Multiple Divx/Xvid videos to DVD?

[newbiex10]

Hey, let me just preface this uber-noob question with the fact that I have been searching this forum for weeks on end looking for this answer, and i have learned a lot, but really, I don't know enough about the basics to know if something is an answer to my question. My question is this - I have a bunch full length videos in DivX and Xvid formats stored on my computer. They are all between 650 and 700 Mb. I want to put them on a hard copy to watch on any DVD player. I know I could put each of them on an individual VCD, (or SVCD, one of the two) and it would come out to the right size. I could also convert them to MPEG-2 and put each one on a DVD. I don't want to do this though, because they would still look lossy and it would be a waste of a DVD. My question, therefore, is this: Can I leave them at their current size and put a few of them on the same DVD? I figure that if they are all in that lossy format, then I may as well keep them at that filesize. So I guess the underlying question would be wether or not I can put less-than-MPEG-2 quality video on a DVD disc. I have read about some DVD players that can decode Xvid or DivX straight from the DVD, but I want it to be unversal, and play in any DVD player. Could I convert them to VCD format and put a bunch of them on one DVD?

Thanks for running a good, informative forum, and feel free to blast me for asking such a stupid question, but only after you answer it.

Nick

[Dragonsf]

It depends on the player, if it can play mpeg files directly from ISO DVDs. IMHO, most modern players can do this, but this is not univesally true.

[redwudz]

You can easily burn them as DVD data discs and get as many as will fit on a DVD. Whether they will play on a settop Divx player depends on their format. But at least you will have a archive copy of them and free up your harddrive space.

You can convert them to DVD with a program like DivxToDVD. There is still a freeware version available. You should be able to get about three full length movies on a DVD that way.

Most Xvid movies converted to DVD format that way come out about 1.5Gbs each. If you use a lower quality format like VCD, you may get a poor quality output. DivxToDVD does a fair job, considering that most of those type of Xvids are not that great of quality to start with.

If they are higher quality, then use a regular encoder like TMPGEnc.

[newbiex10]

That is great, thanks for the help. I am wondering though, what makes it almost double in filesize when I convert it? is it uncompressing the audio? If it is, I will just nod my head and pretend I will know what you are talking about. If it isn't, what is it? Is there a different conversion scheme I can use that will directly match the quality that they are in now (650-700mb), or at least more closely? I am looking forward to using this DivX to DVD though, it looks like a great program.

[Dragonsf]

DivX (or XVid) has better compression algos then mpeg. I.e. the video part is much smaller. Audio should be the same size.

[redwudz]

What Dragonsf said. The higher compression with the space savings is why a lot of people use Divx and Xvid. You can't really match the filesize to MPEG-2 with the same quality. And you can make the converted file much smaller, but the quality will quickly go down.

The audio may also get larger with the conversion, it depends on what format it is. Xvid often uses MP3, which is very compact. MPEG generally uses AC3, MPEG-1, layer 2 and others, most of them taking more space. And generally being better quality.


That's just my opinion.

[Capt.Video]

For example, I can take a high res source, encode 1 to DVD with 3mbs with great quality, or to Divx with *1mbs* and it looks the same IMHO.

Divx MPEG4 CODEC can handle compression at lower bit rates better than MPEG2 can, thus you end up with a lot larger file. Even if the DVD MPEG is VBR. (You dont really save much in filesize by using VBR anyway)

HTH,
Andrew