Xbox 360 and video files, how to get 5.1

[VinylxScratches]

What software do you use to get 5.1 audio and decent looking Xvid videos? I use handbrake and the quality is horrible. Maybe I should bump it up but I'm trying to keep it around 900 megabytes. I understand that h.264 mp4 can't get surround sound.

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

I would like to know about this as well. I try to convert it to something else, but I'm pretty sure it's not outputting 5.1.

 

[Ken g6]

Supposedly, 5.1 surround sound needs to be stored in a .AC3 file. So if you have an original .AC3 to use, just import that sound file in VirtualDub, with the video you encoded otherwise (direct stream copy), and save it as a new .avi file.

For Xvid encoding, I hear Auto Gordian Knot is good.

 

[mc866]

The best way that I've found is Fairuse Wizard, I'm able to get good looking xvid videos with 5.1 sound that stream to my 360 and other devices. I'm in the process of ripping my entire collection, the only trouble is I average around a 2.5 GB file in order to get good video and maintain the 5.1.

 

[VinylxScratches]

Originally posted by: mc866
The best way that I've found is Fairuse Wizard, I'm able to get good looking xvid videos with 5.1 sound that stream to my 360 and other devices. I'm in the process of ripping my entire collection, the only trouble is I average around a 2.5 GB file in order to get good video and maintain the 5.1.

That's what's happening to me in Handbrake. I ripped a 10 minute piece out of a DVD at 100% constant quality, it looked perfect but it was 600 megabytes! So I drop it to about 70% and it's really blocky.

It's a shame that h.264 doesn't work with surround sound. I ripped about 6 DVDs before realizing that they don't work on the 360.

 

[Gooberlx2]

You could try using windows media encoder for the vc-1 codec and 5.1 wma. It's much less automated though. However, I feel I get a better picture since I have more control over cropping, and anamorphic PAR. File sizes still depend on the motion and length of a movie...but between 1.4 and 2 gigs is typical.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: Gooberlx2
You could try using windows media encoder for the vc-1 codec and 5.1 wma. It's much less automated though. However, I feel I get a better picture since I have more control over cropping, and anamorphic PAR. File sizes still depend on the motion and length of a movie...but between 1.4 and 2 gigs is typical.

I agree, I use 1 pass quality encoding, with the price of storage file size doesn't matter too much to me.

 

[VinylxScratches]

I found a solution but it isn't very appealing.

I create a high quality H.264 5.1 AVI video in Handbrake, then I run VirtualDub and convert it to XviD. The quality is decent and much better then Handbrake XviD. This is going to make my process take twice as long though

I would use the WMV but I don't want to use Microsoft's format.

 

[tw1164]

Originally posted by: VinylxScratches
I found a solution but it isn't very appealing.

I create a high quality H.264 5.1 AVI video in Handbrake, then I run VirtualDub and convert it to XviD. The quality is decent and much better then Handbrake XviD. This is going to make my process take twice as long though

I would use the WMV but I don't want to use Microsoft's format.

Why don't you just use VirtualDub to create it in the first place?