Hi, I'm a newbie at this, and what I want to do is make a DivX format back-up of a TV show I bought on dvd, so I can put a bunch of episodes on one dvd. This particular show is in 16:9 and is approx. 44 minutes long per episode. I have a Philips DVP642 player, so the result will need to be able to play on that (which, I guess would be DivX 5 format?). What is the best way to do this that is easy, yet will retain excellent picture quality? Should I just follow this guide here show here? http://www.afterdawn.com/guides/archive/dvd2divx_anamorphic.cfm ...or is there a better or different way to do it? Any help is appreciated -- thanks!
Hi, First I would suggest using a ripper like dvdfab decrypter (free)as it should be able to handle the copy protections on your dvds. Next I would use autogk (also free) http://www.autogk.me.uk/ to convert to divx format. Be sure to follow the guide and the lowest compression I would go is 700mb as the quality is still pretty darn good. I am assuming this is an episodic tv show (do not post the name) so each file should be less than half of the 700mb I recommended. If your standalone dvd player plays divx movies then simply burn the divx files as data. Post back if you need anymore help. Sorry forgot the link to the free version of dvdfab http://www.dvdidle.com/free.htm. See the 1st link in my signature for reference guides on how to use dvdfab decrypter.
Thanks for the post! I'll be doing this on a friend's computer, and I think he uses "DVD Shrink" to rip DVDs (not to actually shrink them, just the ripping part). That should be okay, right? So using autogk will result in better looking/sounding DivX files than the guide from here that I posted the link to? I guess it's all in one program, so it's easier in that regard. But are the final files actaully better? Why is this a better way to do it? I believe you, of course -- I'm just curious! I have Philips DVP642 player. It'll play DivX 5 (but not DivX 6 or qpel). Will autogk make DivX 5 files? It looks like it's helpful to know the chipset when using the autogk. Do you happen to know what chipset is in the 642? I'm not sure what you mean about the 700mb thing -- are you saying to choose that as the quality/size in the program, and since the tv shows are less than that, they'll look all the better? It is an episodic show -- 22 shows per season. So how many episodes will I be able to fit on a dvd approximately after converting them? (When downloading broadcast versions converted to DivX, I was able to fit 12 episodes on one DVD -- will these files be larger?) Thanks again -- looking forward to hearing back!
Two other things I meant to ask What's the difference between xVid and Divx? Is one better than the other? (However, I'm not sure if xvid will play on my Philips 642 player.) I also noticed that the autogk thing says you need to get the DivX 5.2.1 codec. When I looked up what my player can play on the Philips website here: http://www.consumer.philips.com/con...ER&fhquery=fh_secondid=DVP3040_37_US_CONSUMER it says my player plays DivX 5, whereas the other two players listed says they play DixV 5.x. I'm not sure if this means my player won't play anything over DivX 5 (meaning 5.2.1) or maybe it's just the same thing. (The Philips site is very inconsistant with how they list the same features, etc.) Thoughts? Thanks again!
Hi, There really is no difference per say regarding divx and xvid to be worried about. I wouldn't say autogk is better than the guide here its just everything you need comes in that one download (my personal preference is it looks better). As long as your player plays divx files does not matter what version of divx codec used. As far as the 700mb (output size) yes even though the converted shows will be smaller the extra room to play with will be better. I would say around 8 to 10 episodes would fit on the dvd nicely. For anything more then you are looking at making the file smaller and then you run into quality issues. Sorry I usually post from work so I try not to get too wordy and answer all in one post based on what you asked. If you can hold off until I get home I can give you a quick guide based on my settings (you will need the program opened to follow along). I will also pm this thread to someone who is somewhat of a divx guru and can answer all you questions in technical depth off the top of his head.
As long as your player plays DivX files does not matter what version of DivX codec used. My player actually doesn't play DivX 6 -- but it sounds like the DivX 5.2.1 should work on mine if it says it plays DivX 5 (from what you said). Though the person you're PM'ing may know for sure... If you can hold off until I get home I can give you a quick guide based on my settings (you will need the program opened to follow along). Sounds great! Thanks! (And I'll print the post and take it with me when I'm actually going to do the converting. Probably won't be for another week or so...) I will also pm this thread to someone who is somewhat of a DivX guru and can answer all you questions in technical depth off the top of his head. This also sounds great -- thanks!
Hi, Looked at your link and xvid is not supported by your player. Will amend guide to suit specifics of your player as there are many tweaks I found by googling. Give me a few hours and will post for you.
matt72 -- Sounds great! Thanks so much! I saw on another thread that someone recommended using Dr. DivX (claiming it does better audio/video sync), but when I looked it up here: http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/27/59/ ...I thought it looked, for the lack of a better term, "chintzy". I'm guessing autogk is better than this program, right?
Also, I'm guessing that the tweaks have to do with the chipset? It looks like the 642 has a ESS Vibratto II (is that right?) so I guess there's some kind of extra thing you have to use with autogk? So does this mean that the DivX files I create to play on my player won't look as good as the regular ones the program makes without the tweaks? I've read mixed reports on whether or not the 642 can play XviD. I've seen people post that they can play it and others that they can't. But since you said there's no big difference between XviD and DivX, I might as well just go with DivX anyways since we know it plays that. However, I might be upgrading to a DVP5140 at some point (not for awhile thought), which has a MediaTek MT1389 chipset (and my friend who will also be converting stuff when I do) has a player with this chipset. Does this mean I'd have to re-encode everything from scratch for this chipset when the time comes (or even now for my friend's player), or will the files I make for my 642 also work on a player with the MideaTek chipset? Will they look just as good? Sorry for all the additional questions. Hope you don't mind! Thanks again for the help and for amending the guide for my particular player!
Anything that is encoded for ESS should be fine on an MTK based player. Not true the other way around sine MTK can handle qpel, etc. If you encode 2 pass with a Home Theatre profile with XviD, then you should be fine on any certified standalone, including ESS based ones. This is basically what enabling the ESS option in AutoGK does.
Hi, Sorry ended up working a double shift..still at work until 11 am est but here's a go off the top of my head: I use dvd decrypter and rip each episode (ifo mode allows me to determine each show individually; also it will be in vob format and under 1 gb, ignore the bups and other files) in a different folder so I can identify each show and save the avi file in the same folder (somewhat explained with the edited tutorial). If you have the program open you can basically follow the edited for episodic dvds below: Step 1: Select the files (1 at a time) you want to encode from the ripped dvd. Output file name will be filled in automatically from input file name(you can change it of course) and save in the same folder (done autmatically unless you change the location). Step 2: By default the first Audio track is chosen, but feel free to choose another of the audio tracks. If you go for more than 1 CD encode it will be included unchanged (not converted to MP3) with the video. However, if you are doing 1CD or less encode then it will be automatically converted to ABR MP3 (which is a form of VBR MP3) at 128 kbps. Second audio track can be selected as well and it might be the Director's Commentary, or a second language. This second audio track will be encoded as ABR MP3 at 128 kbps. Advanced Settings (step 4) will allow you to select audio settings manually: whether always leave audio as original AC3/DTS or always convert to MP3. Note that if you are using manual audio settings with two audio tracks then they would both have the same settings. Another thing to remember is that if you are using "target quality" mode (step 3) then by default first audio will be left as AC3/DTS. Step 3: The default output file size is for 2 CDs. I suggest for TV series choose to use 1/4, 1/3 or 1/2 CD for each (this will allow you to get more on 1 dvd but be advised the 1/4 option will take long and the quality loss will be noticeable). To fit several episodes on one DVD-R choose one of the fractions of a DVD-R. If you make a 2 or 3 CD rip, then it will also be split into 700 MB pieces for you. 2 GB and different DVD-R sized rips won't be split (do not use unless you want to get maybe 5-6 episodes on 1 dvd; the above options will allow you to fit more episodes). Another Output Size possibility is Target Quality (in Percentage). If, for example, you keep your movies on your hard drive, or run an HTPC, or plan to burn them to DVD-R and not to CD-R, then the final file size may not be important to you. A Quality encode will give you even quality throughout the movie at your designated percentage. The default is 75%, which will give you very good quality (but for DivX6 default is 60%). Good quality percentages begin at about 67% (Quantizer 3). Don't go above about 80% because then you'll lose some of the benefits of MPEG4's compression abilities. But remember, if you use a Percentage output, you'll lose control over file size. A Quality Percentage rip won't be split. The horizontal width will always be input source width, unless you set a fixed/maximum/minimum width in the Advanced Settings. Note: "Target Quality" mode performs 1-pass encoding while "Target Size" performs 2-passes encoding. (1 pass can speed up encoding considerably, but its not two times faster as you may expect, also dependent on your pc specs). For example I run a dual core amd 64 with 4g of ram and can do a 3 hour movie in 2 1/2 hours. That is with 2 pass, audio encoding (using AC3 and surround sound codecs while multi-tasking. (My home pc is quite fast so I surf or chat while encoding to make the time go by . When you're done setting up each episode, hit the Add Job button. If you're doing only one episode, then hit Start next, and AutoGK will begin to go to work. If you want to encode more than one episode during this encoding session, then go back and start the process over again. Then when all done, hit Start, and the episodes will be encoded one after the other. If you have more than one episode set up to be encoded, it's also possible to rearrange their order in the queue, or to delete one or more entirely. Note that you cannot pause the job once its started but if you want temporarily stop encoding after current job is finished you can do so by unticking all other jobs in the queue (to restart them afterwards tick them back and hit Start). By the way, if you have set up some jobs and are all done, then go ahead and start the encoding. If you just set them up, and then close AutoGK, intending to come back later to begin the encoding, you'll lose all your jobs. AutoGK will start the next time with default settings on the Main Screen and no jobs in the queue (I usually let mine encode overight if I have 8 or more and do not pause as I hate to start over). The following are accessed by hitting ctrl + F9 - "Aspect ratio" is an option to override AR setting that comes out of DGIndex (indexing tool for MPEG2 files used by AutoGK). If source is misdetected as 4:3 or 16:9 then you have a choice of manually setting correct AR. - "Reduce FPS" option is only useful for HDTV 50/60fps sources. By default AutoGK tries to restore 24fps FILM material from 60fps sources and if that is impossible then it leaves fps at 60 (50 fps sources are always left at that fps at the moment). So user can explicitly try and set lower fps. (Note: if you have a pure progressive material you may end up with shuttering video in the end when reducing fps. Use it only if you know what you're doing) - "Force Sharp Matrix" option ensures that AutoGK will not use soft matrix no matter what. Its most useful when doing 700Mb or less encodes when ordinarily AutoGK won't use sharp matrix at all (ONLY XVID) - KernelDeInt filter is a filter performing deinterlacing in AutoGK. Its threshold parameter allows you to control sensitivity of the filter in detection of motion areas (as static areas are ignored by the filter). This is very advanced settings and it should be used only when you get a lot of artifacts when encoding interlaced material . Please refer to the documentation of the filter for further information. - ITU-R BT.601 Standard is an official resizing method for DVDs in hardware, however most software DVD players (like PowerDVD or WinDVD) do no use it which results in height that is ~2.5% stretched. Different sources (even DVDs) can be mastered with or without ITU standard which means that there is no universal setting that will work in all cases. Check out the forum and its discussions on the subject. Simple user guide for this option is: if you feel like your encodes come out a little bit stretched vertically then turn this option on, otherwise leave it off. - "Display VCF scripts" option is a debug-only option and for clarity of the logs it should be switched off most of the time. - "Adjust Subs" option is very useful option and should be turned on most of the time if you're burning subtitles into resulting AVI. It places subs at original position found on DVD instead of squashed them vertically and moving a bit up (I'm sure everyone is familiar with these problems). The only drawback is that if original subs were in the upper part of the frame (during for instance opening credits) then they will probably be lost (and that is the reason this option is not enabled by default). Another problematic sources can be 2.35 AR sources where subs appear in the black bar below main video - in this case they will be cut off by this setting as well. In all other cases subs from lower part of the video frame should be displayed properly when using this option. - "Color correction" option allows you to slightly change color gamut closer to what the source actually contains (gamut often is changed automatically when doing MPEG2 -> MPEG4 conversion because of the tool involved, i.e. avisynth). You may notice that sometimes your XviD/DivX encodes are looking rather dark comparing to the original input source. In those cases usage of this option will help making it a little bit lighter. Not every MPEG2 input source require this correction and this option doesn't force it but rather switches ON the check if color correction is needed and applied. If color correction is needed then the encoding process can be 10-20% slower than one without it. - "Detect 4:3 Aspect ratio and force it" option checks if AR is between 1.25 and 1.4 and if yes then crops video appropriately to get perfect 4:3 ratio (so that you won't get black bars when watching on 4:3 TV). Also based on reading up on your player I would download the divx codec 5.21 (although I suspect divx 6 codec would work) just stick with that one for now. the xvid codec is included with autogk and once again I couldn't find an update for your player so go with what they have posted on their site for now. Celtic_d is the resident expert here when dealing with avi formats so I am sure he will chime in with his thoughts and corrections if needed.
[bold]celtic_d[/bold] wrote: Anything that is encoded for ESS should be fine on an MTK based player. Not true the other way around sine MTK can handle qpel, etc. 1. But will a file encoded for ESS look JUST AS GOOD as a file encoded for an MTK player? Or is there loss of quality between one and the other? If you encode 2 pass with a Home Theatre profile with XviD, then you should be fine on any certified standalone, including ESS based ones. This is basically what enabling the ESS option in AutoGK does. 2. I don't understand what "encode 2 pass with a Home Theatre profile with XviD" means...? Is this something you can do in AutoGK? 3. Also, are you saying that it's better to do Xvid than DivX? I have read that certain options in XviD can make a file unplayable on my 642 player. So to avoid this possibly happening, I was just going to go with DivX 5.2.1. Is XviD better quality than DivX? What is the difference? Thanks for the help -- looking forward to hearing back!
[bold]matt72[/bold] Thanks for the post! There's no rush, so you could have waited until you were done with work. I won't be doing this until the weekend after next at the earliest. But I still have some more questions and clarifications, if that's okay? Keep in mind I have a regular old Toshiba tube TV and no audio system. Also, I am burning ONLY to DVD-Rs (or it might be DVD+Rs -- I don't remember). I will not be burning to CDs at all. 1. Is using AutoGK better than using Dr. DivX? Will AutoGK provide better results? (I read that Dr. DivX supposedly does better a/v sync, though I have no idea how true this is...) 2. I'm still a bit unclear as to the specific differences for my 642 player. I didn't see anything in your instructions about using the ESS option in AutoGK...? 3. Let me tell you specifically what I'm looking to do: Can you tell me the specific steps/settings to use for the following? --------------------- 3a. Make a DivX back-up of a modern TV show (I won't way the name, but its initials are VM). It is in 1.78:1 aspect ratio, and I believe it is in the 16x9 anamorphic format. I want to keep the aspect ratio. The anamorphic part doesn't matter, as I don't have a widescreen TV -- it can stay or go, whatever's easiest/normal. I do not need to retain the subtitles. The only audio track I want to keep is the regular audio, which is probably the first track. I doubt it is AC3. (So would this be the regular audio as is? Or converted to mp3?) I do not know if the dvds themselves are interlaced or progressive. How does this come into effect? If it's anamorphic, does that mean it's progressive? --------------------- 3b. I also want to make DivX back-ups of an older (90's) cartoon show recently out on dvd (which I picked up). It is in 4:3 aspect ration, which I want to retain. (So I doubt it's anamorphic, right?) I'd like to retain the English subtitle track as an option to turn on and off if possible. If that's difficult (or they'd have to be on the whole time) then it's not necessary. The only audio track I want to keep is the regular audio, which is probably the first track. I doubt it is AC3. (So would this be the regular audio as is? Or converted to mp3?) I do not know if the dvds themselves are interlaced or progressive. But my guess is progressive. (Although, I may be looking at this the wrong way...) --------------------- I am still unclear as to the whole "output file size" and "target quality" stuff. It's going to DVD-Rs and I want to retain good quality and get a decent number of episodes per DVD-R. Would it be possible to just tell me what settings to use for the two different scenarios (3a. and 3b.) above? Oh, and just so you know, my 642 player will definitly NOT play DivX 6 (at least, according to Philips). So I'll go with DivX 5.2.1. (I did read that my player WILL play XviD, but only as long as certain options within that aren't present, so it's probably best to stick with DivX?) Thanks for all the help -- looking forward to hearing back! I appreciate it!
I have been backing up DVD's for a while now, but to be honest I didn't even know what Xvid was until recently. I had been wondering....you know how you say to yourself Hmmmmmmmmmmm I wonder if I could do that? Ha ha, it appeared that the AutoGK was the best bet and I have nothing but the highest praise for the person that put that fine piece of programming together. The first time I tried it, it worked like a charm. That would be my recommendation....as a newbie myself. Oh and it's not going to be DVD quality, but pretty darn close....well close enough for me anyhow. D
[bold]ironD[/bold] -- Did you use the DivX 5.2.1 codec with AutoGK or did you just go with XviD? I was going to use the DivX codec, just because there are certain aspects of XviD that my 642 player won't play, so I figured play it safe... What resolution and file size did you use in AutoGK to get the quality you ended up with? Did you end up with file sizes that would, say, let you fit 11 approx. 45 min. episodes of a TV show on one DVD? Thanks!
I used the XviD, since it already came with the AutoGK set up, and because I had been hearing such high praise for the newer XviD builds. You know I was really surprised at how good they came out. You know I don't really recall, I figured most of the defaults were ok so I just let it run. Let's see I have 6, 50 minute episodes on one disc, but there appears to be room for about 5 or six more. I started to get the 642, and finally decided on the 5140...so far I am very pleased with it. D
Pick any of these guides: http://www.videohelp.com/guides.php...=0&listallusers=&search=Search+or+List+Guides
