Quaility question...

[Grumpy_one]

I have yet to open my new ipod, jury is still out. But I have a question. I just converted a 357mb dvix file to an ipod m4v file using 3gp. The output file was only 89 mb. Since I haven't opened my ipod yet, can anyone tell what the quality is like when viewed on a 4:3 regular tv using connection cables and ipod? The shows that you can buy for ipod, like your favorite one hour tv show, is over 500 mb. I'm guessing that there is quite a quality drop, but would like to know if anyone has compared itunes bought video's to converted divx videos. I have a friend at work that buys tv shows for his ipod all the time, the view on the tv when he connects with the cables is dvd quality. So being able to convert divx to the ipod with some quality will be a make or break issue.
Thanks

[geowharton]

If I assume that your 357 MB Divx file is an hour?...then the 89 MB file on TV will most certainly be CRAAAAAPY but may look just fine on the Ipod.

I have used Videora, Nero Recode, Ulead Media Studio with MP4 plugin, and TMPEGEnc 3 Express.

Videos encoded from Divx to Videora often have sinc problems.

Ulead Media Studio Pro with MP4 plugin does a good job FAST.

For watching from the Ipod to TV, I have found Nero Recode to do a very good job for the file size created. Using Nero Recode is tricky at first until you get used to navigating it. The automatic crop size will sometimes need adjustment because Ipod will not play video greater than 640 pixels wide.

The best quality video I have managed to get for the Ipod so far is encoding with TMPEGEnc 3 Express - fantastic quality on the TV, but files are larger. And there a lot of settnigs to watch.

[Heymbit]

Yo, when converting, try these settings:
Video: MPEG-4, 1500bitrate
Audio: AAC, 128bitrate
Those videos look amazing on anything I've watched em on from iPod to Computer to 10" 4:3 TV to HDTVs. It's m4v or mp4 so it works on almost anything. It's truly God's codec.