How to achieve same video quality of DVD/MPG-2 using DVIX

[nufdude]

I am capturing from my CAMCORDER. Using Canopus 1394 capture card. The AVI (DV) I get is from the capture is very decent (I would say meets my requirements). As we know the next part is to save to AVI to more “storable” format i.e. MPG2 / DVD or Divx.

I use TMPEGEnc to convert to DVD/MPEG2 (Rather than m2v & wav, I just create MPG2 file). For bit rates, in TMPEGEnc settings, I got as 2-pass VBR with Avg 7000kbits min 2000kbits and max 8000kbits (using the defaults basically). Audio also default 384kbs. The output MPEG 2 generated is decent. (Again meets my requirements).

Now the problem is that I don’t own a DVDR/W drive. So I need to back these on regular 700MB CDs. Since I can fit only 12 min or so of video at these bit rates, I started exploring DivX /MPEG4.

I used Virtual dub to convert my raw / DV AVI to Divx 5.1.1. (I am using the standard free one, not the Pro codec . Also had to install Panasonic DV Codec for Virtual dub to recognize the AVI) I do a 2 pass encoding (basically 1-pass then n-pass) using 7000kbits as avg bit rate. For audio I am using LAME ACM MP3 with 48kHz sampling @ 128kbs bit rate stereo.
I have noticed many issues,

1. The final generated is totally out of sync with Audio (almost about 2 secs or so). Is this because of the MP3 encoder I used? Should I be just leaving it as PCM? Since audio from Camcoder is just voice I don’t need very high sampling.

2. Generated video quality is poor! It is all blocky. At times video fames are frozen. I am playing back in Window Media player (7.1) and Real Video G8. CPU utilization is 100%. Could the CPU utilization is the issue? (For my computer details see below).

3.Finally and the major one, the reason I started playing with Divx is because I was under the impression that Using the MPEG4/Divx codec I can get any where 1:4 to 1:10 compression. But the files I got are almost the same size of the MPEG2. Bit rate calculators too give about the same file sizes I got.

3 a.So basically if the file sizes are same, what is the advantage of Divx? Is it advantages if I got multiple audio tracks or AC3 sound?
3.b.OR did I miss something here?

I would appreciate if some one can kindly clarify these for me.

Thanks
NufDude

My System:
Intel-P3 –933; PC 133 384MB Ram; Onboard AGP 2x (16MB shared Video memory)
Canopus 1394 Capture card Using the Vegas 3.0 LE supplied with the card.
WesternDigital 80GB 7200RPM
Toshiba DVD/CDR/W combo drive
Windows 2000/SP4.
Virtual dub & Mod V 1.5.10/ Divx Standard-Free Codec 5.1.1
TMEGEnc

[megamachine]

If you are happy with the way the MPEG-2 looks, you might want to try VirtualDubMod to convert to a DivX/XviD encoded AVI. To fit your movie on a 700MB CD, you can use a bitrate calculater to determine the optimum file size/bitrate ratio. MP3 is OK, but a lot of people are moving to OGG, which gives smaller file sizes with the same quality, leaving more room for video. In any case, you can process the video in VirtualDubMod, then save the audio track as a WAV (select it in the Streams menu) and encode that to MP3 using something like HeadAC3che, or whatever is used for OGG (not familiar myself), and then add it back in the Streams menu, disabling the original audio track. I have found that using VirtualDubMod with MPEG-2 files that are captured from video works better than following the guides for converting DVD rips (which use VOB files) to XviD/DivX. Hope this is of some help.

[GRDODD]

Can you give me some idea of the length of the AVI file you are trying to convert in minutes & seconds and the resulting file size you get when you encode with DivX?
I have been using a proprietary encoder/compression agent & I don't have any audio sync problems ad I get much smaller file sizes compared to other codecs.

[setarip]

To nufdude

If, as you state, your initial file is in (Uncompressed) .AVI, simply use VirtualDub or VirtualDubMOD to convert it DIRECTLY to DivX-compressed .AVI...

[mikeylikess99]

mpg2 to avi.....

ok..can someone explain the process of converting mp2 to avi..seems like the file gets bigger..not smaller..thanks in advance,,,