I need the big guns

[d-clone]

I read one of the beginer guides on dvd ripping.
I used FlaskMPEG, which I hear is crap, but I used bc the guide said so. Using one of those bi rate calcs, I found I had to use 940 kbps. I did that, I used 720x368 at 29.9 fps, just like the guide said.
I compared it to another Divx movie I downloaded, which had DVD quality. I found that the resolution they used was 640x360 at 25 fps. Thats the only difference I found.
Apart from the other diferece, which was that the movie I ripped looked like crap, and the one that I downloaded had DVD quality.
Now this really pisses me off, I wasted 20 hours (used 2-pass) for utter crap.
I want to know what THE PROS use. I heard about GK and Nandub. Which one is better? I also want to know if I should reduce my framerate from 29.9 to 25 and drop my resolution from 720x368 to whatever. If I do that, how would I calculate my Divx bitrate?

[Enchanter]

Your rip: 720x368 at 29.9 fps (Unknown Play length)
Other rip: 640x360 at 25 fps (Unknown Play length)

Firstly, the resolution of your rip is too high, even for a bitrate of 940 kbps. A wise decision would be to lower the resolution to no higher than 640x(). The other rip may look better because it probably has a higher video bitrate than yours (You haven't specified how long the movies are).

A frame rate of 29.9 will typically require more bitrate than would another video with the same parameters, but at 25 fps. It would be beneficial for you to reduce this framerate to 23.97 (I'm assuming you're working on Originally-FILM, NTSC material). However, to do this successfully, you can't use Flask. GordianKnot will do the job better (In fact, I suggest you use this method for ripping DVDs). I suppose your rip suffers from interlacing artifacts as well, right? GK should make your life easier as well.

As a last note, the quality of results from Flask leaves a lot to be desired, especially when it comes to interlaced materials.

[d-clone]

Ok, that clears some stuff out, thanks!
I still have some q´s
The length is the same on both movies - 94 min.
Will GK automatically calculate the bitrate once I resize? (I hope its also faster than Flask)
Also, do you recomend techno´s guide? He suggests using Divx 3.11 instead of 5.02
He also says to ripp the audio into a Wav, with vob2audio, then change the samplerate to 44k, then convert to mp3, then merge in virtualdub mp3. Isnt it just easier to use virtualdub 1.4 to open the wav and compress it right there, with 44k sample rate and all?

[benderman]

One factor to calculate the best resolution and bitrate is the bitperpixel-value. That value describes how many bits are used to encode one pixel. If you have no bitrate-calculator that can calculate that value you can use this formula:

bitperpixel=bitrate x 1024 / (width x hight x framerate)

For the two movies a bitrate of 940kbps would cause the following bitperpixel:

720x368 at 29.9 fps => bitperpixel = 0.122
640x360 at 25 fps => bitperpixel = 0.167 (40% more than yours)

The bitperpixel-value should be about 0.15 - 0.2 for good quality. 0.3 - 0.5 would give you the maximum quality but will cause a very high filesize. If the value is lower than 0.2 the 2-pass-encoding will give visible better quality at the same filesize.

[Enchanter]

Resizing will not cause the encoder to automatically adjust the bitrate. It is up to you to decide what bitrate to use. As far as I'm concerned, Flask has never been a fast performer nor an excellent one. It is perfectly good for beginners though.

As for which codec to use, you have to decide on your own (Your eyes are the best judge for that). 3.11 2-pass requires that you learn to use nandub, which is a tad more complicated than learning 2-pass 4.x/5.x. Since you've already learned how to do 2-pass encoding using 4.x/5.x codec (Only nandub can do 3.11 2-pass encoding), I suggest you use either codec, 5.02 preferably.

As for the sampling rate, I don't see anything wrong with keeping the default frequency of 48kHz, unless you are creating a VCD (which requires that you use 44.1kHz sound stream). I personally can't hear the difference between a 48kHz and 44.1kHz sound (An audiophile I'm probably not, or my speakers are just not good enough ^_^). However, when you are resampling the audio to 44.1kHz, the process will take a longer time (Not that much longer anyway).

Isnt it just easier to use virtualdub 1.4 to open the wav and compress it right there, with 44k sample rate and all?

Supposedly you need to repeat the encoding, it will require you to do the same with the sound, won't it? That equates to extra time required for audio processing. This won't happen if you already have a separate sound file ready to be directly muxed with the audio during video processing. This saves you a considerable amount of time, especially if the movie is long and you repeat the encoding a lot of times.

[d-clone]

Ok, so the bitrate that I calculated before (940) with my bitrate calc will not affect the ammount of sapce the avi will take up once I encode with the new resolution?

[Erci]

i would say as enchanter use divx 5.0.2 it's a little bit easier then nandub. Though if you want to use divx 3.11 instead you can read either mine or technos guide. Or just go to the official site att gknot.doom9.org. They all differ a little from each other. though I do prefer my way=) isn't that strange

//Erci

[Enchanter]

Ok, so the bitrate that I calculated before (940) with my bitrate calc will not affect the ammount of sapce the avi will take up once I encode with the new resolution?

The bitrate directly determines how much space the encoded video willl take. The resolution (size) of the video does not.

[d-clone]

i see most guides decode the audio, compress it, and then join it with the compressed video in the end. Whats wrong with letting nandub do the audio and the video in one blow?

[Enchanter]

I gave you the reason for that above. You don't want to keep reencoding the sound stream whenever you are repeating the encoding process. It is a waste of time.

[d-clone]

ok, i encoded again, this time with gk, the results were amazingly better, but still not as good as I would hope. The quality is still not dvd. I used 512x288. I wanna use 640x352 though, and improve the quality.
Heres the funny thing, GK used a 2 pass encoding, after the first pass, the log says that "new bitrate is 776", even though the GK calc tells me to use 913. And I ended up with a 610 Mb movie.
So I have like 100 megs that I can still use to improve image quality.
What should I do. Is there a way to force GK to use 913 kbps with nandub in the second pass? Or maybe just a little more tinkering with the controls?
Another thing that is getting on my nerves. What Codec do I use 3 or 5? Whats the differece, pros and cons?

[UncasMS]

divx 5.02 should be the better choice exspecially for 1cd rips

divx3 is the older format and a two pass encoding using divx3 can only be achieved with nandub

divx 4 (total crap) and 5 do the two pass encoding on the part of the codec whereas divx3 has no such integrated feature and two passes will have to be made through the tool (nandub) in use.

are you dealing with PAL or NTSC??

for pal take a look at my divx 5.02 guide:

http://www.atlandide.net/~uncasms/en/index.php?page=gordian

[d-clone]

Its an NTSC movie, Ill comress at 25 fps though. Does that make it a PAL movie?
As for the 100 megs I have to spare for quality, anyone?
Oh, I did a compressibility check on GK, with 640x352 I get 35.6% and its on a red background. And I got .166 for my bits/pixel*frame.
Since Im sorta new at this i dunno what I should aim for as far as my combination between compressibility check % and bits/pixel*frame.
Also, I dunno if this means that the video is interlaced, but sometimes when stop the slider in DVD2AVI there are parts where I see scan lines. Like on the borders of things. I saw some options to deinterlace but i dunno which one to use.

BTW if I select DivX5, It gives me .174 bits/pixel*frame, should I go with that? it has yellow background now. If I use DivX5, will nandub use its own 2-pass technique, or will GK use Divx5´s in-codec technique?

[khp]

Originally posted by d-clone

Heres the funny thing, GK used a 2 pass encoding, after the first pass, the log says that "new bitrate is 776", even though the GK calc tells me to use 913. And I ended up with a 610 Mb movie.

Strange, Gknot recalculates the bitrate, because it thinks the bitrate won't fit the desired filesize, usually becase the audio filesize came out different than expected. Post your *_GKnot.log file, I'll be happy to take a look at it.

Originally posted by d-clone

Its an NTSC movie, Ill comress at 25 fps though. Does that make it a PAL movie?

NO !!! you must not do that. When encodeing from NTSC DVD's you must use 29.9 fps or 23.9 if you used forcefilm or ivtc.

Originally posted by d-clone

Oh, I did a compressibility check on GK, with 640x352 I get 35.6% and its on a red background. And I got .166 for my bits/pixel*frame.

35.6% is rather low, I think you should aim for about 60% - 70%.

[d-clone]

Thanks!
heres my log file.