convertxtodvd gives small files

[ammar_s007]

I was just wondering about the size of the files i get when i convert some avi's i have.
i have always been under the impression that when you convert files, they should be 3 to
4 times bigger than the actual file, eg. a 350mb file should come out to around a 1gb or more.
When i convert my 350mb avi files, they come out to be 600 mb or 700. Is there a reason
for this? They come out looking the same in quality, as if i were watching the original on tv when it was aired. Is this normal? thanks.

[Baldrick]

what's the running time? the source file size doesn't matter when you are converting to dvd.

[guns1inger]

Depending on what settings you use, and which version of ConvertXtoDVD you have, you can expect smaller files that from other programs.

If you use DivxtoDVD, which has very little control over the quality of output, then you will get very small files in comparison to other software. This is in part because of the method it uses to make it so fast. In short, it uses many of the encoding vectors used by the original encode (Divx, Xvid etc) as a guide for it's own encoding, rather than calculating from scratch. Using these, it is able to produce reasonable quality in a smaller space, very quickly.

ConvertXtoDVD, on the otherhand, has a number of settings that affect quality and speed. I always use the highest quality setting, which adds maybe 10% to the encoding time, but produces larger files.

Ultimately though, the issue should not be file size, but visual quality. If you can get the same quality from smaller files, be thankfull, and put and extra file or two on the disc.

[ammar_s007]

The running time is around 4.5 hours of video, but the video is very watchable, no difference from a normal tv version. I guess your right about convertxtodvd using the encoding vectors from the original avi file. Thanks for the info.