Your favorite DVD to DivX converter

[craigwojo]

Hi everyone,

Just bought an OPPO DV-980H DVD player and want to start putting my movies to DivX format. I would like to hook-up a hard drive through USB and select my movies through the hard drive.
What is the best method for doing this-

Software - to get the BEST quality with the most user friendly software

Hardware hookup - what would be the way to store all of my movies on a hard drive and have a selective menu for choosing the movies or videos.

Thank you,
Craig

[jagabo]

Best quality, most control: AviSynth + VirtualDub

Easier: AutoGK.

[guns1inger]

I would have to agree with the above summation.

I generally use AutoGK if the source is good as it is simple, produces very good quality if you aren't stupid with bitrates, and batches so easily.

Knowing avisynth and virtualdub are a must if your source isn't so good. I would also throw in FitCD and AvsP as essential add-ons to avisynth when you are starting out.

That said, avi.NET has it's fans as well. It is simpler and with less options that AutoGK, but still very capable for straight conversions.

[steptoe]

Or there is these two that were created and supported by divx studios, one is free the other is trial/payware

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/converter

http://labs.divx.com/DrDivX

[ricardouk]

avi.Net, AutoGk or StaxRip

[FulciLives]

I use autoGK and avi.NET

autoGK is better at doing things like an IVTC or de-interlacing but if you know that you have a progressive source then sometimes avi.NET is better in that you can force whatever size or bitrate you want ... which can be handy sometimes as I find that autoGK will sometimes use a lower bitrate than I would have liked.

If you use autoGK then be sure to go to the "secret menu" and select the MTK stand alone profile. If using avi.NET make sure you run the output through MPEG4Modifer and unpack the bitstream. Either way should give you a compliant MPEG-4 file for your stand alone DivX/XviD capable DVD player ... oh and also try to keep the file size under 2.0GB

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[ricardouk]

I use autoGK and avi.NET

autoGK is better at doing things like an IVTC or de-interlacing but if you know that you have a progressive source then sometimes avi.NET is better in that you can force whatever size or bitrate you want ... which can be handy sometimes as I find that autoGK will sometimes use a lower bitrate than I would have liked.

If using avi.NET make sure you run the output through MPEG4Modifer and unpack the bitstream. Either way should give you a compliant MPEG-4 file for your stand alone DivX/XviD capable DVD player ... oh and also try to keep the file size under 2.0GB

never had any problem with avi.net ouptupts and i tried several dvd players, no problem so far.

[FulciLives]

One thing I forgot to note before ...

I have found that my Sony PS3 will sometimes NOT play an XviD AVI that was created with autoGK although it does seem to play MOST of 'em. I see no rhythm nor reason for this as I always use the MTK profile with AC-3 audio and a fixed width of 640 so I can't imagine how one file would have different enough properties from another that some (granted few) do NOT play on the PS3 ... yet this is the case. It seems very hit or miss though. Strange.

However I have yet to have the PS3 reject an XviD AVI that was created with avi.NET (also note I always use MPEG4Modifier and unpack the bitstreams when using avi.NET).

Of course I have many times more autoGK created XviD AVI files than avi.NET created XviD AVI files yet I do have "enough" made using avi.NET that I think I would have found at least one by now that was bad if avi.NET had an incompatibility with the PS3.

I've never had problems at all with my Philips MPEG-4 capable DVD player (MTK chipset).

Go figure !!!

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[somebodeez]

Still using good ol' GKnot here.

[jimdagys]

What about Fair Use Wizard? I used that a lot and never had a problem. Converts DVD to 700MB (or higher ) avi that plays in standalone using the USB.

[nerys]

How about the best simplest program for SPEED. Forget quality I do not care I use high enough bitrates that it does not matter. I LOVE AutoGordian but my god is it slow. 11fps reported and it took 48 minutes before it even got to the VIDEO.

Is there a way to speed it up?

[John]

For DVD to Divx, I still use Flaskmpg, its old, but still does a decent job. And I find it De interlaces ok

[Baldrick]

How about the best simplest program for SPEED. Forget quality I do not care I use high enough bitrates that it does not matter. I LOVE AutoGordian but my god is it slow. 11fps reported and it took 48 minutes before it even got to the VIDEO.

Is there a way to speed it up?

You could use one-pass encoding, the target quality setting in autogk.

[manono]

How about the best simplest program for SPEED. Forget quality I do not care I use high enough bitrates that it does not matter. I LOVE AutoGordian but my god is it slow. 11fps reported and it took 48 minutes before it even got to the VIDEO.
Is there a way to speed it up?

As Baldrick says, run single pass encodes. AutoGK is, as the name implies, automatic. It has to analyze the source to find out what it is and how it has to be treated. Plus, it has to extract the audio and create the D2V file, run a compression test over 5% of the video to determine the best resolution and other settings, reencode the audio (often), and create the subs (sometimes), before ever getting to the real video encoding. If you knew what you were doing you could do a quick analyzation of the source yourself, save the 5% reencode, and then encode it yourself. It's for newbs and lazy people. If you're not one or the other, then you'd be doing it manually yourself. The best way for you to speed things up would be for you to get a decently fast computer (if your listed computer specs are accurate).

Have you run across any other programs that encode the same source using the same settings faster than 11fps?

[RabidDog]

Its very simple to speed up your encodes .. use divx with a dual or quad core computer (Not an Atom or Via, sorry) AFAIK xvid does not , at this time, use more than one core.. eight cores would be even better, possibly. Also raw processor speed is good too.(2,0ghz up)
Only a Proper media centre will give you a fully pictorial menu (of your files) all divx players present you with a plain and simple file list, altho new firmwares are overcoming "short" file name problems on some players. MAke sure any player has full usb2.0 or BETTER interface for connecting the hard drive.

[jagabo]

AFAIK xvid does not , at this time, use more than one core..

Get a multi threaded version of Xvid:
http://www.soft32.com/download/63-71847-1/XviD-1.2.-127-07012006.exe
Set the number of threads in the "Other Options" section.

eight cores would be even better

Xvid speed doesn't increase over 3 cores. Not sure about Divx.

[FulciLives]

Off Topic I know but since I got a Sony Playstation 3 or PS3 for short I have switched to H.264 using either the MP4 file format or the M2TS file format (MP4 allows AAC audio whereas M2TS allows AC-3 audio).

H.264 is vastly superior to DivX or XviD. No matter how HIGH I would set the bitrate I always got some macroblocks (especially in dark or all black areas) when using DivX and XviD (always encoding for MPEG-4 capable DVD player compatibility).

I see NO macroblocks with H.264 and although I will sometimes see (very subtle) mosquito noise with H.264 it is mostly a carry-over from the source.

So for me I've pretty much dropped DivX/XviD encoding.

Of course there is one major problem: the encoding time needed for H.264 is freakin' insane! In short it is SLOW as all hell

Despite this I feel the quality is more than worth the time. When all is said and done ... between sleep and work ... there are at least 18 hours in a day that I am either NOT home or I am home BUT sleeping SO I always start encoding before going to bed and let it go all night and all day while at work. This minimizes the "pain" of the LONG encoding time.

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[jagabo]

Another good thing about h.264 is that most of the encoders scale very well with the number of cores your computer has. So a quad core will be nearly four times as fast as a single core (assuming the same core type and speed). Divx and Xvid don't scale nearly as well. Xvid for example will only run about 1.6x faster on 2 cores compared to 1. About 1.9 faster on 3 cores compared to 1. About 2x faster on 4 cores vs 1.

So a quad core CPU encoding with x264 isn't much slower than when encoding with Xvid. On an 8 core CPU x264 should be faster than Xvid.

[stiltman]

Software - to get the BEST quality with the most user friendly software

Personally, I like FairUse Wizard

I set my converts to file size of 2gb
I use AC3 audio.
I use 2 pass encoding

Most of the time my bit rates average around 2500kbs. It works on my standalone, but others have said some players have problems with bit rates over 2000kbs using AC3

I did it by file size for a few reasons. I wanted to get the most I could at 2gb. I wanted the highest bit rate I could get at 2gb. I wanted a decent last resort for converting back to mpeg.

[TBoneit]

Unless you want Ultra Divx files. Does your Oppo support Ultra Divx?

If so then I like the TMPGEnc Programs or for $20 Divx Author http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/author/
"Add DVD features to your videos
Create impressive, professional looking videos with all the advanced interactive features of a DVD including menus, chapter points, multiple subtitles and multiple audio tracks. "

[RabidDog]

Your REAL problem is going to be whether your oppo has a USb2.0 interface (or better firewire, gigalan) to read your external disk. USb1.1 will start to choke on large disks and large numbers of files, possibly even the oppo's inbuilt memory may be the limiting factor.

*with eight cores, you can chop your encodes into thirds, 3 x2, and still leave two cores for playing Crysis

I mostly use fwizrd nowadays..