Need advice on authoring XviD files to a DVD5

[alegator]

I have 4 separate video files each with the following technical specs:
Video Codec: XviD
Video Bitrate: 1838 kb/s
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.80:1
Video Resolution: 720x400
Audio Codec: AC3
Audio BitRate: 224 KB/s
Audio Channels: 2 Ch
RunTime: 48min
Framerate: 25 FPS
Part Size: 700 MB

I would like to author them into a DVD5 so I can watch them in any standalone DVD player. I want to do this the most efficient way without degrading the original XviD video and audio quality. How can I achieve this? How many DVD5's will I need? Will one be enough? Thanks.

[Baldrick]

192min/DVD5 = around 3MBit/s video bitrate...hmmm...No you can't "keep" the xvid 720x400 "quality" but it should look pretty good anyway. You have to test and see how it looks for you, easiest would be to use ConvertXtoDVD or DVD Flick.

[mats.hogberg]

Using 2 DVD-5 or 1 DVD-9, the bitrate would be enough to make the DVD version almost identical qualitywise, to your XviDs.

/Mats

[alegator]

Two questions arise:
1) Authoring these 4 XviD's into 2 DVD5's would mean approx. 768 kb/s, less than half of the original 1838 kb/s, so is that "almost identical qualitywise" as you suggest?
2) I'm afraid of using one-click tools such as ConvertXtoDVD or Xilisoft's DVD Creator since they have limited custom options. Is there a more professional way of manually encoding to DVD so to preserve as many of the original technical specs like the video resolution, aspect ratio, audio codec, etc?

[Baldrick]

How do you calculate? 768kb/s? are you mixing bit with byte???

[alegator]

According to your calculation 192min/ 2 DVD5= around 6MBit/s video bitrate. And 6MBit/s= 6x1024/8 kb/s= 768kb/s whereas the original Xvid has 1838 kb/s...is this right?

[mats.hogberg]

With 224 kbps audio, I get 6124 kbps video for 96 minutes on a DVD-5 - That should be plenty.
Try a 2 pass encode with HCEnc @ 6000 average bitrate to see if it's good enough.

/Mats

[Nelson37]

OP, your calculations are off and it doesn't matter anyway, XVID compression and MPG2 compression are two completely different things, and do not lend themselves to direct comparison.

An XVID-compatible player can be had for less than $50.00.

The best way for YOU to determine whether video quality will be acceptable to YOU is for YOU to run them through a re-encoding, authoring, and burning process, watch them, and then YOU and only YOU can decide whether it is good enough.

Lots of guides available for this conversion, process is completely explained in detail. I suggest you start with a simple one, then try something more complex. You will learn a lot of valuable information which cannot be adequately explained, you really have to dive in and experiment for yourself. Too many options and different possibilities.

Just for starters, you will have to either re-size or pad with extra black to achieve a compatible resolution. There are literally pages of discussion as to which method is better. It is quite possible that the best solution for your video would involve actually REDUCING the resolution, either just slightly and padding, or going all the way down to 1/2 D1. Yes, reducing the resolution could actually result in BETTER looking video. Doesn't make sense, does it? Forget the mathematical analysis, video is not a formula, it must be looked at and judged by human eyes.

There are no definitive answers, most will begin with "It depends...."

[alegator]

Thanks Nelson for your thoughts. The most practical and convenient solution would apparently be to buy an Xvid compatible DVD player. But then comes the question as to which video would be better looking: the original Xvid played in the Xvid compatible player, or a DVD-authored DVD in a standalone DVD player. I'm asking this because I owned a Philips DVD player compatible with most formats (DivX, AVI, Xvid, etc), but the output quality was horrible. Additionally not everyone has a multi-format player, whereas DVD is a more universal format, so encoding to DVD gives me the freedom to share the video with my friends, etc who all own DVD players.

[Nelson37]

Virtually the only guarantee in this hobby is that re-encoding will not make it Better. More compatible, sure, better than a crappy XVID player, maybe. If I smear old motor oil all over my 42" Plasma, it will look worse than my 10-year-old 27" tube. So I try to avoid doing that.

QPEL, GMC, and other factors also come into play. Progressive output, connection type, there are just too many variables.

The best quality vid you are likely to achieve is right at the original file, without messing with it in any way. It is all downhill from there, about all you can do is try to reduce the angle of the slope.