DVD Encode Question

[ish420]

I have maxed out my HDDs with DVDs
I'm sure a few of you here have experience in encoding DVDs. I recently began encoding my DVD collection, to save space, but noticed each movie I have encoded gradually looses sinc. What could be going wrong? I have an old amd64 3700+ and am using AVS converter. I don't touch my computer during the time of encoding but still get this slight out of sinc. Any ideas as to what I am doing wrong. I would really like suggestions to creating perfect encodes. Size is not an issue. I rather have 1400MB movies than 7000MB. I'm thinking I have conflicting codecs and would be willing to go as far reformating my comp and start from scratch. Although I would like to avoid that. I also want to have these ready for the Pandora release.

 

[velocity37]

Gradually losing synchronization isn't a good sign. Usually that happens when you're capturing a video in realtime and there's dropped frames. You should be able to fix the synchronization with Virtualdub though. In Virtualdub, set the video source as direct stream copy, audio as direct stream copy, and for the video>framerate choose "Change so video and audio durations match". Save as an AVI.

That should fix audio synchronizations in cases where the desync gradually worsens.


But eh, if the tools you're using to rip the DVDs are creating bad output files, you many want to consider trying another.

AutoGK is a nice tool for ripping DVDs to DivX or XviD. I've only ever had issues with a couple of obscure movies with the tool.

If you're looking for something a bit higher up, then you could try Staxrip. Staxrip is basically a much more configurable version of AutoGK, and it has the ability to encode to x264.

If you want the best and most configurable tool, then meGUI would be the one to go with.

AutoGK is awesome for batch conversion, meGUI does well, and Staxrip hasn't fared well for me with batch conversion.

AutoGK requires that you rip the main portion of the film with DVD Decrypter in IFO mode, however.

 

[ish420]

Thanx for the reply. I do actually use dvddecrypter to decrypt my DVDs. But I have been using [file mode] to decrypt the entire disc instead of [ifo mode main movie]. I don't have access to the DVDs anymore. Can I still use those files or is there a way to change my [file mode] decrypted files to [ifo mode main movie] decrypted files? I guess I'll be using IFO mode from now on. Thanx for the help.

 

[velocity37]

Yup.

All you have to do is start up DVD Decrypter, go to file>browse, then point it to your folder containing your full DVD files.

It will now treat the folder of your DVD files as if it were on a disc, so you can re-rip the main part of the film in IFO mode

Just a last note though. If you're worried about saving hard disk space, instead of converting your DVDs to AVI or whatnot, you could just run them through DVD Shrink or equivalent (Nero Recode) to store just the main film on a single-layer DVD. Single-layer DVDs are quite inexpensive, with Verbatim brand being about $30 per 100-spindle.

 

[ish420]

I tried redecrypting with DVDDecrypter but it wouldn't read the folder with the files no matter which way I tried. But I do have Nero Recode and tried a quick sample recode and it looks great using the NERO AVC\ HD AVC setting set to 80min CD. I imagine setting it to DVD5 will look visually lossless quality. Will do a whole movie to see how it comes out. I hope Pandora will be able to handle all types of media files at its native resolution. 720x480 should look amazing on Pandora.
THANX V

 

[velocity37]

Ah, so you're encoding to Nero Digital?

Nero Digital AVC is equivalent to H264, which does quite well at high quality with low filesizes. It has been said though that the Pandora will not do that well, as far as battery life goes, with H264 when compared with DivX/XviD.

The Nero Digital Standard setting is generic MPEG4, which is DivX/XviD equivalent.

Also, when I suggested storing on DVD5s, I was referring to Nero Digital's "Recode Main Movie to DVD" feature. If a film is larger than a single layer DVD, it will transcode it to a lower bitrate so that it will fit on a single layer DVD. This would mean the outcome is an actual DVD that would play on any 'ol DVD player.

If you're encoding to Nero Digital, you shouldn't need the videos to be any larger than 1400MB. That would allow three films per DVD5.

I was wrong about DVD Decrypter though, you cannot open a folder of files. However, you also don't need to actually run DVD decrypter on the files again. When using AutoGK, you just have to be sure to choose the IFO file in the folder that corresponds to the actual film. Like this tutorial shows.

 

[.Gogeta§§J4BR.]

here is a great tip for you guys to make easy direct dvd->avi encoding
http://handbrake.fr/

 

[WarmFluffyUK]

ProjectX can check for audio and video sync and can fix it. But unfortunately, if you have created DVDs that are out of sync, it may be a bit of a problem.

Question: When everything gets out of sync, if you pause and then play, is it back in sync again?

 

[ish420]

Thanks Roberto.cr, you are totally correct. I have stopped using Nero Recode 2 and switch to handbrake and can now backup my DVDs using any container I like. And It fixed my slight syncing problem.
P.S Do two pass encodes. It's totally worth the extra time.

 

[cosam]

Question: When everything gets out of sync, if you pause and then play, is it back in sync again?

Depends if sync was lost during the encoding or the decoding process. If you encode something in such a way that it's gone out of sync, the "out of sync-edness" is written to the output. Of course, the decoder has no idea this is the case and will assume its in sync, even if it's not, so the pause-then-play combination will alter nothing. You can fix this condition with the likes of Virtual Dub by moving or "stretching" audio to match the video, or vice versa.

OTOH, if the "out of sync-edness" (I'm going to trademark that phrase) is due to (part of) the decoder lagging in some way or other, pausing and playing can help as things will resume from a known point on both the audio and video.