Forced AR and Compression Questions

[Peacefully Disturbed]

I have a few questions about using AutoGK to make DivX AVI's for my NHJ MPM-202 (http://www.nhjapan.com/canada/prod/mpm201/index.html).

My first question is about setting the file size. I'd like to keep the movies at a reasonable sized file, but with a not to bad quality, for example I've already ripped the whole Futurama series from the DVD's, and set each Episode at 150MB, even though artifacts were noticable, the overall quality wasn't too bad, even on a 32" TV, although I would like slightly better quality for my movies. But my Futurama Episodes came out with a 23.976fps which was only noticable at some points, and i don't mind, but I was wondering if my movies will come out with the same fps and if that was the only reason the picture quality was ok at that file size and a 640x480 resolution. I have 55GB on my MPM-202 and 12GB is being used up by the Futurama series and all of my music, so I'd like to keep 2 hour movies under 1GB, and preferably around 900MB at the most, will the quality be really low if I use this size, with DivX 5.21 at 640x480, and with VBR MP3 at 128kbps? My MPM-202 only supports DivX 5.X AVI's with VBR MP3 audio at or below 128kbps, and the resolution has to be 640x480 or 320x240, and since 320x240 will look like crap on a TV, 640x480 is the only real option. So if someone could give me an idea of a good file size for 1.5 or 2 hour movies at those settings, or a way to determine a file size myself depending on the movie, since each movie is different.

My second question is if I rip a movie that has an aspect ratio of 16:9 and force an aspect ratio of 4:3, will it be streched vertically, or will it have the Letterbox borders. Because like I mentioned in my previous question, the resolution has to be 640x480. If AutoGK will stretch the video, is there any way to force it to leave in the borders, or if need be, run the movie through AutoGK at its normal aspect ratio, then add the borders myself after.

I'm using AutoGK 2.09b right now, but I'll probably upgrade to 2.12b before I run my movies through.

[manono]

Hello and welcome to the forum,

I was wondering if my movies will come out with the same fps

Movies are filmed at 24fps. At what framerate would you expect them to come out?

if that was the only reason the picture quality was ok at that file size and a 640x480 resolution.

I expect it came out decent looking because Futurama is simple animation, and reasonably easy to compress. However, you mentioned artifacts, so maybe the results weren't so good after all. Its very possible for your movies to look like crap at 640x480 and 900 MB. It depends on how well they compress, and different movies compress differently. Since they have to be 640x480, no matter the original AR, I'd suggest going into the Hidden Settings and setting it for no cropping (Threshold=0). That should keep the black bars, and also keep proper AR. Further, I would also suggest doing a 1-Pass Quality Mode set for 65% or thereabouts, with the Horizontal Resolution set for 640. Test how the AR looks before the encode by running the Preview. You may sometimes wind up with file sizes larger than 1 GB, but the quality should be pretty decent. With 1-pass encoding you'll also get results much more quickly.

[Doom9]

well.. is Futurama really shot in FILM? It's made uniquely for TV and the series isn't that new so it might well be pure NTSC. I know the PAL release is interlaced (and low quality to boot).

You might wanna consider a new player.. yours sounds like a real crappy one, and considering the pricetag (50 bucks a pop for one that has progressive scan output, regionfree and a decent chipset that eats most of the things you can throw at it), it's really no biggie. But being restricted to those resolutions forces you to encode black bars for a widescreen movie and that just doesn't make any sense.

[manono]

is Futurama really shot in FILM?

I don't know, as I've never worked with that series. If it's like most simple cartoons, most of it was probably drawn at 8 or 12 frames per second. But If AutoGK decided to IVTC it, 23.976fps is probably the correct framerate. We'd have to see the log to know precisely what AutoGK decided. I was only answering the question about what framerate his DVD movies are going to be when converted to DivX.

[Slogra]

Yes, Futurama is "shot" in 23.976fps. However I've got the PAL versions of it too. The first season in PAL and is interlaced with added fields, to make 25fps. Later seasons are sped up from 23.976fps to 25 and look a bit better.

I'm gonna buy the NTSC version when the complete bundle pack comes out, which should be better quality as it is in its original framerate and resolution.