Re: a few questions about encoding

HI!

sssslang wrote:
> Hi there. Recently I try to transcode a dvd using xvid for video codec(I
> think it's free while open source). My source dvd is 4G, but only
> elapsed 1 hour and 20 minutes. Since I'm a noob in video encoding, so I
> almosted use the default settings in dvd::rip. I tried two times: first
> with "target size: 700M, BPP: 0.225", whose result is not made me
> satisfied; and second with "target size: 1400M, BPP: 0.480", I found the
> output also not good enough.
>   

I think I know the solution to your problem. dvd::rip unfortunately has
a really bad feature: by default, it selects the 'Autoadjust,  Medium
Frame Size, Fast Resize' under the 'Clip&Zoom' tab, at the 'Adjust clip
and zoom parameters'. I will never understand why the developers chose
to do so. Anyways, select the 'Autoadjust, Medium Frame Size, HQ Resize'
and press 'Apply preset values' in the 'Clip&Zoom' tab. The resulting
video will be flawless. It took me 2 years to discover this, after
encoding DVDs at some amazingly high 0.55 BPP and still getting
bad-bad-bad results. I only wish the developers could change this. I can
hardly think they ever encode their dvds with 'fast resize', since then
all of their encoded dvds would be such a low quality that they wouldn't
be able to watch it.

As for other settings, I personally recommend the following: go to the
'Transcode' tab, select 'xvid' as 'Video Codec', click on the
'Configure...' button next to it (it will probably give you some warning
window, just click 'OK'), and select '4-Wide Search' for the 'VHQ' on
the 'Features' tab, under 'General Settings'. If your dvd is grayscale,
also select the 'Grayscale' option. In the same panel, go to 'Save/Load'
and click on 'Save Settings', then click 'Quit'. In the 'Transcode' tab,
under 'Video options', select 'Smart deinterlacing' - it will take care
of everything that has to do with interlacing. I also personally
recommend you to play the dvd in mplayer, and watch for the output - see
if the framerate given by mplayer for the title you want to encode (e.g.
'mplayer dvd://2' if it's the second title) is the same as given by
dvd::rip under the 'Transcode' tab, under 'Video options' - 'Video
framerate'. If not, then change it to the framerate reported by mplayer,
since mplayer is always correct. I had many problems with dvd::rip not
correctly recognising the framerate :( If you are an audio-expert, or
you like your poems recited with flawless audio, you can also change the
'Bit-/Samplerate' in the 'Transcode' tab, under 'Audio options' to a
higher bitrate, I recommend '160'. Don't go beyond '192' - you won't
hear the difference. If you want to be an expert or something, you can
also have a look under the 'Clip&Zoom' tab - sometimes dvd::rip decides
to cut some pixels at the top,bottom and both sides of your dvds
(clipping is for getting rid of content that is always black) - you can
see this by clicking on the rightmost picture shown - a window will come
up, where you can move the white lines on the sides and at the
top&bottom. Move them around such that 1) <left-right> and <top-bottom>
are symmetrical 2) dvdrip does not give you a warning that 'xxxxx is not
divisable by 16'. 3) There is no real content that is outside the white
rectangle. Clipping is essentially putting a frame around your film -
everything inside the rectangle will be encoded, but everything outside
it will be discarded. The more useless content(e.g. black areas)
discarded, the better the final quality.

Well, that's it for today :) Try BPP rates of between 0.20 and 0.35, it
should give you nice quality. Just one more hint: under the 'Transcode'
tab, in 'General options', set the 'Process nice level' to '19'. It will
use all your CPU when available, but will stay in the background when
you want to do other stuff with your computer. This, by the way, should
also be a default in dvd::rip, since I can hardly think that most people
who use dvd::rip have a spare computer just to do ripping...

Cheers,

Mate

PS: Report back if the above given hints gave you a good quality rip.

PS2: Dear developers. I know this sounds like a rant, but it is simply a
collection of bugs/feature wishes. Please take it as such.