Ok I'm sick of the kids trashing dvd discs so I want to build a server to stream movies to the computers and tv's(via tv out) around my home the server and the network is not a problem what I need help with is the ins and outs of divx and xvid the procedure I have tried is this rip the dvd's with dvd decrypter using ifo mode and no file splitting this gives me a single VOB file that I load into virtualdub mod crop and resize then save as a divx or xvid this seems to work OK but my questions are 1 Which is better divx or Xvid and why ? 2 What size should I be making my avi's the orignals are 720 X 576 I have been resizing to 640 X 360 (as this size seems to be standard in downloaded movies) ? 3 Should I be compressing sound as well when I experimented with mp3 I ended up with a sync problem ? 4 Is there an easier way ? 5. Any Hints or tricks ? Thanks for any help
I have had alot of luck with Dr.Divx very easy interface makes the work easy and the quality like a pro.
1. I think XviD is better. It is open source and free. It is more powerfull and more flexible. 2. I doubt you would be downloading 640x360 stuff since 360 is not divisible by 16. I would just crop and not resize. Set the PAR in XviD's config so that it resizes correctly on playback. 3. If you want 5.1, you are probably best leaving it AC3. However you can save space by compressing to aac. 4. Plenty of apps like AutoGK, FairUse Wizard, StaxRip, AVI.NET, etc. that make it easier. 5. Resizing, etc. with VDub like that means converting to RGB24 colourspace and back. Although I guess if you use DivX you can use the internal filters. XviD doesn't have anything like that though since strickly speaking it has no place in a codec.
@ celtic_d sorry typo it was 640 X 368 I was croping and resizzing the images as I asumed that the black bars present on the top and bottom of wide screen dvd would cause an unnecasssary increase in file size is this correct ? I had a look at auto gk but converting sound to aac is not given as an option does any of the software you mentioned have this option as file size is important as this server will be holding in excess of 150 movies I saw an mp3 option but mp3 doesent appear to be very popular due too sync problems if I use the auto option under advaced options in the sound options does it compress or just maintain the original sound stream Like wise under video options to maintain 720 width do I use auto or do I need to use maximum width also I've encountered some pixelisation after convert in virtualdub mod any ideas on why ? Thank you for any extra help you or any others can provide
mp3 is very popular. Black bars are not good. That is why I suggested cropping. If you are concerned about size though, then you may have to resize down. AutoGK only does avi output, so it doesn't support aac. Look for something with mp4/mkv support like MeGUI if you want aac. Also using x264 would allow you to use lower bitrates.
