1 CD or 2 CDS?

[UncasMS]

full dvd resolution = ultimate quality

still the resolution has to be taken care of when transcoding to mpeg4

no cropping/resizing = no clue of proper transcoding

[boloog]

So what is wrong with 720x576, remember I am talking pal here not ntsc. DVD is also 720x576 so why should I rescale?? But I think going down to 700 in stead of 720 won't make much of a visual difference.
This resolution is also not slow also not on my 800Mhz Athlon. For tv I now use the sigma designs Xcard, great picture on my widescreen TV, far better compared to the tv-out on tnt2 graphics.

I encoded charlies Angels on 1747kbps video and 256kbps mp3 2-channel stereo (not joint stereo, 2 channel seems to be better to preserve the dolby surround signal) and with the xcard it looks just like the dvd on my tv so for me its perfect.

[UncasMS]

your avis will contain black bars and in many cases will not have the correct aspect ratio.

take a look at some guides like nickys or doom on resizing.
transcoding to avi while keeping the original resolution does NOT mean you're doing it right.

[boloog]

First of all, lets make clear that my divx-movies are only intended for home use, not for distribution to others so...
yes, there are some black bars, so are there in de dvd...
And the aspect ratio is exactly the same as the original dvd. Just take a look at these pictures:
Original dvd: http://boudewns.www.cistron.nl/divx/dvd.jpg
divx 720x576 1500kbps: http://boudewns.www.cistron.nl/divx/divx1500.jpg
I can't see why the divx aspect ratio is not ok at 720x576. The pictures are anamorphic that's all, because they are intended for watching on my widescreen tv. The player that comes with divx 5 also has a widescreen button that restores the correct aspect ratio...
By the way, format restrictions regarding divx5.01 are as follows:
With must be a multiple of 4
Height must be a multiple of 2
So, I still can't see what's wrong with my method.