Portable Media Centers

[NickDVD]

Hi,

Been experimenting with .wmv files and a Creative PMC.

Im converting DVD movies from .vob to .wmv but having issues with quality.

Im pretty certain that the PMC will only play movies with a maximum bitrate of 800kbps, and perhaps herein lies the problems.

Im not having issues converting the movies and getting them to play but the pixelisation on dark areas is crap.

Does anyone on this forum have any suggestions of how I can match the quality of the .wmv files closer to the original quality of the .vob files and keep the bitrate down? software etc?

Im using smartripper to get the vobs, Winavi to convert to .wmv then using a joiner to convert to one large playable file.

Many thanks,

Nick

[killingspree]

http://www.doom9.org/divx-encoding.htm

[NickDVD]

Great and thanks for the link but...

As im a relative "newbie" to video encoding, hence this post in the newbie section, can anyone help to "guide" me a little better please?

Cheers,

Nick

[killingspree]

ok, well...

basically what i wanted to point out with this link is, that the wmv format is probably not the best solution, most likely even far from it. So unless the only format you can play is wmv i'm almost sure there's a better solution.

the guides in above link show you different ways (ranging from beginner to rather advanced) to rip your dvds to your hard disk conserving quality and still shrinking the disk space needed to a minimum. so if you are new to the whole ripping business i'd suggest you to start with downloading AutoGK and this guide (http://www.doom9.org/autogk.htm) and encode one DVD of your choice to avi to
a) see if you like the results
b) check if you can play them on your portable media center (as this is your goal i suspect)
c) see if you find this process more suitable for your needs or if you want more control over it with other programs like gordianknot (or alike)

all those abovementioned guides link to methods how to make mpeg4 out of mpeg2. while this reduces the need for diskspace a lot you will also see a drop in quality (ranging from hardly noticeable to pretty appearant) depending on the encoding settings you choose.

don't let yourself get overwhelmed with the quantity of the guides. just work your way through the autoGK guide first and come back if you have any more questions!

kr
steVe

[NickDVD]

Now thats what Im talking about Steve!

Everything is crystal clear now, well as far as you pointing me towards the links and their relevance etc, thanks.

Only problem I have is that the creative PMC is Microsoft driven ( windows mobile ) and therefore only plays video via .wmv.

Really useful info regarding other bits and pieces I may need to do with video so cheers for that.

By the way, seems like a superb forum, keep up the good work.

Cheers,

Nick