Best way (meaning quality and 700MB size) to convert a DVD to a Xvid?

[riahc3]

Hey

I was wondering how I can convert a DVD to a Xvid AVI? I used AutoGK in the past and the results were AMAZING (700MB and great quality) but now the results are bad, the video gets too scaled down, audio is OK but Id like it better (and 5.1 since the DVD has the audio track) and the thing is I havent touched or messed around with any settings. Id like a guide that gives me again that perfect great quality 700MB convertion or a alternative. Thank you very much

Oh BTW alternatives to Xvid are OK I guess.....99% of the movies I rip from my DVDs I keep them on my PC and just view them on PC thats why Id like a standard 700MB size that doesnt take too much space up and if I decide it to take it to a friends house, he can play it back on his standalone Divx player. BUt oh well if there is something better and easier than Xvid then ok

[T-Fish]

AGK is a great tool. maybe a simple re-install would solve your problem?
while you're at it, update to the latest version

though i have to tell you, a 700mb file for a movie thats longer than ~110 minutes
just wont get you great quality.
most of all, using AC3 audio track takes up almost half of that alone, so you
really dont have much left for the video. imho, if you want 700mb files, then
use 128-192 kbps mp3. if you want AC3, then go for a 1.4gb encode.
alternatively, you can use the quality percentage encoding, since you dont
burn your files to cds, it doesnt matter if they're exactly 700mb, right?

x264 in mkv container would yield better results using low bitrates, but
the encoding time is a lot longer, not to mention that playing these files
takes up more system resources. you could try out avidemux or handbrake
and just give it a whirl.

[riahc3]

AGK is a great tool. maybe a simple re-install would solve your problem?
while you're at it, update to the latest version

though i have to tell you, a 700mb file for a movie thats longer than ~110 minutes
just wont get you great quality.
most of all, using AC3 audio track takes up almost half of that alone, so you
really dont have much left for the video. imho, if you want 700mb files, then
use 128-192 kbps mp3. if you want AC3, then go for a 1.4gb encode.
alternatively, you can use the quality percentage encoding, since you dont
burn your files to cds, it doesnt matter if they're exactly 700mb, right?

x264 in mkv container would yield better results using low bitrates, but
the encoding time is a lot longer, not to mention that playing these files
takes up more system resources. you could try out avidemux or handbrake
and just give it a whirl.

I actually did reinstall/update to the latest version. Nothing.

The DVD (AFAIK) is about 2:13:27 being at a 1024 x 576 with 5.1 sound. Id like to keep all of it at ~700MB but I know its kinda hard/imposible. The most important thing would problably be keeping the video size, next the audio at around 160-192kbps with 5.1, and the last being the size (but it is also important)

What shoudl I do?

[T-Fish]

errm a PAL dvd is 720x576 (NTSC DVD is 720x480)

if by "video size" you mean the resolution, then id advise you to lower
it in favor of a higher bitrate to somewhere around 608 and the resulting height.
so if the movie is 2.35:1, you'd get around 608x256 (cropped).
simply choose a minimum width of 608 in AGKs advanced settings.

a 5.1 dolby digital track (AC3) for a 133 minute movie takes what 300+ mb?
400mb for the video just isnt going to look any good.
you cant have mp3 with 5.1 im afraid. you either need to up the file size or
live with the low video quality.

about AGK making lower quality encodes now, then it used to..
did you ever change anything in the hidden menu? (ctrl+F9)
did you re-encode a movie you previously encoded to see if it really is AGK
that performs not as good as it used to, or if the movies you encode now
simply arent as easy to compress?

[riahc3]

errm a PAL dvd is 720x576 (NTSC DVD is 720x480)

if by "video size" you mean the resolution, then id advise you to lower
it in favor of a higher bitrate to somewhere around 608 and the resulting height.
so if the movie is 2.35:1, you'd get around 608x256 (cropped).
simply choose a minimum width of 608 in AGKs advanced settings.

Standard DVDs are 2.35:1 correct?
I guess ill set it to 608.

a 5.1 dolby digital track (AC3) for a 133 minute movie takes what 300+ mb?
400mb for the video just isnt going to look any good.
you cant have mp3 with 5.1 im afraid. you either need to up the file size or
live with the low video quality.

I was doubting if MP3 supported 5.1 or not. I guess Ill just go with 160 MP3...

about AGK making lower quality encodes now, then it used to..
did you ever change anything in the hidden menu? (ctrl+F9)
did you re-encode a movie you previously encoded to see if it really is AGK
that performs not as good as it used to, or if the movies you encode now
simply arent as easy to compress?

I didnt touch anything. It just started with low res, low quality, low file size movies...

[Midzuki]

XviD .AVIs do not have to occupy less than 700MB of disc space.
A single-layer DVD can store 3x1.4GB.

[guns1inger]

DVDs are either 4:3 or 16:9. There is no such thing as a 2.35:1 DVD.

When you convert to Xvid/Divx encoded avi, you need to take into account what you will be playing the files back on. If it will only ever be your PC then go nuts. There are very few restrictions for PC playback if your machine is fast enough.

If, however, you intend to play the files back on a stand alone player, then there are several rules that need to be obeyed. These include restrictions on resolution (very few play anything wider than 720 pixels), bitrate (most prefer files with bitrates of 3k or less), encoding parameters (GMC/Qpel etc) and file size (smaller than 2 GB).

Personally, I believe that unless you are going to watch these files on a very small CRT TV, 700 MB is an unnecessarily low quality restriction to put on your encoding.

[T-Fish]

Standard DVDs are 2.35:1 correct?
I guess ill set it to 608.

the aspect ratio depends on the movie/show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

edit: while gunslinger is correct that dvds only come in 4:3 or 16:9, the content on them
can still be a variety of aspect ratios including 2.35:1 which is the most commonly
used for movies.
they simply either include black bars on top/bottom or are anamorphic.

I was doubting if MP3 supported 5.1 or not. I guess Ill just go with 160 MP3...

thats a decent bitrate. i myself use 128 for older movies or movies where the
audio doesnt matter that much in general.
otherwise i double the filesize and go with the original track. try it out, only
you can decide what you prefer.

I didnt touch anything. It just started with low res, low quality, low file size movies...

that is rather weird. well, the resolution problem should be fixed if you use the minimum width.
the file size certainly shouldn't be small if you choose a 700mb target file unless you'd encode
a 5 minute clip that would get undersized for obvious reasons.
low quality probably resulted in using the original ac3 track that simply didnt leave enough
space for a decent quality video at which point AGK lowered the resolution.

[riahc3]

DVDs are either 4:3 or 16:9. There is no such thing as a 2.35:1 DVD.

When you convert to Xvid/Divx encoded avi, you need to take into account what you will be playing the files back on. If it will only ever be your PC then go nuts. There are very few restrictions for PC playback if your machine is fast enough.

If, however, you intend to play the files back on a stand alone player, then there are several rules that need to be obeyed. These include restrictions on resolution (very few play anything wider than 720 pixels), bitrate (most prefer files with bitrates of 3k or less), encoding parameters (GMC/Qpel etc) and file size (smaller than 2 GB).

Personally, I believe that unless you are going to watch these files on a very s
mall CRT TV, 700 MB is an unnecessarily low quality restriction to put on your encoding.

I put a personal restriction that is ~700MB. Like I said, I doubt any of these films will ever be played back on a TV but to keep my HDD with space (my RAID5 is running pretty low), Id like them to still ocupy ~700-900MB.

the aspect ratio depends on the movie/show.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspect_ratio_(image)

edit: while gunslinger is correct that dvds only come in 4:3 or 16:9, the content on them
can still be a variety of aspect ratios including 2.35:1 which is the most commonly
used for movies.
they simply either include black bars on top/bottom or are anamorphic.

This DVD has black bars so I suppose it is 16:9

thats a decent bitrate. i myself use 128 for older movies or movies where the
audio doesnt matter that much in general.
otherwise i double the filesize and go with the original track. try it out, only
you can decide what you prefer.

For my MP3s, My favorite is 192 CBR but Ill settle for 160. I dont like 128.

that is rather weird. well, the resolution problem should be fixed if you use the minimum width.
the file size certainly shouldn't be small if you choose a 700mb target file unless you'd encode
a 5 minute clip that would get undersized for obvious reasons.
low quality probably resulted in using the original ac3 track that simply didnt leave enough
space for a decent quality video at which point AGK lowered the resolution.

It is strange. If I use minimum width, will it get the original width of the film?
And thats the stranges part: I ask for a 700MB file from about 1:30:00 movie and get a 300-450MB file. Strange.
When this happened, I had plenty of space. Now I have less (tech about 15GB but I have only 4-5GB I can put date in) but it should still be more than enough.





My PC is a Core 2 Duo with 2GB. I think it can pretty much handle anything (It can handle Blu-ray films in MKV)

[guns1inger]

If you are only going to play these back on your PC and you are going to apply an arbitrary size limit of 700 - 900 MB per movie then you should seriously consider T_Fish's original suggestion of looking at H264 for encoding. Whether or not you use MKV or MP4 as the container, in most cases you will get noticeably better quality for the same file size.

[netmask56]

For movies around 90 minutes I use as a file size of 700MB and XVID codec with a fixed width of 720 in Advanced Settings and audio set to auto.

If the movie has a really good soundtrack or it's longer than 90 minutes I go to 1.4GB and select in Advanced Settings use original audio.

On 1 hour TV and documentaries I set the file size down to 350MB and sometimes use the sharp matrix option in the hidden menu.

I get consistent good results as viewed on my PAL Samsung full HDTV panel.

The reference to width in the Advanced Settings in AutoGK has no bearing on the "width" of the movie in terms of aspect ratio ie select a lower width in Advanced Settings won't result in the sides of the movie being cropped if that is what you were alluding to.

[DarrellS]

I put a personal restriction that is ~700MB. Like I said, I doubt any of these films will ever be played back on a TV but to keep my HDD with space (my RAID5 is running pretty low), Id like them to still ocupy ~700-900MB.

External drives are pretty cheap these days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

In this day and age, I would not restrict myself to 700MB when converting DVDs to AVI or H264. I would keep the original 5.1 AC3 or you could convert to 5.1 MP3 if you wished. Both Fraunhofer IIS and Aud-X make MP3 Surround encoders.

http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/EN/bf/amm/mp3sur/downld/index.jsp

http://www.aud-x.com/[/quote]

[Ruut]

And thats the stranges part: I ask for a 700MB file from about 1:30:00 movie and get a 300-450MB file. Strange.
When this happened, I had plenty of space.

Yes, the same thing happened to me as well.
Somewhere along the way of updating his program (I believe it was @ v 2.48 ) the author decided to go back to an earlier version of XviD. However during the installation Windows probably refused to replace an existing version of XviD for an earkier one. So I ended up with a bad combination of the program / XviD codec.
The best way to resolve is to uninstall not only AutoGK, but to also uninstall it's components AVIsynth, VOBsub, etc., plus the XviD codec. Then a new reinstall of v 2.55 should resolve that problem.

Hope this helps.

[riahc3]

If you are only going to play these back on your PC and you are going to apply an arbitrary size limit of 700 - 900 MB per movie then you should seriously consider T_Fish's original suggestion of looking at H264 for encoding.

But there is a problem. These files will problably always be played on my PC BUT there is a possibility that one day it gets played on a standalone. I do believe T_Fish's suggestion is good because H264 is lossless (right?).

If I go the H264 route, how do I convert a DVD to H264?

If the movie has a really good soundtrack or it's longer than 90 minutes I go to 1.4GB and select in Advanced Settings use original audio.

So if it is longer than 90 minutes, letting it to 2 CDs (1400MB) and leaving the original audio setting, would produce a good looking film? Might have to try it but this would be the 3rd rip I do from the DVD and it is time/CPU consuming.

External drives are pretty cheap these days.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136186

This is a RAID5; Mixing SATA2 with USB lmao

In this day and age, I would not restrict myself to 700MB when converting DVDs to AVI or H264. I would keep the original 5.1 AC3 or you could convert to 5.1 MP3 if you wished. Both Fraunhofer IIS and Aud-X make MP3 Surround encoders.

I dont like using nonstandard formats like surround MP3s. 5.1 AC3 sounds good but It occupies a large amount right?

Yes, the same thing happened to me as well.
Somewhere along the way of updating his program (I believe it was @ v 2.48 ) the author decided to go back to an earlier version of XviD. However during the installation Windows probably refused to replace an existing version of XviD for an earkier one. So I ended up with a bad combination of the program / XviD codec.
The best way to resolve is to uninstall not only AutoGK, but to also uninstall it's components AVIsynth, VOBsub, etc., plus the XviD codec. Then a new reinstall of v 2.55 should resolve that problem.

Hope this helps.

Glad Im not the only one with this problem.
Im not sure if it is possible to uninstall the components...
They install together under C:/...../AutoGK/Tools/compoentsnamehere
Ill have to look it up but thanks for the tip.

[KBeee]

Filesize = bitrate * time
A 10 minute 192kbps AC3 will be pretty much the same size as a 10 minute 192kbps MP3, all other things being equal.

The suggestion for an external USB2 HDD was to store your finished video on, and free up space on your RAID5, a perfectly sensible idea.

[riahc3]

The suggestion for an external USB2 HDD was to store your finished video on, and free up space on your RAID5, a perfectly sensible idea.

Yet that USB2 HDD dies and I lose everything. RAID5 vs USB2 HDD....

[riahc3]

Well Id just like a straight forward best answer for my situation without taking up too much space from at least one of the at least 402 viewers from this thread.

Thank you

[ted demen]

im sometimes surprised that the 700mb file size is still so popular, especially since the original reasoning was so that a movie can fit onto a cd.
but do people even use cdrs for backups anymore? dvdrs are same price for a spool as cdrs (although i guess i shouldnt assume that just cause this is the case in my country that it is everywhere else)

being able to back up 6 movies on a dvdr is nice, but for quality reasons, i think 1gig files might be a better option

[T-Fish]

i still use cds..

i can get 100 cds for 25 usd here.
25 dvd5 cost 30 :/
(same brand)

we pay tax on the damn discs (like a copyright tax, since its legal to dl music/movies where i live)

the main reason why i use cds and not dvds though, is because they are
100 times more reliable.


to the OP.. i think i made it clear enough what your options are.

[riahc3]

Options that you have given me are

1: Make a 2CD 1.4GB file
2: Use H264

Which would you recommend? For 2, Im not sure how to do it as Ive only encoded in Xvid using AutoGK

[T-Fish]

you must have skipped some of my posts, but anyway. id recommend neither.

id try an encode with "target quality (in percentage)" (in AGK). it'll be faster since its only a 1-pass encode.
make a small sample of the movie you wanna encode.
encode it at 75% and see how the quality is.

[DarrellS]

If you want to keep making low quality crap then keep making it. You complained about hard drive space and said you wanted 5.1 audio and thought 5.1 MP3 couldn't be done. I gave you options, including using the original 5.1 AC3. If you're too cheap to buy bigger drives or external drives for storage then that's your problem (my 1TB WD My Book has eSata, Firewire and USB and I paid $149 for it, I assumed the drive I linked to was the same drive). That's what people do when they want to store their DVDs on the PC, buy more and bigger drives.

You've been given plenty of options from plenty of users including using DVDs instead of CDs. A DVD burner can be had for around $25. If you plan on using H264 then the only thing you'll be able to play it back on is your PC or on your TV by means of a media player like the WD or the Popcorn Hour and you need an external drive to store the files since you don't have the hard drive space to store them.

Getting cocky with everyone here and telling them that their answers aren't good enough for you isn't going to get you much help around here. Maybe you'll have better luck using Google to search for the answers you're looking for. There are plenty of guides on how to convert DVD to whatever using different tools but none of them will tell you how to make high quality files from two hour DVDs that are 700MB in size..

[Supreme2k]

Well Id just like a straight forward best answer for my situation without taking up too much space from at least one of the at least 402 viewers from this thread.

Thread views mean next to nothing.

You may get 10,000 people to see a movie, but they may not all like it (or none of them may like it). In message board land, a massive amount of views is from "stumble upon". They may be interested in the title, or even (ironically) the amount of views, but they are often put off by the actual subject or posts contained inside.

Or they may have found the answers that have been posted over and over, and they felt there was nothing more to add to a thread that has run its course.

In other words, take the advice and run with it.

[riahc3]

you must have skipped some of my posts, but anyway. id recommend neither.

id try an encode with "target quality (in percentage)" (in AGK). it'll be faster since its only a 1-pass encode.
make a small sample of the movie you wanna encode.
encode it at 75% and see how the quality is.

You said more options? Sorry...I must have missed them...

Um Im problably missing something else here but how do I make a small sample?

If you want to keep making low quality crap then keep making it. You complained about hard drive space and said you wanted 5.1 audio and thought 5.1 MP3 couldn't be done.

And it can't. Surround MP3 is not standard.

I gave you options, including using the original 5.1 AC3.

I tried this and it came out as a ~3GB file. Too big.

If you're too cheap to buy bigger drives or external drives for storage then that's your problem (my 1TB WD My Book has eSata, Firewire and USB and I paid $149 for it, I assumed the drive I linked to was the same drive). That's what people do when they want to store their DVDs on the PC, buy more and bigger drives.

Do you know what a RAID5 even is?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_5#RAID_5

It is not as simple as buying one drive. I have to buy 4 (1TB) drives which (AT CHEAPEST) would set me back $302.
I dont want to store my DVD on my PC; I want to make a lower quality yet acceptable copy of my DVD at a reasonable file size.

Although if you have $302 laying around, Id LOVE to have it and buy the 4 drives and then it would be [/thread]

You've been given plenty of options from plenty of users including using DVDs instead of CDs.

Um what? This isnt near the topic.

Getting cocky with everyone here and telling them that their answers aren't good enough for you isn't going to get you much help around here. Maybe you'll have better luck using Google to search for the answers you're looking for. There are plenty of guides on how to convert DVD to whatever using different tools but none of them will tell you how to make high quality files from two hour DVDs that are 700MB in size..

The main problem is that I have done it before but for some odd reason it doesnt produce quality Xvid copys any more.


Thank you all for your suggestions.

[T-Fish]

You said more options? Sorry...I must have missed them...

Um Im problably missing something else here but how do I make a small sample?

start dvdshrink and open the ripped dvd.
go to re-author mode and drag the movie over to the dvd structure. right click on it, set start/end frames...
now select part of the movie, like 1 minute or 2 (in the middle of the movie, a scene that has some moving and steady parts).
then press the backup button. you'll get a pretty small dvd to test with