DIVX 5 as archive purpose

[Bear]

Hi all,

I am currently using mpg1 to archive my videos. I would like to know is it good to change all my mpg1 videos to DIVX5 as archive purpose?

What bitrate (video and audio) would you suggest? I would like to get the best quality.

But sometimes, I want to encode the DIVX5 movies to wm8 format and I always got error message. I think it's the problem of audio code. Does any body know which audio code should I use? So that I can encode the DIVX5 movies to wmv8 format.

Thanks.

Bear

[Awatef]

*ANY* format conversion will lead to *WORSE* quality, so keep your existing MPEG-1 videos AS IS.

Same thing for your WMV8 videos, keep them as is. Any conversion to any other format will lead to even worser quality!

And DivX5 to WMV8 means also worser quality.

If you plan to convert to WMV8 for internet purpose for example, make sure your soundtrack in WAV.
Extract the soundtrack with VirtualDub (File -> Save WAV), rename in MP3, convert it to WAV, multiplex the WAV with the original AVI. Now you can encode it without problems to WMV8.

[N_F]

Originally posted by Awatef
*ANY* format conversion will lead to *WORSE* quality, so keep your existing MPEG-1 videos AS IS.

Same thing for your WMV8 videos, keep them as is. Any conversion to any other format will lead to even worser quality!

And DivX5 to WMV8 means also worser quality.

If you plan to convert to WMV8 for internet purpose for example, make sure your soundtrack in WAV.
Extract the soundtrack with VirtualDub (File -> Save WAV), rename in MP3, convert it to WAV, multiplex the WAV with the original AVI. Now you can encode it without problems to WMV8.

In theory this is correct. However I quite often reencode MPEG 1 streams to DivX without any visiual loss in quality that I can see. In fact, the reencoded version may sometimes look better when I use some kind of blur filter to take away all the edges that MPEG 1 always give.

When reencoding a normal vcd I usually use a bitrate at 600-700 kbit/s depending on the qualiy of the source (the worse quality, the lower bitrate). The audio I usually reencode to mp3 128 kbit/s.

Why do you use MPEG 1 in archieving purpose? And why don't you encode the source directly to DivX instead of reencoding the mpgs?

[Bear]

Thanks for the reply.

Becasue all my sources are from VCD. So I can only use mpg1 to archive the videos.

Why the worse quality, the lower bitrate? I just thought if the source got lower quality, I should set a higher bitrate in order to make the videos look better.

[Awatef]

@ N_F
You cheated! :D
Of course I can take a VCD and use some strong filter like SmartSmoother to blow macroblocks away and then reencode to DivX and claim that it is better! But it is better not because I reencoded in DivX, but because I used SmartSmoother with a strong setting ;)

@ Bear
What is gone is gone! MPEG1 is a very lossy compression method, you can even make a 10GB AVI out of it, the quality won't get *ANY* better!
Now, using DivX which is also a very lossy compression technique, you'll even loose more quality, even when you encode with the highest quality settings!

[N_F]

Originally posted by Bear
Thanks for the reply.

Why the worse quality, the lower bitrate? I just thought if the source got lower quality, I should set a higher bitrate in order to make the videos look better.

The only thing you can expect form reencoding the VCDs are a smaller DivX file. If the source is very bad quality you can use a very low bitrate to get pretty much the same quality.

[Awatef]

If the source is very bad quality you can use a very low bitrate to get pretty much the same quality

HE?! he got to use a very high bitrate to get almost the same quality (minimum quality loss)
A very bad quality source coupled with a reencoding with a very low bitrate means nearly unwatchable video!

[Bear]

I noticed a guide in vcdhelp, the writer use 1150 bitrate. Should I use such a high bitrate to do it?

http://www.vcdhelp.com/toasf/index.htm

[Awatef]

Never seen such a fool recommendation as this one: "ok . 910 is default .. if you wish VCD ready change to 1150" considering that he's compressing to DivX :o

@ Bear
May you finally tell me why you would like to reencode to DivX? please understand that you won't get better quality AT ALL, all what you'll got is worse quality, even if you take a bitrate of 10000kbps!