Which is better DVD or AVI

[scott274]

Nowadays almost all standalone DVD players can play AVI (MPEG4-DivX-Xvid). So my question is, which is better to be played on such standalone players, DVD or AVI.

The reason why I am asking this is because when I play DVD encoded videos, they seem to play in slight better quality on my CRT TV than AVI. Is there an explanation to this or is it just my imagination perhaps !!

[manono]

Since most AVIs you download (many, anyway) are made from DVDs, doesn't it stand to reason that the source DVD will have better quality? In addition, most (many?) AVIs are heavily compressed to fit on a CD or 2 and don't even receive the quality that's possible.

[guns1inger]

DVD - encoded from high quality masters by studios using expensive equipment

AVI - encoded from a DVD by a 12 year old using virtualdub and a guide he found on the internet - resized down, over compressed, and encoded to minimum specs to allow for standalone playback.

nuff said

[scott274]

No I am not talking about anything in perticular like videos found on the internet and re-encoded by some 12 year old. It was just a general sort of question, like for example lets say we have a video source. We re-encode it into either DVD or AVI to be played on a standalone DVD player..

[guns1inger]

It depends on how you go about encoding the video as to which is better. Assuming the same source and optimal encoding settings, you may find there is little difference. However you do have to observe certain minimum specifications for AVI encoding which does stop you being able to get the best that Divx or Xvid have to offer. You also loose the immediate playability that DVD offers - any DVD player will play a DVD, but not all will play AVI files. There are also inherent "features" (or flaws, if you will) in Divx/Xvid that make it more prone to artefacts than mpeg-2. However the trade off you get is much higher compression, and therefore more video on a disc.

Personal view ? DVD is superior if all else is equal. Keep the running time down to around 90 minutes and the quality will be high, even from home shot material.

If you do want to put lots of video on a disc, look at AVI. However keep a few things in mind. Keep the bitrate up around the 2000kbps mark, the resolution at full D1 (or at least 720 width) so the player doesn't have to resize, and accept that you may get artefacts in walls and sky and other flat area of low tonal variation.

As with all of these things, in the end you have to try it for yourself to see if there is a balance you can live with. I stopped encoding to AVI with Xvid some time back and now only use H264 because I get better compression and better quality. But I can't play it back on my DVD player.

[gll99]

As you say so many players now play standard mpeg4 (divx) that many people are choosing that format for their encoder of choice. However the results depend on the original source material, the encoder options chosen and the amount of compression applied. If the original video was a DVD then some artifacts will be introduced in the conversion to mpeg4 but the trade-off is a smaller size file. You have to decide what you need. In some cases the difference is really hard to see. The more you re-compress or change the resolution (frame size), the greater the potential for artifacts and encoding errors. If the original is an (mpeg2) DVD disc and space/size is not an issue then it's best to leave it as is.

Discounting the HD format for this discussion, if you are encoding new material say for example from a higher end dv or an uncompressed source then you have the choice. A properly encoded mpeg4 will produce a much smaller file for comparable quality with mpeg2. Of course as was already said if you want almost 100% compatibility with all standalone players then stick with DVD but given the option with new material and the players I own, I would choose mpeg4 with a simple home theatre profile for very good quality, reasonable compatibility and much better file size.

[jagabo]

AVI is a container. It can contain audio and video compressed (or not) with any of a number of codecs. You can even put DVD MPEG video and AC3 audio in an AVI container so it can contain exactly the same audio and video as a DVD.

So what you're asking is something like: "Which is better, video shipped to me in a FedEx envelope, or video shipped to me in a UPS envelope?" The answer is: "The envelope doesn't determine the quality of the video inside."

Of course, most DVD players that play AVI files only play Divx, Xvid, or other MPEG 4 part 2 compressed video, and MP2, MP3, and AC3 compressed audio. And even with those codecs there are other limitations. For example frame size is limited to 720x576 or less.

Within those constraints native DVD MPEG 2 can have slightly better quality than Divx/Xvid. But much will depend on how much video you put on the DVD and the knowledge of the person who did the encoding.

Divx/Xvid retain more quality than MPEG 2 at low bitrates. So although one hour of MPEG 2 at 8000 kbps will usually look a little better than one hour of Divx at 8000 kbps (warning: many Divx/DVD players will not play Divx at that high a bitrate), 6 hours of MPEG 2 1500 kbps will likely look very poor compared to 6 hours of Divx at 1500 kbps.

[porfitron]

Also, DivX videos are starting to be produced from Hollywood masters and sold on-line or bundled with Blu-rays as digital copy, and will play back in DivX devices that have been on the market for years (included Playstation 3), so you'll have the chance to watch high-quality movies in DivX format taking up less space than all those MPEG-2 DVDs - probably 4 or 5 movies on a single-layer DVD.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Also, DivX videos are starting to be produced from Hollywood masters and sold on-line or bundled with Blu-rays as digital copy, and will play back in DivX devices that have been on the market for years (included Playstation 3), so you'll have the chance to watch high-quality movies in DivX format taking up less space than all those MPEG-2 DVDs - probably 4 or 5 movies on a single-layer DVD.

Digital copies use WMV or Apple iTunes format. DivX was originally popular because 12 year olds could share their movies over the internet, manufacturers of DVD players recognized the popularity and supported it on their cheap players.
I personally rip my DVD's to ISO's to retain the original quality, I use VLC to play them.