Optimal conversion specs for HD/widescreen playback

[Syro]

I'm getting a HDTV (720p/1080i) soon and I was wondering what are the optimal settings when converting DVD to XviD/DivX for playback on a HD/widescreen TV display for TV shows???

Currently I have a 24" SDTV and my standard/4:3 TV shows are 576x432/29.97 fps/~1150 kbps XviD video bitrate/192 kb MP3 audio bitrate, widescreen/HD TV shows are the same specs but with 624x352. I'm assuming I could now use higher specs since I'm getting a better display


TIA

[edDV]

What size HDTV? What kind of display? Model Number?

Normal MPeg4 rule for SD DVD source would be half MPeg2 bitrate or 2000-3500kbps. You might be able to live with less.

For quality HD figure 6000-8000Kb/s.

I know those numbers sound high but for near equal quality that is what you need.

You are going to be disappointed with your 1150Kbps library on that TV. Keep the old TV for watching those.

[guns1inger]

In fact, you will gain nothing in the conversion if you are looking at HD. The quality wont be any better, the file sizes larger. You might as well leave it as is.

[Syro]

samsung 32" LN-S3241D flat panel HD TV

the shows i had in mind were entourage, chappelle, curb, csi, arrested development, the office, family guy. they're mainly downloaded from net and played thru my xbox (xbmc), but i figured i'd have to get better quality rips since i'm getting a better TV

so [re-]encoding at a higher end video bitrate and upping the vertical lines to at least 480 won't make much of a difference on a HDTV???

[manono]

There are downloads available for some shows capped at Hi-Def resolutions and encoded for Hi-Def resolutions (I've seen quite a few at 1280x720). But if you're starting with 624x352 downloads, there's no point in trying to raise the resolution to Hi-Def or even 480 height.

[edDV]

samsung 32" LN-S3241D flat panel HD TV

the shows i had in mind were entourage, chappelle, curb, csi, arrested development, the office, family guy. they're mainly downloaded from net and played thru my xbox (xbmc), but i figured i'd have to get better quality rips since i'm getting a better TV

so [re-]encoding at a higher end video bitrate and upping the vertical lines to at least 480 won't make much of a difference on a HDTV???

So you say you are going to look at low res files on an HDTV? Upconverting a file won't improve quality. If the XBox will play it, just play it. Or is your problem with the Xbox won't play the file?

[Syro]

what about when i rip tv season DVDs to Xvid... can i up the specs and is it worth it?

[Scarpad]

I think he's asking about ripping episodes of SD DVD TV shows to look the best on a HDTV. If so I would rip them to a fix width of 720. I Do this and I get 720x544 for 4:3 Material. I guess widescreen would be something like 720x416. This seems to keep the quality very close to the original DVD.

[Syro]

Scarpad: what's the filesize for each?

[guns1inger]

Again, starting with DVD you gain nothing at all by upscaling when encoding. Hardware upscaling will, in most cases, be far superior. If you are ripping from DVD to Xvid to save space, keep the original resolution (cropping black bars as appropriate and adjusting PAR/DAR) and encode at a decent bitrate (not the crappy low bitrates the uploaders use.

[Syro]

what's PAR and DAR? And what would be a decent bitrate (2000)? And what about 4:3 TV shows and movies? Just go ahead and rip those to 720x480?

[guns1inger]

Pixel Aspect Ratio and Display Aspect Ratio.

Your best bet : Use something like AutoGK, with a fixed width of 720 pixels to preserve the current resolution, and use quality settings instead of target size settings. So long as the xbox can keep up, this will give you the best quality.