DVD to avi(Xvid) - size problem

[skipadipadoo]

Hey everybody,

It's been a while since I posted for help, but I'm really stuck with this one!

I've been trying to encode one of my DVD's to .avi format using gknot, vdub & Xvid(1.2.1). I have never encountered this problem before (have tried on two computers) I keep getting the same video file size no matter what bitrate is used I end up with a video file size of 408Mg's & I'm trying for 608.
I gave up and used DivX 6.8.5 and it worked perfectly. Could this problem have something to do with the actual DVD? It's a Pal DVD9 & I haven't altered my settings in Xvid.

Thanks in advance to anybody who may have some idea of what's going on,

Skip

[redwudz]

Check the length of the movie. If it's really short, the programs may be using maximum preferred bitrate when encoding. That could result in a smaller file. Or maybe something in the bitrate settings for Xvid. I would also check the ~400MB encode for bitrate and compare it to the Divx file. You can use Gspot or MediaInfo for that, along with checking the length with them.

[skipadipadoo]

Thanks for your reply redwudz,

The movie is nearly 2 hours long so max prefered bitrate isn't the problem. Unfortunately I no longer have the xvid encode on either HD's but I do remember checking them with gspot and it didn't matter what bitrate I set the encoder too - I tried more than once on both computers with bitrates varying from 730 to one thousand and something & still video file size was 408 and a totally different bitrate than the one I set. It's like it is stuck - but only with this movie...Weird huh...

I have encoded using xvid since and no problems (well nothing out of the ordinary, I always have to fiddle a bit for correct file size). The divx encoder I set at 713 and gspot returned 712.

I would have prefered to encode with xvid - I have encoded around 30 movies using xvid and no problems.
Cause this problem has happened on both my computers but only with this movie I'm guessing it's the movie - another answer would have be preferable though.

Again thanks for the reply,

STiK

EDIT: I must admit for the file size and considering the length of the movie the xvid encode was suprisingly good!

[redwudz]

I have heard of Xvid's bitrate setting getting 'stuck', but I don't recall the cause. Or the post about it.

[skipadipadoo]

Thanks for the reply redwudz,

Hopefully I'll get lucky and somebody will remember the post that you are refering to.

Cheers,

STiK