DV-AVI conversion to H.264 / MPEG2 - playback speed issue

[howardmg]

I've searched the web and these forums but havent found a solution, so really hoping someone here can help:

- like many others I've started to convert my miniDV tapes to a HDD, for back-up and for playback via WDTV hub
- I've used WMM to create the raw DV-AVI file at 13GB, which playbacks fine on the PC but WDTV cannot play DV-AVI
- so have tried both H.264 & MPEG2 /xvid, via several apps, including Handbrake, Ripbot & Xilisoft
- the result is always the same - the video playback is a bit too fast, the audio is speeded up etc
- converting to WMV via WMM - works fine but quality suffers and I dont really want to go down that route

Have also tried an old favourite - Auto GK
- but have hit a problem there preventing conversion - "source is considered to be interlaced" and "exception - no frames are found"
- neither of which I understand but guess maybe a codec missing?

Been trying this for weeks...so any help realty appreciated...

[Baldrick]

Virtualdub or avidemux.

[howardmg]

Thanks for this.

Virtualdub has worked but quality, even at the max "1" setting, isnt as good as Ripbot / Handbrake etc, although the playback speed is now correct.

So thought I'd try avidemux, but I cant get it to recognise the input DV-AVI file.

Am I doing something wrong on either of these apps?

[aedipuss]

avidemux should open Dvavi, it does here. i'd stop using wmm to capture the cam video and start using winDV. it's free and creates perfect DVavi files.

[edDV]

Keep those DV-AVI files as the backup archive. Everything else you are doing is lowering quality.

[howardmg]

Thanks - the WINDV version has loaded into avidemux and I've created an xvid file that looks pretty good!

Any recommendations on quality settings (bot concerned with time it takes or size of files within reason)?

Should I go for MPEG4 / H264 instead of AVI / XVID?
Any recommended encoding rather than default settings?
And filters - do I need to deinterlace first? Any other filters?

If there's a beginners guide on best settings for DV-AVI conversion out there I havent been able to find it yet...


PS will keep the DV tapes and the DV-AVI files as back-ups, thanks for the advice

[aedipuss]

what is your intended use/player for the converted files?

now that you have correct DVavi files you could go bak and re-try the other encoding programs like handbrake, mediacoder, xmediarecode, etc.

[howardmg]

Its to be able to access these files via a WD Media Player / Hub.

Good idea - will now try Handbrake etc again with the WinDV created files.

[edDV]

xvid will be 25 fps progressive, half the motion samples vs 50i original.

[_Al_]

-leave original DV avi inside the same folders as encoded ones

-mpeg2 , do not deinterlace and keep 50i, use mpeg2 encoder , older codec, not that effective as H.264, but you do not resize video and do not deinterlace, your choice, this could be DVD ready if you want

-any codec , deinterlace, DV avi 50i becomes 25p, you ruin your video, no go

-H.264 bob deinterlace and make 50p out of 50i, you are gonna be all right, you need bob deinterlacer , go with H.264 , use x264 encoder, set CQ quality perhaps 18 (quality watchdog) and you need to resize to square pixel (DV video is not) . Use Ripbot264, Megui . Handbrake does not have CQ ,if I recall, size is not that issue here, not sure about best resize also. We are talking SD resolution here, it is not going to be big.