Dvd to Avi to view on the TV

[andrewshouse]

Hi everyone, I'm new to the site and scanned many threads for some help but can't find what I'm after, can anyone help?

I,ve been converting avi to dvd for years using various programs from dvd decrypter to nero but now want to convert them back to avi, the reason for this is I'm fedup with storing dvds and have recently bought a 1tb hard drive speciffically to plug in the tv via usb to watch movies at a press of a button. So far stored about 80 on there and it works great so now to convert everything on dvd.

I,ve successfully converted to avi using different software from decrypter with vidiomi, clone dvd mobile and Imtoo dvd ripper but when I come to watch them on the tv they are a lot smaller and do not surround the tv frame. I think this is due to the resolution I'm converting to but if I convert the dvd to pal resolution 720x576 (I think) the file size is way greater than the dvd (not actually converted to this yet because of size) and defeats what I'm trying to achieve.

Any help would be much appreciated

[freebird73717]

I've always had good luck using autogk for dvd to avi conversion. Rip the discs with the free part of dvdfab first then process with autogk.

[andrewshouse]

I,ve got Autogk running as we speak. Will advise results shortly.

[andrewshouse]

Autogk worked perfectly. It took 3h 45mins but my system is old but hey it worked. My next problem though is autogk will only process one vob at a time. It won't identify the whole film. Any suggestions or should I be looking for a prgram to join them together when there's more than one vob file.

[manono]

You decrypted only the movie, right, and not the entire DVD? If the VOBs are numbered consecutively and if you load the first one (the VTS_01_1.VOB, not the VTS_01_0.VOB) , it's supposed to add the rest automatically. Or alternatively, load the IFO instead. When reporting any AutoGK problems, always post the log.

[marioval]

Free DVD Video Converter is a good alternative to AutoGK. I think it's based on an older version of handbrake, back when handbrake still supported DivX.

[andrewshouse]

Thanks Manono, now were getting somewhere. I retried with one of the kids films (Wild Child) that is 1.96gb and used the .ifo file instead of the vob and it worked a treat. I set it to 701mb as the output size (for no particular reason) and the log says it had an expected quality of 76.43% on first pass. My aim is to convert as much of my collection as poss over time and achieve the best quality on a reasonable size, say 50/50. I'm going to do this one again over night with an output size of 1gb to see if it improves. Any comments would be much appreciated. Log detailed below:

[15/06/2010 17:12:02] AutoGK 2.55
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Job started.
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Input file: C:\Wild Child\VTS_01_0.IFO
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Output file: C:\Wild Child - autogk.avi
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Output codec: XviD
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Audio 1: ??? AC3 2ch
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Subtitles: none
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Format: AVI
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Target size: 701Mb
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Audio 1 settings: Auto
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Started encoding.
[15/06/2010 17:12:02] Demuxing and indexing.
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Processing file: C:\Wild Child\VTS_01_1.VOB
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Processing file: C:\Wild Child\VTS_01_2.VOB
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Source resolution: 720x576
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Found PAL source.
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Source aspect ratio: 16:9
[15/06/2010 17:15:27] Analyzing source.
[15/06/2010 17:19:51] Source is considered to be progressive.
[15/06/2010 17:19:51] Output will contain 141576 frames
[15/06/2010 17:19:51] Decoding audio.
[15/06/2010 17:21:35] Normalizing audio.
[15/06/2010 17:23:23] Encoding audio.
[15/06/2010 17:34:47] Using VAQ in XviD
[15/06/2010 17:34:47] Audio1 size: 78,200,400 bytes (74.58 Mb)
[15/06/2010 17:34:49] Overhead: 5,662,976 bytes (5.40 Mb)
[15/06/2010 17:34:49] Video size: 651,188,400 bytes (621.02 Mb)
[15/06/2010 17:34:49] Running compressibility test.
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Duration was: 4 minutes 50 seconds
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Speed was: 24.37 fps.
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Compressibility percentage is: 82.08
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Chosen resolution is: 672x352 ( AR: 1.91 )
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Predicted comptest value is: 74.61%
[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Running first pass.
[15/06/2010 18:37:38] Duration was: 57 minutes 58 seconds
[15/06/2010 18:37:38] Speed was: 40.70 fps.
[15/06/2010 18:37:39] Expected quality of first pass size: 76.43%
[15/06/2010 18:37:39] Running second pass.
[15/06/2010 20:06:14] Duration was: 1 hour, 28 minutes 33 seconds
[15/06/2010 20:06:14] Speed was: 26.64 fps.
[15/06/2010 20:06:14] Job finished. Total time: 2 hours 54 minutes 12 seconds
================================================== ==

[nic2k4]

Don't bother with trying different file size just select the quality you want and leave it that. I've got a bunch of of DVD's converted to XVID that I loaded into my Eureka LX350HD. All were recorded at 80% quality and they all look just fine. 75% is the default and a lot of people are happy with that, apparently going over 80% brings little improvement to the video, but increases the file size.

[andrewshouse]

Thanks nic2k4, you just saved me a lot of time, 80% it is.

[manono]

Yeah, I agree. Some files will be larger and some smaller. For yours, for example, running the 2 passes garnered a quality of 76% after being resized to the larger width (672) from the one with which the compress test is run (640), so it should look pretty good to you. And you could have saved considerable time by setting it for a target quality of 80% to begin with (or the default 75%):

[15/06/2010 17:39:40] Expected quality of first pass size: 76.43%

When running with one pass for a target quality, the default width is the original width (720, if from a DVD). If you'd like a lower width, go into the Advanced Settings and set it for 640 or whatever you like.

[andrewshouse]

Thanks guys, run 3 movies overnight and took less than 2hrs each as only 1 pass ran using the quality setting rather than 2 passes on the file size. Well pleased, thankyou. Whilst I'm on do you have any suggestions to the best method for converting MP4 movies? Haven't tried anything yet but I have 3 on my hard drive that I will need to process at some point.

[manono]

To AVI? XviD4PSP is good. A bit more difficult to use than AutoGK, though.