Free DVD to AVI converter that can preserve original resolution?

[hello_hello]

As I don't do any MP3 encoding using MeGUI (I pretty much use foobar2000 for all my audio encoding), all I can suggest is to make sure the LAME encoder you're using is the latest one. I do recall earlier this year there seemed to be two versions released in quick succession. If you use Options/Update, and make sure "show all files" is checked, you should be able to see which version of LAME MeGUI is using. The latest version is 3.99.5

I rely on MeGUI to let me know when tools other programs use can also be updated, as in the case of the LAME encoder (for example), AutoGK has LAME in it's installation folder and I've also got it installed elsewhere for foobar2000 to use. As you got me to look, it seems the other two installations of LAME on my PC are 3.99.4, not 3.99.5. That surprised me as I was 100 % sure I'd updated LAME for the other programs as soon as MeGUI updated it's own LAME installation. Obviously not. I'll be doing it now, which means any future MP3 encoding I do with foobar2000 will use the same LAME version as MeGUI. If it causes me any "scratchy sound" problems, I'll let you know.

Edit: Well I updated LAME to 3.99.5 everywhere and ran a couple of AC3 5.1ch to stereo MP3 encodes. One using MeGUI with normalizing, one using foobar2000 without. No problems either way.....

[ohboy888]

@hello_hello:

Where are you getting the 2.25 aspect ratio from? If it's MediaInfo it tends to do a fair bit of rounding when displaying aspect ratios.

Yes, I got it from MediaInfo. So is there another way to find out the correct display aspect ratio?

As I don't do any MP3 encoding using MeGUI (I pretty much use foobar2000 for all my audio encoding), all I can suggest is to make sure the LAME encoder you're using is the latest one. I do recall earlier this year there seemed to be two versions released in quick succession. If you use Options/Update, and make sure "show all files" is checked, you should be able to see which version of LAME MeGUI is using. The latest version is 3.99.5

My MeGUI is already using the latest LAME. I found out that only when converting from AC3/DTS to MP3 that would create problem. If I convert from WAV to MP3, there is no problem at all (I use DVDFab to rip the dvd audio into WAV). When converting from AC3/DTS to MP3, does MeGUI convert it to WAV first or convert directly to MP3? Can MeGUI convert AC3/DTS to WAV?

[hello_hello]

MPC-HC will display the exact aspect ratio as I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

As I barely use MeGUI for audio encoding I really don't know a lot about how it works, although I'm sure it uses eac3to for most of the audio encoding, however I don't really know how eac3to does it's thing either. It creates it's own log file (I'm pretty sure) and it's located in C:\Program Files\MeGUI\tools\eac3to, at least when installed on XP. It's log file might give more detailed info than MeGUI's own log file. I've no idea if it creates an intermediate wave file. I'd suspect not, but I don't know for sure.

If you want to try another audio converter foobar2000 does a good job. It requires Aften for AC3, Nero for AAC and Lame for MP3 etc, but all those tools are already in MeGUI's installation folder, so you just need to show foobar2000 where they are the first time you convert. It also has a DSP for mixing 5.1ch to stereo as it converts.
The main reason I use foobar2000 is because once it's set up, it makes converting nice and easy. It'll convert demuxed audio streams and also the audio in MKV and MP4 files without the need for demuxing. Once you set up a conversion, foobar2000 will save it as a preset, so I've got several presets for each format at different bitrates etc. It also has the advantage of being able to convert multiple audio tracks simultaneously (and each to multiple formats simultaneously). As many at a time as you have CPU cores. It's a time saver for me as I still convert video to both MKV and AVI quite a bit, using 5.1ch AAC and stereo MP3.

Foobar2000 won't "normalize", but I convert multichannel audio to multichannel audio without normalizing anyway so it doesn't bother me. Pretty much the only time I mix down to stereo I'm converting to MP3 so then I just use MP3Gain to normalize it.

If you want to try foobar2000 I guess I should mention it won't decode every audio format "out of the box". For those it doesn't you need to download a plugin, most of which are on the foobar2000 site. The extra plugins I have installed are for decoding AC3, DTS, Monkey and Shorten. I also have a plugin which lets foobar2000 open AVIsynth scripts for playing/converting audio, and another which allows it to decode audio via DirectShow.

[ohboy888]

MPC-HC will display the exact aspect ratio as I mentioned a couple of posts ago.

Actually I mean the tool that can show the correct DAR since you said the MediaInfo shows incorrect DAR. MPC (File->Properties) only shows the resolution value.


There is no log file in C:\Program Files\MeGUI\tools\eac3to.


Well, I have installed foobar a long time ago, I just know that it can be used to do audio conversion. But I rarely do audio conversion so that's why I didn't notice it. Thanks for your informations, I learned many things.

[hello_hello]

I was referring to MPC-HC, not the old MPC though....

If you mean will it tell you the display resolution in square pixel terms, then no, it only displays the resolution and aspect ratio, but it's easy enough to work out the display dimensions from there using the height.

If the video doesn't use square pixels MPC-HC will show something like: 716 x 552 (AR 509:276).

509 / 276 = 1.84:1, but to be exact,

509 / 276 x 552 = 1018, so it'll display as 1018 x 552.

Another example:

720 x 432 (AR 64:27)

64 / 27 = 2.37:1

64 / 27 x 432 = 1024, and therefore display dimensions of 1024 x 432.

While the first is 1.84:1 and the second is 2.37:1, MediaInfo says they're 16:9 and 2.35:1.

[ohboy888]

Actually I use MPC-HC (from K-lite mega codec pack).

If the video doesn't use square pixels MPC-HC will show something like: 716 x 552 (AR 509:276).

509 / 276 = 1.84:1, but to be exact,

509 / 276 x 552 = 1018, so it'll display as 1018 x 552.

Lol, so the value in bracket is the aspect ratio.

In my video, it displayed like this:

 Video: MPEG4 Video (H264) 712x368 (843:368) 23.976fps [Video]

So I thought the value in the bracket is the resized display resolution, not the DAR

[hello_hello]

Ahh..... yes that'd possibly introduce confusion, given if the video height and the second value of the display aspect ratio are the same, then the display resolution and the aspect ratio must also be the same.

I have noticed that sometimes the video properties (as in the example you posted) and what's displayed as the aspect ratio under "Video Size" by MPC-HC, aren't always the same thing. Well they work out the same, but might have different values. I can't find one to use as an example at the moment but it's kind of like (640:480) vs (4:3). I'm not sure why.... I suspect sometimes the aspect ratio written to the video stream is written differently to the container aspect ratio and that's why MPC-HC can display the aspect ratio in two different ways, but that's just a guess.

MediaInfo seems to do something similar. If the video stream aspect ratio and the container aspect ratio are different, it'll show "display aspect ratio" and "original display aspect ratio". If they're the same it just shows "display aspect ratio". Every so often though, it'll display both those aspect ratios, even though they're the same.

[FulciLives]

You are making this overly difficult. Just use HandBrake and set AC-3 audio to "pass thru" and if the audio is DTS then change it to re-encode to AC-3. All very simple. The rest of HandBrake is also very simple.

My point is: If you have given up on MP3 normalization and since AC-3 isn't that much bigger then just use HandBrake and be done with it.

All this messing around with MeGui isn't getting your stuff encoded LOL

- John "FulciLives" Coleman

[hello_hello]

All this messing around with MeGui isn't getting your stuff encoded LOL

Maybe not, but by messing around and comparing how the two work and asking questions here he's learning more about video converting, especially aspect ratios etc. Nothing wrong with that.

Personally I tend to extract the original audio and remux it with the encoded video, using MeGUI of course. For some reason ohboy888 is having problems when converting to MP3 using MeGUI and I've no idea why. It may very well be something particular to his PC as I've not had any problems (I went out of my way to use MeGUI for MP3 converting yesterday rather than my usual method) and I've not read any audio converting complaints in the MeGUI bug thread over at doom9.