Yo, Visc! I gots me an AV question for yas!

[Sejah Haversh]

Well, word on the street is that you can help me fix my problem.

You can fix my problem, can't you?

Heh, just kidding. But seriously, I do have a good challenge for you.

I've got a Pocket PC that can handle a pretty good playback from AVIs and MPEGs, and I was wondering if you couls somehow tell me how to rip movies from my DVDs and compress the screen resolution to a point where they would play full screen on a screen 320 pixels wide, and fit under 128 MB in size.

I know it's a tall order, but after all teh tinkering I've done by myself, I have come to realize that I need some serious help.

And, this is part of a bet I've got with another guy at work who says that Palm OS based handlelds are better than Pocket PCs. Oh, I so need to beat this guy.

[sirdizzy]

well ya need a decoder first off (i can't remember which one i used for my video editing class) to unencode the dvd to a mpeg format (i can look up one for you if you really need one but now that i think about it i heard DVD X is awesome although i have never used it)

this is a very timely timely timely process (it took a top of the line G4 an hour to decode a 10 minute scene for me)


after that i would suggest using either adobe premiere or final cut pro (depending on the computer you have) i am guessing you have a pc so i'd go with premiere

with premiere you cna cut an edit your file, adjust your parameters and size output and resend it out as an MPEG4


this sounds like an aweful lot of work though, i think the decoding will take ya 4-5 hours per dvd then ya got to render the whole damn thing again in premiere which will at least take ya 2 hours if not more


good luck though

[Sejah Haversh]

If it means I can one-up the Palm fandom, it's worth it.

[sirdizzy]

well if ya need any help i can guide ya somewhat

we had to do this as one of our projects for my final cut pro class and it was my least favorite assignment because it simply meant setting up the decoding then the rendering and leaving the computer to do its thing for like 7 hours

[Sejah Haversh]

Still, beating the Palm thing. Oh yeah, gotta do it.

And, thank you, I know it will be a long process, but should be worth it in the end.

[Darth Viscera]

*politely shoves Dizzy aside*

Easy Way:
Download Dr. DivX from www.divx.com, download dvddecrypter from doom9.net, read the dvddecrypter guide (http://www.doom9.org/dvddec.htm).

1. Ripping:
Follow the DVD Decrypter guide, rip in IFO mode, but go to settings in DVD Decrypter, click the IFO Mode tab, set file splitting to none. Strip the superfluous streams that you won't need in stream processing.

2. Dr. DivX:

Click on "Video File" on the Step 1: Choose Video Input page. Select the VOB file that you ripped with DVDDecrypter.

Next Page is Step 1: Choose Audio Input. Click Next.

Step 2: Choose Output
Click on Certified DivX Portable video. In "Encode the DivX video to:" make 1 file of 125 MB in size.

Step 3: Encode Video
Click on Modify Settings
In the Resize bar, scroll it to a resolution where 240 is the width. For my example, I scrolled it to 240x96.
Set Sampling Rate to 16khz, set audio to mono, set bitrate to 32kbps.
Click Encode

Go out to Taco Bell and eat 100 minutes worth of tacos. Come back and your finished file will be in the same place that you ripped the DVD files to with DVDDecrypter. It'll be named the same thing as your DVD file, except it'll be an AVI file, and it should be 125 megs.

Hope your handheld plays DivX. Make sure you have the DivX codec installed.

Hard Way:
http://www.doom9.org/gknot-main3.htm

[sirdizzy]

dv there is always more than one way to do everything

[Darth Viscera]

Maybe so, but I prefer to do things the correct way.

[sirdizzy]

why is yours the correct way and mine is not

i will get the same results as you, although mine uses costier softeware

[Darth Viscera]

Your results will likely suffer from higher amounts of quality degradation than mine due to your use of unnecessary transcoding. You don't need to transcode to an MPEG format to get the DVD files into a workable state, you just need to frameserve them.

Your method will take about 3 times longer than mine.

Your software is a great deal more unwieldly than mine, despite the fact that it's expensive. Mine is free and works quite a bit better, with better options and better functionality. The $600 Adobe Premiere is in no way as powerful a tool as AVISynth, and it's more complicated to use.

You run a greater chance of getting an aspect ratio error with your programs, as well as choosing a video size that doesn't have its width/height divisible by 32/16. Video cards like display sizes divisible by those numbers.

If I hadn't found a way to process video easily and reliably, I wouldn't have been able to do it nonstop, day-in and day-out, for the last 2 years. After learning how to do it right in 2001, I quickly abandoned silly programs like DVDx and Adobe Premiere in favor of far more professional programs like Virtualdub and AVISynth. Since then I've encoded in excess of 120,000 minutes of video onto various MPEG-4 formats across several different containers.

I know how to do it right.

[Sejah Haversh]

Enough, both of you.

Thank you, and thank you.

Your methods will be tried. Thanks.

[Morgan Evanar]

Anyone who works with video says Premiere is worthless trash. Second hand info, but thats what everyone I've met says.

[sirdizzy]

i perfer final cut pro and i did mention that but its downside is it is a mac only software

[Sejah Haversh]

Okay, I have another problem. No matter what I do, it will not capture audio. Any ideas?

[sirdizzy]

hmmm no idea, i know of a glitch it final cut where you can't hear sound while your capturing but it is still capturing the sound (ya have to edit your preferences to fix that)


what software are you using, maybe its just the same type of glitch

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Sejah Haversh
Okay, I have another problem. No matter what I do, it will not capture audio. Any ideas?

The audio is in the DVD files, it's ripped by DVD Decrypter in IFO mode. There is no audio capturing.

[Sejah Haversh]

It's just not getting any sound at all, no matter what I do.

[Darth Viscera]

If you want an informative answer, you'll have to provide an informative explanation of the problem and the steps you've taken so far.

[Darth Viscera]

At which step are you getting no audio? DVD Decrypter, Dr. DivX, or the final AVI?

[Sejah Haversh]

Evidently it is in the Decrypter, but I need to run something else and watch the error message again before I can be sure.

I'll get back to you when I get some time, thanks for all your help so far.

[Darth Viscera]

If it's DVD Decrypter which is not ripping the audio track, disable stream processing and try ripping again.