Microsoft Mpeg4 V3 vs. Divx 5.0.2 ????

[deckhands]

Hi,

Currently, I'm using Divx 5.0 to encode my video's
320x240 500kbps. This allows me reasonable quality and relatively small files Apprx 500 to 600mb for average movie.

A friend of mine said I should use Microsoft Mpeg4 V3 codec instead to get smaller files. I didn't believe him but it does seem to reduce file size "Disney-A Bugs Life" at 321 MB verses Divx 5.0 at 557mb. I set the data rate at 1500 on MPEG4v3.

Can anyone tell me the up or downs of going over to this codec. I've been happy with divx 5.0 but if there's no known downsides file space is precious. I'm converting a 100+ vhs tape library with 6hours per tape to disk.


Thanks for any advice in advance

Tony

[khp]

Re: Microsoft Mpeg4 V3 vs. Divx 5.0.2 ????

Originally posted by deckhands

A friend of mine said I should use Microsoft Mpeg4 V3 codec instead to get smaller files. I didn't believe him but it does seem to reduce file size "Disney-A Bugs Life" at 321 MB verses Divx 5.0 at 557mb. I set the data rate at 1500 on MPEG4v3.

This just proves that M$v3 doesn't do what you ask of it. To make a fair comparison, calculate the bitrate neede to hit 321 MB with Divx5 and compare the image quality, with the M$v3 encoding.

And remember, you are the only one who can decide, what looks best to you

[deckhands]

For Divx 5.0 , Which Calculator is the best?


Thanks for the help and great info

[khp]

Any calculator that claims compability with divx4 is OK for divx5. But it's not really that important which calculator you use, they will never differ by more than 1-3%.

Personally I use GordianKnot.

[Batman]

Here's my preference:

1) xvid (customizable but sometimes perplexing)
2) SBC (use NANDUB) (its old but still worthwhile)
3) divx 5 (easy to use, great features)

I would not use MSMPEG4V3

[mironto]

windows' basic calculator does the job as well You just have to know that bitrate is in Kilobites (1 Kilobyte = 8 Kilobites), size of CD is in Megabytes (700 MBytes = 716800 KBytes = 734003200 Bytes), 1 hour = 60 minutes = 3600 seconds and the rest is math
example:
you want 600MB movie (w/o sound) = 614400 KB = 4915200 Kb
the movie is 1h:30m = 90m = 5400s

bitrate = size / length = 4915200 Kb / 5400s = 910,2 Kilobites/s

of course, who'd want to calculate such a thing if you have bitrate calculators?

[Enchanter]

Originally posted by mironto
windows' basic calculator does the job as well You just have to know that bitrate is in Kilobites (1 Kilobyte = 8 Kilobites), size of CD is in Megabytes (700 MBytes = 716800 KBytes = 734003200 Bytes), 1 hour = 60 minutes = 3600 seconds and the rest is math
example:
you want 600MB movie (w/o sound) = 614400 KB = 4915200 Kb
the movie is 1h:30m = 90m = 5400s

bitrate = size / length = 4915200 Kb / 5400s = 910,2 Kilobites/s

of course, who'd want to calculate such a thing if you have bitrate calculators?

That is the hard way of doing it. The ability of bitrate calculators to take into account the size of the audio, whether existing or of an estimated bitrate, always comes in handy.

[mironto]

Originally posted by Enchanter
That is the hard way of doing it. The ability of bitrate calculators to take into account the size of the audio, whether existing or of an estimated bitrate, always comes in handy.

Of course I encode first the audio and subtract from 700MB the size of it + some 4MB for CBR or 8MB for VBR and then do the math...
I know that bitrate calculators do the job almost the same way, but I'm a bit parranoid and trust only myslelf