Finally lost those jerky AVI > MPG conversions (for DVD)

[rumplestiltskin]

Actually, the AVI's were jerky to begin with. I've tried TMPGenc (& Express), even tried converting them to .mov on my Mac with Divx Doctor. Nothing helped.

I just found a reference (here in the forum) to an app called vso DivxTo DVD Convertor. Load that AVI file in, specify an output file/location, then click the button. That's it; no other parameters. It's converting the AVI directly over to VOB (a VIDEO_TS folder) and the motion is smooth. Apparently there's some "header" issues that this app repairs in some fashion. Whatever...it solves the problem.

[guns1inger]

It's a handy little app. When they get a few more bugs out of it it will be king of the one-click wonders.

[on30trainman]

Downloaded vso DivxTo DVD and ran an AVI file I had captured from a VHS tape thru it. Burnt a DVD using the video_ts folder. Burnt DVD was fairly sharp but had very noticeable artifacts (a number of large pixel blocks) on frames with fast motion. Made it unacceptable. Slow/slower motion sections didn't seem to be affected. Can't see any settings that can be changed that might cure this from happening. Tried burning it with both NERO and DVD Decrypter using different media types - Sony and Fuji both MIJ. Any suggestions? Like the ease of the program but not the artifacts.

[rumplestiltskin]

Are you sure the problem didn't occur during capture? I've tried DivxToDVD with some pretty squirrelly files and, in every case, the resulting VOB reproduced the artifacts (or lack of) found in the original file. Pay attention to the log and note whether the app is complaining about bad headers, etc. It may be that your captured file is goofy.

Can you capture using a different codec that doesn't use as much compression? I don't remember offhand which codecs are supported by DivxToDVD but it's so darn fast that even a larger source file shouldn't pose a problem.

[on30trainman]

Actually using vso DivxTo DVD is at least the third way I have made a DVD from this same AVI file. The other methods were Vegas Movie Studio + DVDAS and Nero Vision/Nero Recode/DVD Shrink. I looked at the results of these DVDs in the same place the artifacts showed up and didn't see them. So, I think my original capture was OK. Was just looking for a faster way to make a DVD - plus I like the way Chapters are added with no effort by vso DivxTo DVD. Also, the vso DivxTo DVD result looked sharper to me, but that could be subjective. Would need three identical DVD players running in parallel to really tell.
Also tried TMPGEnc, but the resulting output gave me a picture with small black bands at the top and bottom of the picture. A querry to their forum seems to point out that is what does happen.
I just like to try out different packages - looking for the perfect product without spending any or very little.