Any Video Converter bitrate?

[Mike99]

I recently tried Any Video Converter to convert from FLV to NTSC DVD Mpeg2 and it seems to do a very good job. But I have a question about selecting the Video Bitrate.

When I do a 2 pass encode, the conversion fails a few seconds before the end of the video. It does play correctly but could cut off some credits. The Help file says “best to leave it as Auto”, but I don’t have an Auto setting, just 2000, 5000 & 8000. By default it was 8000.

I contacted AVC and they said to set it at the bitrate of my source file, which was 660Kbps. However all the other Video Options appear to be for the output file, and my output file was over 2000Kbps (with the Bitrate setting at the default 8000).

If I changed this by typing in 660 I’m presuming this would drastically decrease my output file bitrate. I went back & forth with AVC & tried to confirm if this setting was for output or source, but they never said. Just that I can change it.

Presuming the setting is for the output, how do you know what to set it for as the conversion has not yet been done? What is the harm leaving it at 8000?

Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.

[guns1inger]

File size = bitrate X running time. Given running time is a constant, increasing the bitrate produces bigger files, decreasing it produces smaller files. If you are encoding for DVD then size is also a constant - you have to be able to fit it on the disc, and also not exceed the DVD bitrate limits. The simplest method is to use a bitrate calculator that will tell you what bitrate you can use.

You do not lose the last few minutes because of bitrate. If you use a bitrate that is too large, the results simply wont fit on the disc, and therefore will not burn to the disc. This idea that using too high a bitrate results in bits being arbitrarily cut off is, frankly, stupid.

While AVC has it's place in doing quick conversions from one format to another, I would never consider using it to encode for DVD when there are far better options around. Look at DVD Flick or AVStoDVD or ConvertXtoDVD. All will take care of these calculations for you.

[yoda313]

Those are good suggestions from guns1inger. However personally I use format factory for converting flv videos. It is pretty straightforward but also has plenty of options you can manipulate if you want to.

[Mike99]

Here’s what AVC replied: “The output bitrate should not exceed the maximum bitrate of the original video, otherwise, the encoding may fail. So if your maximum is about 2000, you will need to adjust the bitrate value manually. You could set manually the bitrate in the video option on the right pane of main interface.”

They also said: “You could set manually the video size to 640*360, video bitrate to 660, video sample rate to 23.976, audio bitrate to 128, audio sample rate to 48000 and have a try.”

Those are the parameters of my original, & I did tell them I was converting to DVD NTSC MPG. In fact I sent them MediaInfo data for both the source & output files. So they should know that the size & fps need to be changed.

There is plenty of room on a DVD for the converted file, so I don’t want to restrict the output bitrate. I guess I’ll leave the setting at 8000.

AVC converted & kept the audio in sync. VLC also has a conversion function which I tried, but it removed the audio. From reading many postings it appears some conversion programs have problems with audio sync, especially when the source is an FLV. Do DVD Flick or AVStoDVD or ConvertXtoDVD or format factory keep audio in sync?

[jagabo]

When I do a 2 pass encode, the conversion fails a few seconds before the end of the video.

That's a bug with the software.

Here’s what AVC replied: “The output bitrate should not exceed the maximum bitrate of the original video, otherwise, the encoding may fail.

If that's true, it's a problem with their software. The output bitrate has nothing to do with the source bitrate. When encoding an FLV source to MPEG 2 you need usually to use a higher bitrate to maintain quality.

[yoda313]

They also said: “You could set manually the video size to 640*360, video bitrate to 660, video sample rate to 23.976, audio bitrate to 128, audio sample rate to 48000 and have a try.”

Don't do that. It doesn't fall into dvd specs. It has to be 720x480 or one of the other subsets allowed in the dvd code - that is not one of them. The audio should be 48khz for dvd so that is correct in that statement.

https://www.videohelp.com/dvd

Like I said try format factory and use the preset for ntsc dvd - you can manually set the bitrate to whatever you want. You can output to mpeg2 directly from the flv without any other manipulation.