|
|
Ecuador's DVD -to-
DivX ;-) Beginners Guide v1.3
|
Last Update : November 5 2002
Homepage
: http://ecuador.ebodyform.com
There
is a newer guide (v2.x) at my PC-DVD pages : http://www.ecuadors.net/pcdvd/
1. Introduction
This guide is intended for beginners. It describes the easiest
way (but quite slow) to produce MPEG 4 (DivX) video CD's with
subtitles and MP3 Dolby Surround sound. Each CD can hold from
50 to 100+ min of video (depending on quality) and can be played on a fast
computer (400MHz+).
A while ago I preferred to use a different technique that produced MPEG 2/AC3
CD's. This technique was very complex and fitted a movie in 2 or 3 CD's with
probably inferior quality video (although the sound was Dolby Digital).
The new technique is possible thanks to Microsoft for their MPEG 4 codecs
and the DivX team for hacking them in order to be used in formats other than
asf.
*This guide was first written in 2000. Newer and faster methods
for DVD to DivX conversion exist, so only use this guide if other methods
fail in your system or fail for a particular DVD title. The guide was updated
on Nov 5 2002 but the update was only about a couple of newer program versions,
the method stayed the same.
2. Requirements
First, you will need a fast computer both for creation and playback
of DivX CD's. For smooth playback you will need at least a PII-350 or K6-2
450. As for ripping, something faster will help finish earlier the difficult
task. For example, it takes my Athlon 750 about 12 hours to convert a 2 hour
movie. Actually, the best processor for the task is currently (Dec 2000) the
Pentium 4, then comes the Athlon and then the Pentium 3
and 2.
Moreover, a decent SVGA card is required (almost all 8MB+ cards will do, as
well as several 4MB units). A large hard disk is also mandatory. If the DVD
is not copied to the HD first, then 3-5 GB's of free space will be sufficient.
If the DVD is first copied to the HD, an additional 4-7 GB's will be required.
As for RAM requirements : a stable Windows 98/Me/2000 environment is required,
which means 64-128 MB RAM (more is always welcome).
Next, you will need some software :
DivX ;-) codecs, a CSS decryptor, like DVDDecrypter,
DVD2Mpeg Squeezer v1.16 (with WinDVD filters and Panasonic Plug-in),
VirtualDub and Ecuador's AVI Bitrate Calculator DX. Note that
DivX 3 was the best codec when this guide was written, however newer codecs
(like DivX 5.0.2) with better features like B-frames can be used, but only
in 1-pass mode.
The above software can be found in my rip-pack, which can be
downloaded form my PC-DVD
pages. From there you can also download the latest version of Ecuador's
AVI Bitrate Calculator.
If you want to change the region of your DVD-ROM then I would
suggest that you download DVDGenie from DVD
infomatrix.
3. Installation
Make sure you have DirectX 7 and DX Media 6.0
(or later versions of these) installed on your system. You probably have them
if you have been playing some recent 3D games. If not, download them from
Microsoft.com.
Install the DivX 3.11 alpha codecs by clicking on the
.exe. The installation is complete after you click on the "run me
first" icon. You can also install the VKI "scene change detection"
patch (just copy the files to your windows/system directory replacing the
old ones). The patch can make a difference in low bitrates.
Install DVD2Mpeg Squeezer V1.16. Install the Panasonic
plug-in to the SAME directory as DVD2Mpeg. Copy to the same directory the
files "cm-mpeg-pwi2.0e.prm" and "avidll.dll" found in
the rip-pack.
Virtual Dub, DVDdecrypter and Ecuador's AVI Bitrate
Calculator just need to be copied to a directory.
4. Ripping
The ripping procedure consists of 5 steps, 3 of which are optional.
The times shown are very rough estimates for a 2 hour movie based on my Athlon
750 system.
Target Size : PAL DVD's have
a resolution of 720x576 and NTSC DVD's 720x480. It is better if you
enter a lower value, since the bitrate will be kept to a minimum. Keeping
in mind that the DivX movies will be mainly viewed on 4:3 monitors, and
probably computer monitors, for very wide movies I use a resolution of 640x480
which provides the best quality and viewability on the PC monitor (along
with the "add bands" and "zoom" - see below). If the
source is 16:9 then I use 640x368 without the "add bands" option.
In any case, test by yourself. Ecuador's AVI Bitrate Calculator has an Aspect
Ratio / Resolution calculator that can provide you with resolutions supported
by DivX (divisible by 16).
Max. Framenumber : Enter a number of
frames after which the capture will end. For most cases enter a large number
like 99999999, since you don't want your capturing to finish before
the end of a movie.
Audio Output Format : Since most PC
audio cards cannot handle well 48kHz sound it is usually best to
choose the 44100 Hz WAV setting. Use the higher quality 48 kHz
sound only if you are sure it will not be a problem for your system. Forget
the MP2 setting, welcome to the MPEG4/MP3 era.
MP2 Bitrate : No use for DivX movies.
Look above.
Resize Filter : Here you have some
options that affect the quality and speed of the rip. The lowest quality
setting you should use is "Triangle". I personally prefer
the "Bicubic" method. The conversion slows about 25%
but, depending on your resize settings, the quality slightly improves. If
you have CPU power to spare you might also try the Lanczos or Hanning
Windowed Sinc. I must warn you that I have encountered a couple of movies
that had problems on very bright areas (like the titles) with any filter
other than Triangle, so be careful.
Interpolation Method : No interpolation.
Framerate : Not much to do here. You
just enter your source's framerate (PAL : 25 fps NTSC
: 23.976 fps)
Stop Capturing by titlechange : Check
this for the capturing to end at the end of the title.
Add Bands : If you are planning to
do a manual Pan & Scan, i.e. to make the black horizontal bands
thinner using the "zoom" then check this box.
Precise Resizing : Yes.
Use Xing Video decoder : Generally:
No. If you are having problems though, you could try this decoder.
Zoom : Zooms the picture, minimizing
the black bands, but, on the same time cutting part of the frame (left &
right). Use it if you don't want to watch a 2.35:1 movie as a thin line
on your 17" monitor.
Codec : Use the Low Motion DivX
codec, even for "fast" action films. The Fast Motion
is really bad for normal scenes, plus it will probably not use a decent
bitrate regardless of your setting. So, select the Low Motion and
press the button to configure it:
Keyframe every : The default value
of 10 secs indicates that the movie can be cut and fast-forwarded
at 10 sec increments. You cannot use a value lower than about 5
secs unless you are using a high data rate, as the quality will be downgraded.
For data rates over 1500, a value of 1-2 secs should be more
appropriate. If you are using the VKI patch with motion detection, then
a keyframe will also be created each time there is a keychange. Generally,
with the patch installed you should use higher values than you would have
otherwise.
Compression Control : For a reasonable
bitrate leave the crispness to 100, for the sharpest image. For really
low bitrates you can try something like 75. As always try other settings
yourself.
Data Rate (bit rate) : This setting
will decide the resulting quality and filesize. First you have to decide
how big the file will be (will it have to fit one or two CD's?). Generally,
to ensure decent quality do not exceed about 105 min of video per
CD. To find the (approximate) resulting video file size use the formula:
filesize (Kb) = bitrate * movie length (min) * 60 / 8 . The same
goes with the sound. When interleaving the video with audio the final file
will be slightly bigger in size than the two source files separately. For
your convenience use my bitrate calculator program available at my
website. Generally, for movies with somewhat "slow"
scenes, bitrates from 800-850 kbps are acceptable, but you should
aim for 1000 and higher. Of course, for "fast" movies
the bitrate should be even higher. Take notice that these values refer to
a resolution of about 640x368 pixels. If you want to use lower bitrates
then you have to lower the resolution as well.
Select "play" in the "playback" menu.
You can select languages and subtitles by the "special"
menu, or you can navigate through the DVD menu using the cursor and
Enter keys (just be sure to have the small Squeezer window active
at the time). As soon as you have selected your languages start the movie
and choose "start capturing" from the "playback"
menu. The capturing will finish at the end of the title.
For the final step open Virtual Dub. Select "file"
"open video file" and open your newly created (video only)
AVI. You don't want it altered in any way, so in the menu "video"
select "direct stream copy".
Now, in the "audio" menu go to "interleaving".
I usually enter "400ms" for the first two values. Leave the
third at zero. Next go to "compression". Most tutorials suggest
the DivX audio codec at 64 kbps. Well, this codec sure is fast
but the quality is too low for my standards. So, I am using the Mpeg Layer
3 codec, mostly at 128kbps (and sometimes at 96, 112, 160 or 192).
If you haven't converted to 44.1 kHz choose from the 48 kHz
codec options.
Next, in the same (audio) menu select "WAV audio" and locate
your wav produced after steps II and III.
Finally select "Full processing mode" for audio, as you want
the sound actually compressed using the settings you entered.
Your multiplexed AVI will start being created as soon as you enter the target
filename ("file", "save AVI").
I. AVI segmenting (10mins) - Optional
If your AVI fits on one CD then skip this section. If not,
then open it with Virtual Dub and I will explain the 2 CD procedure (You
can go for even more CDs of course).
Find where you want to cut the movie. To do this, look at the size of the
big avi file, we will represent it with FS. Now, if you want the
resulting segment size to be SS and the total (big avi) frames are
TF, then you must cut the movie at about SS*TF/FS frames.
Go to that point and press "Shift-Left" to move to the
previous keyframe and note down the frame number. Press "Home"
to set selection start, move the horizontal slider to the last frame and
press "End" to set selection end. Now press "Delete"
to delete the selected section. Finally select "Direct Stream Copy"
on both video and audio menus, set your audio interleave (make sure you
have "AVI audio" selected) and save your new avi under
a new name.
For the second segment the procedure is similar but this time set selection
start (Home button) to frame 0 and selection end to one frame less than
the one you noted before. Delete the segment and continue as before.
You can also use Ecuador's AVI bitrate calculator 2 to find the cutting
frames.
5. What next?
Of course, you can say your task is done and you have a perfect
.avi file which you can burn to a CD. But, what about the extra stuff on the
DVD? Like the trailers, or the special effects video... An idea is to rip
them and create an autoplay menu for your CD's which will let you launch them.
There are even programs (Autoplay Menu Studio) that will make this task very
easy. Of course, not everyone is prepared to take this extra step...
Something often done is the encoding of a movie using 2 different bitrates
and then joining the two files to one using programs like "Project
DivX". This way you can decide which scenes deserve more bitrate.
The process takes a lot of extra effort but results in the best quality the
DivX codec can provide for a given filesize. For Project DivX make sure you
have the DivX VKI patch installed.
6. Contacting the Author.
You can always visit my homepage: http://ecuador.ebodyform.com
Send me an e-mail: legacy@ecuadors.net
You can also find me on the Greek irc (GR Net). Connect to one
of the servers (e.g. phoenix.irc.gr, nana.irc.gr) and find me after midnight
local time (GMT +2) on the Physics University of Athens students channel #fysiko.