newbie help with dvd to divx

[cypher007]

hello i need some help.
here is my setup:

Sigma Designs Xcard
Sigma Designs X mpeg 4 codec
Divx 5 pro with ac3 support

now all i want to do is convert ripped dvd's into divx/mpeg-4 format for playback on my xcard, with digital surround sound still intact. is this possible? if so whats the easiest software setup to use, producing the best quality of course. also i might want them to fit on a single 80min cdr, so it needs to be able to calculate the end file size for me.

[khp]

First of all, going for digital surround sound on a single 80 min CD-R, is probably a bit unrealistic. Except maybe for very short movies (sub 80 min).

I would suggest you look at GordianKnot

http://gknot.doom9.net

It will help you calculate the appropriate bitrate and encode with DivX5, and has inbuild AC3 support.
AFAIK the SD XCard has some compability issues with some of the divx5 pro features, I guess you will have to do some experimenting, to figure out which settings work for you.

[cypher007]

arghh errors

ok i downloaded gknot full then updated it to 2.611 something. anyway tried to follow the instructions and i keep getting an error on dvd2avi saying this file is not a valid 1.76/yuv2 file. is there any software which is less complecated to use e.g. ripped vob in divx/dolbydig out?

[khp]

Where do you get this error ? in gknot or DVD2AVI, is the color space set to yuv in DVD2AVI ?

I suppose you might try Flask or Xmpeg

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/dvdtodivx.html

[FreedomStarter]

I have been using

DiVX 5.02
MPEG-layer 3 for audio

Smart Ripper
and
Flask Mpeg
and here is the guide for flask

http://nickyguides.digital-digest.com/flaskmpeg.htm

And I'm sattisfied of the results