Question about which format to convert from DivX

[alegator]

I have lots of videos in DivX and Xvid format in my hard drive. 1 hour of video in these formats occupies about 700MB of hard disk space. So I would like to transfer all of these videos to VCD, SVCD or DVD to be able to play them with my regular DVD player and also save hard disk space. Now the question comes: DivX is a lower quality video than DVD and converting 1 hour of DivX (700MB) to DVD will turn out in a video of the same/less quality and occupying more space in the DVD, therefore, is it worth to transfer all these DivX videos to DVD or am I better off converting them to either VCD or SVCD. What is the best format/settings to choose to keep the original quality and have the converted video occupy the same amount of MB in the CD or DVD?
Thanks for your help.

[teegee420]

I'd convert everything to DVD just to avoid having to change cd's. If you encode to mpeg with a resolution of 352x480(352x576 for PAL) you could probably fit a good four hours of video on one DVD and probably preserve most of the quality of your Divx/Xvid files. If you choose to go with 720x480(720x576 for PAL) you can only get two hours of decent quality of video per disc.

[alegator]

I ran Gspot on one of the DivX movies I have and it reports 699MB for 56min and a resolution of 640x352 (DX5 DivX codec), 29.97fps, 1529kb/sec bitrate, AC3 audio.
So for example for this specific video, you still recommend encoding to 352x480? Isn't it recommended to encode preserving original resolution?
When you say:"If you choose to go with 720x480(720x576 for PAL) you can only get two hours of decent quality of video per disc" do you mean that encoding to 720x480 will render better quality video than encoding to the original resolution? (640x352).
I personally don't care that much about swapping CD's as preserving original quality keeping the same storage needs.

[thor300]

I would for sure convert that one to 720x480 in 16:9. If you resize down you will lose some picture info, and also you get the problem of 16:9, since dvd support 16:9 ONLY with 720x480. With 352x480 you would need to add borders. 640x352 is not supported for DVD, so thats not an option anyway.

[alegator]

So after converting to 720x480, the original 1 hour video (700MB), how many MB's will it occupy in the DVD? Will that depend on bitrate too? Should I keep the original 1529Kb/sec bitrate setting? Thanks.

[teegee420]

So after converting to 720x480, the original 1 hour video (700MB), how many MB's will it occupy in the DVD? Will that depend on bitrate too? Should I keep the original 1529Kb/sec bitrate setting? Thanks.

First of all, I only recommended using a smaller resolution because you implied that you wanted to get as much video on one disc as reasonably possible. If you don't have a problem using up most of the DVD with one movie, then use full D1(720x480).

Don't confuse yourself by trying to find a link between Divx and DVD bitrates because there is none. To figure out the maximum bitrate to encode with that will fit on your DVD use the DVDRhelp Bitrate Calculator.

[thor300]

1529Kb/sec is WAY too low for DVD. If you want only 1 video in 1 DVD then you can go high (but never above 9800), in this case you should be able to put 2 clips like that (56 minutes) in 1 DVD, you would then go for a video bitrate at around 4500kbps.

[alegator]

What I want is to keep the SAME quality as the original DivX movie and ALSO to have the final movie occupy the same space in the CD/DVD as the original (700mb/hour video approx.).
From your answers the best I can get in a DVD preserving original quality is about 2 hours/DVD (or 2.3Gb/hour...way too inefficient!).
So I guess SVCD will give me the target I want of preserving original quality with an efficient disk space usage?
Thanks again.

[ZippyP.]

What I want is to keep the SAME quality as the original DivX movie and ALSO to have the final movie occupy the same space in the CD/DVD as the original (700mb/hour video approx.)

Quite frankly, that's not possible. Divx is just more efficient than mpeg, so a similar quality mpeg will always be larger in size. If you use 352x480 resolution, 2-pass VBR with an average bitrate of 1600 kbps then you will get quality that won't be too bad, but still probably not as good as your divx.

Good luck.

[alegator]

But what about VCD or SVCD? It does store 1 hour of video in a CD, so isn't that a solution??

[teegee420]

VCD's can hold up to 80 minutes of video with a file size of around 795mb. The quality probably won't be as good as your avi.

SVCD's can hold up to 45 minutes of good quality video, again with the file size of around 795mb.

Not much of a solution, though that's up to you. You're probably not convinced yet.

[pyrohydra]

Or you can do what I did - go and buy a standalone divx/xvid player. I have the Philips DVP642, which seems to be pretty good, and is $69. I have encountered a couple of xvid videos that would not play on it, for reasons unknown to me.

[thor300]

I dont think DVD Video is for you . You better buy a standalone that can play DivX/Xvid if you need THAT much on each DVD.
If you are willing to sacrifice some (not much) quality then go for around 1 Gig per file, go as low as 160 or 128 for Audio bitrate and up the Video bitrate as much as possible, so you can have 4 eps per DVD. The only cheap encoder that will do that for you in an acceptable way is CCE Basic, and you need to do 2-pass VBR. You can try another encoder anyway, but tmpgenc start to suck already at higher bitrates than what you need to use, i doubt you will be satisfied.
Dont even consider VCD or SVCD if you want a quality remotely similar to the AVIs.

[alegator]

Thor, I love DVD! but when it can deliver DVD-quality video. I consider it a waste of space to use a DVD to keep 1 or 2 hours of video (4Gb or 2Gb per hour) that a DivX file can hold in 700MB/hour at the same or better quality. In this respect Pyrohydra I think your suggested solution is the best, a standalone divx/xvid player. By the way, how do those players work? You just insert a CD/DVD with the original DivX movie stored in it and you play it?

[thor300]

I also think a DivX standalone player would be the best for you. If you want maximum player compatibility you have to accept that Mpeg2 has more limitations than DivX, thats why the most of us will settle with around 2 gig per hour. Maybe its wasted space but it still the best way imo.
I still think you should try to encode one file so you can see how good it will be with CCE (use the demo-version, it just add a small logo to your encodes, ok for testing) in 1GB, its may not be as bad as you think. Try in both 720x480 and 352x480 if its 4:3, in case of 16:9 you have no choice but to use 720x480.

[teegee420]

By the way, how do those players work? You just insert a CD/DVD with the original DivX movie stored in it and you play it?

Pretty much. Just burn as data.

[alegator]

ok, thanks everyone for their feedback!

[Gazorgan]

Ahhhh, said the blind man to the deaf women.

Your assuming that 700MB/Hour AVI is DVD quality. It isn't. It's close (it's also lower res, so your missing vertical resolution already). If the Audio is the same then it's more like SVCD quality (especially if the audio is 384k).

The general "Rule of thumb" for DVDR is

D1: 2 hours (stretchable to 2 1/1 depending on content)
1/2D1: 4 hours
1/4D1: 8 hours

I have gone as long as 12 hours in 1/4D1 for animated stuff. I have put 3 1/2 hours onto a DVDR in full D1, but it was the Sopranos, which has very little action and static menues.

[alegator]

Gazorgan,
I'm not assuming that at all. In my taste for a DVD to have good quality it can hold 2 hours of video at the most. More videotime will mean lower bitrate and therefore less quality.
What I meant is that if the ORIGINAL video is a 1 hour DivX movie that occupies 700MB in my hard drive it doesn't make sense from an efficiency point of view to stretch it to 1.4Gb or more in a DVD wuthout any gain of quality at all (and most probably a decrease in quality).
That's why I thought the best solution is a standalone DivX player, rather than wasting time/resources in encoding to MPEG2 and burning to DVD without any advantage qualitywise or spacewise.
On the other hand, if the original movie is DV-AVI or MPEG2 of high bitrate enough to make it a DVD quality, then of course it does make sense to burn it to DVD.
Understand what I mean now?
Regards.