avi to mpg ratio?

[BroomQueen]

I've been trying to convert this avi to mpg to burn but it keeps enlarging the file size so much that it won't fit on the cd. Is there some type of ratio? Like if the avi is about 700mb how much would the mpg be, things like that. Also, if I have a regular cd burner, could I use dvd-r's in it to burn to dvd instead of vcd?

[uxbridge]

There is no ratio or anything like that.
If you want to convert you need an mpeg encoder.
You may use TMPGenc. For VCDs it is freeware.
TMPGenc will allow you to choose proper encoding speed to fit the size of your CD, being that 700 MB.

If you have just a CD burner you cannot burn a DVD, no way.

Ciao

[gadgetguy]

I assume the avi is Divx or Xvid or similar which uses a different compression scheme than MPG1. You will never be able to convert a Divx to MPG1 and maintain both quality and filesize. The size of the file is always determined by the duration and bitrate.

[BroomQueen]

I already know I need an encoder, you ddint' read what I said properly. I said when I did convert it, it kept getting bigger, like 200 mb bigger no matter what quality converted it to. I even deleted part of the avi at the end and got it down to 555mb but when I converted it to mpg it still kept being like 744mb.

[LOWTECH]

You still haven`t told anybody how you have converted the avi ... and with what program used and what settings?

You have answered one point yourself, if you have a CD burner you can only burn CDs ..... not DVDs........

[gadgetguy]

AVI is not a format, it's a container that can hold any number of formats (Divx, Xvid, DV, etc.) Some formats like Divx can give relatively good quality at very low bitrates. The size of the file is determined by the duration of the video times the bitrate. You haven't told us how long your movie is but I'll just give you an example. If your video is 90 minutes long, you need to compress it at a bitrate of approx. 796Kbps. This will give a filesize of approx 700mb. Xvid can use this bitrate with acceptable results, MPEG1 cannot. VCD usually is encoded at 1150Kbps framerate and the same 90 minutes ends up being about 932mb. The converter you are using is making that framerate conversion to go to VCD and still make it watchable.

[guns1inger]

As a general rule, converting a Divx file to mpeg2 and maintaining the same (relative) quality level requires a bitrate approx 3-4 times higher that the source. Threfore, a 700mb avi will generally require areound 2.1 - 2.8gb to maintain the same level of quality.

[uxbridge]

In theory Divx can be much more efficient than Mpeg2, but 3 to 4 times is something hard to believe.
If it is a Divx, it is likely on a CD-R and 700-800 MB size.
With that size, assuming it is a movie around 100 mins @ 720x576 or 480, quality is very bad.
Therefore if you even ancode same rate, and make a 700 MB Mpeg2 file, quality is very much the same....quite bad.

Anyway, with no DVD burner, there is only a single choice, mpeg2 700MB.....

If you were talking about mpeg4 out of an HDTV Video, I would agree you'd need something like 2 times the speed to reencode Mpeg2, but this is not the case here.

Of course this is an opinion, not pretending to be "teaching" anybody and respecting everybody's opinions.

Ciao

[guns1inger]

It depends on quality. Use a bitrate calculator to confirm, but full res DVD at 100 minutes requires around 5870kbps to fill the disc. You could use a slightly lower bitrate, but once you start to ge down around the 5000kbps mark with mpeg2, quality starts to degrade visibly, especially with lower quality source material. Drop the resolution to half-D1 and you can drop the bitrate to around 3500kbps, but the image will be softer.

At SVCD resolution you can get around 45 minutes in a CD, but the bitrate is lower, and the quality . . . well, I wouldn't compare it to DVD.

[mats.hogberg]

3 to 4 times is something hard to believe.

Believe it.
The only thing this says, is that the quality of the mpg will be (very close to) the same as the source AVI. It doesn't matter if the AVI is high or low quality - just to make the mpg encoding process not degrade it (further), it takes around these figures.
Of course this is no scientific way to prove this - it's just what your eyes and experience tells you.

/Mats

[gadgetguy]

At SVCD resolution you can get around 45 minutes in a CD, but the bitrate is lower, and the quality . . . well, I wouldn't compare it to DVD.

But it may not play in her DVD player. I got the impression (maybe I'm wrong), that the whole point was she wants to play it in her DVD player. I think the problems she has (but hasn't really articulated well) are
1. Her DVD player won't play Divx (or whatever it is)
2. She only has a CD burner.
3. She can play VCDs in her DVD player and wants/needs to convert to that.

BroomQueen - you need to give us more/better information about your source video and what your goals are. We've tried to offer help based on the general information you've provided, but we're making assumptions that may or may not be correct for YOU and may be confusing more than helping.
If you could upload a Gspot screenshot of the source video (For Instructions Click Here) and tell us what you want to accomplish. If the goal is to play it on a DVD player give us the Make/Model of the player so we can know what it's capabilities are.

[Jean]

Hi,

3-4 times is about right ratio.

Does anyone compare the video quanlity of avi and converted mpeg2?
Say an AVI video of 50min and 700MB (call it video 1). After converted to mpeg2, its file size is about 2GB (video 2). If we shrink video 2 (2GB) to a smaller one -- about 1GB (video 3) using DVDShrink. How is the video quality of video 3 comparing to video 2? It is hard to tell on computer screen. Anyone has an idea? Does anyone know what compression does DVDShrink do?

Thanks,
Jean

[mats.hogberg]

50% compression with DVDShrink usually is quite noticable, to my eyes... (not saying it's something wrong with yours! )

/Mats

[BroomQueen]

Sorry I should have been more specific. My (home) dvd player plays vcd's and svcd's and all that. I have a 90 min .avi movie that I need to convert to .mpg so I can burn it as an vcd with nero. (I only have a cd burner not a dvd burner on my comp.) I've tried about 10 different types of converters and all of them seem, no matter what settings I put it at, to convert the the final .mpg file to over 700mb. The smallest I ever got it at was like 744 but even in 'overburn' nero couldn't get that on to a regular 700 mb cd. Thanks for everyone's help this is drving me crazy.

[guns1inger]

To ensure play back as VCD or SVCD you must encode to compliant specs. Using compliant spects will get you 74 - 80 minutes of VCD, an even less at SVCD. You simply cannot fit 90 minuts on a spec compliant VCD disc. You will have to split them onto two discs, or get a DVD burner.

[BroomQueen]

Thanks guns1nger, that's exactly all I needed to know. so no matter what really there's no way to fit 90 mns on a disk huh? that sux haha, i just wasted like 2 weeks trying to screw around converting it this way, converting it that way, hahaha thanks a lot

[Abond]

No, there is a way. You need to drop the bitrate regarding the duration. So use a bitrate calculator. Then drop the bitrate for the sound (to 128 kbps). If you decide to use mpeg2 for video you multiplex it after the conversion with the audio in bbMPEG (or mplex - it uses the same multiplexing engine) as SVCD. If you make it mpeg1 - then you multiplex it with TMPG Mpeg tools as nonstandart VCD.
After that you are using VCDEasy to author and burn.
If you still have this 744 mb file VCDEasy would author and burn it without overburn - (S)VCD can have 800 MB on 700 mb (80 min!) disc.

[mats.hogberg]

The smallest I ever got it at was like 744 but even in 'overburn' nero couldn't get that on to a regular 700 mb cd.

To make a VCD, it's not just a matter of burning the VCD specs MPG to a CD-R - it has to be authored and written in a special way to the CD. Use VCDEasy (last free version's fine!) to author and burn!
Authored as VCD, you can use mpg files up to 800 MB and still write the VCD to a 700 MB CD-R.

/Mats

[BroomQueen]

No, there is a way. You need to drop the bitrate regarding the duration. So use a bitrate calculator. Then drop the bitrate for the sound (to 128 kbps). If you decide to use mpeg2 for video you multiplex it after the conversion with the audio in bbMPEG (or mplex - it uses the same multiplexing engine) as SVCD. If you make it mpeg1 - then you multiplex it with TMPG Mpeg tools as nonstandart VCD.
After that you are using VCDEasy to author and burn.
If you still have this 744 mb file VCDEasy would author and burn it without overburn - (S)VCD can have 800 MB on 700 mb (80 min!) disc.

I don't understand some of this, I downloaded bbmpeg and tmpgenc and one won't let me open the .avi file, the other will let me change the bitrate of the video but not the audio bitrate and then it still says it's gonna be like way over 800mb after it converts it, what am i missing?

[guns1inger]

Unless you cut it down, 90 minutes isn't going to fit and not look like crap.

[BroomQueen]

Well, guys I want to thank you for all your help, I just broke down and baught a dvd-rw from ebay, I'm sick of this converting this bitmap calculator and all that goes with vcd crap haha. The cd-rw drive I baught takes all the dvd disk types, like 4 kinds I think. What is the best one to burn to? And do I just basically just open up nero and burn the .avi file to the dvd disk? Thanks for the help guys.

[guns1inger]

Now you start a whole new journey. No less fraustrating, but with a little more space on the disc

For a simple way to convert avi to DVD, I would use the free version of VSOs Convert-to-DVD (nee DivxtoDVD). It is relatively fast, produces reasonable quality, and usually avoids many of the problems othat others have like audio sync.

Once it has finished processing you will get a video_ts folder with your DVD files inside. Open the Burning ROM part of Nero, select the DVD Video template and drag these files into the Video_TS folder in the template.

Burn to a good quality brand of -R disc (lets start simple) and see how you go.

Cavaets :

1. DivxtoDVD (free version) does not produce menus
2. DivxtoDVD does not join multi-part avis into a single title.
3. Nerovision will try to re-encode most things, even if they are compliant. Don't use it.

[BroomQueen]

Do I drag the whole folder so the folder is on the dvd or just the files inside it? Thanks for the help I should be getting my dvd rw rom in the next few days, very excited!

[guns1inger]

Just the files inside it

[whitejremiah]

3 to 4 times is something hard to believe.

Believe it.
The only thing this says, is that the quality of the mpg will be (very close to) the same as the source AVI. It doesn't matter if the AVI is high or low quality - just to make the mpg encoding process not degrade it (further), it takes around these figures.
Of course this is no scientific way to prove this - it's just what your eyes and experience tells you.

/Mats

sorry to beat a dead horse, so to speak, but i didn't find this thread till now...and yes, i can testify to this personally, i happen to have a DVP-642 dvd player, so i take a good majority of my dvd's and convert em to divx on a regular basis....input sizes are generally around6-8gb, and my outputs are generally around 1.5-2gb (no, i dont really care about filesizes, im just going for outright quality) while watching them, you literally cant tell the differance between the original and the divx copy...to me at least, it looks better than what dvd shrink can do (although it takes a LOT longer to encode)

on a side note, your probably gonna eventually start wanting to make your own dvd's from the avi's instead of having a program just kinda slap everything together for you...depending on how much time and effort your willing to put forth, i'd recommend TDA (a bit easier to learn) or dvd lab pro (a bit harder to learn how to use, but has a lot more advanced features) but this is another story for another day.......just start poking at the conversion guides.......