True image size? Plus the real reason for the question!

[Golem]

If someone could clear this up I would greatly appreciate it. As an example, I am in the process of ripping clips from an region 1 DVD of "The War Zone". It is in 4:3 ratio but padded. After ripping with SmartRipper my info.txt designates a display mode of 720x480. Now this is where I get stumped...WinDVD plays it at 640x480, frame capture in WinDVD is at 640x480 and DVD2AVI displays it at 720x480. Which is the true resolution I should be shooting for in my final DivX AVI?

I ask this desperately because I am at wits end. I've ripped many movies/scenes in all different formats...NTSC, PAL, FILM, Interlaced, Progressive, etc. and have been able to produce excellent quality but not with this one, Arrghhhh! No matter what I do it is interlaced in every frame where there is motion. I've tried everything from deinterlace to IVTC along with changing image size. My progression is -> SmartRipper -> DVD2AVI -> VFAPIConv -> VirtualDub.

I've had this size situation on a number of others that I've ripped but just resized to it's designated aspect ratio with perfect results. But this one...I just cant get rid of what I see to be severe interlacing. I have even tried all field settings on DVD2AVI.

LOL...guess I'm really asking two questions above, anyhow...

Help!!!

Thanks,
Golem

[adam]

The standard resolution most commercial dvds use is full D1 which in the case of ntsc dvds is 720x480. This is the actual resolution of your movie. 4:3 tv's have a display resolution of 640x480 and thats why its reported like that in Windvd. I have absolutely no experience with encoding divx but I'm pretty sure that typical divx encoding methods do not include keeping the ouput resolution the same as the source. I don't know of too many people who encode divx at 720x480, I think you'll get better results at a lower resolution but don't quote me on that. In any case you should read some divx specific guides to find out what resolutions you should be using.

Anyway I don't think your problem has anything to do with resolution though. It seems you are having problems with the interlacing alone. Again, I'm not familar with divx so I don't know of the best way to deinterlace or IVTC, whichever is applicable, for this process. When you preview your source in dvd2avi what does it say?...__%film, ntsc, hybrid, etc... This is important information to know when deciding how to handle the interlacing.

[MTMR]

Have you tried DVDx to make the DIVX files with? I have been using it for a while to make DIVX files which I then in-line sub and (after a long conversion process) burn to VCD.

DVDx seems to have (at least in my experience) a decent deinterlace feature. When going to DIVX, I *USUALLY* just "work around" the interlace, as I am generally the only one who watches the rips.

Bear in mind, however, that I am working from HK-DVDs and as such the video processing isn't always great in these disks to start with. I rented one DVD which had about the quality and bitrate of an SVCD, and even had MAJOR mpeg artifacting in the video signal.