Idiots guide to encoding BBC HD caps to x264/XviD?

[Toge]

any help please?

demuxing, encode settings etc...

i have no idea where to start.

[drmih]

Some people have taken this to the nth degree of complexity but I just do it the simple way and am happy with the results. Find a copy of mencoder which is 10,001 kb in size - there are various versions out, some of which work and others don't - this is the one I've been using.

I take my downloaded file (I'm using a satellite feed and dvbviewer to capture), change the name to something shorter, and use a DOS batch file (such as bleak1.bat) with the following lines:

mencoder bh1.ts -o bh1.avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1:turbo:
mencoder bh1.ts -o bh1.avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=-1400000:autoaspect

This keeps the original sound and aims for a filesize of 1400000b (the size is nowhere near as accurate as say AGK), and this typically gives 1.4 to 1.5 Gb. Therefore in this case I should get about 3 episodes of Bleak House on a dvd-r.

With mencoder there are hundred of settings and flags to use but I messed about with them all and really didn't seem to get any better quality (assuming that it was needed) than the simple above. This method will also obviously also work with Sky HD streams.

[Toge]

Some people have taken this to the nth degree of complexity but I just do it the simple way and am happy with the results. Find a copy of mencoder which is 10,001 kb in size - there are various versions out, some of which work and others don't - this is the one I've been using.

I take my downloaded file (I'm using a satellite feed and dvbviewer to capture), change the name to something shorter, and use a DOS batch file (such as bleak1.bat) with the following lines:

mencoder bh1.ts -o bh1.avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=1:turbo:
mencoder bh1.ts -o bh1.avi -oac copy -ovc xvid -xvidencopts pass=2:bitrate=-1400000:autoaspect

This keeps the original sound and aims for a filesize of 1400000b (the size is nowhere near as accurate as say AGK), and this typically gives 1.4 to 1.5 Gb. Therefore in this case I should get about 3 episodes of Bleak House on a dvd-r.

With mencoder there are hundred of settings and flags to use but I messed about with them all and really didn't seem to get any better quality (assuming that it was needed) than the simple above. This method will also obviously also work with Sky HD streams.

i'll give this a try. thanks.