AutoGK Settings for DVD Series Rips

[garrisonkw]

Hey guys,

I've a couple of questions. But first, let me lay out my situation.

I am wanting to rip my 7 seasons of Buffy the Vampire DVDs to XviD avi. My plan is thus...

Step 1...
Use DVD Decrypter in IFO mode to rip the individual program chains to individual folders, i.e. Episode1x01, Episode 1x02, et cetera.

Step 2...
Use AutoGK to convert the VOBs in the resulting folders to avi.

I understand that Step 2 will take ages. That's why I've chosen AutoGK. I can load the settings in and then walk away for a day or two while everything processes. I'll probably process one season at a time.

Here are my questions.

Question 1...
What resolution should I use in AutoGK? I'd like everything to be the same, so I want to manually set a width. Is 640 wide the correct choice, or is 720 wide? I know that DVD video resolution is 720x480, but also that it is displayed in a 4:3 aspect ratio (at least in this case). Am I better having 640x480 video or 720x540 video? In the first case, one squeezes the video horizontally. In the second case, one stretches it vertically. Which gives better results? What do most people do?

Question 2...
What should I choose for audio? My choices are original AC3 (which is 2ch) or VBR MP3 at whatever bitrate I choose. I don't mind sticking to AC3 as I think (haven't checked) that a 2ch AC3 should be about the same size as a 160~192kbps VBR MP3. Which option is best?

Question 3...
What should I choose for target size/percentage? I've seen many tv rip releases that are always around 350MB. I assume this is chosen as it's approximately half of one CD. I'm not going to be burning to CD, so that's not a concern for me. If having a particular size isn't a concern, am I better off choosing a fixed quality percentage? If so, what's a good quality? I've heard not to go below 70% or so. Does this sound reasonable?

I've been reading various posts and guides on this site for years, so I'm pretty confident that I'll understand any advice offered. From the comparisons I've read, it seems most people recommend that one experiments and then chooses the settings that give the best results. What I'm looking for here is what settings have given YOU GUYS the best results.

Thanks for any responses you're able to give.

Edit: Dang, I forgot to write this. I'll be using XviD as the video codec; whatever the current version is. 1.0.3, I think.

[Cobra]

Question 1 - Resolution has no bearing on aspect ratio. Don't worry about it - let AutoGK decide.

Question 2 - If playing back on a PC with a 5.1 DD surround system, maintain AC3. If not, why not use 160Kbps MP3? Save you a bit of space - AC3 streams are normally about 384Kbps, aren't they?

Question 3 - Try to keep your bitrate about 1200 - 1400 for good quality, and ensure you are using two-pass encoding. That's what I find strikes a good balance between compression and quality.

[garrisonkw]

Point 1...
AutoGK usually goes for a horizontal resolution of 640. I'll stick to that. I've seen some people manually put in 720. I didn't know if there was some hidden quality advantage in doing so.

Point 2...
It'll be played back on a laptop using headphone... crappy headphones. Also, there will be a lot of background noise. Maybe 128kbps VBR MP3 would be just fine? Also, is there any sound advantage to keeping a 2ch AC3 versus going with, say a 192kbps VBR MP3?

Point 3...
Doing some quick math...
45min * 60sec/min = 2700sec
2700sec * 1300kilobits/sec = 3510000kilobits
3510000kilobits / 8kilobyte/kilobit = 438750kilobyte
438750kilobyte / 1024kilobyte/megabyte = 428.47megabytes

If I stay with AC3 sound my audio should be around 60MB. If my video target is around 430ish, then would 500MB per episode be a good target? Putting in a target size makes AutoGK do a two pass encode. Does this sound reasonable?

[Cobra]

You can decide for yourself what you'd like to do with the audio. Personally, I'd convert to 160Kbps MP3 smaller and a little more compatible - and you might get some better headphones later!

As for the video, if you aim for about 500MB per episode (including the audio) then you'll get eight episodes to a DVD - not too bad. They should be incredibly high quality as well.

With regards to the resolution, why not try encoding a sample at 640 and another at 720 to see which is nicer?

Hope this helps!

Cobra

[garrisonkw]

Cobra,

Thanks for answering my questions. I'm going to encode the first episode at both 640 and 720 with 160kbps MP3, both at 500MB and see which one looks better.

I might also look into getting some new headphones.

Thanks a bunch.

[hhhhbk]

they are about 45 minutes long arent they?

id go with 350mb
128kbps mp3
width fixed at 576

so will fit 12 episodes on each dvd im assuming its 24 per season plus a little space for extras if you want them

i run an overclocked athlon xp at 2.3 GHz (about a xp3800 if they were made) and video encoding in auto gk on these settings takes approximately double the length of the video

so takes me 90 minutes per episode

autogk is great as it takes about 20 seconds to setup and then can leave it on overnight (+ the next day if your at work) to encode

go to sleep at midnight wont want pc til about 6 the next evening so 18 hours 12 episodes
i think there are 24 in a season so if only overnight should take 4 nights
if in the days too then only 2

good luck
its so much easier with autogk than the old method where you encoded audio yourself and used avisynth script that you made yourself
it took about an hour of fiddling just to set the encode up

[Cobra]

i run an overclocked athlon xp at 2.3 GHz (about a xp3800 if they were made

That's about an XP3650 - my XP3800 runs at 2.4GHz.

Let us know how you get on, garrisonkw!

[oldfart13]

Work? Haven't done that in 5 years and with my herniated disc problems, maybe never again (not at least what I was doing...heavy lifting and moving...which is why I'm in the 'no work' category). Sleep at midnight? Try 4 am on average with 5 hours max sleep time since the pain will keep you awake most of the time anyway. Auto GK is a great proggie. I use it all the time for conversions but it's still slow as glue on my PIII running the CPU at 100%...

[garrisonkw]

Season one has 13 eps and the others have 22.

I'm not as worried about them fitting on DVDs though. I have an external 20GB laptop drive that I carry around with me. It powers itself from a USB port, so I don't need an AC power jack. It's pretty convenient being able to easily carry around a couple of seasons worth of episodes with you. I also keep a folder with all the software I need to play the eps. That way, if I go to the library with my wife (she's a grad student), I can coopt one of their machines and turn it into my own personal home entertainment center. The library staff doesn't seem to mind. I had one guy sit down and watch the tail end of the Battlestar Galactica mini-series.

This is ultimately why I'm trying to convert everything to avi.

I'll keep you guys updated on what happens. Right now my PC is converting episode 1 to a 720px wide XviD with 128kbps VBR MP3. It's 50% through the second pass with approximately 40 minutes or so to go. I wish I had a faster machine.

[garrisonkw]

Guys,

The 720px wide episode finished and frankly I don't see much difference between it and the 640px wide. In the interest of saving space, I think I'm going to go with the recommendation of 350MB with 128kbps MP3 audio. I'll be able to fit more on my drive and that seems to be the "standard" for 45 minute long tv episodes anyhow.

Thanks for all your help everyone.

-Kris