DVD2AVI, Should I use it?

[katchupoy]

Im used to use Tmpgenc right after Smartripper. Opening VOB file for both audio and video then mpeg as an output.

And a lot of people here use DVD2AVI in between Smart and Tmpg...

I tried it and it worked great... but the Tmpgenc process is a bit longer compared when using direct from Smartripper.

Question? Is there a benefit in using DVD2AVI instead of my old process?
Am I missing big time in terms of quality?

Thanks a lot...

Right now, I am still convinced on the simplicity of my old process...

[poopyhead]

using dvd2avi isn't that much longer. it normally takes me ~20 min to extract the .wav file and create the .d2v file.

w/ dvd2avi, you get to force film. which means you can encode in tmpgenc as 23.976 fps + 3:2 pulldown. this will give u much better quality than encoding 29.97 fps directly from vobs to tmpgenc. since you have less frames to encode, each frame gets more bitrate and higher quality. the 3:2 pulldown makes the 23.976 fps become 29.97 fps during playback, so there's no "jumpiness".

also, dvd2avi has lots of audio functions that usually result in higher quality than if you let tmpgenc do it (i.e. you can do high quality downsampling in dvd2avi or normalize) or you can use the .wav file and use an external audio encoder (lame or besweet) to make the mpeg 2 audio and just let tmpgenc encode the video (which is faster) and then mux the video+audio together

[tearex]

Of course "force film" applies to NTSC only, in PAL movies it's not necessary since they don't have the 3:2 pulldown. Also, if your source is already at 23.976 fps NTSC, it's not necessary either.

An alternative to DVD2AVI is the MPEGDecoder.dll plugin for AVIsynth. I use AVISynth for cropping and resizing since a.) it crops and resizes exactly the way I want it, e.g. if I need to go from widescreen to fullscreen, and b.) it can do a very good Bicubic resizing. I have found that TMPGenc works best as a "pure" encoder that gets fed the frames in the same rate, size, and shape they will be in when the movie is finished. AVISynth w/ the above-mentioned plugin does the rest video-wise and BeSweet takes care of sound (which I demux to its own file during the smartripper process.)

At the end I mux the streams with TMPGenc and then cut&merge it to fit on the VCDs.