best video codec for size vs. quality

[batjeep]

Ive been capturing a tv show for my own collection, i use either mpg2 or divx to capture then ive been encoding into asf :250 it gives me a pretty good full screen play back at about 35mb per each 20minn epp. for some reason since i reinstalled Win98se when i convert to asf:250 the video is fine but the audio is very Low, and slow. any way there will be about 200 epps and i cant afford files that are larger than 40mb a piece. i can use asf:500 but the files are like 80mb and id much rather use divx or something editable. but at 200epps file size and full screen viewablity is very important. Ive been using Videowave 3 (with the latest update off MGI's site) to capture and encode. RM and quicktime bothers me, so i try to stay away from them.
any advice? thanks
I use a Geforce2 MX w/tv out
ATI tv wonder
TB 1ghz(200)
384mb pc133
ABIT KTE133
SB live Value



[This message has been edited by batjeep (edited 08-09-2001).]

[VERT]

I use either the DIVX slow motion or fast motion codec, depending on what I am decoding.

[batjeep]

well thats good but how many meg is that per 20 minn. And if its lower than like 180mb, how did you do that

[VERT]

Used Flaskmpg to rip the matrix (my own copy) from dvd to divx, used the fast motion codec and 128bit sound (mp3). Movie is 2 hrs 13 mins (something like that. 490mbs in size and very good quality ie no pixelation in kung fu sequence.

[muno]

The size of divx movie can be determined by moving the bit rate slider =)
A 1½h movie fits 660mb at 800kbs(video)/128kbs(audio).
Thus, you can easily fit a 20min clip to 40mb etc. Use one of those bitrate calculators =) www.divx-digest.com (http://www.divx-digest.com)
-M

[jak]

i always use divx, ive got the ati a-i-w. i use low motion customized to 910 usually. i fit alot of movies onto cd's since i use my computer for tv anyways. just go to vcdhelp.com and click capture at the right, then direct capture to divx on the page, get the tools it tells u to cause they awesome, i really like virtual dub, tons of settings u can play with. to get the sound right, record it as cd quality then change it to mpeg layer 3 128 at 44800 hz i believe(somewhere round there, it will give u an exact choice) and that puts it in perfect sync. http://www.vcdhelp.com will have everything ull need to get u started.

[OuTpaTienT]

I must agree, DivX rules. I have all the SouthPark episodes as DivX compressed AVI files. Without commercials they average about 21 minutes in length. The video screen size is 352x240 (but looks fine at full screen). Each episode is about 50MB.

For comparison, I also have a few of them as typical MPG files, and those are about 225MB per episode...and don't look much better.

Also have a few as Real Media files. They're also about 50MB in size but video quality is poor.

[RobRich]

I use Windows Media v8 for most of my personal a/v archival work. can archive 3-4 hours of quality video per 650MB CD using 2-pass variable bit-rate encoding with a 320x240 RGBA32 overlay uncompressed AVI source stream, 500kbps max bit-rate, 320x240 30fps WM8 video, and 96kbps 44khz stereo WM8 audio. Playback is superb at 100%, plus WM8 scales well to 200% and full-screen with minimal artifacting.

For exported formats, I commonly opt for RealVideo or QuickTime. RV actually works great for animated video, possibly one of the best codecs available for this particular format, as it deals well with motion compensation across multiple color bands and rapidly alternating imagery. I use QT for low bit-rate video, such as streaming across 56k connections. Great compression ratio with good network error handling characterisitics.

Robert Richmond

[This message has been edited by RobRich (edited 08-10-2001).]

[muno]

Yep, real does pretty amazing thing about video, but the audio is just horrible. I personally don't like real at all, nor qt.
Divx is so common these days that quite about everyone has at least heard of it.
The image quality (from my experiementing) is about the same as with asf (ms advanced streaming format) but as asf lacks the keying of divx (so the movie can be seeked without lag) the latter is preferable.
-M

[MadMatt]

I use the DIVX Fast motion codec. I set it to 2000kbps, 640x480 output, and find that most movies fit on 1 CD (Sometimes it's an 850mb CD, but 1 CD nonetheless). I've had MUCH better luck with Fast Motion than Slow - It's extremely efficient in low action scenes, but still captures fast scenes with great fidelity.

13 Days - 748mb
Lock, Stock, and 2 Smoking Barrels - 789mb
Dr. Strangelove - 693mb
Gone in 60 Secoonds - 791mb

[OuTpaTienT]

muno mentioned the quality of divx not being much better than asf files, and I just thought I'd point this out to make sure everyone's getting the best visuals while watching divx flicks...

If anyone is using the old MS Media Player v6.4 (like I do, I hate the new one, v7) then when your video is playing, goto ...
FILE, then
PROPERTIES, then
ADVANCED TAB, then
highlight DivX mpeg-4, then
hit the PROPERTIES button, and
slide the CPU/quality slider all the way to the right.

You should only have to do that once then it'll stay there as default.

[club_med]

I vote for DIVX too.

cm.

[qwerty12345]

I use DivX 4 Beta 2, it has 2-pass VBR so you can get some pretty small files. I got a 115 minute movie at 720x576 in 740MB, that is 910kbps video stream and 128kbps WMA. If postprocessing is on max it looks just like the DVD.

[batjeep]

THANKS SOOOO MUCH. you guys are great. i took the epps, that i had saved as like 300mb files and put em through V dub and messed with the settings to get a divx file that looks good at full screen. odd that i had to use 300k to do so using 600k or more gave me 80-90mb+ files. but im satisfied with the look and size of my 50mb files at 300k. any way thanks alot but what program does everyone use to capture and edit/join clips. im still capturing with Videowave III and then producing a file that takes like 20 minn to encode then basically using Vdub to compress it, a better option?
thanks again