42 results

[Wiqd]

Alrighty, 24 hours later... I have results of my own to post.

***WARNING***

This is NOT a flame, or a post on what software is better than any other, etc etc... JUST my results for Kai and his crew.

K with that out of the way, I dragged my DVD over to 42, chose DVD (since I'm doin a DVD > DVDR) left all the default names for everything the same (i.e. movie.mpg) and hit start. After waiting 24 hours, I have a 1.5 gig biles.mpv file and a 1-movie.mpg thats 0k. The mpv is by no means close to dvd quality and has no audio, even though it went through the audio encoding phase (I watched the .ac3 file grow to about 350 megs) and obviously the .mpg isn't viewable since its 0k.

Now here are my questions: Does 42 auto detect how big the end file will be according to audio? Should you choose "custom bitrate" and input a bitrate acquired from something like bitmanager, etc etc? Does the VBR quality slider have anything to do with the results (I left it at default)?

I think that's about it right now... Like I said this isn't a bitch or a rant post, just giving my results which are obviously not the results expected from a DVD > DVDR conversion.

Wiqd

[Flip Flop Frog]

To achieve better quality you'll have to slide the VBR to about 3 or 4.

VBR 10 (default) isn't the best quality. Infact it's a kinda really bad qaulity setting.


The bitrate for your average DVD will be about 6000... but set you VBR a lot lower.

[Wiqd]

VBR is automatically around 3 or 4, from what it looked like. I didn't change it at all. I also didn't put a check mark in the "custom bitrate 6000" field that comes up when you select DVD. I thought the program was supposed to automatically determine the bitrate. If I'm wrong please let me know.

Wiqd

[bilestyle]

yeh it doesn't automatically calculate the bitrate for the length of the movie, 6000 is just the default. You need to drag the vbr quality to something other than 10, 10 is the default for all mpeg encodings, EXCEPT VCD since its a bad idea to make VBR vcds. IF you are trying to the play the file in quicktime that is why you hear no audio, quicktime as of yet (who knows if ever) doesn't have an ac3 decoder, so if you open the muxed mpeg in quicktime in dvd mode you will NOT hear audio. Check it out in VLC or something like that to hear the audio for your clip.

btw-

this is a note to everyone... we don't MIND criticism as long as its constructive. Operative word being constructive. i.e "Why doesn't your software support PAL or vobs? if it doesn't its worthless to me" that is NOT constructive criticism. If something doesn't work or you have a problem/question about somethin we will be more than happy to answer it.
that is if its NOT in the documentation.

In regards to a bitrate calculator, we don't want to add one to the layout of forty-two itself, i've been wanting to write a standalone bitrate calc (it obviously wouldnt be hard, i did make one for ... afropic...) but the one problem is VBR settings. The higher (towards 31) the VBR setting goes to the lower the quality and the smaller the size, and vise versa. So i CAN make a bitrate calc but it wont be 100% accurate especially since i dont know any way to compensate for really high or really low vbr settings... lower vbr settings the bitrate calc formula we use now is PRETTY accurate, but if people use somethin like 10+ it gets less accurate.

[Flip Flop Frog]

Bile, that bitrate calculator would be really nice. I haven't yet found a really easy to use, slick one yet. A nice brushed metal intefrace, simple pulldown menus, select format, media, and calc bitrate.


But I've had some odd results with 42. But it's not exactly a quality issue. More a very odd ouput. But a least an output that's in synch.

Peticularly the DVD > SVCD is outputting some rather odd filesizes. See below:

1-Movie.mpg = 795.1MB
2-Movie.mpg = 11.5MB
3-Movie.mpg = Rest of the movie (Varies)


They are seamless in the respect where file 1 ends, 2 starts, and where file 2 ends, file 3 starts. There is no lost content.



I spoke to Kai, and he said that he's just running the stuff through mplex. And that he hasn't changed anything in that area from the original release.

I've tried this now on two different DVDs I have.


Possibly if someone could bring some light to this rather odd problemo it'd be very much appreciated.



Thanks,


Flip

[pants]

so going dvd to dvd is it better to have the vbr lower or higher?

[fab98]

lower.... 3 best 31 worst

[Flip Flop Frog]

Going from DVD to any other format that has a VBR option works the same. As fab put it, 3 is the BEST, and 31 is the WORST.


VBR 10 is the current default of the new version of 42, and it's really really horrible quality.

The old version, when we didn't have the option to set it, was automatically set at 4.



-Frog.

[Wiqd]

Excellent. See this is why I love mac user forums, and the mac community in its entirety In any case, I'll try the settings again with a fixed bitrate (i have a calculator that takes the audio size into effect) and lowering the vbr to 3 or 4. I haven't had the file size problem yet, but I also haven't tried any SVCD output since I mainly just rip dvds. One question though. Since the output is an mpg file... Can I just put that as a single entity into DVD Studio pro and make chapter markers to reauthor? Or does DVD Studio Pro require a separate audio and sound track? Jus curious... Thanks Bile and Kai. Look for a donation from me soon.

Wiqd

[Flip Flop Frog]

Wiqd, not sure about the DVD stuff...

But... what calculator are you using? if you don't mind me asking that is.



-Frog

[KaiCherry]

The old version, when we didn't have the option to set it, was automatically set at 4.
-Frog.

Actually, believe it or not, it was 6, and unless you have some sort of weird fetish, setiing under that is porbably on the order of insane

We'll set the gui back to 6 as the default

-K

[KaiCherry]

Excellent. See this is why I love mac user forums, and the mac community in its entirety In any case, I'll try the settings again with a fixed bitrate

Its all VBR...the encoder works better this way. To "simulate" CBR, set the bitrate to what you want (this will be the *maximum*), and lower the VBR slider to say, 4-6.

The audio is straight ac3, so keep this in mind...it will be smaller than if you were compensating for mp2 audio. This allows you to use higher bitrate video for better quality (Don't go too low now on the VBR, "diminishing returns").

-K

[Flip Flop Frog]

Actually, believe it or not, it was 6, and unless you have some sort of weird fetish, setiing under that is porbably on the order of insane

Being a graphic designer, and a webdesigner, I crave quality. I've been encoding everything at 4 with the newest... Just cause it looks sooooo damn cool...



BTW: Kai, don't suppose you have any ideas as to my other problem noted above?

[spiff41398]

How long does DVD > DivX take? With 42-fixed (pre v1.0), I converted the first disc of LOTR: FOTR ext. ed. (approx. 105 mins.) in around 4.5 hours using the 1CD setting. But using v1.01, leaving my G4/500 on overnight for more than 7 hours has only yielded around 80 mins. of the DVD transcoded. I also noticed that my CPU monitor never goes up 60% or so with the new version, while it's usually maxed out with the old version. Less CPU cycles = slower conversion?

[Wiqd]

Sorry for takin so long Flip Flop, been busy writing a screenplay for a movie I'm gonna be shootin here pretty soon, configuring Cisco equipment, and doin schoolwork but i wanted to come back and answer your question about the bitrate calc. I use 2 actually, dunno why but... There's a program called transcode (the link to it can be found on that German website that tells you how to do a DVD > DVDR) and you drag the audio and m2v files into it. It then tells you what bitrate it will encode at depending on the audio file size. There's another one that's just a calc and it gave results pretty close to the transcode proggie, called Mr. Bit Budget. It was maybe like 14 bits off transcode. (one said 5586 the other said 5572). Anyways, just wanted to answer your question.

Wiqd

[KaiCherry]

[quote="Flip Flop Frog"]

BTW: Kai, don't suppose you have any ideas as to my other problem noted above?

Yep. its already being fixed. We wanna enable burning, via the Apple subsystem, right from forty-two the way iTunes does...burn when its ready, or you can burn it yourself if you want.

For DVD the code is already in, and is being tested now. Not sure about the other mpeg formats yet.

Of course, the divx stuff is locked, tested and done already...just waiting for our stuff from Europe to greenlight the new PAL math.

-K

[Flip Flop Frog]

BTW: Kai, don't suppose you have any ideas as to my other problem noted above?

Yep. its already being fixed. We wanna enable burning, via the Apple subsystem, right from forty-two the way iTunes does...burn when its ready, or you can burn it yourself if you want.

-K

Good to hear things are getting fixed... but as for the burning... that's coooooool.... Wooo!


You are a god!


And thanks for the Bit calc stuff Wiqd!