Die Another Day>DVDxv2.2/DivX5.05 - a few queries...

[The Old Man]

Hi all,

Newbie alert!

I have tried to rip Die Another Day (Pal UK) to DivX v5.05 which will be my second conversion, the first being American Pie about a year ago and things seem to have changed. I have a few queries and will provide as much info as I can. I'd be grateful if you can set me on the right track...

Die Another Day, region 2 (UK), 1 dual layer DVD, 720x576 PAL 16:9 Time: 2:07:02

PC is AMD XP2000 CPU, 684 MB DDR266, 40GB IBM 7200 HDD, WinXP Pro (NTFS). DivX v5.05 basic bundle and Lame MP3 Codec installed.

I ripped the DVD with DVD Decrypter v3.1.6.0 which produced a 5.69GB collection of .VOB files(7 in total). I can play the entire movie okay in PowerDVD so i know it's all there.

I converted the vob files to DivX using DVDx v2.2.

Main problem:
The result is a DixX file that is 640x272 pixels, 25FPS and 936KB long which ends 3/4 of the way through the movie yet the movie yet WMP9 says the movie clip is 2:07 in length. Also depsite using 2 pass encoding the movie is a bit blurry such as sides of actors heads etc.

My queries:
1. Bitrate for DivX v5.05.
I used DivXLand Bitrate Calculator to work out the bitrate required for a 2hr 8min movie to fit on a 700MB CDR with sound quality of 192 MP3. I have seen a few movies in divX at 700MB and the quality is really good.
the Calc said to use a bitrate of 623kbps. Is this accurate? What bitrate is recommened to fit a 1.5-2hr movie on 700MB CD?

2. DVDx Questions.

Input Settings. Under input settings after opening the .ifo file I get a list of 13Index's to choose from. 0-12 are size 0, 12 and 13 are both 02.07.02 in length. Therefore I selected Index No.12. Angle1.

However after encoding for 4 hrs or so, although the movie is bigger than 700MB and displays the correct length in Windows Media Player, the movie ends the equivalent of half way though the penultimate VOB file.

Demacrovision. I selected this in DVD Decrypter, so do I still need to select it here?

Output Settings
DivX5.05 selected. I set the Pass 1 settings to 591kbps, selected Home Theatre as the profile. I noticed most DivX movies I have seen are set to 640x272 to entered this is the resolution settings at 25 FPS.
I repeated this for the 2nd pass settings.
I thought a 2nd pass would produce good quality video, however the results were blurry around faces during dialogue etc.
How you select a constant or variable bitrate and which would be the best?
I don't mind the PC chugging away as its a spare PC so need to know recommended settings for DivX.

Export Settings
Resolution 640x272, Zoom: Full (16:9 or 4:3 input)
Resize BiCubic SSE/3DNow (I thought this best for quality and AMD Athlon XP)
Time to encode: 2.07.02 which is correct.
I pressed Whole and selected Infinite as Volume Don't Exceed.
Should this have been set to 700MB?

I noticed that the video was encoded well into the 2nd pass but seemed to have stopped 3/4 of the way through the movie. It stated it has finished the job yet DVDx left me with 3/4 of the movie. I think it did the full movie in the first pass.

Is this common, a bug or because i entered the wrong settings/bitrate etc.
I'd be grateful if someone can set me straight before I waste another 4 to 5 hours for it to finish to soon and leave me with a bigger file than 700MB!

Thanks,
Graham.

[Gazorgan]

Your bitrate is too low for that resolution.

Rant On(this is not directed at you, it's generic):

A 1 CD DivX/XviD movie in full resolution will look bad. Deal with it. Dont' do the impossible!!! Especially with 192k audio.

Rant Off:

To do you movie, in the resolution you chose, it needs to be 2 CD or you will have to deal with pixelization and blurring. The alternative is chop the resolution way down. You are encoding a high action movie. There are many people out there that have encoded Gladiator to 1 CD and it's 'Perfect', just no one has ever seen it :P

If your first pass and second pass settings are the same, then it's not a 2-pass encode? What were you second pass settings.

[The Old Man]

Hi thanks for reply! Rants are fine that's how we learn!

I get your point about 1 CD and I take it on board. I'll stick with 2 CD versions from now on!

My second pass settings when I click on 2nd pass in DVDx I set up to mirror the 1st pass settings. I came back into the room intime to see DVDx finish it's 1st pass and it then began on the 2nd pass, only to stop 3/4 of the way through after another 2 hrs or so.

Perhaps I'm getting confused with the settings in DivX and DVDx when it comes to the choosong the right settings?

You recommend 2 passes? How do you do this properly, in DivX's settings or DVDx's setings?

Also regarding bitrate, can you recommend a more compatible calc for use with DivX v5.05?
Thanks again,
Graham.

[The Old Man]

Hi,

Because I'm so impatient I've set it working again after making a few changes!

I've set it spread the video file over 2x700MB CD's using the "Volume Don't Exceed" function.

I've recalculated the bitrate at 1401kbps and selected 1 pass in the DivX settings and selected 1 pass in DivX until I figure out exactly what these do, how they differ and how best to use them.

I've also changed the resolution in DVDx to 640x480 with Full Zoom (4:3 / 16:9) Setting. A bit of a guess here but it looks okay on a test run I just did. How do you decide what height to choose?

I left the sound at 192.

Thanks for you help, I'll repost later to let you know how I get on.

Regards,
Graham.

[The Old Man]

Well the conversion worked this time but still finshed early. This time DVDx finished the conversion at 2hrs 3 mins instead of 2 hrs 7 mins. Very strange. It bombed out half way through the ending credits (no big problem) but I'd like to fix this issue as it seems random as to where it finishes. Someone suspected it might be the ASPI layer but its up to date I've checked.

Do you need to use ASPI and Macrovision in the DeCSS box in DVDx if you've already ripped the DVD in DVD Decrypter?

Also the 640x480 resolution did look odd with characters slightly spread out vertically! How do you work out which resolution to convert to or which zoom option in DVDX to use? Is their a site or DivXv5.05 bitrate calculator which works this out for you?

Quality wise it wasn't bad at all at the 1401 bitrate in 1 pass but I'd like to get the issue of 2 pass vbr or cbr encoding and how to do it sorted in my head!

Thanks,
Graham.

[EddyH]

640x272(288) is tricky to get to work on a single cd without sacrificing quality, even with clever refinement with a couple extra test 2nd passes. If you have a film with many quiet or other encoder friendly segments, and use eg XviD, then it can be done with good (but marginal) results. 576x256(240) or 512x240(216) may work a whole lot better, still be reasonably sharp (to the level of KVCD/mid-level digital broadcast, anyway) and still manage the magic thing of fitting "exactly" into a monitor, if you use 1024 or 1152 rez.

VBR audio to go with the VBR video is also a good idea (mux with vdub-mp3 or something)... get 192k quality at 160k average rate or lower, giving you 32kbit/s extra to play with.

[The Old Man]

Thanks for the reply!

Do you know of a table that shows you which resolutions to select depending on the size/dimensions of the original movie ie 16:9 etc?

Also, do you know which options are required in the zoom box of DVDx? I don't understand the difference between custom and the 16:9 4:3 settings and when you would need them?

Thanks for the resolutions you mentioned. What do the No.s in brackets mean?

Many thanks,
Graham.