Which is the best tool (free or not) to get the best conversion quality ?

[observingman]

I know this is a too generic question, so I will give you more details:


I have videos from my phone Nokia N97 (mp4), as long as others in 3gp from a Blackberry Storm.


I know that I’m not starting with the same source video quality as Stanley Kubrick, but the fact is that when I encode them to mpeg2 to be able to view them on my DVD, they loooooose quality.


I’m doing the conversion with a tool called “total video converter”, not a professional tool I know.
It is possible to MAINTAIN at least, the source quality for these videos on the mpeg2 translated videos ?



Which tool should I use? Canopus procoder ? tmpgenc ?...



I suppose (If you let me suppose ANYTHING), that there are tools able to adjust its quality settings, number of encoding steps, and other parameters, to be able to encode with much better quality than “total video converter”. I would be very, very happy to get THE SAME QUALITY as the original sources.


Finally, the tool must be able to encode in batch mode, as I have hundreds of tiny videos, you know…
Such a common requirement should have a common resolution, as far as I can think… Am I right ? There must be thousands of users with their precious mobile devices waiting for an answer.


I know what YOU want to tell me: go and get a new DVD able to reproduce MP4 videos!
Yes I know I should, but first: I can’t do it now (call it “liquidity problems”), and second: I WANT TO LEARN



Thanks in advance!

[DB83]

The first question is what are the dimensions of these vids ?

If they are only 320*240 you will be pushed to get anything of quality whatever the converter.

[guns1inger]

Post a mediainfo text view of a video from each phone so we can see the source.

[Moontrash]

what DB83 says I agree with...if your rez is low then you basically just converting an xvid low rez quality movie up to fit a tv size screen...waste of disc imo

[observingman]

Post a mediainfo text view of a video from each phone so we can see the source.

Hello,this is a mediainfo text view...

General
Complete name : C:\temp\sample.mp4
Format : MPEG-4
Format profile : Base Media / Version 2
Codec ID : mp42
File size : 2.46 MiB
Duration : 8s 320ms
Overall bit rate : 2 480 Kbps
Encoded date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26
Tagged date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26

Video
ID : 1
Format : MPEG-4 Visual
Format profile : Simple@L4a
Format settings, BVOP : No
Format settings, QPel : No
Format settings, GMC : No warppoints
Format settings, Matrix : Default (H.263)
Codec ID : 20
Duration : 8s 195ms
Bit rate mode : Variable
Bit rate : 2 414 Kbps
Nominal bit rate : 2 700 Kbps
Maximum bit rate : 3 000 Kbps
Width : 640 pixels
Height : 480 pixels
Display aspect ratio : 4:3
Frame rate mode : Variable
Frame rate : 29.286 fps
Minimum frame rate : 14.706 fps
Maximum frame rate : 61.224 fps
Color space : YUV
Chroma subsampling : 4:2:0
Bit depth : 8 bits
Scan type : Progressive
Compression mode : Lossy
Bits/(Pixel*Frame) : 0.268
Stream size : 2.36 MiB (96%)
Encoded date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26
Tagged date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26

Audio
ID : 2
Format : AAC
Format/Info : Advanced Audio Codec
Format profile : LC
Codec ID : 40
Duration : 8s 320ms
Bit rate mode : Constant
Bit rate : 96.0 Kbps
Channel(s) : 1 channel
Channel positions : Front: C
Sampling rate : 48.0 KHz
Compression mode : Lossy
Stream size : 97.8 KiB (4%)
Encoded date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26
Tagged date : UTC 2011-01-19 23:27:26

What's next ?

[guns1inger]

AVStoDVD or DVD Flick would be my recommendations, then burn with Imgburn

[observingman]

AVStoDVD or DVD Flick would be my recommendations, then burn with Imgburn

Thanks. What about the result quality for these tools ? they seem a little bit simple IMHO... I'd sacrifice process time if I get better quality you know.

[guns1inger]

AVStoDVD uses the high quality HCEnc encoder and does a very good job. You can also use Qenc if you prefer (some do for single-pass high bitrate encodes). Authoring is very basic, but if you prefer you can have it output elementary streams for authoring in a fully-fledged authoring tool.

I would put the quality of HCEnc up against Procoder or Tmpgenc any day.

On top of all that, it is free and costs you nothing to try it out.