MiniDV to Xvid (v1.1.0-30122005)

[tanned55]

I'm learning to encode miniDV to Xvid. The clips durations range from 4 min - 20 min. Should I use HomeTheatre NTSC or AS@L5 profile in Xvid? My standalone is Divx certified (Philips dvp-642/37)

Major questions are as follows.
1. Target Bitrate: I was given the formula H x W x fps x Quality (.2, .3, .4...)/1024 = KBPS. Whatever the results are is what I enter.

2. I've changed QR to 1.20, Offset to 2.00 as I read in a thread that this is to reduce/eliminate flickering

3. Using the recommended Motion search precision - 6 and VHQ, mode-1 resulted in audio/video stuttering; using 4/4 seems to eliminate this problem.

4. Quantization: Min / Max were changed from 1/31 to 2/31.

Thanks for your time and support.

[Teegedeck]

1) Bitrate: Raise it until the result looks good. Or, even better, use a constant quantizer that looks good enough to your. 'Looking good enough' is the only rule for quality/bitrate targets that counts.

2) That certainly doesn't make things better.

3) VHQ and ME precision have no influence whatsoever on fluent playback. None. Just use the highest settings that you can endure (there's a speed penalty) to improve your encoding.

4) That's a very good idea!

Better don't change things you don't understand but stick with the defaults. If you can't be absolutely sure about the reliability of your advisor.

Sorry that I can't help you with the hardware profiles, but that's an area where I have no expertise whatsoever. ;)

[tanned55]

Is the forumlar H x W x fps x (quality.2,.3...)/1024 a good means for obtaining bitrate?

What are advantages of using HomeTheatre NTSC vs Advanced Simple@L5?

Is 2 pass recommended/worthwhile over single pass? My clips are short (miniDV to xvid)? Again, thanks

[xyloy]

H x W x fps x (quality.2,.3...)/1024
Since it's kilobits, the formula is H * W * FPS * 0.3(or 0.2, or whatever you like) / 1000

Personnaly I prefer between 0.3 and 0.25 for XviD (MPEG-4 ASP codec) and between 0.25 and 0.20 for x264 (H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec). ;)

Is 2 pass recommended/worthwhile over single pass? My clips are short (miniDV to xvid)? Again, thanks
The more passes and slower settings you'll use, the better output quality you'll get(at any bitrate).

But if the bitrate is way too low, passes and settings won't raise quality very much.