Desperately need some help with Dr Divx 1.6 (old version)

[nerys]

I have this weird problem that is driving me insane. I use Dr Divx to convert a DVD to Divx

Fantastic program I can preprogram the settings making it crazy easy to use and its pretty fast too.

anyway here is the problem. The videos start coming out "DARK" barely visible on the computer NOT visible for any useful purpose on the television. At first I thouhgt it was just a "funky" dvd and ignored it

but it does it for all of them now. EVEN ones that did work before.

SO on a hunch I restored an image of my hard disk from when it DID work fine. What do you know now it works fine. but it seems no matter what I do (namely NOTHING) over time the problem returns. I restore the hard disk image and its fine again.

SO at some point "something" is changing that causes this problem and I undo that change by restoring the hard disk (I use Drive Image great program :-)

Any suggestions on how I can fix this? its a real pain to keep fixing. the way I am doing it now.

OR is there other software I can use to do this? IE simply reliable stable software that is essential dummy proof (for other people here) We have a video system here and we are trying to replace DVD players with solid state players. I failed to find a player that can handle high bitrate VOB files so I am going divx.

I want something where I can preset the parameters (bitrate dimensions etc..) drop the first vob onto the file and click encode kind of thing.

Any help would be most appreciated! Thanks!

[nerys]

I am trying out DVDFab since thats what I use to rip DVD's and it DOES allow me to customize quite nicely even better than DrDivx even but it REALLY slow half a fast as DrDivx. DrDivx would do just about real time (90minute movie 90minutes to convert) while DVDFab i doing TWICE real time or even slower. though it gets a tiny bit faster as it goes. It also "chokes" when I try to encode direct from the DVD so I have to rip it first to the hard disc but thats not a big deal.

Any suggestions appreciated!

[Baldrick]

Strange problem.

Tried AutoGK ? Just open the VTSXXXX.ifo instead of the vob file. Use constant quality for fastest encoding. Convert.

[nerys]

Ok I am running autogk right now. I LOVE the simplicity very nice but its almost too simple. NO eta on completion. I have no idea if this it going to take 1 hours or 10 days.

I marked the time it started so I guess I can figure it out from there. Fingers crossed

also is there any SPEED difference with divx or xvid codec? I could care less which I use the hardware player eat either up fine and quality is irrelevant since I am using a high bitrate. (each player has 2gig SD cards so size does not matter as long as its under 1900 mb)

I just need SPEED

[jagabo]

Most of the encoding time (unless you are doing heavy filtering) is within the Xvid codec itself. So the codec's settings have the greatest effect on encoding time. I don't use AutoGK but you can press one of the function keys to get more control of the program and codec. Ctrl+F9 or something like that.

If you don't need files of a particular size use Xvid in single pass target quantizer mode. Try a quantizer of 3 for a good compromise on file size vs quality. Lower values will give higher quality and larger files, higher values will give less quality and smaller files.

Don't set Xvid's motion search parameters (quality preset, user defined) to the max. The General Purpose preset is a good compromise between file size and encoding time. Going to the max may take several times longer to encode but will only make a tiny difference in quality/file size.

[nerys]

OK unless I am really just setting it up wrong autogk is OUT. 7 HOURS 38 MINUTES to convert a 2:21 movie!!! Holy living crap!! even my old under 1ghz computers could manage 1:1 time conversion.

Suggestions? I would LOVE to fix DrDivx it was perfect.

Auto GK is actually easier (I set it for 50% target quality which seem abour right 2:21 minutes got me single pass 1.52gb so that means a 3 hours film should fit on a 2gb card. but its going to take over 24 hours to convert 3 films. Thats lunacy

Suggestions? am I settings something wrong? I set it for xvid CBR 128 50% 720 width (so it does not have to resize)

There are not many more settings to pick from

ctrl-F9 NOTHING at all is checked except detect43 AR which was already checked so I left it checked.

What else can I do. I need simple automated SPEED even at the cost of quality. I know this machine is capable of doing faster than real time since its been doing it for over a year now until DrDivx starting making all the films so dark they are almost invisible.

ahh crap 50% is not low enough I goofed and checked the file it was working on the one it finishes in nearly 8 hours was 2:50 and it 2.14gb too big. Grrrrr 8 hours wasted.

How do I specify a size WITHOUT having to do 2 pass. none of the other programs mandate 2 pass when I specify a size and they have no problem meeting it. Grrr. thi is certainly frustrating thats for sure.

[jagabo]

How do I specify a size WITHOUT having to do 2 pass.

Single pass constant bitrate.

[nerys]

I do not see an option for constant bitrate only a "quality percentage" option. Most other programs do let me specify bitrate.

[jagabo]

If it doesn't give you a CBR option then you'll have to either use 2-pass or target quantizer. To get a smaller file with target quantizer use a higher quantizer. Do a few short encodes to see how high a quantizer (low quality) you can stand to watch.

[nerys]

I do not have quantizer either (drdivx had that though) I have Target Quality in Percentage.

[jagabo]

I do not have quantizer either (drdivx had that though) I have Target Quality in Percentage.

Sorry, I forgot that AutoGK only lets you specify the quantizer indirectly by using the quality setting.