Xvid: Bitrate vs. Resolution (for best playback on TV)

[BlueWeasel]

Hello.

I'm brand new to Xvid/Divx encoding, but I've been working with SVCD and DVD's for a while. I've spent alot of time reading up on the DVDrhelp and Doom9 guides and tutorials, and have picked up alot over the past 10 days or so.

One of the first things I wanted to do was backup my Band of Brother DVD to Xvid. I've used AutoGK and "conservative" settings with the Xvid encoder (using RC4). Generally, each episode was about a hour, and I used a max filesize of 700mb.

Using AutoGK's "Auto" settings, the resolution for each episode usually around 576x320 or 544x304, bitrates 1200 or higher, and bits/pixel came out around 0.25.

The Xvid files look great when playing back on my 19" monitor, even at full screen. Unfortunately, when I play them back on my Philips 642 Divx/Xvid standalone player/TV, they really don't look that good. I can see alot of pixels.

I guess I was just expecting a better picture using bitrates greater than 1000 with a BPP of approximately 0.25.

What is recommended for a better picture on the standalone player: higher bitrate/low resolution or lower bitrate/high resolution?

Is there something I'm missing? The only solution is to go to a higher filesize? Granted, I'm not expecting DVD quality, but I see post of others who fit 5 movies on a single DVD, and it makes me wonder about my results.

[Edit]
The final compression % I got using 2pass Xvid encoding averaged around 63-65%. That's about the minimum recommended, but could that be my problem?

[vcdforme]

what is Xvid? Do you mean Xvcd?

[FulciLives]

I don't have a stand alone DVD player that does MPEG-4 such as that new Philips model you noted but my understanding is that you need to use one of the following two resolutions:

640x480
720x480

Now 640x480 is considered FULL SCREEN for the MPEG-4 format but I'm not sure if that applies to the stand alone DVD players. I would do a sample clip at 640x480 and another at 720x480 and see if one looks better than the other ASPECT RATIO wise on your TV screen (i.e., not computer screen).

I do know that anything less than 640x480 is a bad thing as it will be stretched to fit the screen same way that a VCD for instance is stretched to fit the screen.

So again I'm 100% positive that you need to use EITHER 640x480 or 720x480 I am just unsure as to which is the better choice since I have NOT been able to test myself (nor have I really read any good threads about this when it comes to the stand alone DVD/MPEG-4 players).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[Suntan]

I can't give you info on the standalone MP4 player, but I can say that if the video looks good on your computer monitor then it is more in depth than just needing to boost the bitrate. Maybe it has to do with settings specific to the player like FulciLives says.

-Suntan

[RabidDog]

You can use any resolution you like as long as it doesnt go down below 320x . The resolution used should match the same dimensions (aspect ratio) as the source. As someone else mentioned if the avi file looks good on your PC then it should look as good if not better on your TV.
Your settings sound ok to me , maybe try divx as some players seem to be happier with divx than xvid. Try also fairuse as this allows aspect ratio correction, which you may or may not need.
If you are desperate up your bitrate to 2000k . Also it could be your media. And did you do the standalone installation of autogk?