best DVD to AVI encoding

stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
edited August 2008 in Internet & Media
I'm the proud new owner of my first full fledged MP3/MP4 player (sansa fuze, 8GB). I bought an additional 8GB microsd so I can bring a few videos with me in case I get tired of music. I've successfully made MP4 from DVDs using the utility they supply, but it saves the MP4s as separate files (because you encode the VOBs to MP4s). I'm thinking of encoding to AVI then making a single MP4 from that. Thoughts?
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Comments

  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    http://handbrake.fr ?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    AutoGK.
  • BlackHawkBlackHawk Bible music connoisseur There's no place like 127.0.0.1 Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Too much work. You're ripping to MPEG, converting to AVI and then to MPEG again. Either rip MPEG as one file or merge them. I believe Handbrake rips to a single file.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    AutoGK.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Black Hawk wrote:
    Too much work. You're ripping to MPEG, converting to AVI and then to MPEG again. Either rip MPEG as one file or merge them. I believe Handbrake rips to a single file.

    Not correct. AVI is a container format which contains a codec. In theory you can put any video codec you want in there, including MPEG4 (divx/xvid/h264 AVC). AutoGK automates the conversion from MPEG2 (DVD) to MP4 (inside AVI).
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    I'll check them both out and will report back. FWIW, there's no encryption/ripping to tackle here, so I can go straight from mpeg2 to avi or mp4. If I can go straight from mpeg2 to mp4 (is MP4 a standard or do I need to ensure compatibility?) that would be ideal. Perhaps I asked the wrong questions initially :D.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    MP2 does go straight to MP4. MP(EG)4 files reside inside .AVI files, or are simply named as .MP4 files. MP4 is a broad word that refers specifically to one of three codecs:

    -XVID
    -DIVX
    -H.264 AVC
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    So I guess my needs are: convert DVD to MP4.

    I didn't have a chance last night to try the suggested apps. As long as their output is compatible with playback on the device I should be golden. I still have a month before leaving on a long trip.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    I use MP4 in AVI all the time for my PS3 with Xvid. works great.

    WinAVI is the fastest I've ever seen, 2 hour movie in 10 minutes.
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    Handbrake was the first, and it kept failing (some exception code, consistently regardless of settings). I used Super, which I'm already somewhat familiar with, but it creates individual mp4 files for each VOB. I was kinda hoping to get one large mp4 file. I'll try AutoGK and WinAVI next.
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    WinAVI offers to merge multiple files as they're added in the list. You just need to make sure they're in order.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    AutoGK does it automatically. Point to DVD drive, set desired size, come back when finished.
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    If you're looking to convert .VOB files you might want to try "DVDfab Platinum". One of the best programs out there for converting DVDs :)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    No need. AutoGK does that too.
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    No need. AutoGK does that too.


    I prefer DVDfab. Especially with the double encoding pass and the ability to set your own resolution/bit rate...

    Not to mention all the different conversion options :P
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    AutoGK does that too.
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    AutoGK does that too.


    Does AutoGK remove CSS protection?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Yep.
  • MrTRiotMrTRiot Northern Ontario Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Hmmm

    They seem fairly similar.

    Here's some screenies for comparison

    mobile-1.gif
    mobile-3.gif
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Good Lord. Nobody listens, Thrax.

    AutoGK is one of the simplest, yet most powerful, programs out there for video conversion of any kind. Do yourself a favor and try it above all others.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    Nobody can say I didn't try. ;D
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    Well, all the solutions had their issues. I didn't keep a detaile dlog but one didn't keep the native FPS and things fell severely out of sync midway through. The other added subtitles, which I didn't want, and didn't allow the option to remove it. Then there were issues putting the files through the Sandisk software and having the final output work properly. Sadly, I don't have the sort of spare time I used to to spend hours working the problems out.

    The final conclusion was to find another means of getting the media already in AVI and convert properly done AVI. Let someone else spend the time tinkering and reap the rewards. But I wish I could have done these myself.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    If you don't want subtitles, uncheck AutoGK's subtitles option. Otherwise, A/V sync is automated so there should be no issue there. It also supports AVI -> AVI.

    /me shrugs
    It's the best solution (and easiest) for what you want to do, but you can't expect to spend no time on it and get perfect results. Phones don't all support the same mepg4 parameters: Some cap the audio bitrate, some cap the video bitrate, some limit you to 15 FPS, some have a maximum resolution, etcetera.
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    It's the best solution (and easiest) for what you want to do, but you can't expect to spend no time on it and get perfect results. Phones don't all support the same mepg4 parameters: Some cap the audio bitrate, some cap the video bitrate, some limit you to 15 FPS, some have a maximum resolution, etcetera.

    The limitations of the playback device don't seem to be the problem. 90% of the issues are in the generated AVIs prior to trying to load them to the phone, the other 10% represents a single issue with the phone conversion losing sync.

    A long time ago I gave up creating SVCDs and AVIs for the same reason I'm again walking away -- too many variables to make it a viable and easy solution. Thankfully everything I wanted is out there in AVI already. 9/10 times the Sandisk conversion works so I'll get 90% of the media I want loaded, which in the end is the ultimate goal.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited August 2008
    I don't really understand how/why you're having a problem. AutoGK is as easy as it gets, and does most of the thinking for you. All a user has to do is click a check buttons and set a few dropdowns, and it takes care of the rest.

    I'm not sure what you're doing that's making this a stumbling block for you, as it really is quite a simple and automated process. :-/
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    It just sounds like he's a quitter to me.
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    Thrax wrote:
    I'm not sure what you're doing that's making this a stumbling block for you, as it really is quite a simple and automated process. :-/


    What's even funnier is I have an above average understanding of video editting and the formats, etc. If Super allowed for creating a single file from multiple VOBs (maybe it does and I missed it?) I would have been fine with that, as it does an okay job. The requirement to have the content merged to one file seems to be the issue, only certain apps seem to be capable of trying, and not necessarily succeeding some of the time.

    Your Amish Daddy wrote:
    It just sounds like he's a quitter to me.

    Quitter with many other things to juggle of greater importance. :cool:


    I appreciate everyone's contributions and suggestions. Hopefully this will serve to educate others...
  • Your-Amish-DaddyYour-Amish-Daddy The heart of Texas
    edited August 2008
    Well, if you want to remove the subtitles, pause the movie during conversion and disable subtitles by rightclicking the demuxer (Often times MP4, FFDSHOW which shows up as a red FFd Icon in the tray.) and choose to disable subtitles.
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    Okay, I'm back with my tail between my legs :(.

    I have learned that the playback device I'm using (Sansa Fuze) plays at 20fps! This explains my issues I believe, because even with a properly encoded AVI file the audio still falls out of sync when put through the Sansa converter. Then I looked online and discovered I'm not alone and everyone using the utility is having similar issues. Before I was not getting my conversion to work properly before even sending the AVI through the Sansa media converter. Now I have perfectly generated AVI files, but I'm only 50% there it seems.

    So I tried Super again and set the output type to AVI with MP4 decoding and MP3 audio, video at 224x176 resolution (supposedly what the player uses) with 20fps. I removed the 48khz audio flag set by default and left it on high quality. The audio is set to 44.1 128kbps MP3 with auto/default audio track selection. The file attempts to convert and fails before finishing. The error in Super is always the same generic one (useless/non-specific).

    The good news is that unlike before, I can copy/paste the almost converted AVI onto the memory card with out an error. Before if I tried to copy just any old AVI it would popup a window alert that the file type is unsupported by the device and asked if I wanted to copy anyway. Unfortunately it still doesn't playback on the device (says it's unsupported), but that may just be a result of the file being unfinished/corrputed.

    One question I have is conversion to a non-standard format like 20fps. Is this really possible? Won't I always have problems getting NTSC encoded files to convert to this?
  • stoopidstoopid Albany, NY New
    edited August 2008
    I just found something that may explain things - 225 Kbps is the max supported bitrate for similar Pocket PC playback devices... Does this sound right?

    According to another online source the Maximum Bytes Per Second is 101885. The last encoding I tried was at or slightly below this level, but the problem with Super is it won't even finish the encoding and I was suspecting the 20FPS were the culprit.

    http://spicifer.blogspot.com/2008_08_01_archive.html

    I also noted the paragraph... "There are some notable differences to the working example file. I suspect the most important one is "AVIF_ISINTERLEAVED" flag, which means that this avi file has interleaved video and audio. It is possible that this may be too much for the Sansa Fuze to handle."
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