Converting realvideo and keeping quality?

[hutchingsp]

I've downloaded and installed the helix codecs and can sucessfully convert realvideo files to Divx using the mencoder codecs.

Problem is I seem to be losing quite a bit of quality. The source .rm files are only around 500kbps and ffmpegx seems to default to 240kbps or so.

If I tick the "best quality" box the quality does improve a bit, but the problem I'm finding is that if I have loads of files to convert, the bitrate resets each time I drag the next file so it's quite a manual process vs "drag, encode, drag next, encode" etc.

Anyone know when v1 is due just for the batch encoding?

cheers,
Paul

[alph]

In my experience, FFMPEGX can sometimes misread the RM files and improperly set the video settings. Ex: when I did some rm conversions, the fps kept getting set wrong, and, therefore, hitting "best" would make things worse.

I'd recommend checking and manually setting video size, fps, and kbps, after having selected the desired preset.

Alph

[hutchingsp]

I'd recommend checking and manually setting video size, fps, and kbps, after having selected the desired preset.

Alph

Hmm.. this could get a bit tedious as there are lots of them.

First question, do you know of any settings that are useful to change when dealing rm files other than making sure the obvious (size/framerate) are the same?

I don't suppose you know a method of joining several realvideo files together do you so there is one large original to work with?

I hunted around and couldn't find anything suitable.

Also I noticed that if I play the real files back with realplayer, it reports 512kbps or so, but if I play back the resulting DIVX files in realplayer it only reports 47kbps or so even when I've manually told ffmpegx to use 512kbps.

Paul