Hello,

I am trying to convert video files from various formats that my DVD player cannot play (like mp4) to formats it can play, like avi and mpeg.

Tried using Any Video Converter, played with the settings a little, but in each of my test conversion (wich took 1 or 2 hours each) the quality of the transcoded file was really bad. Sound was awful, image quality, huge artifacts were stretching across the screen in one.

If you could recommend me some good software for doing high quality video conversions (transcoding?) and / or if you could point me to some good reading material on the issue - I did a few searches but couldn't find anything myself - I'd be very grateful : )

r>

For an inexpensive but powerful and easy to use converter, I always recommend tmpgenc xpress.
Posted via Mobile Device

Hi,

Thanks for the recommendation, but, a 100$ is inexpensive?
Anyways, I've downloaded the trial, set it on a 6 hour transcoding session (although I selected multithreading it used only processor core, mostly). It created an almost 4GB avi file out of a 1GB mp4 file. Quality - absolutely unwatchable.

I guess I should start testing it on smaller clips, but I'm missing something here, and I don't know what. I didn't play much with the default settings. How could it be producing such a horrible quality image?

r>

Can any of you recommend some good reading material for someone who is willing to read a lot of serious text, rather than tutorials that consist of screen captures of program menus?

Thanks,
r>

What settings, or preset, did you use? File size and quality are intrisically linked. In general terms, the greater the file size the greater the quality. That's because video is data, and the more data you have, the greater the information about the picture. It's a bit like reading a book. You could quite easily read every other page of a book and still understand the plot. The less you read, the more time you save, but the more detail you lose.

So to get file sizes smaller, codecs compress video size by either throwing away data or compressing the data in one frame of each video. mpeg4 uses a form of intraframe compression, which compares one frame to the next and throws out evevrything that hasn;t changed.

This is generally controlled by the bit rate. This is the amout of detail or data per second. The smaller the bitrate, the more data that must be lost.

So that,s the primary setting, the bitrate. but just as in reading our book, there are some scenes whicch need more details than others. Take a car chase. With high movement, you need lots of detail. So you need a way of throwing less information away. We do this by using a variable bit rate. this increases the amout of data per second where there is high movement. The software will generally go through the video once, assess it, and then encode. This is called multipass variable bit rate.

So for the best quality, you need to chose a variable bit rate.

Does this help?
Posted via Mobile Device

Hi Marc,

I know all that, I just don't know how to translate it into specific instruction to programmes - which encoding to pick, how to set the aspect ratio, which settings to pick within the encoding I chose so that original quality or video & audio is preserved without bloating the file. I did manage to create a good quality conversion with the prog you've recommended, of a 15 minutes clip. Resulting file was over 400MiB in size.... I played with the video bitrate a bit, but anything below ~4000 was jerky - not watchable quality.

I'd love to read a good, serious guide, or a few, specific - how to use a prog - and general, about the various encoding methods and how they work.

A few good tips would also be appreciated, of course : )

R>

Your video should never been jerky. This impies that you have changed the framerate of the video.

It would help to know the exact source of the video. In order to maximise quality, you will need to match the source settings as cloesly as possible. You can use gspot to interogate your files and the ste your export to match

Howver, in honesty, it may be cheaper, more practical and quicker to buy a playerthat can play your videos. £100 will buy you n external hdd media player that will play just about any format.
Posted via Mobile Device

Good point, but now I'm gonna have to figure this one out.
Also because I wanna have this additional skill.

So, I'll fiddle with gspot.
And do a few more tests.

Funny, BTW, why all those wizard-driven programmes, with all that automation create such crappy results with their default settings. Makes no sense.

Will be back to report.

it is like university.. it's all about the playing around and finding out what you like



hah

Sure, but prior theoretic knowledge is a big plus.
I've discovered Ultra Video Splitter, and am now running conversion after conversion, fiddling with its truly beginner friendly and simple settings. It seems to be set very well to accommodate the needs of someone who is not proficient in the field, and produces good quality transcodings.
When I've had enough with UVS, I'll try other programmes.