Which tool do you use to convert Your Dvds to divx?

[ricardo.santos]

Hi everyone!

Untill now i have relied on "1 click/automatic dvd to divx conversion programs" like AutoGk, avi.Net and recently StaxRip.

Which tool do you use? Are you a "control freak" and have specific tools for specific tasks(1 tool to demultiplex, 1 tool for video,1 tool for audio and 1 tool for muxing etc) or do you use "1 click applications"?

[weaver4]

MPEG Mediator; gives you good control over the codecs and does an excellent job of keeping audio in sync with video. avi.net is my second choice. DrDivx2 shows promise.

[Slitheen]

I was using AutoGK for quite a while, but I did find it lacked a couple of options I would have used, or disabled, options which are on Dr. Divx.

Now I'm using Dr.Divx2 which is turning into the DADDY, especially with Divx 6.1

[mod]

Usually I use avisynth+VDub+ other stuff for audio..
Note: In the last days I'm trying StaxRip (nice one!), and I have problems in bitrate control with 2 pass XviD conversions. I'm using the "wrong" version (latest Celtic Druid build), anyone knows if this can be the cause? I won't open a new thread just for such a question, and I cannot change codec actually (a lot of waiting jobs..), so the first answer will be the last too, I promise ;)

[stax76]

Note: In the last days I'm trying StaxRip (nice one!), and I have problems in bitrate control with 2 pass XviD conversions. I'm using the "wrong" version (latest Celtic Druid build), anyone knows if this can be the cause? I won't open a new thread just for such a question, and I cannot change codec actually (a lot of waiting jobs..), so the first answer will be the last too, I promise

I don't know if XviD had breaking changes but if so it should break other apps probably before StaxRip which relies only on three XviD registry keys:


sl("desired_size") = desired_size
sl("stats") = Paths.GetTempDir + p.Name + ".pass"
sl("bitrate") = CInt(p.VideoBitrate + ((frames * 0.024 * 8 * 1.024) / sec))


It's unlikely these keys have changed, I can't imagine a reason for, I didn't test any builds later 1.1.0 Beta 2, I hope they work. StaxRip will give a warning that a wrong XviD version is used, why the warnings are important and how to disable them is currently discussed in the StaxRip topic.

[IgorC]

Gordian Knot has a virtual dub. So using GK = using VD.
Indee I dont use VB often. Mostly Megui or cli x264/H.264.
cli modern encoding style is getting popular. :p

[mod]

@ Stax: Thanks for reply, I'll try more encodings, and check if the probl remains.

Really thanks for the nice tool, simple and (imho) complete :)

[actionman133]

*Stretches fingers and cracks knuckles*

I've actually created a control freak AVISynth script that opens DVDs (demuxed video and audio only though), changes the speed to whatever you want, resizes it to whatever width you want and corrects the aspect ratio and trims out letterboxing. If you have a widescreen movie, you can cut down on the black bars by choosing a tighter aspect ratio, such as 16:9, or 4:3, performing a centre-cut crop. This works on anamorphic and full frame DVDs, both NTSC and PAL.

One of the beautiful things about AVISynth is how you can apply filters to create entirely new looks in a video.

After AVISynth sets it up, I just use VirtualDub with DivX and the ACM LAME MP3 encoder for audio.

If you're interested in seeing how it turns out, take a look at my website... I have a series of videos take from DVDs; they are resized to different frame sizes so that one version can be small and with low quality, and another can be with high quality... All done in AVISynth, before being handled to VDub for compression.

http://actionman133.isa-geek.net:8080/

Anakin's Anger and Anakin's Rage in the music video section are probably the best examples of what I can do with AVISynth. For those with a lot of download available, try Achilles vs Hector in thermographic colour. :-)

I know outside links and advertising/spamming are generally discouraged here. This is not what I am intending, but if it is under the rules... please just remove this part of the post.

Thank you

[Shinjite]

As for me, I will use AviSynth with MeGUI. Output will be in Mpeg4 ASP with Fourcc DX50/DIVX. My alternative would be VirtualDubMod. DVD information will be collected from DGIndex's D2V file.

[yam]

Hello,

I wanted to use aviNET and I have downloaded the .NET Framework 2.0 but I can't install it.

If I want to start the Fraemwork installation I get an Error: "A required resource cannot be found".

I'm using Win XP Pro with SP1. Do I have to install the SP2?
If yes, I wouldn't like it :-(.

Or is the another One-Click Software, which I can use with DivX 6.1?

Thank You

[Sirber]

VDubMod, since I don't rip often :)

[Gawwad]

to tell u tha truth, i havn't used most of tha programs that u mentioned
i only used AutoGk, GordianKnot, DrDivx (versions 1) and Fairuse Wizard

in my personal opinion, i found Fairuse Wizard to be tha best one for me
it is very easy to use, and it has all tha basic features that u need in order to make a DVD Rip that works for a stand alone Divx/Xvid player
its all in one program, including a ripper and even codecs

http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/864/clipboard032jv.th.jpg (http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard032jv.jpg)http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/7233/clipboard047iz.th.jpg (http://img357.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard047iz.jpg)http://img157.imageshack.us/img157/7413/clipboard068cd.th.jpg (http://img157.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard068cd.jpg)http://img67.imageshack.us/img67/4143/clipboard092ac.th.jpg (http://img67.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard092ac.jpg)http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/4352/clipboard136we.th.jpg (http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard136we.jpg)http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/9757/clipboard147uk.th.jpg (http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard147uk.jpg)http://img43.imageshack.us/img43/7384/clipboard167cp.th.jpg (http://img43.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard167cp.jpg)

http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/585/clipboard174vp.th.jpg (http://img340.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard174vp.jpg) http://img313.imageshack.us/img313/2487/clipboard178bt.th.jpg (http://img313.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard178bt.jpg)

http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/1298/clipboard16bscap15ql.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard16bscap15ql.jpg) http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/959/clipboard16bscap28nh.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard16bscap28nh.jpg) http://img230.imageshack.us/img230/3416/clipboard16bscap37im.th.jpg (http://img230.imageshack.us/my.php?image=clipboard16bscap37im.jpg)

but anywayz, i am goin to giv StaxRip and avi.Net a try
they look kinda good :)

[boombastic]

I'm using ARCalculator with its avsoptimizer function but it's not in the list...

[mod]

Hey I didn't know that.. I've just installed, seems good.. (I admit I like to try every prog I find..).

[[)370|\|470!2]

DVD --> DGINDEX --> AviSinth(crop&resize, etc) --> VDM(x264, 2 pass) --> AviMuxGui
Sound: DGINDEX --> AviMuxGui (when original ac3) or
DGINDEX --> azid.exe --> DPLII.wav --> iTunes --> aac --> AviMuxGui.

[ricardo.santos]

just a reminder, my question was

Which tool do you use to convert Your Dvds to DIVX[B]?

[[)370|\|470!2]

Lol! I'm not using divx for a few years already, sorry. Didn't think though, that it was a keyword
of the subj xD.

[Slitheen]

I tried Fairuse wizard yesterday, and I liked it so much. I bought the company..

..Well, I just paid for the full version actually.

[weaver4]

I know it is the simplest one of the bunch, but I have been very pleased with the quality and ease of use of AVI.NET.

[iNFO-DVD]

Yeh, I use avi.NET to convert to DIVX too! :)

[ricardo.santos]

I know it is the simplest one of the bunch, but I have been very pleased with the quality and ease of use of AVI.NET.

I'll second that

[PatchWorKs]

I'm an old DVX (StaxRip) user, but i switched to FairUse Wizard due to the ability of encoding by using ffdshow codec-engine (i'm testing Theora...)
Anyway many of these softwares are open source but i never see any 'mod' or alternative/indipendent version... why ?

[tigerman8u]

with the price of blank dvd media today I don't do alot of converting anymore but one of my favorites is Fairuse Wizard

[emazur]

I'm glad this topic came up b/c I've just started some experimenting with one click mpeg4 backup using x264 (previously I did an occasional backup with autogk to xvid but mostly I just used dvdshrink). The easiest looking one to me was Fairuse so I started backing up season two of 24 at 2 episodes per DVD (awesome show by the way) with it. Left the default setting mostly alone, except for choosing x264 as the encoder and 2 audio tracks with ogg at 36 kbps each + burned in subs with output at 700 meg per episode (i believe that's the max for the free version). Looked pretty good except for blockiness in dark scenes. Then I tried ratDVD and again left the defaults alone except I used main movie only and stripped away unneeded elements (so it contained only the same things as my x264 encode). It outputted a 748 meg file that looked virtually identical to the x264 encode... or so I thought. Actually that 748 meg file contained BOTH episodes, I just didn't know it b/c I stripped away the menu and didn't realize that right clicking would allow me to select the next title (wmp simply shows ~45 minutes when you open the file so I thought it only encoded the first episode. with fairuse you have to manually select both episodes and I didn't bother poking around in ratdvd ). So since the ratdvd output contained both episodes in a 748 meg file that looks nearly identical to a 700 meg file made by fairuse that contained only 1 episode, that would make ratdvd nearly twice as good wouldn't it? It it was also a good deal faster to encode than with fairuse. So unless someone can convince me otherwise, I'll be sticking to ratDVD from now on. There's even a 3rd party plugin that allows CSS encrypted discs to be ripped directly by ratDVD (though i haven't tried that yet).

[Gawwad]

but isn't 700 meg per (~45 minutes) episode is too much?
why don't u try encoding each episode with FUW using x264 at 350 mb or 374 mb (half of 748 meg) and see the difference
so then it will be a fair match

[ricardo.santos]

i agree 700 megs per episode is too much, try 350 or 400 megs for a 45 minute episode.

one reason for not using ratdvd:
standalone player compatibility.

[heinz57g]

many of the progs mentioned here seem to do an excellent job, but seem on the other hand rather specialized. is there one or two of them, that could be used to convert anything (well, almost ...) to AVIs? source would in 90% of all cases be DVDs or ripped DVDs, but may also be camera files of many sorts, or often enough, and important to be included, even WMVs.

and, it has to remain reasonably simple too. a single tool, or a frontend covering some invisible tools, but understandable to the average user. am i looking for something impossible?

DIVX converter comes to mind, but is very choosy to file quality and breaks down far too often (and only tells you that after you waited for 3+ hours).

greetings - heinz -

[emazur]

I haven't personally tried it, but I bookmarked a guide about a prog called SUPER in case I need to do something like that. It seems easy to use and inputs various file types. try here:
http://www.dvd-guides.com/content/view/143/59/

[stax76]

@heinz57g

Something that does everything and is reasonably simple is something you'll hardly find because it's somehow contradicting. StaxRip and VirtualDubMod (which is used by Staxip) support everything that is supported by AviSynth which is a lot, it's just some things require some knowlege. MeGUI should also support everything AviSynth supports. For some things there is no way around understanding AviSynth no matter which GUI or encoding application you use.

[heinz57g]

emazur, tks, SUPER looks good but complicated, but i might wade into it. how come nobody here or in any other forum has ever checked it out?

stax, see my comments in your own section. but even with those few points i critisized, your prog looks excellent and might just be what i am looking for.

re one-click efficiency (with very acceptable quality), some progs come to mind that have nearly achived this. all the CLONE ones, old and new, AUTGK to a degree, DVDDECR and many others, free and paid.

but overall you are right, maybe i am looking for the eier-legende-woll-milch-sau (now let somebody from bablefish translate THAT).

i am just afraid the the more the normal user gets almost afraid of difficult technology, the more he is pushed into the arms of the multi-national global players that have 10000 forms of copy protection waiting for us, and make a criminal out of everyone who just wants to enjoy music and films whereever he thinks of doing so. HIS music, and HIS films, within HIS family and friends.

but now i am getting off topic, sorry.

greetings - heinz -

[stax76]

but overall you are right, maybe i am looking for the eier-legende-woll-milch-sau (now let somebody from bablefish translate THAT).

egglayingwoolmilksow (found in the About Box of DVBViewer :D)

[laserfan]

OK I wandered-in to this thread and must admit I think the idea of "which tool" is rather silly. I use MANY of the tools and IMO have good reasons to use a particular one at a particular time. There is no "one size fits all" conversion tool!

OTTOMH my most-used faves are:
StaxRip
AutoGK
FairUse Wizard
VirtualDubMod

But I must also confess that I use XviD never DivX so feel free to completely disregard the above! :D