Best video format for movies?

[WildHorse]

I don't know much about video, nor how the various format choices rank.

What's the best format to encode movies into, for highest quality and reasonable size, to burn onto a 4.7GB single-layer DVD and play on a standalone DVD player connected to a TV set, or to save on hard drive and play over a wireless home network (I'm not advanced enough yet for streaming, maybe someday)?

Some format choices that I see are:
XViD
H.264
AC3 5 1
DivX
AVI
MPEG-1
MPEG-2
MPEG-4
MP4
MOV
WMV

probably more. Thank you.

 

[angry hampster]

MPeg-2 is pretty standard.

 

[NoStateofMind]

If I'm not mistaken I think a lot of HD video is encoded in H.264

 

[Aberforth]

VC-1 and H.264 is the best format available.

 

[ViRGE]

Neither of which will play on a DVD player unfortunately.

 

[WildHorse]

Originally posted by: ViRGE
Neither of which will play on a DVD player unfortunately.

Is there a heirarchy for the various formats listed in the OP, and maybe others? Where can I learn what the heirarchy is, how they rank? Everything I've found by web searching seems too old, outdated, not covering many of the available formats.

Which format do you recommend for the use as described in the OP?

 

[lopri]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codec

 

[WildHorse]

Originally posted by: lopri
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_codec

I read your link, and several other pages linked from that page.

In summary what I surmise is: Go for MPEG-4 part 10, or x264, or less desirable but stiill O.K. is MPEG-4 part 2 or Xvid, or still less desirable and older is MPEG-2> In descending rank:


(a) Blue Ray not well supported yet, still developing.

(b) MPEG-4 part 10 (MPEG-4 AVC/H.264, used by the x264 codec, by Nero Digital AVC, by Quicktime 7, and by next-gen DVD formats like HD DVD and Blu-ray Disc. This codec for video signals is technically identical to the ITU-T H.264 standard.

(c) MPEG-4 part 2 (MPEG-4 SP/ASP, used by codecs such as DivX*, Xvid, Nero Digital, 3ivx and by Quicktime 6)

[*note: avoid DivX becauise it does not work on Linux, which I plan to switch over to, and is limited on Vista)

 

[ViRGE]

In terms of compression efficiency:

H.264 (MP4/MOV)
VC-1 (WMV9)
MPEG 4 ASP (XViD/DivX)
MPEG-2 (DVD)
MPEG-1

As far as what's best to use for distribution, anything you distribute for burning to a DVD will have to be MPEG-2. For stand alone files for viewing, as long as it's not in high-def, H.264 in a MP4 container is a good choice. Quicktime can play SD files as long as they're encoded to certain standards, and Quicktime is rather ubiquitous; while at the same time H.264 is a widely enough supported standard that people can use other software too.

 

[Modelworks]

I would go with xvid.
The quality can be very good and there are a number of low cost dvd players that will play the disc.
If the player says it will play divx it will also play xvid.

 

[WildHorse]

ViRGE & Modelworks,

Thank you both.

ViRGE , no I don't care about "distribution" to other people or "distribution" over the internet.
My sole interest is in personal use within my home, making backup DVDs that'll play on a standalone player at the TV set (I haven't built a htpc yet to handle things like this, maybe I'll get to that someday).

 

[Continuity28]

This depends on what your DVD player supports.

All DVD players support MPEG-2. Only some DVD players support MPEG-4, in the form of Divx/Xvid. If you have such a player, use MPEG-4, since you can get the same quality for a much lower bitrate - meaning more space for content.

Most likely, the best your player supports is MPEG-2, which is the DVD standard, the codec that any DVD you buy in the store will use.

For computer use, DON'T use MPEG-2, since it's very wasteful by comparison to other codecs. For computer use, the best is H.264 and VC-1, assuming your PC can handle it. If not, go with Xvid.

 

[Winterpool]

For the reasons already outlined, I tend to use XviD to play on a conventional telly. It's open source, it's well-nigh universal, and it compresses pretty well (ie good video quality for file size). As has been stated, many dvd players (look at the ones available from Philips for $30+ for instance) will play DivX / XviD files: so you can burn a physical disc with XviD files and play, say, twelve hours of essentially SD-quality video from a single-layer dvd (whereas with the MPEG2 format of true video dvds, you'd get maybe three or four). The best of these players will take USB input as well, so you needn't waste any blank disks; instead just plug in a Flash drive or even external hard drive with the XviD files.

 

[Brother Ali]

You really wont get the same quality (not possible); but maybe the same noticible quality. It depends on your display. In all honesty it takes around 2 hrs for h.264 for each dvd verses say 20min. For shrinking a dvd h.264 is the most efficent so you will lose the least quality for the size (ie 4.7gb h.264>4.7 dvd shrank). If time is an issue then I would check out dvdfab I believe it is better at shrinking dvds (quality) than dvd shrink. If you dont mind the time at 4.7gb you 99% chance wont notice the difference with h.264. If you can find a program that can strip out the needless extras this will usually bring it down to 6gb then 6gb->4.7 is not a big deal for h.264.

My question is do you have a dvd player that can do h.264? I know it wont work with normal players.

Also just an idea but if you have some spare computer parts laying around; htpc is just amazing imho. I love my setup; was extremely easy to setup and now I am able to rip my movies to the pc without any compression and have a built in upconverter. Will just upgrade down the road when blue-ray becames standard.

EDIT: I dont know much about wireless networking; but just for kicks I just now tried doing regular dvd over 54mps and was too choppy. I know that alot of people do gigabte but that is for 25+gb blue-ray movies.

Check with this site for more info on what your trying to do avsforum.com and then go to HTPC. I dont understand what you mean by "connect to wireless though". Care to elaberate? Do you have a pc already connected to the tv?

 

[WildHorse]

My question is do you have a dvd player that can do h.264?

No I don't think so; not 100% certain but I doubt it.

if you have some spare computer parts laying around; htpc is just amazing imho.

The problem for me is time. I rarely have time to dewll on my hobbies like building computers or overclocking or woodworking because I travel lots.

avsforum.com

Thank you!

Do you have a pc already connected to the tv?

No

 

[Continuity28]

Originally posted by: scott
No I don't think so; not 100% certain but I doubt it.

What's the brand / model number?