List Some Good Video Converting Software

[AireTamStorm]

And all the other Linux forums prefer mencoder. ffmpeg is popular here... (my choice, personally)

 

[javaJake]

ffmpeg is becoming my choice as well. Mencoder is dominantly AVI, while ffmpeg does it all. I have found ffmpeg harder to work with, however, but that's probably just a sign of the power.

 

[nubie]

EDIT:

8GB cards are $25 is there any reason to use a 300mb file over a 700mb file?

Is there a way to keep high enough quality for full length movie on 800x480 if you only have 300mb to use?

I think that if it is an HD or a DVD rip to 700MB that you should just leave it, you are already losing a lot of quality as it is.

I am highly biased on the subject of quality though.

(ChronoTriggerfan is right, 16GB cards are $45, 8GB cards are $21 and up.)

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

8GB cards are $45 is there any reason to use a 300mb file over a 700mb file?

Who the heck is selling you 8 gig cards? They're ripping you off big time! :lol: 16 gig cards are about that much anymore.

 

[nubie]

8GB cards are $45 is there any reason to use a 300mb file over a 700mb file?

Who the heck is selling you 8 gig cards? They're ripping you off big time! :lol: 16 gig cards are about that much anymore.

You are right, I futzed up, I must have been thinking of something else. 8GB is $21-$25

So my point is now doubled? I have trouble enjoying video in crap quality, even on the GP2X a 700MB movie was better quality than compressed to 300mb.

And now the screen is tons better in terms of image quality and color and 800x480 resolution?* I wouldn't compress 700mb further.

Besides, think about what would happen if you plug it into a TV to watch the movie somewhere, 300mb is poor quality.

*(compare to PSP and GP2X: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HhIt8A-d34 )

Edit: never mind http://www.i-mockery.com/minimocks/storyofricky/ , I am sure that masterpiece doesn't even deserve 300mb, enjoy the blurry action and the gore will be reduced as though you were watching through a rain-soaked window. (high speed action shouldn't be re-compressed a lot, it doesn't make for a sharp image.)

 

[WizardStan]

8GB cards are $25 is there any reason to use a 300mb file over a 700mb file?

I don't think anyone is suggesting re-encoding a video file that has already been reduced once. From what I can tell, the suggestion is to take those 9 gig DVD rips, and encode them down to 700 mb. Then some back and forth about whether anyone actually watches the special features. Personally, I think video commentary is useless and I have no problem losing it, but that's just me.

 

[nubie]

8GB cards are $25 is there any reason to use a 300mb file over a 700mb file?

I don't think anyone is suggesting re-encoding a video file that has already been reduced once. From what I can tell, the suggestion is to take those 9 gig DVD rips, and encode them down to 700 mb. Then some back and forth about whether anyone actually watches the special features. Personally, I think video commentary is useless and I have no problem losing it, but that's just me.


This is the original post in this thread:

Is it a little too early to ask this? Say I want to take my 700 MB DVX file of The Story Of Ricky, and convert it to around 300 MB and have it an optimal setting for the Pandora. What software would you guys recommend?

On topic, I like AutoGordianKnot.

It did generate movies that gave the GP2X problems (bframe encoding?), I don't think we will have that problem with the OMAP processor in the Pandora, so it is something to consider.

That is not really the encoders fault, the GP2X should have had proper support.

 

[WizardStan]

This is the original post in this thread:

Whoopsie doodle. My apologies. I got distracted by the off topic discussion then. Sorry.

 

[CronoTriggerfan]

As far as the 300 vs 700 meg file is concerned, it might not make that much of an impact in the video department (perhaps some compression artifacts), but you can have a substantially higher quality audio track at a larger file size, which I'm more prone to personally.

 

[Chip]

On topic, I like AutoGordianKnot.



AutoGK was once the best thing going for DVD to AVI encoding, though that may be because it was once the only all-in-one option. We used to have to use half a dozen different programs to rip and convert DVDs to divx

AutoGK has always been a bit flaky though. Since switching to XP 64bit a couple years ago I've never been able to get any version to work correctly. Handbrake is far and away the easiest and most reliable solution these days. You don't have quite as many options to obsess over, but that's really just as well for most conversion jobs. The "Automatic" settings work flawlessly for nearly everything.


As for file sizes, it's all a matter of preference. There isn't really a wrong way to do it. I had 24min anime episodes down to about 20mb each when I was converting them for my GP32, and they looked fine. Not spectacular, but certainly watchable. When your storage medium tops out at 128mb and the cards run $30 each, you learn a bit about optimizing video compression.

 

[AireTamStorm]

ffmpeg is becoming my choice as well. Mencoder is dominantly AVI, while ffmpeg does it all. I have found ffmpeg harder to work with, however, but that's probably just a sign of the power.

How hard is taking your now-perfect parameters for your device and cramming it into a shell script?

 

[nubie]

On topic, I like AutoGordianKnot.



AutoGK was once the best thing going for DVD to AVI encoding, though that may be because it was once the only all-in-one option. We used to have to use half a dozen different programs to rip and convert DVDs to divx

AutoGK has always been a bit flaky though. Since switching to XP 64bit a couple years ago I've never been able to get any version to work correctly. Handbrake is far and away the easiest and most reliable solution these days. You don't have quite as many options to obsess over, but that's really just as well for most conversion jobs. The "Automatic" settings work flawlessly for nearly everything.
Eh, I don't really down convert DVDs anyway. I currently capture a TV show, but direct to disk with ffmpeg divx compressing it.

QUOTE
As for file sizes, it's all a matter of preference. There isn't really a wrong way to do it. I had 24min anime episodes down to about 20mb each when I was converting them for my GP32, and they looked fine. Not spectacular, but certainly watchable. When your storage medium tops out at 128mb and the cards run $30 each, you learn a bit about optimizing video compression.


Well, there is a wrong way to do it, and that is to take a full length action movie compressed to 700mb and then re-compress it on your personal PC to 300MB when a $25 8GB storage card exists.

It would be far simpler to find a DVD to 300MB high quality rip and download it, probably save the environment a little because your PC wouldn't be burning electricity to do nothing. Also it might be much higher quality because somebody took the time to make multiple passes on the encoder to keep the action sharp.

I guess I spoke too soon, the only version of riki-oh that I can find is 536mb, and some 2 gb and up DVD torrents.

Knowing me I would probably download a 4GB torrent and do 2-4 pass conversion with the best (or near best) motion compensation if I wanted to see it at 300mb. I would also probably crop a couple pixels off the sides and choose a smaller size for the final product.

Since I can't stand piss poor quality (trust me, DVD shrink bugs me going from a 7GB DVD to a 4.7GB DVD, I can see the loss in quality), I would rather just put a 4GB video file on the Pandora and call it good. 700mb if I had the space.

I can't stand these kids who convert hours and hours of anime and martial arts films to play on an iPod or PSP or cell phone.* It is like they have never heard of an Archos or a laptop.

*(worse still my own brothers who watch TV on Youtube/similar crap flash video websites)

Now that the topic is a distant memory, I am nuts and you can figure that I will play my media over wifi off of a large hard disk drive, preferably as 700MB AVI HD rips or full DVD ISO's.

 

[AireTamStorm]

Well, there is a wrong way to do it, and that is to take a full length action movie compressed to 700mb and then re-compress it on your personal PC to 300MB when a $25 8GB storage card exists.
I'm with you on that one. Memory is so cheap nowadays...

It would be far simpler to find a DVD to 300MB high quality rip and download it, probably save the environment a little because your PC wouldn't be burning electricity to do nothing. Also it might be much higher quality because somebody took the time to make multiple passes on the encoder to keep the action sharp.
People don't seem to realize, when you re-encode a video, it is likely the 3rd or 4th time it has been encoded in a highly lossy format. From the film => Digital Transfer (usually lossless) => DVD / Blu-Ray or TV Authoring (1) => Ripping and Encoding (2) => Transcoding to Device format (3). All sorts of quality on both the audio and video side is lost on the way to a device. Biggest problem being, most people haven't a clue and use transcoding software based on profiles, and use the first profile that works for them. The videos are encoded in a resolution different (usually lower) than the device screen resolution or with a different aspect ratio, leading to stretching. Then, when finally on the device, the videos end up getting scaled to shit when trying to fit into the devices' screen resolution.

Point: This is why I look forward to simply copying that 720p video onto a 16/32GB SDHC card and forgetting about it.

 

[javaJake]

How hard is taking your now-perfect parameters for your device and cramming it into a shell script?

As hard as figuring out copy and paste on a dvorak keyboard (when you're first learning it).