Okay, I've spent a lot of time reading the excellent primers such as DivX user guide, DVD Shrink User guide, I own AnyDVD, CloneDVD, WinDVD Creator2, Nero6, and a Plextor M402U. I'm trying Dr.DivX. WHAT I'VE FOUND: Is that DiVX is NOT for me. That I want to store my videos in MPEG-2. WHAT I WANT TO DO: I want to have a media jukebox server and use an AveL Linkplayer2 to access the files. These would be Movies, JPEG's, Music, etc. To save space becuase of my MPEG-2 decision, I want to only take the main movie, no menus, from my DVD's with the surround sound track and keep them as simple files. I expect these are MPEG's. I also want to import my Sony Hi-8 tapes and MiniDV tapes to MPEG-2. MY PROBLEM: I have not found a piece of software that will allow me to take the desired DVD VOB's and the needed other streams and put them into a file format (MPEG's) that my future AvEL LinkPLayer2 can access (MPEG-2). Can anyone recommend software that will do this? Maybe I am confusing the importance of the file extension? Is an .avi same as a .mpg it just depends on how it was created? Please help, my head is sore from hitting the keyboard! Thanks,,,
The problem is that DVD movies are VOBs (with 48 KHz sound, alas). DivX is a way to compress movies in AVI format (NOT a standard for video CDs) that is good if you need to save room (a 80' CD-R can contain a 80' standard MPEG-1 or a 40' standard MPEG-2). Read the guides in http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/.
Thanks. But I found DivX movies to be of noticably less quality than the original DVD so I am sticking to MPEG-2. I would love to use DivX but haven't seen one that I like quality-wise. I guess I could rip the DVD and it's multiple VOB'x to a single VOB. My AveL Linkplayer should be able to play those.
it is a lossy codec. meaning you'll lose information. try xvid. if you know how you can get it to look almost the same.
Ripp your dvd into chapters VTS files. You can take each vts file load it into your dr divx and compress it that way. I have excellent video compression and quailty using Dr. Dvix. Also if you have Pinnacle Studio nine you and convert the files tha way into Mpeg.but it is longer..That is why IO too am looking for a program to convert my vts files into mpeg files in one easy step. Good Luck.........By the way you should really stick to divx if you are making a jukebox Save a lot of space
i just read you initial post. if you want to stick with mpeg 2. its either keep the original. or compress a little bit with dvdshrink.
I did a quick search for the player you mention and it appears to play VOB files in sequence (ie VTS_01_02 will play automatically after VTS_01_1) without any other files (like IFO or BUP files). As long as you're not worried about compressing any further you should be able to just use DVD Shrink to make a movie only backup with just a single audio stream. Remove the IFO and BUP files and the rest should be ready to play. You could also disable file splitting in DVD Shrink and end up with a single VOB file. Since a VOB is just a specialized MPEG-2 file you could either play it that way or change the extension from VOB to MPG and it should play fine. If you're going the single file route make sure to check for file size limitations on the player because a movie on DVD can be pretty big. If you need to keep the size down you could either use MPEG-4 (Divx/Xvid) or any DVD transcoding/encoding tool like DVD Shrink or DVD-RB. If you're looking to drastically reduce file sizes MPEG-4 would probably be the best way to go. For encoding Hi-8 and DV files you'll need to have an encoder for whatever format you want to convert to. If you're encoding your DVDs to MPEG-4 you could do the same thing with DV footage, and since it will be interlaced you should using Xvid for it (I'm not overly familiar with MPEG-4 so if anyone can confirm or refute that you should use Xvid for interlaced encoding please do). If you want it encoded to MPEG-2 the best encoder to use is probably Canopus Procoder because it's supposed to be the best for interlaced MPEG-2, but since it's $500 a better option might be to get CCE Basic (around $60) which should give you excellent results (and take a fraction of the time Procoder would). I encode my DV with CCE and I haven't had any complaints. CCE with DVD-RB is also an excellent combination for reducing the size of DVD files, but for drastic reduction (ie more than 20% - 30%) I'd still recommend MPEG-4.
