Recoding AVIs -- AVI Recomp (VirtualDubMod) vs. Nero Digital

[GrayStrickland]

I have a bunch of AVIs (a series of a tv show). Some were encoded with Xvid 4 and the rest with Divx 5. All the audio is mp3. For reasons uknown, they won't play reliably on my Phillips DVP642. They'll play for a while, then freeze, then jump around. To fix this, I decided to re-encode them.

Using the very latest version of AVI Recode (which uses Xvid, VirtualDubMod and AviSynth), a recode of a 22 minute show will only get about 7% done in two hours. This on a P-4, 1.7ghz, 1gb ram, WinXP Pro pc. At that rate, completing the 22 minute show would take about 24 hours.

Using the latest verision of Nero Recode, it will recode the show in about 20-30 minutes with no reported errors.

I realize that this is apples and oranges, but why in the world would Nero be able to recode the show without error in 20-30 minutes, when VirtualDubMod takes 30x as long?

[celtic_druid]

Nero Digital's (Ateme) MPEG-4 part 2 encoder is typically faster than XviD. At least with default settings. 30X seems a bit too much though. I used to encode whole movies (2 pass) in less time than that when I had an XP 1800+.

Fact is that the DVP642 does not support mp4's as far as I know. Still I guess you could remux to avi afterwards.

[redwudz]

Well, this is just guessing on my part, but my understanding is that Nero Recode was written by the same fellow that wrote DVD Shrink. If so, that may explain some gain in speed.

However, 24 hours to re-encode anything sounds like there is a problem. I would just use VirtualDub and re-encode it without AVIRecomp. It either has a problem or a bad install. You would want to check for MP3 VBR, but other than that, re-encoding a 22 minute video should be fairly quick.

You would also want to check what the DVP642 requires in the way of video/audio to be compliant.

[guns1inger]

Nero recode can transcoded DVDs in a Shrink like manner, but it can also be used to re-encode them to Nero's mpeg4 format. As pointed out by the Druid though, there is a good chance you won't be able to play it back o your Philips.

[celtic_druid]

Yeah, as I pointed out, their encoder comes from Ateme.
http://www.ateme.com/products/nero.php

DVDShrink did indeed write the original Recode when it just did DVD transcoding.

Nero's virtual image drive was originally written by the daemon-tools team, etc. That is just the way Ahead work.

[GrayStrickland]

Fact is that the DVP642 does not support mp4's as far as I know. Still I guess you could remux to avi afterwards.

You're correct. Well, actually someone wrote a like 82-step guide on how to make a Nero Digital mp4 play on a 642, but I think you could build props, hire actors and re-shoot the whole movie with less pain.

My experiment with Nero was just to have something to compare to. I was curious if it would be about as slow.

[GrayStrickland]

...24 hours to re-encode anything sounds like there is a problem. I would just use VirtualDub and re-encode it without AVIRecomp. It either has a problem or a bad install. You would want to check for MP3 VBR, but other than that, re-encoding a 22 minute video should be fairly quick.

Avi Recomp is just a GUI to feed jobs to VirtualDubMod, Xvid and AviSynth. In other words, the slow down is in VirtualDubMod -- although I suppose any of them might be improperly installed.

Your suggestion to just use VirtualDubMod is probably good, but I've yet to find an "Idiot's Guide" to VDM, although I've certainly tried. Yes, Videohelp.com has lots of guides for VDM, but I can't find a comprehensive, begining-to-end, moron's guide and primer. However intuitive and obvious that it is to you, it is elusive to me.

[guns1inger]

Purely for the sake of converting the file to a format that the philips can play (Xvid, for example), with no change to the audio or resolution, why can't you just load the original into virtualdubmod, and save it out with fast recompress using the Xvid codec ?

I just did a quick test and it seems to work (at least according to g-spot) and is very fast.

[GrayStrickland]

Purely for the sake of converting the file to a format that the philips can play (Xvid, for example), with no change to the audio or resolution, why can't you just load the original into virtualdubmod, and save it out with fast recompress using the Xvid codec ?

I can't figure out how to do that ("direct stream copy", I believe is what it's called). I've spent some time with VirtualDubMod and can't see where the command is to do what you suggest. I've also looked for a step-by-step guide for moronic idiots, and can't find one of those either.

I assume that the first step in VirtualDubMod 1.5.10.2, is to select "open video file" but then what? I see that "direct stream copy" is a command under the Video menu, but selecting it does not seem to do anything. If there is a "go" or "start" command anywhere, I'm not seeing it. And where /how do you set the perameters for the copy? I assume that somewhere you select the codec, resolution, colourspace, etc., for the output, but I can't figure that out either.

If you answer, please type slowly, because I can't read fast.

[jyn999]

Direct stream doesn't re-encode. It copies the video data without changing anything.

When you choose one of the other three options, you can specify the level of compression via the Compression option.

[GrayStrickland]

Direct stream doesn't re-encode. It copies the video data without changing anything.

How do you START it? After you load your video and select "direct stream copy" how do you make it actually make the copy?

[guns1inger]

Fast recompress, not Direct Stream Copy.

VirtualdubMod. File -> Save As. At the bottom of the Save As dialogue is a section marked Video. Change Video Mode to Fast Recompress. Next to Compression, click Change, and select your new codec and settings. Click OK. Enter a new filename and click Save.