DC DivX or VCD?

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Tue Aug 13, 2002 10:58 pm

Alright, I've got a copy of The Lord of the Rings on DVD. Unfortunately, there is no DVD player in my room that I can use to play it in here. I'd like to rip it to some format that I can play on my Dreamcast, but I'm not sure which yet. I'm familiar with VCD, and that was my first idea, but then I considered DC DivX.

I'm not too familiar with the specifications of DC DivX, so, my question for all of you is what format should I convert it to? DC DivX or VCD? What are the pros/cons of DC DivX compared to VCD? Quality? Sound? Size? Speed? Resolution?

Any help anyone can provide is appreciated, thanks.

LiL Tommy000 · Post by **LiL Tommy000** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 12:45 pm

if its normal vcd, and not dcvcd vcd is the best choice for sound. Picture maybe alittle better on the vcd then the dcdivx. DcDivx this movies takes up about 2 cds, and vcd it will take 4.

yodanut · Post by **yodanut** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 1:40 pm

Actually, if you use the right bitrate, the movie should fit on one CD. However, the quality will be sub-VCD, so if your DVD player supports VCD you'd probably be better off with that. Personally, I always prefer DCDivx, just for it's convenience.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 3:03 pm

Alright, thanks guys.

I'm still torn between the two. It's only usage will be on my Dreamcast, and I'm not sure if I want the convience of fewer discs with DC DivX or the quality of VCD.

jared1619 · Post by **jared1619** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 4:25 pm

Also if you have a slower computer you would probably want to encode it for dcdivx, because it usually is quicker to encode with virtual dub.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 4:45 pm

The computer I have access to for encoding and copying is a 1.3 ghz machine which can sit and do the encoding overnight, for all it matters.

Just out of curiousity, do any of you happen to have, say, a 10 second video clip in both DC DivX and NTSC VCD-spec MPEG-1 I could use for comparison? I'd do my own tests, but I'm not going to install any software on the previously mentioned system until I am ready to do the whole thing, as it isn't mine...

Mr. Superbad · Post by **Mr. Superbad** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 7:49 pm

Try encoding the video at 352x150 (or whatever would be the correct aspect ratio) setting maximum quantisizer at 10 or 8, with divx 5.0.2, at 500kbs. Convert audio to 22hz mono 64kbs high quality mp3 (i convert the ac3 file to wav and then encode with winlame with some special tweaked settings).

Then select a range of about 1000 frames, encode it, and test it out with divx 3 or 4. I prefer beta 3, because beta 4 stutters with my videos. If it looks good, encode the whole thing. The file should be about 550-600 megs for a movie of that length.

I have gotten VERY good results with these settings and DcDivx.

jared1619 · Post by **jared1619** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 8:10 pm

Here are some 15 second samples for you-

http://www.geocities.com/jared1619/testavi.zip
There's an avi of LOTR trailer that is encoded for dcdivx. The settings I used for it are-
Divx 4.12 600kb/s 352x240
Decimated the frame rate by 2
8kb Audio 40kb/s stereo

http://www.geocities.com/jared1619/testvcd.zip
That's an mpeg encoded for gypplay. I just used the ntsc template in tmpgenc to make it.

Edit: Remember to copy and paste.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Wed Aug 14, 2002 10:19 pm

Thanks so much, Jared, I appreciate it.

dcemuler · Post by **dcemuler** » Fri Aug 16, 2002 2:01 pm

Hmmmmm

Let's see

Which on do you think it's better MPEG 1 or MPEG 4 ???

Which one is the new technology ?

Go with MPEG4 man

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Fri Aug 16, 2002 3:03 pm

Well, if it were on a PC, of course I would go with the DivX over VCD, but DC DivX specs are not quite as high as those available on the PC, and are comparable to VCD.

acemilo · Post by **acemilo** » Fri Aug 16, 2002 4:03 pm

I'd say DC Divx. I use 5.02 pro codec and it looks almost as good as the dvd, much better than normal divx. The only half way decent vcd player for dc is the one with the remote that costs like 30 bucks. There is a warez version that doesn't need the dongle, but for some reason it got hacked to sh*t and barely plays vcds at full speed even. Divx runs perfect for me with the following settings: 320 x 240 res, 40k/24khz mp3 using radium codec, 700bitrate video. This is all after i encode it for my pc so it will already fit on 1 cd. All of my dc divx movies are 1 cd as I never use more than one, with the same quality. Divx all the way.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Fri Aug 16, 2002 10:06 pm

Yeah, but I HAVE that $25 dollar player with the remote, and it plays VCDs perfectly.

I am seriously considering going with DivX, though.

yodanut · Post by **yodanut** » Sun Aug 18, 2002 9:30 am

Neon, if you decide to go with Divx here are some settings you can use that'll get the fullscreen version of LOR on one CD with good quality. First, I used DVDx to rip a nice quality avi to my Hard Drive at 1300 kbps and 512 x 384 resolution. Then I tried several settings in VirtualDub until I came across these: 336 x 254 resolution at 550kbps using Divx5.02, with 24000 KHz stereo audio at 5 KB/s. The resulting movie looks good and plays great under DCDivx Beta 3. (It turns into a choppy mess in Beta 4.) The file ended up at 665 MB, so you might want to try to eke out a bit more quality out of the audio or video, though I wouldn't since the audio already momentarily lags behind the video in high actions scenes. I'm certainly very happy with the end quality. Whatever you choose, good luck.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Sun Aug 18, 2002 5:37 pm

Alright, thanks for those settings, Yodanut.

I do believe that I am going to go with DC DivX, and then, possibly later, encoding to VCD. Thanks to everyone who has provided input on this.

Donny662 · Post by **Donny662** » Sun Aug 18, 2002 6:06 pm

I also have that vcd player with a remote and I have found it can play almost any kind of vcd you throw at it. Try making a xvcd with higher than standard bitrates or variable bitrates. I have made a movie at 1800kbps with 384kbps audio at 48000hz and it plays absolutly perfect with no macroblocking or noise. Even though these are non-standard vcd settings it plays perfect. If you want to fit it on a certain number of cd's use TMPG's 2-pass VBR mode (be sure to set your minimum bitrate at at least 300 otherwise when the bitrate gets too low it might have jittery playback in very low motion and dark scenes) and a bitrate calculator you can find here http://www.vcdhelp.com/calc.htm and you can have superb quality and relatively small filesize. I fit a 100 minute movie on 1 cd with 911kbps average VBR and it has no macroblocking or noise, but the encoding takes forever. Hope this helps.

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Sun Aug 18, 2002 10:48 pm

Wow... I was unaware that that player supported XVCD level specs. This is getting tough

I may actually go back to using VCD, now...

Thanks for the advice.

Kiley · Post by **Kiley** » Mon Aug 19, 2002 12:30 am

A little off topic but, what the hey!

I tried DcDivX for the first time last time I made a DreamInducer disc, putting a short movie in the root directory.

When I start DcDivX, I cannot locate the movie! Does it have to be .avi (mine is .div or something)

Kiley

ice-master · Post by **ice-master** » Sat Sep 07, 2002 3:48 pm

Does "Dreamcast VCD Player (C) Xing Hong Electric" is playing VCD as good as the one who you speak about ???

> I'm french so sorry for languages errors

<

NeonGenesis · Post by **NeonGenesis** » Sun Sep 08, 2002 12:17 am

No!!!!

The Xing Hong player is horrible, avoid it like the plague. Check out DreamMovie at http://www.liksang.com, instead. Best one out there.