question about downloaded DVDRips

[Mowie666]

I have just learned how to take these files (avi) and use DVDFlick to make a DVD which
can play in a standalone DVD player. This will go through and encode the videos to the proper dvd format.

What is the advantage of this versus just burning the source format of the avi to a CDR and watching it in a compatible DVD player that can play CDR's? Won't the movie /sound quality be exactly the same?

[guns1inger]

The only advantage is that they will play on standard DVD players that do not support Divx/Xvid playback.

Personally, I burn several of them to a DVD and not even bother with CD-Rs for the exercise. Cheaper in the long run and less disc swapping.

As for the quality - it depends on what you do. If you just use DVD Flick (or any other converter) then you will at best retain the quality you have, and most likely lower it slightly during the resizing/re-encoding. If you use avisynth filters to first improve the image then you may get a better result, but that takes time and will encode much more slowly.

[Mowie666]

hrmm but I am just reading here:

http://www.mightycoach.com/articles/videotips/whatarevcds.html

that when you burn to CD-R it is in VCD format (or is this only one possibility) and that it states the format for VCD is:

What’s the catch?
The video quality of a VCD is much lower than a DVD. That’s because a CD-ROM can only hold 650 Megs of data, compared to DVD’s 8 gigs (for a dual-layer DVD). To fit video into that tiny space, VCD video is highly compressed and runs at 352x240 resolution (compared to DVD’s resolution of 720 by 480). The picture quality for a VCD is roughly comparable to VHS tape. However, with VCD’s you may see some compression artifacts (edge blockyness) during dark, fast-motion scenes. VCD sound quality, however, is excellent and full stereo.

A VCD can only hold 76 minutes of video, so VCD movies are typically split over two CD’s. You can think of a VCD as the video equivalent to an audio CD … as they both hold only 76 minutes of data.


Thanks for helping!

[gll99]

Hi,
It can be confusing when you start out and read a lot of older material.

If you have a dvd burner then I wouldn't spend too much time worrying about vcd's and svcd's. They were the poor man's dvd before dvd burners got so cheap. The tools were more complex to process properly and required more filtering and video softening to squeeze a full movie on one cdr disc so it would still look passable. I laugh when I look at some of those old efforts today that looked so good to me then.

Now anyone can create a dvd with little more than 1 click or so. Today, it actually costs less to burn on dvd media than a (s)vcd on cdr. Verbatim spindles are often on sale at FutureShop a 50 pack of cd's costs about $20 to $23. That's .40 to .46 cents a 700MB disc. On the other hand Verbatim DVD discs on sale at the same store often go for $29.99 for a 100 spindle. That's .30 cents a DVD disc which holds 6 times more data.

If you have a standalone divx player there is no real advantage to converting the file unless you want to watch it elsewhere or want menus and chapters etc. Although with the newer Ultra divx players that line is a bit more blurred now.

[Midzuki]

gll99 wrote:

It can be confusing when you start out and read a lot of older material.

That material is not only older, it is misinforming and outdated too.
First, the standard CD-R/RW of these days can contain up to
703MB of data if recorded in Mode 1 or 800 MB if recorded in Mode 2.
Second, VCDs(mpeg-1) and SVCDs(mpeg-2) are always recorded in
Mode 2. Third, if one has a decent SAP, the VCDs/SVCDs do not
have to follow the "standard" specifications, that is, VCDs do not have to be
352x240/288@CBR1150kbps, nor SVCDs have to be 480x480/576@CBR2500kbps.
--- they can be better. Fourth, if one uses medium/low bitrate quantization matrices,
and/or long GOPs, and/or intermediate resolutions, one can put up to 2 hours of video
on a CD (whether one is going to find the final result acceptable or not, that's another
story). Fifth, one can even record a DVDVideo-structured set of files on a CD and
play it on a SAP as if it was an actual DVD (but, differently from the VCDs and
SVCDs, the cDVDs must be recorded in Mode 1).

=====

[guns1inger]

Burning a VCD and burning an AVI file to CD are not the same thing. Burning a half decent Divx avi to VCD will reduce it's quality by 60 - 75% on average. VCD is old technology and although a few die-hards still cling to it, it really is a sub-standard solution for quality audio.