Best codec for saving an avi with lossless quality?

[Dr.Rock]

I have loaded in a video file into VirtualDubMod and merged in the subtitles file (*.srt). I not want to save the video with the subtitles merged in. However, it asks me to choose a codec for the saved video. Which is hte best one to choose (apart from the highly space consuming "uncompressed") which would give me lossless quality from the original avi file? I heard someone suggesting DivX 5.1.1 with the highest quality and "Home Theatre" options. But the "Save As" action also gives a tick-box for "old VFW 1.1.e compatibility" option. I don't know if this overrides whatever other codec I choose (eg the DivX 5.1.1). If so, I wondered if VFW 1.1.e is a more lossless conversion than DivX. Or can someone please suggest something?

Any advice is most appreciated.

Thanks.

[mats.hogberg]

DivX is surely not lossless. Huffyuv is the alternative to undcompressed.

/Mats

[celtic_druid]

huffyuv (excluding the one in libavcodec/ffdshow) doesn't support YV12 though (and there is a fairly decent chance that the source is YV12), although if you are adding subs with VDubMod then it is converting to RGB anyway.

Why exactly do you want to save out a lossless file? If it is because you want to then re-encode it to something else, then I would suggest instead frameserving with AVISynth.

[bugster]

Why exactly do you want to save out a lossless file? If it is because you want to then re-encode it to something else, then I would suggest instead frameserving with AVISynth.

or virtualdub, as the OP already has his avi with subs in virtualdub, it seems to make sense to frameserve from it rather than learning another tool.

[Dr.Rock]

Why exactly do you want to save out a lossless file? If it is because you want to then re-encode it to something else, then I would suggest instead frameserving with AVISynth.

Exactly. I wanted to produce a lossless AVI file with the subtitled burnt in, so the quality matches that of the original AVI. Then use TMPGEnc to encode the result to MPEG-2 format for DVD. Thanks for enlightening me Frame Serving, I just now been doing some reading up on it, and it seems the way forward. A video-editing newby like me, I had no idea of this. Are there any risks of frame-dropping and/or quality loss with this method?

Thanks.

[mats.hogberg]

No, that's the best way of doing it. Once set up correctly, you can do lots of nice things with your AVI (like resizing, filtering and stuff) before frameserving it off to your encoder.

/Mats

[The Celestial Celebi]

I (n00b being :P) think it's better to NOT put in the subtitles in the AVI, but put it as a BUP on the DVD.. If you rip your movie from DVD once and want to put other subtitles on it, you can't, because you put the subtitles in that movie...

[bugster]

I (n00b being :P) think it's better to NOT put in the subtitles in the AVI, but put it as a BUP on the DVD.. If you rip your movie from DVD once and want to put other subtitles on it, you can't, because you put the subtitles in that movie...

Think what you like, a BUP files do NOT contain subtitles. a BUP file is a backup of an IFO file.

I think what you mean is to author the DVD with a selectable subtitle stream, rather than encode them as part of the video.

[funkguy4]

No, that's the best way of doing it. Once set up correctly, you can do lots of nice things with your AVI (like resizing, filtering and stuff) before frameserving it off to your encoder.

/Mats

Putting subtitles in w/ VDub is actually, while a very good/easy way, not th BEST way . Since VDub converts input to RGB before working w/ it, you could end up losing color detail. also, this adds overhead to the conversoin time. so, hte best way is prolly more along the lines of avisynth, altho as soemone mentined before, it may not be worth learning the new tool if time/unnoticable loss of color quality is unimportant. i just remember that when i made my switch from VDub to AVISynth, CCE encode speed went from somewhere around .84 to somewhere around 1.05

my two cents