which format to store dvds

[soawork]

Hi there,

I want to store some dvds on hard disc. Because I dont want them to need 4 gbs each I chose gknot to encode them.
In my first tries I used the avi format with divx and mp3 encoding.
Now I have the problem, that my dvd player doesn't support divx. After some reading in the forum I found dvd2avi, with wich it should be possible to transform the avis to svcd (wich is supported by most dvd players).

Now my newbie questions:
1.) is it a good solution to store movies with divx and transform them to svcd (for dvd player playback)?

2.) should I chose svcd instead?

3.) how much worse is the svcd standard in quality compared to divx (with equal disk space used)

thx
soa

p.s.: I hope I made my point clear. In wich format should I store dvds to disc? I dont want to take them too much space and I want a format wich can be played by my dvd player or at least a format from wich I can easily create a playable transformation

[drcl]

You could buy a new DVD player with DivX/MPEG-4 feature, they dont cost too much now.

If that isn't possible you might wish to look in to KVCD/KSVCD, it's supposed to provide a way to put a whole 2 hours of video on to one CD in MPEG-1 or MPEG-2.... do a search on the forums and www.videohelp.com might have more info.

The KVCD site itself has started making people pay for info it seems.

[MrTroy]

1.) is it a good solution to store movies with divx and transform them to svcd (for dvd player playback)?

2.) should I chose svcd instead?It's never a good idea to do more encodes than necessary, as it significantly reduces quality. Do not do the DivX intermediate step. Just encode directly to svcd.
3.) how much worse is the svcd standard in quality compared to divx (with equal disk space used)With equal disk space used, it's a big difference. For one, because SVCD uses MPEG2, which is a much less efficient codec. And DivX can be encoded to higher resolutions than SVCD.

If you want to do SVCD, you could also try CVD (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Video_Disc). 99% of the SVCD-capable DVD-players also play CVD, and the perceived video quality is better.

[setarip_old]

Hi!

Do you have a DVD burner, or only a CD burner?

[soawork]

I do have a dvd burner.

I think I will go the way with the divx encoding. I want to have relativley good quality without tons of space. I can see movies on laptop or with tv out and just in case I can transform to svcd.

[setarip_old]

I do have a dvd burner.So, since your stated purpose in making backups is so that you can play them on your standalone player, why don't you simply burn backup copies of your DVDs?...

[soawork]

my purpose is to backup some movies on hard disc without tons of space.
my problem ist, sometimes I want to play them on my dvd player wich doesn't support divx.

[mod]

The simplest way I can think about is using the video out from pc.. of course if your vcard supports it. Burning a cd/dvd just to watch a movie once seems not really the best thing to me.
There're also wireless systems if your pc is far from the tv. :)
Hey, it's just an idea!

[Guest]

my purpose is to backup some movies on hard disc without tons of space.
my problem ist, sometimes I want to play them on my dvd player wich doesn't support divx. Just play the original DVDs. You're making no sense to me.

[soawork]

ok. thank you all