Greetings, I have been trying to add .srt files to an AVI to watch on my xbox media center which wouldnt read .sub for some reason. We also have another divx player in the house which refuses to read ANY sub files what-so-ever so hardcoding before burning is the only option unless I burn a single movie to a single DVD with ConvertX.... but I really want to have 5 AVI files on a dvd. I have followed this guide - http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/adding_subs_to_avi.cfm - and it works like a ... charm ... apart from the compression. After using the 'default settings' and 'F7' to save the avi file I get a finished AVI file which is almost half the kbps and obviously half the file size (a 700mb file BEFORE hardcoding subs became 385mb and a 1.3gb file became 638mb).. so obviously the quality has just gone out the window. I have to admit that my encoding of video files is in the 'utter noob' section so I must be doing something wrong. My ambition is: To add the .SRT file to the .AVI WITHOUT loss in video quality. Help will be greatly appreciated!
The "default settings" are designed to produce a good result, a fair compromise between the quality and size. It does NOT reproduce the sources bitrate. If you really want a file the same size, set the bitrate explicitly.
Does a smaller file with smaller bitrate produce an inferior end result? My main concern is the quality when I watch it on my xbox. Anything less than HD looks like garbage on my LCD monitor so it's impossible to tell from here. I also dont want to make many more coasters of my DVD's or spend 30 mins encoding and failing with these movies, hence im here asking for advice
Well, if the file is only 700 MB to begin with, then I find it hard to believe it's an actual HD movie... unless you never even implied that it was, in which case I'm just an idiot. Anyway, the end result is very much subjective. If you see a difference between the original 700MB movie and the new 350MB movie, then you've definitely got to bump up the bitrate. If, however, you don't see any difference in picture quality, then you're good to go. It's all up to you and whether you can see the difference or not. I'm not sure if there's a bitrate option in VDub, but I know that MeGUI has a Bitrate Calculator that works like a charm. The program's a bit more complicated than VDub/Mod, since it interacts solely with video streams and AviSynth scripts, but I think it has an Xvid encoder setting on it. That might help you retain a specific filesize. But I'd suggest trying to find some sort of bitrate controller on VDub first, as that's the program you're using right now.
Hey thanks, I'll check when I get around to burning these movies again, it was a project yesterday to clear my hdd of stuff that needs to be backed up and it failed! My point was I didnt want to burn dvd's to 'test' them at their different bitrates on my divx player as it's a waste of money constantly burning dvd's and then throwing them directly in the bin after I make a decision. I was under the impression that 700mb was the minimum or 'accepted' size to aim for with a 90-120 (or so) movie file. I didn't understand why simply hardcoding subs would have to go through a major compression process which compromised quality as well. And I said 'unless I watch HD movies' (which I dont) normal definition will do until I burn some cash on one of those fangled HD TV's in 10 years or so. Cheers for your help but I'm still open for more expert advice!
Well, you could theoretically get a 1MB movie if you set the bitrate low enough. High bitrates usually mean high qualities. So I believe in VDub, when you click to Save As (or something), you'll see an option for compression in the lower part of the Save As window. You can fiddle around with that to choose which encoder you want, which quality you want, etc. Again, I don't know how exactly it works, because the last time I tried it, I couldn't figure out where to specifically control the filesize (via setting a "median bitrate" to encode to), but I'd say that that's your best bet. It isn't much, but that's all I can tell you without suggesting you scrap your project and start up with a new set of programs and stuff.
Just to follow up: it is really easy to tweak the bitrate settings to pretty much mirror the original file so you dont lose any quality on the visuals. I just wish it stated this in the guide so I didn't have to get so flustered and post in the forum. Thanks for your help, fellas, you learn something new with encoding every day (or week depending on how often you're doing encoding related stuff) Cheers!
