Divx file info?? How do you find??

[Cooly-O]

How do you find out the encoding information for a Divx file?

Is VirtualDub the only way (File->File Information)? Does it show field order and whether interlaced or not? Does it show as much info as DVD2AVI does for mpeg-2 files? I need to know so I can input them into TMPGEnc for encoding.

I know DVD2AVI Statistics (File, Load Project pick file: Option, Preview [F5]; Statistics [F6]) can give info on mpeg-2 files.

[Cooly-O]

TMPGEnc needs to know source information for my Divx file. How do I find this info out? I tried DVD2AVI but it doesn't seem to want to open a Divx. Vdub just seems to show the fps. I'd like to know the field order, interlaced or de-interlaced, etc.

[Cooly-O]

Vdub says I have a 512X408, 25.000 fps Divx Pro 5.02 file. How do I make a 512x408, 25.00fps divx file work for a NTSC TV????

What inputs do i put into TMPGEnc under the:

Video tab(Video Stream Setting):
Size? is it what Vdub reports or what I want it to be (which is NTSC; I'd like to use the "3:2 pulldown" method")
Aspect Ratio? is it 1:1(VGA)???
Frame Rate? Do I use the 25 fps for the 3:2 pulldown method??

Advanced tab (Video Source Settings):
Video Source Type? is it Interlace?
Field Order? Is it Bottom fileld first (field B)?
Source Aspect Ratio? Is it 1:1 (VGA)?
Video Arrang Method? Is it Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio?

I'm using VCD (PAL) template (since it's 25 fps) and 3:2 pulldown. I'm having trouble making sense of the 512X408 original size.

Please help.

[banjazzer]

DivX is never interlaced, so the field order is irrelevant. The only important things you need to know with DivX are:

1. Is the aspect ratio correct? If it is then choose Source aspect ratio=1:1(VGA) and a Video arrange method which involves *keep aspect ratio*

2. The framerate, so you can choose the appropriate template.

3. The kind of audio (which in any case is best extracted first as an uncompressed wav.)

You can convert to the DivX NTSC(film) format by resaving the video in Virtualdub to 23.976fps, and by stretching the wav to fit the new DivX time using Goldwave or CoolEdit.

You can just go ahead and choose NTSC(film) template with the unchanged audio and video, but the result will not be as good as the method I just outlined.

[Cooly-O]

DivX is never interlaced, so the field order is irrelevant. The only important things you need to know with DivX are:

1. Is the aspect ratio correct? If it is then choose Source aspect ratio=1:1(VGA) and a Video arrange method which involves *keep aspect ratio*

2. The framerate, so you can choose the appropriate template.

3. The kind of audio (which in any case is best extracted first as an uncompressed wav.)

You can convert to the DivX NTSC(film) format by resaving the video in Virtualdub to 23.976fps, and by stretching the wav to fit the new DivX time using Goldwave or CoolEdit.

You can just go ahead and choose NTSC(film) template with the unchanged audio and video, but the result will not be as good as the method I just outlined.

I did use the "Save Wav" step in Vdub for the audio file. Can't I do the rest within TMPGEnc? I think the guides would say to load VCD (PAL) template and then i just need to know whether to use the 3:2 pulldown method and how to input the following fields:

Video tab(Video Stream Setting):
Size: This would be 512x408
Aspect Ratio? is it 1:1(VGA)???
Frame Rate? Do I use the 25 fps for the 3:2 pulldown method??

Advanced tab (Video Source Settings):
Video Source Type: sounds like this is Interlace
Field Order? Bottom fileld first (field B) should work
Source Aspect Ratio? Is it 1:1 (VGA)?
Video Arrang Method? Is it Full Screen Keep Aspect Ratio?

[banjazzer]

3:2 pulldown is only appropriate for conversion between 24fps and 30fps. It has no place with PAL. If you want to go down that route, then either first convert the PAL to NTSC(film) as I suggested, or you could ignore the fact that it is a PAL source and go ahead and use the NTSC(film) template with what you have. I have no idea how successful it would be because I don't make those kind of conversions.

As to the other settings,

Size is set by the VCD template (352x240)
Aspect ratio is usually 4:3 but you can adjust it to better fit your target display. I would leave it alone, and in the standard tempaltes it is grayed out.
Frame rate is set by the template you use.

Advanced tab:
Source is always non-interlace because it is DivX source.
Field order is irrelevant, because it is non-interlaced
The other 2 settings are as you suggest.

Basically, try doing a few samples using the source range setting, and see if something works to your satisfaction.

[Cooly-O]

Oh yeah, I meant to say non-interlace (as you suggested). Thanks for straightening me out. I think your suggestions will work well. I'll report back.

Once again thanks much for telling me what you know. I'm surprised I didn't get more feedback from others. Seems that once we get a deviation from an average encode people get a little shy about dishing out advise.

I'm using NTSC(FILM) with 3:2 pulldown selected. I need to use 3:2 pulldown for my decoder to play the 23.976 encoding back at 29.976fps, right? That's my interpretation of the "3:2 pulldown when playback" definition at TMPGEnc Explained guide made by Shocan

[banjazzer]

I'm surprised I didn't get more feedback from others. Seems that once we get a deviation from an average encode people get a little shy about dishing out advise.

I think a large number of people here are more interested with producing the highest quality SVCDs, and for this they work from DVD. DivX is such a variable quantity that it is not easy to give advice that is guaranteed always to be correct. 8)

[Cooly-O]

Oh yeah, I meant to say non-interlace (as you suggested). Thanks for straightening me out. I think your suggestions will work well. I'll report back.

Once again thanks much for telling me what you know. I'm surprised I didn't get more feedback from others. Seems that once we get a deviation from an average encode people get a little shy about dishing out advise.

I'm using NTSC(FILM) with 3:2 pulldown selected. I need to use 3:2 pulldown for my decoder to play the 23.976 encoding back at 29.976fps, right? That's my interpretation of the "3:2 pulldown when playback" definition at TMPGEnc Explained guide made by Shocan

The VCD came out just fine this time (with NTSC(Film) and 3:2 pulldown. I wanted a VCD (or should I say XVCD) so I could fit the entire movie on one CD ( The newbies guide to fitting a movie on one CD using TMPGEnc). With SVCD you don't have that luxury (without a really poor quality CD). Of course for a 1 CD movie on an 80min CD I set it for a 800MB (that in turn defined by bitrates).

Thanks much for the help.