How do I determine the output size of DivX?

[mp3comanche]

Hi there,

I am using FlaskMpeg to encode ripped DVDs. I am however not able to find a reliable way of determining the output filesize of the encoded DivX movie in advance. I have consulted Nicky's Guide and used the recommended Advanced Bitrate calc. The result had almost 200 megs more than the calc ad told me.

Here's the detailed info: movie duration 99 mins, DivX4.11, audio 48 000Hz, 96 kbps mp3, resolution 720x576 (hope I remeber these numbers correctly) frame rate 25, 800 kbps (the calc actually recommended 860 but I, suspecting that this would be too much, chose a lower bitrate). Wanted 700 meg movie but got about 890megs.

Is anyone able to tell me what other tricks can I use to determine the final size more accurately? 200 meg difference is a little annoying (never seen 900 meg CD-R), given the 5 hours I need to encode the stuff. Or do ya have any overview of quality/resolution/audio combinations that would tell me what amount of space a minute of DivX video with specific characteristics would use? Any personal experience/recommendations welcome.

Thanx a lot

mp3comanche

[benderman]

Some movies store to much information to compress them as much as you want. You should reduce the resolution of the video to 640x480 or 512x384 and use two-pass-encoding.

[Enchanter]

The quantisizer setting will pretty much affect the file size. Higher value means worse quality, but smaller filesize and vice versa.

[mp3comanche]

Enchanter, what exactly did you mean by "quantisizer"?

mp3comanche

[Enchanter]

On the right-hand side of the codec setting, you should see a few parameters, the first two being the min. and max quantisizers. The default values are 2 and 12 respectively. Do you see it? I've just been told earlier by a friend that he sees none of it with his own codec (4.x), which is weird because I'm very sure it's there (It is for me).

[mp3comanche]

OK, can't see it 'cuz I am at work now....the rippin' machine is at home. I'll have a look. So what you recommend is to set higher value of the quantisizer (e.g. 4 instead 2 and 14 instead of 12)? Do I get it right?
If this worked I'd be happy for I'd rather avoid 2-pass encoding as I don't want to spend my life encoding some damn xxx-movie....I just want to learn how to rip'n'encode and this movie is all I have available. Thanx for help anyway.

mp3comanche

[Enchanter]

I usually set min-2 and max-8, but going with lower values for the sake of quality (and at the price of more space) is not a bad idea too.

Actually, I'm still a 3.11-pro encoder, if you ask me. Maybe I should put "Long Live nandub!!!" as my signature.

[Erci]

Another thing that you can use is gordian knot. It's works very good and quality also gets better (according to me). But you have to do the audio seperatly and then multiplex with nandub. This wotks really fine and you can do all the cropping inside GKnot. It also have an calculator, that works fine, built in.
You can download GKnot at: http://gknot.doom9.org/Software/GKnot.rar and the official guide (a really good guide) at: http://www.doom9.org/gknot-main.htm.
This should help me out cause it really helped me.

//Erci

PS: 900MB CD-R does excist=)

[Enchanter]

The link to the guide is dead. Are there alternatives? I haven't got a guide for it yet, so quite interested in it.

900MB CD-R does excist=)

Yup, but I heard that you need quite a late-model generation of CD burner to be able to use it.

[Erci]

Delete the dot after htm and you get their.... I didn't thought about that when I wrote.

//Erci

[Enchanter]

Oh, right. I didn't notice it!