AVISynth > Compressed AVI > DVD - Best software/codecs?

[PTRACER]

I've recorded a home video onto DVD, ripped it to my hard drive in VOB format, used AVISynth to edit it in various ways and now I'd like to convert it back to DVD

I usually use VirtualDub to convert my videos to DivX AVI, but if I do that with this DVD, it won't retain all of its quality.

So, what's the best AVI codec to use, other than Huffyuv or Uncompressed AVI (which both produce file sizes larger than my hard drive's free space)?

It needs to be able to handle 30fps at 720x576 as well...otherwise, I'd just use Adobe Premiere and convert it straight to DVD.

[45tripp]

DV is a good format to be in if you need to edit,
but you say you've done what you need in avisynth,
so just feed the avisynth script to an mpeg2 encoder.

It needs to be able to handle 30fps at 720x576 as well...otherwise, I'd just use Adobe Premiere and convert it straight to DVD.

However,
You can't do that.
read 'what is DVD' following the link at the top left.

720x576 has to be 25fps
unless you just want mpeg2 video and not a DVD, then you can feed that to an encoder.

gl

[kevo777]

What is your target platform? TV? Web? Cellphone? Ultimately, how do you want to present the material?

[PTRACER]

Sorry, I missed out a few important steps...

1. Rip the DVD to my hard drive.
2. Convert the video to 30fps (it has some issues)
3. Edit the video and convert it back to 25fps again (yes, I'm serious)
4. Burn it to DVD as a proper DVD video to watch on the TV.

[kevo777]

If a framerate conversion is absolutely necessary then my suggestion is DGPulldown. It only accepts MPEG-2 elementary streams (M2V) as input, so you'll have to demux your DVD rip (VOB). For demuxing of the VOB my suggestion is DGMPGDec.

[PTRACER]

Thanks, although I still need to edit the video in VirtualDub!

So therefore, a need a good AVI codec to convert it to without any quality loss or HUGE file sizes. Unless you know of something that will allow me to save my VirtualDub edited files as an MPEG2 file...

[redwudz]

Unless you know of something that will allow me to save my VirtualDub edited files as an MPEG2 file...

You could just frameserve the VD edited output directly to a MPEG encoder. Then you don't have to create another file.

[PTRACER]

How do I do that?

[kevo777]

Choose "Start frame server..." from the File menu of VDub. Give the VDR file a name and then use an MPEG-2 encoder that will accept VDR as input. Frame serving is a beautiful thing, but the trick is to use an encoder that will accept the frame server's "dummy" file or signpost AVI.

--OR--

Edit with AviSynth. Anything that can be done in VDub can be done in AviSynth and most MPEG-2 encoders worth anything will accept AviSynth scripts as input. Problem solved. Many VDub filters can even be implemented into AviSynth scripts.

--OR--

Render out to an AVI using the Lagarith codec. Huge file but quality will be intact.