VOB to DivX: Good tool recommendation wanted - unix biased

[jgombos]

I just tried GUI4FFMPEG, and noticed the horizontal blinds artifact on edges. If I repeat the same conversion, but cut the resolution in half (320x240), the artifact is gone, but then I'm left with half the resolution I started with. My speculation is that gui4ffmpeg has a lousy deinterlacing algorithm, but that's just my guess.

Anyway, I want to hear from those expert users who have been through some trial and error - what GNU or freeware tool produces the best quality conversion? I don't care about simplicity -- I'll go through 15 steps on different platforms with multiple tools if I must.

I prefer unix tools (linux or os/x), but if Windows has the best tool, so be it; I'll use it.

[gui4ffmpeg]

Gui4ffmpeg uses ffmpeg as encoder. FFmpeg is one of the best encoders, written for Unix.
I believe, that the bitrate was to low for full resolution. It's recommended to encode to half size with 900 bps and to zoom by playing. If you want to encode to full size, increase the bitrate.

[jgombos]

You're right.. Increasing the bitrate corrected the rough edges. So I encoded the same clip in the following ways:

740x480 @ 1800 kbps
320x240 @ 900 kbps

Both files turned out to be exactly the same size, and in watching them both in full screen mode, I could not tell a difference. I have a suspicion that my settings were ignored on the larger one, because when I viewed each of them scaled at 100% in Windows Media Player, they used the same screen area.

update: yup, there's a bug in the tool. After setting it to encode at 1800 kbit/s @ 740x480, the output in the DOS window indicates that the output is 320x240. I think the gui might be sending bad data to the library.

[jimmalenko]

So I encoded the same clip in the following ways:

740x480 @ 1800 kbps
320x240 @ 900 kbps

Both files turned out to be exactly the same size

Really ?

That flies in the face of all mathematical equations ...

I have a suspicion that my settings were ignored on the larger one

Me too ... all things being equal, your 720 x 480 file should be just under twice as big as the 320 x 240 one - exactly how far under twice the size depends on your audio bitrate.

EDIT:

update: yup, there's a bug in the tool. After setting it to encode at 1800 kbit/s @ 740x480, the output in the DOS window indicates that the output is 320x240. I think the gui might be sending bad data to the library.

Can I ask why you're using 740 x 480, instead of 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 ?

[jgombos]

Me too ... all things being equal, your 720 x 480 file should be just under twice as big as the 320 x 240 one - exactly how far under twice the size depends on your audio bitrate.

I was eventually able to get it to encode 740x480. The settings are a bit squirrely with this tool; gotta watch the parameters every step of the way because you change one thing, and the other settings flip to something different. And it seems sometimes they flip upon launching the encoder.

Can I ask why you're using 740 x 480, instead of 640 x 480 or 720 x 480 ?

That's a mistake. Thanks for pointing it out. I meant to be setting the resolution to something standard for a home theater, which seems to be 720x480. Ultimately I want the best quality for displaying on a 24 inch 16:9 display in full screen mode at a resolution of 1920x1200, and the constraint is that the content should fit on a 700 MB DVD. I'm not sure yet what settings to adopt for this type of use.

[gui4ffmpeg]

Hmm, there is realy a little bug in Gui4ffmpeg. If you choose
the target file name, the standard values will be set again.
This is visible in the GUI.
Workarround:
Before you change the settings, choose the output file
under "save file" and make your settings (bitrate, size) afterwards.