picture quality of avi files

[thomasthom]

i'm interested in saving my dvd collection to hard disc.i'd like to know what the quality of a 700 mb divx-avi file is for viewing on the computer or on a tv using the tv-out socket on the pc or maybe a dvd-divx player thanks

 

[tr1kstanc3]

you will always lose a certain bit of quality when you encode video. if you were going to watch it thru svideo out on a 32" and less tv you wont notice it too much. anything larger and you'll start to see blocky shadows in the greys and blacks.

 

[Mavrick007]

DVDr is the best way to save your dvd discs now.
DVDr is getting very affordable in media and drives and the quality loss is minimal with good software.

 

[thomasthom]

ok which gives best viewing results 19 computer monitor or 32" tv with s-video .
and how much degradation in picture quality with a 700mb divx file size

 

[Mavrick007]

A divX file is not going to look that much different than a vhs movie.
It would be acceptable on a 32" tv, but I would probably just use my dvd.
I would say it would look better on the 19" monitor than a bigger set tv
cause the quality is degraded alot. That's why I would put it on a blank dvd.

 

[THUGSROOK]

for high quality DivX id suggest going to 2 cds/1400mb w/VBR audio.

at that size it will be much better then SVCD but not quite as good as the original DVD.
on a computer, youd be hard pressed to tell the difference between HQ DivX and DVD @ full screen.

 

[thomasthom]

thanks for those replies.i understand things better now.i'll try bothsuggestions and see which suits best

 

[Excelsior]

Originally posted by: THUGSROOK
for high quality DivX id suggest going to 2 cds/1400mb w/VBR audio.

at that size it will be much better then SVCD but not quite as good as the original DVD.
on a computer, youd be hard pressed to tell the difference between HQ DivX and DVD @ full screen.

True that.

Encoding has come a long way. Ive seen some Xvid movies at 700mb that are mindblowing.

 

[NokiaDude]

If you use ffdshow as a divx decoder, you can enable postprocessing filters which will dramatically improve the quality of any divx file. I watch anime that is encoded pretty god w/ high bitrates. Without ffdshow's postprocessing filter, some parts look blocky, but with the filters enabled I can get DVD quality on most files. You should seriously check out ffdshow.

 

[Auric]

MPEG-4 is much more efficient than MPEG-2 so the quality loss can be minimal, especially with 2 CD (1.6 GB using standard discs in Mode2). But 1 CD can be very good if compressing audio and particularly viewing on a smaller screen. It's still better quality than VHS, is more durable, won't degrade over time and takes up less space. If using 2 CD's you may as well retain the full resolution and one of the original AC3 tracks: 5.1 or 2.0 Surround depending on your speaker system. An HDTV's line doubler and scaler can compensate on larger screens without having to rely on software filters. I suppose the best option would be not to interlace it in the first place by using a digital I/O but that is rare. A higher resolution monitor on the other hand will reveal source flaws readily (even many original DVD's can look bad on a good monitor, depending on the quality of the film source and encoding). MPEG-2 is not well suited to cartoons in the first place. The advantage to maintaining the original A/V from a DVD is not being dependent on a PC or software for playback. So that would definitely seem the way to go if space was not a concern (if actually storing on HDD) and the option of a stand-alone player was desired. If using DivX or such check out doom9.org and consider trying Auto Gordian Knot.

 

[NokiaDude]

Auto Gordian Knot is a PAIN IN THE A$$ to setup perfectly if all you want to do is rip them to your HD. I would STRONGLY suggest downloading DVDShrink. It has an option to just rip the movie from a DVD to HD and shrink it as much as you want without losing too much quality.

 

[LeoMael]

And instead of saving the divx files to cd, why not save them to dvdr? ALOT more room for more than one movie per disc?

 

[nanaki333]

or why not just burn several divx files onto dvd media and buy a divx player? heck, just looking at the quality of some of these divx files, they look damn near dvd, if not exactly like one. you can just pop that dvd full of divx movies in your xbox and play it with media player, or just stream from computer to xbox. or you can get a divx player. i've been eyeing this bad boy up for some time now: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1077624500910&skuId=6373827&type=product

been getting mixed reviews, but seems pretty sexy to me.