mjpeg to Divx5: why all these macroblocks?

[nalooti]

Hi,

i'd really be grateful if someone can help me because these are my family's memories that are at risk!!!

My Canon digital photos camera (powershot s80) produces a very clean hi-res 1024x768 movie in 15fps, Mjpeg format. Files are huge but the quality is sublime on PC. I'd like to watch them on my standalone dvd player on TV screen but my player doesn't read hi-res (HD) and also it doesn't recognize Mjpeg, nor PCM audio (which is the original audio out of my camera).

So i decided to convert them all to DivX with mp3 audio...

And here comes my problem. I have many questions but the big one is why do i get big macroblocs whatever bitrate (i even tried 4Mbps DivX or 7Mbps XviD!) i apply ?

I tried a commercial video converter (AVS) with very simple and straightforward GUI, doing two pass at 2000Kbps with a mono mp3 at 192Kbps. I resize with the DivX Pro 5.2 codec to 640x480. The result is a very degraded video (relative to the original mjpeg) no matter on PC or on my dvd player (which now at least can read them).

Then i tried VirtualDub to get a slighly better result with the same parameters but still with easily distinguishable macroblocs. The other problem with VirtualDub is the audio. It just can't find any mp3 or Lame mp3 driver. I searched on Internet and on doom9 for solutions. I installed LAME ACM, no way. Vdub doesn't propose me any bitrate unless i check "show all" at right and then it says compression not possible! So with virtual dub i can only get a DivX with the original PCM audio which is unreadable on my dvd player.

Even if i want to find a solution to my Vdub problem (because it is a very good freeware) my biggest concern is the quality and how to remove all these macroblocs ??? It seems like i'm missing a very big issue on DivX conversion but i searched throughout various sites and guides (digital/Divx digest, doom9, digitalFAQ, Nicky pages, etc.) and i found no big parameters that i could miss producing such a degraded video quality. They all explain different programs utilization without really focusing on codec's parameters.

I just don't understand how some guys can rip&convert DVDs to DivX with amazing quality!!! Maybe because the original is mpeg2 not mjpeg (does it matter ?), or maybe because it's not hi definition format ? Should i apply filters ? which one ?

thanks very much to help me
nalooti

[drewzor]

Divx is an mpeg4 which throughs out video infomation for the benefit of compression. If your goal is dvd then you should stick to formats that are less distructive. Huffyuv is very good for this kind of work and has little to no parameters to change.

Can you post a screen shot of the damaged footage?

As for vdub mp3 issue remember you need the encoder
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/Lame_Encoder.htm
And the decoder for acm to mp3 for vdub
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/AC-3_ACM_Decompressor.htm
And the decoder for mjpeg and mpeg4
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/FFDShow.htm
install this again too cos it has a decoder for mp3
http://www.free-codecs.com/download/LAME_ACM_Codec.htm

Remeber while installing that some option maybe to add "vDUB support" you'll need that ticked.