Tried it, threw my back out, had to give it up

[sepultura]

Ok, I tried capturing a DVD to divx with a program from here called Simple Divx. Anyone used it? It supposedly reads some of the disc, to automatically detect the right bitrate settings, or so it looked like it did. It gave me a 1780 or something on a 1 hour, 42 minute dvd. It was actually a 90 minute concert, but it showed 1 hour, 42 minutes. lol! Well the finished product was very poor, so i'm back to square one. I'm trying a different piece of software now, to see if i can find out the right bitrate for a 90 minute dvd. I've used bitrate calculators and it gave like a 697 or 897 or something. It didn't sound very high for a DVD to Divx conversion. 1780 sounds better, but what do i know? I'm just a beginner here.

Last night, i tried a different piece of software, Smartripper, along with Vidomi. Some guy on CD Freaks put a guide up on how to rip and convert a DVD to Divx. It didn't work out, either. The picture was very poor.

Could it be that i have a mobo with the VIA chipset, and that's whats causing my bad divx conversions? Maybe i should just go get an intel cpu/mobo convo with SiS chipset. I hear they are great at captures.

any thoughts?

[jimmalenko]

Ohhh boy .... where to start ?


1. Converting DVD to DivX in the fashion described above is not capturing. The process of getting the content on the disc to your hard drive and removing any protection is called ripping. The process of changing the container the video and audio is stored is is called converting (or re-encoding).

2. The "right" bitrate depends on what you're trying to do. I'll take a guess and say that you're trying to make an AVI to fit on 1 CD (700MB) ???

3. Please elaborate on what you mean by "poor" ?

4. I wouldn't be so quick to change your mobo and cpu. I daresay the problem exists between the chair and keyboard at the moment.

5. Maybe try ripping with DVDDecrypter, and then use AutoGK to convert to XVID ?

[Soopafresh]

I second that-AutoGK is great for people starting out.

https://www.videohelp.com/tools?tool=AutoGK

[sepultura]

I'm sorry that i got misunderstood. I only tried ripping the dvd by using smartripper, and then converting the ripped .vob files to divx using vidomi. I know the difference between ripping and converting. i am somewhat familiar with the odds and ends involved with video captures. I just used the wrong words, is all, or made a typo. my fault.

I am trying to convert the dvd to one disc, yes, with the resulting .avi (divx) file.

The picture was poor, lotsa artifacts. I assumed that simple divx had some sort of detection feature which determined the right bitrate for the finished product. It didn't, i guess. For whatever reason, it chose 1780 as an output bitrate, for the 102 minute movie. It's not a 102 minute movie. It's a 90 minute movie. Maybe that's where i should have made corrections. I don't know. I'm still a beginner.

Well like i said, i am a beginner, but when a person gets on a bike for the first time, and falls off, he gets right back on. That's what i intend to do with my first capture. i won't stop! i am bound and determined to get this thing right.

I'll try the DVD Decrypter/AutoGK thing. I guess that's whats holding me back, the bitrate problem. I did download a few calculators. I tried dr. divx, for example, and put the length of the movie in, and it gave me a bitrate of like 855 or something. This is for divx version 5.x version 4.x was 876 for the bitrate. I know what the bitrate is for. If it's a high action movie, you use a high one. If there's a person sitting on a couch talking, it's a low bitrate. I'll try different bitrates, record the movie for 5 minutes, like one person in these forums told me, so i can just get the hang of what various bitrates produce. I hear that using a variable bitrate is better than using a constant.

thanks for your help!

[jimmalenko]

The bitrate problem isn't one with AutoGK - simply choose Target Size and enter in 700MB (or 695MB if you want to guarantee it'll fit 1 CD) and it will do the rest.

https://www.videohelp.com/guides.php?guideid=738#738
This guide is a little outdated but the crux of it is important. There's also other guides in the guides section to your right.

[tekkieman]

There's also other guides in the guides section to your right.

Do guides appear on the other side in Australia?

[jimmalenko]

There's also other guides in the guides section to your right.

Do guides appear on the other side in Australia?

My left is your right when we're facing each other

[sepultura]

Hi all. I did the Auto Gordian Knot thing to burn my DVD to XVID. It works great! The only problem i'm having is, I THINK, the key frames rate. Correct me if i'm wrong, but i read somewhere, to be able to fast forward or rewind into the video, and come to a certain area of the movie/concert/whatever, you have to set the key frames rate to the right value, or the sync will be off in the audio/video. This is exactly what i'm experiencing when watching the xvid! The frame rate of the concert is 29.97. What should i set the key frame rate to?

thanks!

[manono]

You don't set it to anything. AUTOGK will take care of that for you. It's usually recommended to have the keyframes 10 seconds apart, and I'm pretty sure that for a 29.97fps AVI they're set for 300 frames. You shouldn't have any problems at all playing it, fast forwarding, or rewinding. If you're having synch problems, they're caused by something else.

Maybe try a different player (MPC, VLC), especially if you're using Windows Media Player.