What is Nero's MP4 Good for !

[INFRATOM]

What is Nero's MP4 good for, turning dvd video into MP4 and watch it on the same computer? I have a Phillips dvd player and it would not play any of Nero's mp4. Can anyone shed some light on this. Is there any standalone dvd player that would play Nero's MP4.

[Baldrick]

some few, http://www.google.se/search?q=dvd+player+nero+digital&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client...US:eek:fficial

But I would stick with divx,xvid for now if you want better dvd player compatibility.

[CobraPilot]

The only Nero Digital DVD player I could find sold in the US is the Avayon DXP-1000: www.avayon.com

It plays everything I've thrown at it so far: DVD, VCD, SVCD, Xvid, DivX (altho a couple of my earlier DivX attempts won't play, perhaps because I was a noob). Nero Digital video encoded at 700-800 kbps or higher is almost indistinguishable from a DVD on my 27-inch TV.

Avayon's been selling two versions: A refurb for $49.99 with 90-day warranty, and a new unit for $69.99 with a 1-year warranty. Shipping was free for either one. I bought a refurb just to test the ND compatibility, then bought a new unit for a family member because mine worked so well.

The only downside I can see--so far--is that I've got all my ND "eggs" in the one Avayon "basket:" No other standalone player option in the US. That might change, I'm hoping.

[ROF]

As has been said the quality of ND is great. Compatibility is the problem. The only people I have seen who use it much are those who own an HTPC. I do not use it often only because my videos are on DVD already.

[Baldrick]

http://www.nero.com/nerodigital/eng/DVD_Player_Recorder.html

[mbelli]

Nero MP4 is fast, fast!!!

I can encode an entire DVD for backup in 15-20 minutes on my Pentium dual core, with DivX it takes all night. The quality is also better than DivX when encoding at lower bitrates.

If you own Nero Digital and need to save/store DVD's to your own personal computer it's a good tool to use. I routinely get demo reels and un-protected DVD's from clients who's permission I have to copy. So, I like to rip/encode/archive these to my PC for future reference. As I don't intend to share these files encoding with ND is a good way to go.

[jtoolman2000]

[/quote]I can encode an entire DVD for backup in 15-20 minutes on my Pentium dual core, with DivX it takes all night. The quality is also better than DivX when encoding at lower bitrates.

Yes it does take a lot less time and it does look good. BUT,,, why would you need to do that and even more, why would then want to play it back to a TV with a MP4 compatible player. The results will always be degraded in all aspects. The only advantage would be a lot more movie files on a single DVD/R.

DVD to DVD backups are dirt cheap to produce so there is no excuse what so ever anymore to purposely compromise quality by choosing to backup a DVD with Divx Xvid or for that matter MP4/Nero digital if your ultimate goal is to watch it on your TV set anyway. Does not make any sense.

DVD Drives are dirt cheap as well as media. If anyone can afford a dvd player and tv to watch DVDs, then one can also afford a drive and media. Sostware is basically free. DVDShrink, DVD Decrypter and DVD Fab Decrypter.

If you own Nero Digital and need to save/store DVD's to your own personal computer it's a good tool to use. I routinely get demo reels and un-protected DVD's from clients who's permission I have to copy. So, I like to rip/encode/archive these to my PC for future reference. As I don't intend to share these files encoding with ND is a good way to go.

Now that IS a very good use for this type of compression. I would use it for material to be shared within my department through our network. I would not want to share a huge uncompressed version of it when quality is not really a factor. The only drawback is that everyone must have the Nero Digital codec or Nero installed on their machines.

[Danno100]

Nero MP4 is also an excellent format if playing back video from a hard drive to a UPnP media playback device such as the DSM-320. MP4's are small, and playback quality is excellent, even on a 50" plasma or a 100" DLP projector. UPnP devices are much cheaper than a PC, easier to use, and video's are easy to retrieve (with a remote control) and play on a TV screen.

[Trident5]

i made a guide a bit back on how to make nero digital run on the dvp642 but i expect it well work for any dvd player that supports divx anyways heres the link.

https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=276352&highlight=run+nero+digital

Hope it helps

[jtoolman2000]

After reading your guide, as brilliant as it is, I still have to ask,, WHY!!!! Since the goal is to obviously play it on the 642 which I pressume will be hooked to a TV, it makes 0 sense.

First of all why not simply back up to DVD in the first place and secondly, no matter what settings you do use you will always end up with an inferior final file.

If people simply want to spend the time and effort to learn or to prove that it is actually possible to do it, by all means knock yourself out, but don't expect it to look as good as a direct DVD to DVD backup would look.

Of course I could spend hours upon hours to convert several movies to 700 megabite files, burn them all as data to a 35 cent DVD/r and fool myself into thinking I've achieved something.

[celtic_druid]

If you can't fit your source as MPEG-2 without recompressing, MPEG-4 definatly has an advantage over MPEG-2. In such a case, backing up as DVD video will result in the more inferior final product.

[Trident5]

In response to what is nero digital good for i was responding. As to it making 0 sence well if somone wants to make a mp4 and do 700 meg movies one can fit 6 movies on a disc or say go 850 megs improving your output and putting 5 movies on a disc.. If you were using Dr divx and it was taking 6-12 hours id agree. But with Nero DIgital your end result well be way better and it takes me around 90 minutes to convert a movie and i dont have the best comp.

Amd 2600xp - 1 gig ram - 256 meg agp..

if you have faster well it well take even less time. Also keep in mind not everyone gets dvds or cds next to zippo or cant always aford a bunch. I myself started doing it because of cost, now its more of a challenge thing. And there are movies I would gladly even put over 2 dvds as they are worth it. Others well there good enough to watch again but not waste a whole dvd on.

And thanks for the brilliant comment hehe.

[jtoolman2000]

I'll say it once more. I'm going to shout here so get ready. CRAMMING MOVIES TO CD SIZE FILES WILL MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE CRAP!!! No matter what you use to compress them with. Even if the quality drops only slightly, I can not justify it. So once again I say, it makes 0 sense. Specially since the obvious intention is to cram compressed 5-6 movie files onto a data DVD so they can then be viewed on TV probably on a small crappy TV. View it on a large high quality set and you will see ( if you can stand it for more than a few seconds ) that you have a much more degraded movie when compared to the original DVD it was ripped from. If that is the result then I repeat once more, it makes 0 sense.
It is great as an intermediate format for preliminary viewing of video projects before final rendering to quality a format.

[zoobie]

new formats are being released daily it seems
I suspect hundreds by 2010
just why...nobody knows

[CobraPilot]

I'll say it once more. I'm going to shout here so get ready. CRAMMING MOVIES TO CD SIZE FILES WILL MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE CRAP!!! No matter what you use to compress them with. Even if the quality drops only slightly, I can not justify it. So once again I say, it makes 0 sense. Specially since the obvious intention is to cram compressed 5-6 movie files onto a data DVD so they can then be viewed on TV probably on a small crappy TV. View it on a large high quality set and you will see ( if you can stand it for more than a few seconds ) that you have a much more degraded movie when compared to the original DVD it was ripped from. If that is the result then I repeat once more, it makes 0 sense.
It is great as an intermediate format for preliminary viewing of video projects before final rendering to quality a format.

As to making them "look like crap," my extensive experience: Simply ain't so. DVD quality? Sometimes, if it's a short movie (90 minutes or so). "Near-DVD" (acceptable quality) for the rest? Yep.

However, if it makes no sense to you, fine. (Perhaps no "shouting" was really needed to re-express your opinion just because others didn't give you what you considered to justify that opinion?)

The "cram compressed 5-6 movie files onto a data DVD" factor is why VHS won out over Beta. Beta, by virtually EVERY technical standard, produced a superior end result. What killed it? Max recording time of 4.5 hours vs. VHS's SLP 6 hours (and, later, 8 hours). As most know, there's a LOT of visual degradation at the SLP speeds, but folks bought VHS anyway for the longer recording times allowing "cramming" more movies onto one tape. Granted, if there'd been super-large TVs at the time, the outcome might've been different.

[psgamer]

MP4 is used to play video files on portable devices like organizers and also SONY PSP

[RabidDog]

There are many god reasons to compress mpeg2 to mpeg4/divx...
one is thaT howver cheap dvds are they still cost some money as do the cases, Fitting a whole Tv series onto one or two discs rather than 10 or twelve is another. SPace on portables is another reason. Space on your HTPC or divx player HDD is also a consideration. streaming is defintely a reason too.

700mb per file is not set in stone I think that 90-120 mins of footage looks better at 1400mb file or any intermediate size.

I think VHS won out over BETA because of content eg movies, porn that was only available on VHS.. also I think VHS tapes were cheaper to buy (blanks and prerecorded) . Any improvement in quality was not apparent on the wood box B&W 16 inch screens of the day.

NEros mp4, whilst fast, has virtually no hardware support

[BJ_M]

hahahaha - not sure if you were joking or not -- but when vhs and beta came out , we were well past the 16" B&W wooden TVs ..

[Trident5]

I do feel good after that bw wood box comment, i know now im not the Oldest Fart in here. haha

[MOVIEGEEK]

MP4 is used to play video files on portable devices like organizers and also SONY PSP

I agree and also I use ND for my laptop when I go on trips...so I don't have to lug around 20 DVD's.
BTW...the export size is adjustable and I set it to 1mbps=good quality + small size.

[sven_pether]

I use it for my Xbox ( Xbox Media Center). Excellent quality compared to DivX and XviD.

[jtoolman2000]

My only point against this was because the poster apparently wanted to view these on his TV. I will see the degradation even on a 20 incher and at least I strive for the highest quality any time I approach anything. There IS not excuse for accepting anything less. I am not practitioner of the "Good enough" mentality

As far as other applications of the MP4 such as portable video viewers like PSP or Video iPods,, hell I do that all the time but that's is where I draw the line.

Bottom line is, if you cannot afford the cost of a DVD blank, then you really haver no business in this hobby.

[CobraPilot]

Bottom line is, if you cannot afford the cost of a DVD blank, then you really haver [sic] no business in this hobby.

As mentioned before, "ain't necessarily true."

Opinions are like CD/DVD burners: Everyone's got one.

While I can afford DVDs in any format and quantity I might EVER need, I still burn some movies to Nero MP4 on CD . . . . Just an ill-informed, blind-as-a-bat preference, I guess. I think I'll still choose to pursue this hobby, though.

[ron spencer]

you can fix 6 700 meg (CD size) movies on blank DVD...so I see no use for just using CD either

[jtoolman2000]

Yeah 6 Crappy quality movies!! HA HA Now that a hell of an achievement.

[whitejremiah]

i generally shoot for 1500mb in divx/xvid and it IS pretty close to the original, you catch mild artificating occasionally, but it's not unbearable.....as for mp4...the only variation of that i use is for my cell phone's audio (AAC) and to be quite honest, even going to a single layer dvdr, in some cases, can actually cause MORE quality degredation than how i do my movies....i was recently toying around with divx though, with a 700mb output with ac3 audio...and no, it doesnt look perfect by any means, but it's a heck of an improvement from a few years back...even in the 5.x days....

[headhunter03]

(I'll say it once more. I'm going to shout here so get ready. CRAMMING MOVIES TO CD SIZE FILES WILL MAKE THEM LOOK LIKE CRAP!!! No matter what you use to compress them with. Even if the quality drops only slightly, I can not justify it. So once again I say, it makes 0 sense.)

Makes sense to me---Easier to tote a laptop and a 1 TB hd on my second tour of duty to Afghanistan than a dvd player and 400 dvds..... ........

[CobraPilot]

Good luck on your second tour, Headhunter03! Thank you for your service to our country!

My comments of May 18, 2006 still hold true. You'd be hard-pressed to do better than that big ol' HD full of high-quality ND MP4's!

Wish I'd had something like that way back when I served in SouthEAST Asia with a unit with "Headhunters" as a nickname!

PS: We'll probably be fussed at by the moderators be resurrecting a 2-year-old topic!

[Timoleon]

What I do is convert a DVD movie over to Nero MP4 format at about the 1/3rd DVD size level available in Nero Digital. This takes about an hour. Then I run it through MP4CamtoAVI to make it compatible with DiVX capable DVD players. This takes all of about ten minutes. Then I load three movies onto a DVD, and I'm good to go. Great quality --- *almost* as good looking as the original on a 32" tv set or smaller. You can "theme" your DVDs this way --- imagine watching LOTR all the way through on a single DVD with little loss in quality, or watching the three Resident Evil movies, or watching a trio of movies starring Arnold, or Wally Cox, or Ron Jeremy...

[adcvideo]

What I want to know is if a DVD-9 size high-bitrate MPEG-2 movie will look better compressed to a lower bitrate MPEG-2 to fit on a DVD-5 (DVDShrink etc) or if a NeroDigital of the same movie at the max MP4 bitrate to fit on a DVD-5 will look better on a large screen TV.

Source: 8 GB MPEG 2 compressed to a 4.2 GB MPEG-2 or 4.2GB MP4 - which is superior?

That is one good use I can see for Nero Digital MP4 format.