Log in

View Full Version : Good bit rate settings for DVD to WMV


e_rocm
4th July 2007, 03:19
I am trying to convert my DVD collection to WMV for playback on my Xbox 360. I would like to have quality that is as close to the original as possible without using up unnecessary disk space. I have figured out just about everything regarding the conversion process but am confused about which bit rate settings to use.

I think that using a peak variable bit rate will be the best choice for what I am trying to do. It should at least give me the best bang for my bit. The settings that I most recently used are:

Video (WMV 9 – Bit rate VBR peak)
- Video size: same as video input
- Frame rate: 29.97
- Key frame interval: 4 sec
- Video bit rate (average): 5000Kbps
- Video peak bit rate: 11Mbps
- Peak buffer size: 5 sec
- Decoder complexity: auto

Audio (WMA 10 Professional - Quality VBR)
- VBR Quality 98, 48 kHz, 5.1 channel, 24 bit VBR


My questions are:
1. Are my bit rate settings good, overkill, or not enough? If they are not good, what should they be?
2. What exactly does changing the “Key frame interval” or “Peak buffer size” do? I have read several descriptions of them but I still don’t fully understand.
3. The first few seconds of my encodings (with these settings) look pixelated. Not a big deal, but I was wondering if anyone knows why this would be.

I have been searching forums all over the place trying to figure out what the optimal settings are. Thanks in advance for anyone that can help me out.

Dark Shikari
4th July 2007, 08:36
For backing up you'll want to do some denoising, as otherwise you're going to end up wasting most of your bitrate encoding noise and grain.

FFT3Dfilter is effective as are some others; see the Avisynth Usage forum for some guides.

e_rocm
6th July 2007, 06:17
I have to denoise even though I'm going directly from the VOBs on the DVD? I will have to check this out.

Other than doing that are my settings OK?