AVI (DivX & XviD) -> MPEG-2 (SVCD)

[clokkevi]

Hello!

I have some instructional videos in AVI (mostly DivX, a few Xvid).
Because these are instructions on how to do things with a PC,
I have found it's not the best solution to view them on my PC's monitor
- since I only have one, it then becomes a lot of Alt+TAB'ing.

Instead of buying another monitor, I bought a cheap DVD-player,
and connected it to my TV.
I have tested it, and I know for sure it can play SVCD's also.

But since it cannot play DivX, I need a way to convert these to SVCD.

I have been looking around for a while, and there seem to be many tools:

Canopus ProCoder (I think?)
Cucusoft AVI to DVD/ VCD/ SVCD/ MPEG Converter Pro
X-OOM DivXToDVD
Zealot AVI to VCD/ SVCD/ DVD Converter
Aare AVI to VCD/ DVD/ SVCD/ MPEG Converter
and probably a lot more.

Although I'm not sure, I think what these programs have to do, for the video part, is

1. Decode the AVI
2. Encode the MPEG-2

I guess that at least some of these tools depend on 3rd party codecs.
That is, they won't work unless I already have installed a DivX decoder.
Maybe they come with their own MPEG-2 en-coders, then?

This is leading me to my questions.

I want the best quality.
I don't care if it's 10 steps through 5 different tools.

Is there a MPEG-2 en-coder which is so good it's considered "the best"?
Or is it all depending on the content of the video
- like tool A is best for action scenes, tool B is best for "screen-grab-movies"
(mine are definantly "screen-grab-movies")

What about the DivX decoding?
I use DivX 5.11. But... I'm thinking... this codec is made so it can
decode DivX in real-time.
Could one get better images - eh, frames - if real-time wasn't needed?
Like - a 5-pass DivX decoder - or something..?


I see the answer often given here to "DivX->DVD?", is TMPGEnc.
I remember reading a comparsion test between
TMPGEnc Plus, Cinema Craft Encoder SP and some others
- even though CCE SP was slightly better, TMPGEnc Plus was
the winner because of it's bang-for-the-bucks.
But this was a while ago.
Maybe the situation has changed now?

Hmm. A lot of talk. I gusee my 2 questions really are:


1. Which MPEG-2 encoder is the best? (If there is one?)

2. Which AVI DivX decoder is the best? (If there are any alternatives?)

[pieroxy]

1. Which MPEG-2 encoder is the best? (If there is one?)
TMPGEnc has proven to be better than CCE in the last releases (Use the 2-pass VBR mode) according to my reads. This is my choice - for a long time now - and I try not to make ANY compromise on quality.

2. Which AVI DivX decoder is the best? (If there are any alternatives?)
Dono. I don't think you'll find anything better than the usual codec, but that's just a guess.

[tigerman8u]

i have TMPGenc Plus and Main Concept on my computer. To my eye both seem to be of equal quality.
I use MC mostly because of being faster. When neeeding more settings I go with TMPGenc Plus.