanced Option. In that check "Force Sharp..." for Xvid. Then encode the titles in a much lower quality (even greyscale), as that will give you a much better quality for the main movie. Anyways, you need to play with the tool to understand it completely. Don't forget to try this: http://www.autogk.me.uk/modules.php?name=Tutorial

[dudeman316]

thanks a ton

[dudeman316]

Here is info from a real clear rip/conversion

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 701 MiB
Duration : 1h 42mn
Overall bit rate : 954 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.1 (build 2366/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2366/release

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Streaming Video@L1
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : DX50
Codec ID/Hint : DivX 5
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate : 832 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 280 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.457
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.180
Stream size : 612 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.0.3 (UTC 2004-12-20)

Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 112 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 82.3 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms
Writing library : LAME3.90.3



Now here is one I did:
General
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 1.09 GiB
Duration : 1h 40mn
Overall bit rate : 1 559 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2178/release

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Streaming Video@L1
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 1h 40mn
Bit rate : 1 360 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.206
Stream size : 977 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format profile : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 1h 40mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 138 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 96 ms (2.30 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 96 ms
Language : English


Can someone who knows more about this tell me what may help my quality based upon this information?

[manono]

Different movies, so it's an apples to oranges comparison.

I have 3 suggestions. The first would be to do a fast 1-pass Quant 3 encode and see if it looks OK. If so, is it much larger than the 2-pass one you did? Since the final file size shouldn't be important to you, you should probably be doing this anyway.

Second, what Custom Matrix are you using? Maybe your player can't decode it properly. You might try one of the standard matrices, H.263 or MPEG and see if it looks any better.

Third, cut out a small piece for upload somewhere so we can see what you're talking about.

[disturbed1]

Here is info from a real clear rip/conversion

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 701 MiB
Duration : 1h 42mn
Overall bit rate : 954 Kbps
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)

Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate : 832 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 280 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.457
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.180
Stream size : 612 MiB (87%)


Now here is one I did:
General
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 1.09 GiB
Duration : 1h 40mn
Overall bit rate : 1 559 Kbps

Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Duration : 1h 40mn
Bit rate : 1 360 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.206
Stream size : 977 MiB (87%)

Snipped just the main differences.

You are comparing a 688x280 film to a 688x400 film. Your film has a larger area to encode. Your encode is using a custom matrix, your encode has a higher bits/(Pixel*Frame) ratio.

You would have to increase the bitrate on your encode a little more to match the same B/(P*F) ratio. The custom matrix you're using could be a factor as well.

For my xvid archiving I tend to do Q based encodes with a q_factor of 2. Most films end up somewhere around 1.5gb. I've seen some go as high as 4gig, and as low as 500mb using this q_factor. For the odd movie that balloons in size, I just re-encode with a two pass setting targeting 1.5gb.

AutoGK is great software, if you're happy using it, no need to change.

The difference you are seeing between the "Clear Rip" and "Your Rip" are expected because of the differences in frame size and because they are even different films.

If you want quality and small size, take a look at x264. x264 can use less bitrate to obtain the same quality levels as other codecs. Not true answer here but for example, if you are using 1500kb/s with xvid, you might get by with 800kb/s with x264.

[manono]

Oh yeah, AutoGK. Thanks distrubed1. For a 1-pass encode try the Target Quality at the default 75%. And AutoGK by default uses Custom Matrices which, again, not all players can decode, or decode properly. I'd suggest either reinstalling, this time setting it up with the ESS chipset Option, or going into the Hidden Options (CTRL-F9) to make it use the ESS chipset settings. That will, among other things, force the use of the standard matrices.

Also, post the log for one of the encodes you think isn't as good as it should be.

[Pinstripes23]

I was given a couple movies on DVD-r from a friend that was encoded by Axxo, and noticed that those were crystal clear & they were about the 700 mb size range

I've seen a few of his encodes and I wouldn't say they are crystal clear. But they do look smooth with a slight sharpener added to edges to trick your eyes into thinking they are "crystal clear". I don't know if he tweaks the divx codec or uses a custom matrix but if you use avisynth you can try and use a strong temporal denoiser like fft3dgpu/fft3dfilter to help with heavy compression while still making the videos visually appealing - especially when you go down to the 700-800 avg bitrate range for the video.

[src2206]

Here is info from a real clear rip/conversion

Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 701 MiB
Duration : 1h 42mn
Overall bit rate : 954 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.1 (build 2366/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2366/release

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Streaming Video@L1
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : DX50
Codec ID/Hint : DivX 5
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate : 832 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 280 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 2.457
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.180
Stream size : 612 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.0.3 (UTC 2004-12-20)

Audio
Format : MPEG Audio
Format version : Version 1
Format profile : Layer 3
Codec ID : 55
Codec ID/Hint : MP3
Duration : 1h 42mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 112 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Resolution : 16 bits
Stream size : 82.3 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Aligned on interleaves
Interleave, duration : 42 ms (1.00 video frame)
Interleave, preload duration : 504 ms
Writing library : LAME3.90.3



Now here is one I did:
General
Format : AVI
Format/Info : Audio Video Interleave
File size : 1.09 GiB
Duration : 1h 40mn
Overall bit rate : 1 559 Kbps
Writing application : VirtualDubMod 1.5.4.1 (build 2178/release)
Writing library : VirtualDubMod build 2178/release

Video
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Streaming Video@L1
Format settings, BVOP : Yes
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Custom
Codec ID : XVID
Codec ID/Hint : XviD
Duration : 1h 40mn
Bit rate : 1 360 Kbps
Width : 688 pixels
Height : 400 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 16/9
Frame rate : 23.976 fps
Resolution : 24 bits
Colorimetry : 4:2:0
Scan type : Progressive
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.206
Stream size : 977 MiB (87%)
Writing library : XviD 1.2.1 (UTC 2008-12-04)

Audio
Format : AC-3
Format/Info : Audio Coding 3
Format profile : Dolby Digital
Codec ID : 2000
Duration : 1h 40mn
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 192 Kbps
Channel(s) : 2 channels
Channel positions : L R
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Stream size : 138 MiB (12%)
Alignment : Split accross interleaves
Interleave, duration : 96 ms (2.30 video frames)
Interleave, preload duration : 96 ms
Language : English


Can someone who knows more about this tell me what may help my quality based upon this information?

Try this for your movie:

1. Choose predefined size and make it 700MB (1 CD).
2. In advanced settings change the Audio to mp3 112Kbps VBR, you have used AC3, which took up a lot of space.
3. Bring up the Expert Settings console using CTRL+F9. In that on the right hand side, check "Force Sharp Matrix" and Recode the Credits part of the movie in 20-30% quality. Then over ride the output AR and choose 16:9 (as your source is 16:9). Keep the option of forced deinterlacing for hybrid source checked.
As you advance a little more (which your 'benchmark producer' is) you shall learn to play around with cropping and will be able to archive further improvement.

Now encode it again and see what does the result come out to be. You will be surprised

[dudeman316]

OK folks, again thanks for all the advice, I'm gonna give it another go, if I get time, I will post a clip of what i have.

I know it was mentioned before, but what type of CPU & Ram is the best these days for handling these types of jobs that will not take hours?
And again, thanks to all

[disturbed1]

The faster the better I believe the i7 and DDR3 are currently the speed kings.

Keep in mind, Xvid does not scale as well compared to divx. If you have a multicore cpu, divx might yield faster encoding times. I'm not sure which has better quality (Xvid vs. Divx), I personally wouldn't be able to pick out the difference.

I have a single core AMD Sempron 3000+ (1.8ghz) and a PDC E2140 (1.6ghz dual core). Xvid encoding is only slighty faster on the PDC. My E8400 (3.0ghz dual core) is ~twice as fast as my Celeron E1400 (2.0ghz dual core). 1024 vs. 2048 vs. 3072 vs. 4096 vs. 8192 ram, makes no difference in the encoding speed.

edit -
Thought I'd mention the Celeron E1400 and PDC E2140 are about the same speed. Audio encoding is definitely faster on the Celeron, video is roughly the same. Though the Celeron has a higher clock speed, the cache is tiny compared to the PDC. Some apps need pure clock speed (most audio encoding) others like a high clock, large cache, and deeper pipes (video).