MPEG to DivX

[thorgod13]

what is the best way (if it is possible) to convert mpeg videos to divx movies? i have read the faq's, and could not find an answer. if there is one in the faq's, could you point me in the right direction? and if not, does anybody know how?

[Teegedeck]

Of course you can convert MPEG(MPEG-1, I believe)-files into DivX or XviD. Open the file in VirtualDub and select the codec. But you'll loose quality, so why do it?

I imagine you either want to a) shrink the filesize or b) hope that it will look better afterwards. If you want a), it's no problem, because DivX and XviD do compress more effectively than MPEG1. If it's more like B) you can go for some filtering. But it will only look better if the original has some obvious faults that can/should be corrected, like very low contrast, too high saturation, noise or something similar.

Also, to get rid of the typical artifacts, you could consider loading the movie via an AviSynth-script and ffdshow. Install both and configure ffdshow to decode MPEG1 with libmpeg2-library. If you now write an .avs with a line like 'directshowsource("C:\yourmovie.mpg",fps=29.97) (EDIT: The 'fps=' should of course give the framerate of the original video!)
and load this .avs into VDub, you can use ffdshows great postprocessing options.

In all, conversion should only be done if it seems really neccessary to you.

[thorgod13]

thanks for the info...i want to convert in order to compress the size so that it can fit onto a cd. i appreicate the help.

[thorgod13]

ok...i've downloaded virtualdub, and opened the mpeg, which it parsed...but i cannnot find the place to select the codec...where would i find it? (sorry for being such a pain)

[lamer_de]

@ Teegedeck: thanks for your answer. I knew that using postprocessing filters is possible, but never discovered exactly how. the forum search always came up with threads with 100+ replys, which makes it impossible to find a certain thing.

CU,
lamer_de

[Teegedeck]

Originally posted by thorgod13
ok...i've downloaded virtualdub, and opened the mpeg, which it parsed...but i cannnot find the place to select the codec...where would i find it? (sorry for being such a pain)

You're welcome, but I recommend strongly that you read some DivX-guides here on Doom9's, they all (almost all) describe the use of VDub. It's in the 'Video'-menue under 'Compression'.

It's likely that you'll run into more questions, like 'how do I get the audio?'; the guides should answer most of them.

[thorgod13]

ok...i'll go back through the guides. thank you very much for all of your help...i really appreciate it.