Divx vs mpeg1 bitrate comparison

[perdomot]

I'm converting my old vhs movies into VCD/XVCDs using the mpeg1 format. In order to get good quality, I've been dividing the movie between 2 CDs which enable me to use a bitrate of 2300-2500 and an audio of 128. I'm interested in experimenting with Divx but don't know how the bitrates compare to each other. For example, the standard vcd bitrate is 1150 but how does a video encoded with divx at the same bitrate compare to mpeg1? Is it more detailed, less artifacts, etc? I've heard people talking about getting 90 minute movies on one CD but how's the quality? I've fit some 80 minute movies on one xvcd but the quality was definately less than the vhs tape with some blockiness and artifacts. Is there a rule for comparing the formats like a 2 to 1 ratio or something similar? Thanks for any help you can offer.

[SKD_Tech]

I have seen 700KBPS DivX movies look great you just have to experiment and see what works good with what movies. A movie with barely any action will be able to look good at a lower bitrate than a movie with a lot of action and camera movingness (if that's a word)

[jim2386]

Also, I've found how dark a movie is makes it look better or worse. I encoded k-19 the widowmaker which takes place almost entirely in a dark sub. I only needed 600kb and the video is almost DVD quality, I can't even see any macroblocks. However, when I encoded a movie that was all white (can't rememver that tom cruise one where they pull out his eyes and stuff) but the compressor had a lot harder time encoding it and it was more blocky. So basically, check the light levels in your movies too, it has an effect.

[SKD_Tech]

Bourne Identity I think is what it is. Yes a movie like that has a to be a little bit higher bitrate for action and brightness

[atifsh]

Originally posted by SKD_Tech
Bourne Identity I think is what it is. Yes a movie like that has a to be a little bit higher bitrate for action and brightness

hahaha tom cruise in bourne identity kewlllll.

hey guys that was in minority report

and oh yeah if u dont hav a space problem then divx at 4000 commpression gives dam almost dvd quality
but i have riped dvds at 1000 and 2000 with excellent quality infact yesterday i made a copy of mIIb for my friend whole movie on one 700 mb cdrw dam quality was excellent bythe way iv use dr divx for that

[jim2386]

YEA! That's the movie, minority report....dammit, why couldn't I remember that! lol

[SKD_Tech]

opps yeah Minority report. Bourne Identity has one of those look at me I am a fancy lad fag dudes in it

[techno]

Personally -

DIVX is far better than VCD as we all should know (depending on the source of course) but generally DIVX beats VCD (GENERALLY! )

SKD knows that

hmm....I would recommend DIVX than MPEG 1(VCD)

DIVX can put the movie on 1 CD for ya and at a good bitrate as well as quality - check it out testing is the way to go!

If you wanna play it on your DVD player - get a DVD burner (ok ok not an ideal solution) or encode it as SVCD (if ur player supports it)

make sure u r using TMPGENC to encode to VCD/DVD/SVCD - higher quality and faster at processing!

[shiny#3]

to get that in discussion to a number based discussion

a vhs recorder records with a bandwith of 3 mhz,
and is able to produce 240 physical lines. (analog measure, NOT pixel!)
SVHS produces 400 lines with the bandwith of 5 MHZ.

so if you want to maintain 70-80% of the videoinput signal
choose a resolution of 480 to 480 to capture

if you want to maintain 100 % of the video input signal
choose a resolution of 704x576 (1408x1152) yuv2 (rgb)
especially if you are dealing with SVHS format.
strange values .. i know .... just to maintain compatibility with most mpeg4 codecs.

I am not referring to mpeg1 to divx ratio anymore since
mpeg1 (352x288 pal or worse ntsc) will not maintain
more than 40 %-50% of the original analog video input signal.
but if you like you can guess out of the following.

mpeg2 to mpeg4
an Mpeg4 codec becomes almost lossless at the ratio of
3.0or4.0:1 depending on the codec you use.

so regarding the fact that an analog videocapture must be
first pass and regarding the ratio between mpeg2 and mpeg4
compression an analog video capture (also regarding the capability
of differing greyscale and colour lines in analog) becomes almost lossless

at a mpeg 4 bitrate of about 1.2 mbit/second or little bit higher
(differs from Vhs Svhs or dv/svideo analog input signal)

hope this helps!!!