Div3 to Xvid/Divx 5 suggestions?

[z4miata]

What is the best way to convert Div3 encoded AVIs to Xvid or to Divx 5 while keeping audio and video in sync? I have tried using VirtualDub without success.

I recently bought a Liteon LVD-2001 so I could watch my Divx movies on my widescreen instead of my computer monitor. As has been previously reported here, Divx 5 and especially Xvid encoded AVI playback is outstanding. The problem comes with Div3 files. There is stuttering video and sometimes complete freeze with Div3 files. This is using the latest firmware v. 227 of the Liteon player. Now I'd really like not to have to encode all my Div3 movies to MPEG2 just to watch them on my TV. 12 hours in TMPGEnc for one movie isn't worth it, especially with some of the crap I'm just gonna erase off my DVDRWs anyway. That's why I bought my Liteon.

I've tried converting them into Xvid and Divx5 formats through VirtualDub (full vid processing, compression set to Xvid and Divx 5.02, do not change framerate, direct stream audio copy) and the resultant files always have the audio out of sync with the video. Is there another way to convert these to these formats without the loss of sync? Is there another tool I can use to do the conversion? Any leads here would be most appreciated.

Div3 with its software-only decoding algorithms suck. It's almost inexcusable to release new stuff in that format when it's just as easy to do a much better quality Xvid rip but there are those still doing it...

[ZippyP.]

Bad frames in the video might be causing the problem. Try this.

[hk_traveller]

I recently bought a Liteon LVD-2001 so I could watch my Divx movies on my widescreen instead of my computer monitor. As has been previously reported here, Divx 5 and especially Xvid encoded AVI playback is outstanding. The problem comes with Div3 files. There is stuttering video and sometimes complete freeze with Div3 files. This is using the latest firmware v. 227 of the Liteon player. Now I'd really like not to have to encode all my Div3 movies to MPEG2 just to watch them on my TV. 12 hours in TMPGEnc for one movie isn't worth it, especially with some of the crap I'm just gonna erase off my DVDRWs anyway. That's why I bought my Liteon.

Hi zemiata,

Would like to know how much for LVD-2001 now? You bought it from PC Club?

Thanks!

[Brutus1234]

I've encountered the same problem with my LVD-2001 playing Divx3 and even some Divx 4 encodes.

I've been using Dr. Divx to convert the video files from Divx3 to 5. It's the simplest converter to use I've come across so far. By default it does 2 pass variable bit rate conversion, and batching up a bunch of files is relatively easy.

The only drawback is that it doesn't handle AC3 sound so for those movies I unfortunately have to do a no audio encode and then overlay the audio track on the output file with VirtualDubMod.

It's tedious but you can queue it up and come back the next morning and have 2 to 3 conversions. I have no complaints about video quality and the Divx 5 seems to work just fine.

Good luck

[z4miata]

Thanks for all the tips. I was reading thorugh some other subject lines and I came across the thread "Divx/Xvid conversion to DVD-Best Way" and this is a reply from soundforbjt

Here's an easy way that works with Xvid's with VBR encoded sound. Open the file with VirtualDub.

It will tell you with a pop-up that the sound is VBR and will cause a skew(out of sync) in the playback.

Now under the Audio tab select "Full processing mode",but add no other options.

Under the Video tab select "Direct Stream Copy".

Now Under file select "Save as avi" and put it in a new location (note: the file will be twice as large now, but in sync when you encode it)

Works every time for me!!

This gave me some ideas. Apparently, if a Divx 3 file is encoded with VBR audio, the audio will gradually lose sync with the video when you reencode it. So I used Full Processing mode for audio like soundforjbt suggested but also chose audio compression to MP3 and video compression to XVID. Compression is crucial for my needs because in order to burn data DVDs, you're gonna want to do it in ISO mode and not UDF like for DVD-Video. ISO mode doesn't support filesizes >2GB and that's what you'll get if you don't use BOTH audio and video compression. This brought my filesizes down dramatically from soundforbjt's uncompressed method from around 3GB for an uncompressed AVI to ~900MB compressed.

On my slow P4 1.4GHz 512K RAM, I'm able to reencode a Div3 file to Xvid in about an hour which is good enough for my purposes. The previously mentioned audio/video sync problems are gone and the new Xvid files play well on my Liteon player.

Brutus1234: Now that I have VirtualDub working on this, I'll wait a bit before deciding if I want to spend $50 for Dr. Divx. Thanks for the suggestion though. I still might but so far, Vdub has been very simple with just 2 settings to change and batch mode available. Can you tell me if Dr. Divx installs any adware or spyware? I'd still like to try out the trial version and compare it with Vdub.

hk_traveller and others re: Liteon LVD-2001: I did buy from pcclub.com and I bought it at the beginning of August for $139.99 + $18 domestic ground shipping. I must have been one of the last people to order it at that price because when I checked the website about an hour after I ordered, the price moved up to $149.99 and that's where it's stayed. I was a bit leary of buying it but after having used it for the past 2 weeks, I must say that I would now buy it for $200 if I had to do it again. Plays back all my DVD-/+R and DVD-/+RW without a hitch. Plays back CDR/W too. Plays back PAL and autoconverts to NTSC in multiple progressive scan modes for my HDTV. Can be made region-free easily. Doesn't support subtitles yet but I have no doubt a firmware update will take care of that. DVD Video playback is outstanding and there are component video outputs as well as digital coax and optical outs for audio which offers 5.1 passthrough (no decoding in the box). No position memory as far as I can tell which is an inconvenience. Searching through Divx movies is awkward (1 min. intervals) but serviceable. The remote gets a lot of scorn from users but I don't mind it. It too is serviceable and should no longer be an issue after I've transferred all the settings to my Pronto programmable remote. What I'm really looking forward to trying out is playing some hi definition Divx files though the player to see if it will output it on 1080i natively to my HD monitor.

Anyway, thanks again everyone and good luck with any aud/vid sync problems!

[dekkit]

I've encountered the same problem with my LVD-2001 playing Divx3 and even some Divx 4 encodes.

I've been using Dr. Divx to convert the video files from Divx3 to 5. It's the simplest converter to use I've come across so far. By default it does 2 pass variable bit rate conversion, and batching up a bunch of files is relatively easy.

The only drawback is that it doesn't handle AC3 sound so for those movies I unfortunately have to do a no audio encode and then overlay the audio track on the output file with VirtualDubMod.

It's tedious but you can queue it up and come back the next morning and have 2 to 3 conversions. I have no complaints about video quality and the Divx 5 seems to work just fine.

Good luck

After experimenting with several options, I have to say that Dr Divx s by the far the quickest and easiest way I found to bring your old .avi video conversions in that were encoded in DIV3 (eg .AVI files)and convert them to Div5/xvid codecs.

Dr Divx is free open source software (its on sourceforge), but as at early 2010, version 2.0 will only work if you have the 6.8.5 divx codec pack installed (which is easy enough to find via google). The official divx website currenly has version 6.9.x which dr divx does not support (dr divx itself has not been updated for a while).

All the DIV3 avi's I have use VBR mp3, so i haven't need to find an AC3 filter (Note: Dr. Divx supports AC3 but you need just need to download an audio codec and install it seperately ...which can be found via google and probably somewhere on this site) .

It will automatically decode the VBR audio and reencode it as CBR audio and then re-encode the video as DIV5. DIV5 will work in most standalone divx players (eg including xbox360, ps3, Ps2 SMS, xbox1 media player, divx+dvd players etc) and the output is divx certified for home setups so you shouldn't experience too many incompatibilities. Sure .avi isn't as great as the new H264 and mkv containers, but works in more places.

The good thing is that Dr Divx is really fast on the 2-pass encoding (it does a very quick 1st pass), and has a great batch mode to do a number of files at once.

I tried AutoGK, DVDflick (to covert to dvd, then back again), and zConvert, but Dr. Divx seems to do the trick without experiencing any of the audio sync issues that the other tools seem to encounter.

The quality difference was barely noticable, and the file sizes comparable to the original (sometimes less, sometimes more).

For those using it, you might like to adjust the advanced settings -> Pre-Processing tab - to use the max video resolution (eg using the slide bar) and then use the codec tab to set the Rate Control bit rate to 1200Kbps (900-1200 seems to give a good quality but may effect play back on some devices if you set it higher than this)

Cheers Brutus1234 for suggesting Dr Divx worked a charm.