ok im not sure if this belongs here so if it isnt that please could a mod move it over to the correct location. That said now for the question. What is the "best" video codec to use out there. By "best" i mean the best quality for size. Im going to moving about a bit and i want to encode my DVDs (Matrix etc) onto my HDD so that i can have some entertainment while im on the road. Size is important however quality is too as i dont want to be in a situation where i can hardly see/understand the movie. Having said THAT i guess i need a good audio codec too . Ive seen some OGM files that look good and are pritty small but im sure there is more out there. Help?!
the best overall ive seen is the".mkv" files...they r the matroka(sp?) files an require the plugin or codec to be installed to be played with first but i think for quick an easy rencodes i would think 2-pass xvid would suffice an do a good job.
so two pass xvid would be an encode with xvid and then again to get the second pass right? (is been a very bad day today so im a bit dence atm). Also ive seen mkv files about im sure of it. im going to go check them out so thanks very much [edit] Rigth ive figured out what the hell mkv files realy are and thats not the half of it by the looks. Would it be a good idea to encode in Xvid...or what about dvix? [/edit]
when you say "happy" jazzel do you mean that Dvix is the right encoder for you? does it provide good compression for a given size? im realy going to be limited to size as my laptop HDD isnt THAT large and i want to get as many of my movies as i can on it (granted this is a very subvasice conversation as my idea of good quality is different from yours) Any help would be appriciated
Ogm are just divx with ogg soundtrack instead of mp3, but the software has been developed to allow multiple soundtracks like mkv is used for multiple sub tracks. The smallest is xvid with crappy mp3 quality. Divx has become slightly bloatware since 5.x imo, but it's down to encoding methods/original material/software used etc in how the outcome appears/filesize.
true...ive managed to hunt arround the net for it but i was still slightly confused so thanks for clearing that up. I intend to use original DVDs which i own and compress them. Also are you saying that its all the sequencing? if i get the right settings in the right order i can have a decent copy with decent file size?
i use Xvid for when i encode... mainly because its a free codec and if u use DivX you get a nice bit of spyware on it untill u buy it but they do produce a good quality when u encode them from 700Mb + and lower IMO and they start getting really bad..
Well im certainly going to give the Xvid codec a try. now all i have to do is choose an sudio codec and learn how to do the bloody think Original idea was for the ogg format however i wouldnt mide the ol' feedback Hamish you suggest ac3. any perticular reason or just personal preference?
what software are you going to use to encode the movies..? one i would reccomend is a program called "Auto GK" its a good DVD to avi converter.. and use dvd decrytper to rip the dvd's to the computer..
well i hadnt realy thought about any software yet, i was just going to see what was the best codec for my needs and then get the software that would be required to do the job. Ill have a look at Auto GK. You say that will get it into an AVI format, should i then look for an encoder to get that AVI to mpg or other dvix standard? Ive read someware that i should encode the sound to PCM (? not sure on this) and then convert it to ogg or mp3 to avoid sync issues. any light on this subject? Thanks for all you help, im realy looking forward to not being bored out of my skull on the train
ok i did have a nice thing written out but i just happened to have a power cut in the middle of writing this.. ill try and say what i was saying again... when you use Auto GK to encode a film it uses the xvid/divx to encode it into a .AVI format. divx/xvid doesnt have a file format.. it does encode it to a decent quality IMO.. try it out on a dvd 1st.. for it all to work you will need: Auto GK DVD Decrypter xvid/divx codec.. there is a encoding guide included in Auto GK and it will tell you how to encode it properly.. any probs just ask..
Thank you i shall give it a try tonight after i get home. You say that a dvix file has no file format (make any sence?) so is that where mkv formats come in?
um.. xvid and divx are usally encoded into .avi files... with the no file format i was meaning that they dont create .divx sort of files and what not when using the codecs.. im not sure how to get mkv formats... never used them... ive always used .avi if u really wanna enocde into a different file format try looking over at doom9.org its probably the best place to find out and ask about encoding video files... but give Auto GK a try and see what you think of the quality.. also whne you do use Auto GK set the file size from 700mb onwards.. dont go below it.. the quality will get worse..
Yeah I've been converting most of my collection to Xvid using DVD Decrypter and AutoGK. I've founnd 675MB-700MB good, either 640 wide fixed for widescreen or 368 wide for fullscreen (although apparently I did the math wrong, that 368 can go wider, I was trying to keep the same pixels/frame on average). If I'm close to the monitor it looks somewhat grainy at points in fullscreen (1600x1200 19" CRT) but at more of a movie distance it's great and no noise from the DVD drive.
you can save alot of space if your not too picky about sound. mono @ 24000khz is good but I do mine at 11000khz, mainly because I have crappy speakers anyway and I can't tell if the sound is any better, and I'm more interested in what people are saying in the movie than the snappy soundtrack and peoples voices are pretty good around 11000khz. I also encode at 1/3 of the final viewing size then stretch it, odds are your not going to be 6 inches away when your watching so you shouldn't see many of the defects. and as a note try not to compress things that are already compressed, if its not small enough go back to the origional and try again. you'll get better quality and smaller sizes, instead of crap quality and slightly smaller than the one before sizes. aaannndd. I sometimes use a program called media cleaner if I'm really picky about what I'm doing. you can choose vid codecs, audio codecs, and adjust brightness/contrast/saturation and many other things. Its really handy to use with samll clips so you can see whats its doing, it compares the 'oriogional' file with what the compressed one looks like no ausio but unless you can compress in real time you don't want to hear whatever it is anway. tehn when your happy jusy use those settings on the final movie. I do tests on a scene that have a bit of everything in the film in it, action, takling, long fades, special effects. every bit of compression effects different things differently. ie long fades tend to clump up and look ugly compared to quick cuts that are clean. thats my .02$
These are all fantastic responces and just what i was looking for so thank you very much im starting to take a look on doom9 and ill be downloading Auto GK as soon as i can to have a little play with it. Ive also been reading about the mkv encapsulator (seems the best name for ir) as ive got a few movies that need subtitles (namely Das Boot and Once apon a time in China 2) so ill let you know how that comes along.
I do all my encodes with xvid. There is a review comparing codecs such as xvid,divx,3ivx, and others over at doom9. As for audio, I use AC3 if I want the surround sound, or vbr mp3 (using LAME "standard" preset) which usually gives decent quality if I just want stereo sound. There's so many ways to get from dvd -> avi, but doom9 is definitely the best place to start. Oh, and the most useful piece of free software I have EVER come across for video editing: http://www.virtualdub.org
Update Right my first encode seems to have come out quite good considering i used many defult settings, although AutoGK appears to be idiot proof i cant see how i could have gone wrong . My first Encode was a file from one of my episodes of Brass eye (those who watched channel 4 in 1997 in the UK might know what im on about) about drugs. The original file was a *.vob file and was 574Meg with 2 channel sound. I encoded uing the Xvid options with mp3 @ 128kbps. This compressed it to 180Meg so claps all round for that one Second test was a full DVD rip using DVDdecrypter. Again no problems here as its faily simply. Rip to IFO and then use AutoGK for the encoding. I only ripped the movie so none of the extras (movie was Apollo 13) and in 6channel surround ACR. As it is an oldish film i went for the 2 channel mp3 (128k again). Also i wanted to see how far i could push the compression so i went for 896Meg or 1/5th a DVD. 4 hours later and i now have a 896Meg Xvid file of Apollo 13 which appears to be of good quality. im testing this tonight but i dont think ill have any problems with it. Again claps all round for that one too thanks for your help bods its been appreciated [Edit] Apollo 13s file size was 7.2gig after ripping [/edit]
