DVB-S stream to DivX

[geohei]

I would like to convert my DVB-S MPEG-2 material to DivX (5.0.3) using VirtualDub-MPEG2. However I don't know if it's better to keep the stream interlaced or not. Any help would be appreciated!

[fingernailX]

http://www.divx-digest.com/articles/dtv2avi.html

[geohei]

Thanks for the reply.

My stream is not TS, but PVA. How to make MPEG-2 out of it is not an issue. However, your very interesting link doesn't mention anything about interlace or progressive. It seems that HDTVtoMPEG2 creates automatically Progressive.

Hence, I still don't know what to take. Interlace or Progressive?

[energy80s]

What digital satellite system are you trying to capture from? Is it European (Astra) or American? There are NO plans for European HDTV.

I have a card for Digital Terrestrial TV in the UK and it grabs the raw MPEG2 data stream direct onto the hard drive. The quality is superb compared with analogue capture (it's like comparing a VCD with a DVD!) but the data stream is a PVA file. This needs to be remuxed as an MPEG2 Program Stream file. A little freeware app called PVAstrumento (there are others too) will do this for you. After that, just treat the file like any DVD file as it will probably be 16:9 anamorphic MPEG2. I don't do DivX (don't really see the point of it) so can't help you there, although I imagine that any DVD to DivX guide will point you in the right direction.

[geohei]

I use ASTRA (PAL). I take PVAStrumento all the time to convert PVA to MPEG2, but there, the MPEG2 is still interlace. The question whether to deinterlace or not comes when converting the stream to DivX (or any other codec). Interlace doesn't look very good on computer monitors, but gives more fluid video while watched on TV.

Hence my question.

[energy80s]

Why not try a clip both interlaced and de-interlaced and see which one looks the best. A lot of software DVD players de-interlace on the fly on a PC screen so interlaced video really isn't a big deal on a PC anymore.

[geohei]

I tried this already. WinDVD 4 and PowerDVD apparently don't deinterlace themselves. The horizontal lines are clearly visible. This doesn't occur with deinterlaced material (which looks better on the computer screen).

[energy80s]

Well, I have no problems looking at interlaced video using Power DVD 4. You must have some other problem - maybe with your video card???

[geohei]

So you say, your interlaced material gets deinterlaced by PowerDVD? (Right?)

Is there a setting for this, or does PowerDVD deinterlace interlaced material on its own?