DV To XviD

[State of Mind]

I'm wondering what to do to achieve a nice looking video. With DivX I get a really nice looking clip. With XviD I get almost the same thing but with smudgy areas all over the image. I am most curious about the settings. I don't know what Adaptive Quantization, Quarter Pixel, Global Motion Compensation, B-VOPs, Max Consecutive BVOPs, Quantizer Ratio, Quantizer Offset, Packed Bitstream, or Closed B-VOPs. Zone Options and Advanced Options. If an expert can take a few minutes and explain all this stuff to me, I would be greatly appreciative. I have a Panasonic 3CCD PV-DV953 MiniDV Camcorder. I upload my DV data using WinDV and use VirtualDub v1.6.1 Experimental release. I would use AviSynth and such but all that stuff looks far too advanced for me. I wouldn't know where to start. I expect everyone to point me to guides that tell me to go out and get all this type of software which usually lands me installing AviSynth and a rough tutorial not even designed for DV conversion. I thought I would ask for help from the main guys at XviD. Most people tell me they prefer XviD over DivX and if you guys can reinforce that and help me realize that, once again, muchly appreciated if you would!!! :D
I am a video perfectionist. I want the BEST looking video possible for DV to XviD. I know it depends on the bitrate but I like to have a bitrate that allows around 10 MBs per minute. I'm used to that. But if you guys can teach me to get optimal quality at a bit less, that's even better. I guess I might be a bit unrealistic in my high hopes, lol. I'll shut up now. :D

[Koepi]

head over to www.doom9.org - there is a BIG menu item called "Guides". Hit that menu item.

After a few clicks you'll end up in the XviD-1.0-guide.

Read it intensively, it explains most of these things.

Also, crusty made a nice FAQ - you'll find the link in the first post on this xvid forum, called "FAQs".

While you're at it, click on that fancy link "forum rules". Read rule no. 1 at least twice please.

Koepi

[State of Mind]

Ok, I may be a newbie to advanced video conversion, but not to the Internet. And the reason I ask is because I am interested in DV to XviD, not DVD to XviD. The guides all tell users how to backup DVDs. Do most of the settings stick when it comes to DV also?

[Koepi]

Yes.

(You may want to do unresized interlaced encoding though. But that changes only one checked option [interlaced] on the GUI and is explained in the FAQ and the guide as well.)

Koepi

[State of Mind]

The guides are rather old and use an old version of XviD. Most things are moved around. Why can't someone make a DV guide? I don't like interlaced video unless I am making a DVD.

[State of Mind]

Well, I got the XviD to look a bit better and actually save more filesize than DivX did. I have 1 minute of DV at 9.04 MBs. The DivX version is 10.8 MBs. I assume this is just the difference in the bitrate handling between the two. There is a tad bit of smudgyness in areas where you see just a plain white/baige colored wall. The only difference from my last encode was that I enabled Adaptive Quant. and GMC, I think...lol.
I mean, a 2-pass operation seems rather easy. Would I get even better image quality if I were to use GordianKnot?

[State of Mind]

Here are two images.
DivX version http://img120.exs.cx/img120/3452/DivXTest.jpg
XviD version http://img120.exs.cx/img120/2163/XviDTest.jpg
Please keep in mind that I have Hardware Acceleration off so it is a bit blocky and it isn't actually.
I noticed that XviD is a tad more detailed than DivX...a small tad...

[communist]

http://www.doom9.org/xvid-vdub-final.htm
This is the XviD 1.0 Guide. The difference between 1.0 and 1.0.2 (most actual stable) is only that 1.0.2 fixes some minor bugs - in other words it still applies to it as there are no new features which would require special explanation.

[symonjfox]

Hi, I just did a similar encode of my holiday's miniDV.
It's easy. You must try with small clips and keep the setting that better satisfed you.

For example, my favourite is VHQ4 + BFrames VHQ (see new 1.1 unstable), MPEG Matrix (or HVS Best), 4 Max BFrames, everything else ad default. I don't like Qpel and GMC because they are not played by my standalone.

Ah, keep in mind that MiniDV are INTERLACED. I think you live in PAL area, so you must keep the interlacing (or deinterlace before encoding). And choose Odd field first (DV is BFF).

Make your tests and I'm sure you'll find your favourite settings. :D
[EDIT]
Ah, I forgot to say that you need a DV codec installed in your system. Go to DV section of the forum and you'll find the best for you.

I used the DV support in FFDShow and FFVFW because they're the one that keep YV12 output without upsample to YUY2.
Enable them in the configuration window of FFDShow (use Libavodec).
Then create a script like this
Avisource("c:\MiniDV.avi") if it's TYPE 2, else you must use the DirectShowSource. I prefere to rip in TYPE 2 because I can strip the audio and edit it in less time.

[State of Mind]

I know DVCs record interlaced video. My camcorder, however, can record in Progressive Mode. I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, so I assure you I am NTSC. I don't like the interlaced video because it looks like a cat gnawed it all day. I use the Panasonic DV Codec.
"I used the DV support in FFDShow and FFVFW because they're the one that keep YV12 output without upsample to YUY2." Is this beneficial to the color management of the image, or just Your personal preferences?

[symonjfox]

Originally posted by State of Mind
"I used the DV support in FFDShow and FFVFW because they're the one that keep YV12 output without upsample to YUY2." Is this beneficial to the color management of the image, or just Your personal preferences?
Well, some codecs have a awful interpolation code, so colors are messed up and there are thousand of rainbow artifacts.
And also you'll get a speed boost since no color conversion is required, so if you use VdubMod for encoding, it's better.