Your favorite video codec...

[LighthouseJ]

What is your favorite MPEG Layer 4 codec? I'm still using DivX (5.1.1) to encode DVD-quality broadcast TV with FlasKMPEG.

Say I have a 2GB 720x480 (at 6Mb/s CBR bitrate) with stereo audio MPEG file recorded from broadcast TV and I encode using DivX at a bitrate of 950kb/s, the video is pretty big and still has artifacts. I'd either like a low video size with artifacts (for the lesser desired programs), or preferably a higher video size without any easily noticable artifacts because I have 2 DVD recorders and plenty of discs. I still can't get good quality, do I need a higher bitrate, a new codec, or a new encoding program? Keep in mind, I don't want WMV codecs or Quicktime, I'd like it all to be in .avi format. I tried XMPEG (latest version) but it only recognizes and encodes until frame 1744 and quits normally. Thanks in advance.

[LighthouseJ]

Well, since no one decided to give me a reply, I went ahead and I'm currently doing some tests between DivX 5.1.1, Xvid and 3ivx. Instantly the Xvid picture quality is much better but the video is jerky which may be because of other running processes using the hard drive.

[SaSi]

In the past I was heavily using hufyuv to capture using a VIVO ASUS card.

Lately, I scrapped the VIVO functionality and got a Pinnacle PCTV deluxe h/w MPEG capture device. It has several problems, but I got round capturing content from more than 50 VHS tapes in less than a month, plus the whole X-files season 8 replay from TV in late night shows using the scheduler.

I use DivX for saving the edited MPEG-2 captures, using VirtualdUB MPEG.

I am pretty satisfied with DivX for this.

I capture in MPEG-2 (h/w encoding) at 352 x 576 at 8MBPS. I save this edited capture with DivX at Constant Quality with a value of 1.5 File sizes can range from moderate to huge, depending on content and broadcast or tape quality.

I then encode them to MPEG-2 using 2 pass VBR encoding with Mainconcept to use them for DVD authoring.

I could use xVid for this, however I know how DivX works and do what I want with it, so why bother with yet another codec?

[LighthouseJ]

I actually got a Pinnacle PCTV Deluxe too, that's what I record from because I got a laptop to replace my old desktop with Hauppauge bt878 card. I tried Hauppauge's USB card but the quality was pretty poor so I picked up this one and I like it alot.

I did encode using Xvid and DivX and the Xvid video quality looks much better, even at a lower bitrate.

I am having some trouble converting the captured video mpg files to files that FlasKMPEG can encode to DivX. FlasK can find the video fine, but not the audio. I found a way and got it to convert some shows a few months ago but I forgot. How do you do it?