DivX for VideoStudio.

[PuzZLeR]

Greetings my friends,

I have been experimenting with DivX, on and off, for years, however never really been impressed with it, until now.

Since I have bought VS, a better PC (for more efficient experimenting), and now that I have learned much more on digital video (thanks to forums like these, appreciated!), I now encode some beautiful productions, which are almost identical to the originals with a much, much smaller file size.

Obviously, this is the purpose of the codec, which has finally delivered on its promise to me since I picked up on it again recently.

I use the guide on divx.com for VS, and use multipass. Everything in the past sucked until I used VS, which gives me GORGEOUS results. Thanks Ulead (and of course DivX)! Just ask, and I¡¦d be more than glad to share any tips with anyone on this since I recommend it highly.

Ok, here¡¦s my question:

I want to now go all out with DivX, and archive my complete video collection. I mean EVERYTHING: family stuff, music videos, sports games, etc. Why not? If I can have my personal video archives with much less space, it¡¦s definitely an advantage.

Is anybody else doing this? Should I have faith in this codec, or similar ones for the future, regarding compatibility, etc? I feel it should be a growing phenomenom, much like the mp3, yet I don¡¦t read much talk about it on this forum. Any reason for this?

I understand there¡¦s some lossiness to DivX, but very little if you do it right. And of course, if you want to convert and create a DVD for the ¡§traditional player¡¨ it¡¦s a bit of a pain (unless someone knows a quick way). Other than that, I see no reason why not go all DivX, especially since the codec is spreading and DivX certified players are becoming more commonplace these days.

However, my biggest fear is getting stuck with something that may not be supported long term, and would be difficult, and very lossy, to convert to another format.

I¡¦m not expecting someone with a crystal ball, but any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your time. You guys rock!

[2Dogs]

How much stuff have you got? Sounds like your archiving project could take quite some time!

If your purpose is to free up space on your pc, you might consider transferring stuff to an external hard drive (old hard drives can be useful in $10 USB enclosures)

I personally would not delete the source material or even DVD's and DVD folders made from it - but then I've always been a bit of a pack rat.

I'm glad to hear you're getting such good results with DivX, and I'd be interested to know the size of an equivalent of a one hour DVD. It could be just the thing for carrying several home movies on my notebook or the USB notebook drive from my old, now dead notebook.

What is your workflow? Are you outputting to DivX from DV type 1 avi source material or mpeg2? How long does it take to encode a one hour project to DivX? What software DivX player are you using on your pc?

From what I've seen of it, DivX looks quite similar to WMV. It gives a very warm, clean look, almost an idealised, airbrushed effect.

When considering the future - I'm sure you'll always be able to play DivX video on a pc, but the players might cease to be produced. Your existing player might continue to work for many years, but DivX is certainly not an edit-friendly format - so you should retain important source material.

[Black Lab]

PuzZLeR,

With all the questions on this board regarding DivX, and considering you apparently have had much success with it, you might consider writing a tutorial on your process and submitting it to Steve (sjj1805) so he could then post for people to go to for reference.

Just a thought.

[Doug2006]

I for one would be more interested in how you are doing it. I just downloaded the divx stuff yesterday and started experimenting with it. I think it is the way to go just like mp3 and music.

[maddrummer3301]

.

[htchien]

It's your choice to use (or not to use) DivX to archive your video. But here would come a question: will DivX live for long? If you think so and like DivX a lot, do whatever you want.

If you do not think DivX will live long but still wish to use DivX to do the video archiving, you might need to buy a DivX deck player that is listed on DivX.com.

Personally I will keep the original sources in my storage devices and keep them in good condition (maybe a storage room in my house would be a good idea).

H.T.

[PuzZLeR]

Thanks for your feedback guys!

I guess the best strategy is to keep source backups, at least of the most important stuff. Maybe I should do what many companies do - they keep backup data in a different physical location just in case of disaster.

Also, if worse comes to worst in the future, in case DivX dies, I can always convert back to MPEG-2 with some loss in quality. I believe a couple of I-frames missing for the less important stuff wouldn't hurt for a couple of personal clips.

Then again, wasn't the mp3 in the same position? Certainly a lot of data is lost when converting from the original CD file, yet the format is more popular than ever now because of its size. In fact, it's so popular now that AAC, an audio format far superior to mp3, which is supposed to be the "next thing" may never make it. Then again, you can always convert an mp3 to an AAC file if that's the case (or vice versa, even with the CD source).

As well, one can make the argument that a CD audio file is "very excessive" with data instead of saying an mp3 is "lossy".

But there's another point here. It would be far better to convert from CD to AAC directly, skipping a generation format, than from CD to mp3 then to AAC (in terms of quality). Wouldn't it?

This is my concern for DivX. It's great and all, but I will take the advice here and keep source backups of the important stuff.

I now have over 1200 GB of video sitting among 6 big external hard drives and two big internal ones. I still want to convert another 100 or so VHS tapes. We're talking 25 years of stuff here. You can see my interest in DivX. Hmmm, maybe I need a life instead of this digital pack rat stuff.

Ok, I see some of you are interested in how I have successfully used VS for quality DivX, so I'm more than glad to share some tips for the rest of my message. Hey, the more people love DivX, the more support it will get. Right?

It's no big secret. I just follow the instructions on divx.com's site for VideoStudio at link:

http://www.divx.com/divx/windows/codec/guides/ulead.php

and I read the Official DivX guide also available at the site.

Also, get DivX Pro for BEST results. It's cheap and you can try it for 15 days first.

I also have a very up-to-date PC as of this writing for the demands of video. One reason for my good results this time around, after several years of tinkering with DivX, is because my PC is so much faster and I've had the patience to experiment instead of the annoying long waits. However, maybe I can cut you some time here.

My source is MPEG-2. I convert all .vob files to .mpg using NeroVision since a lot of them are segmented and would give me weird results with other apps. (Ask if you want more detail here.)

Almost all my source material comes from a personal DVR, which I record in SP mode and transfer to my PC. The average bitrate is approximately 4600kbps and roughly stores 2 hours on a blank DVD-R before I encode it.

Encoding speed is directly related to your PC. It takes me about an 1-2 hours to encode one hour of DivX video at the highest quality settings. Some older PCs will be overnight jobs.

However, that is just for the first pass. I use Multipass 1st pass, then Multipass Nth pass for every subsequent pass, for a total of one or two more passes, which is explained in the guide. Don't skip this because it's ESPECIALLY IMPORTANT. It produces FAR better results than one pass and is worth the extra time. Hence the secret revealed!

Batch Convert will not work here (unless someone knows a better trick). For Multipass, you have to re-encode the same video with its own settings, and the DivX encoder will only remember the last one at a time, so encoding a string of clips would only leave you at step one over and over again. What you can do here is encode all your clips in one long movie and leave it overnight if you have a slower PC. When your PC is done, reencode it again in Multipass N again (you have to do it at least one, or two more times to get the best results). When you're completely done, just cut the video into separate clips using VirtualDub (free software), without re-encoding (clip out the frame end points, use Direct Stream copy for both Video and Audio, as well as Source Audio, hit F7 to name and save as the AVI and you'e done).

I'm no expert in this but I get best results using Frame-based for the Frame Type in the General tab for Project Options with VS. In the DivX configurator I use the slider to the highest quality 10 in the Main tab (or "Insane Quality" in the Codec tab) and De-interlace source in the Video tab. Simple right?

The bit rate I use is about 900kbps to encode. This produces a file smaller than 20% of the original with nearly the same quality and can fit about 10 hours on a DVD-R or about the size of an average movie on a CD-R at 1.5 hours. This is more than VCD and produces MUCH, MUCH better quality. The resulting DivX video is maybe slightly warm or smooth, yet still comes out great even in motion scenes without all those artifacts you'll see in VCD.

Ok, if the material is of higher importance, go with bitrates that are more like 1200kbps-1600kbps or so. At this setting, you can still produce about 6-8 hours on a DVD-R of even better quality video which "should" be even closer to the original in look and feel, although I have yet to see any significant difference.

I encode audio using MPEG Audio Layer 3 at 128 kpbs CBR stereo, as recommended by the DivX guide. I find the most common sampling most used for DivX is 48000 Hz. I like the traditional CD sampling at 44100 Hz. It's really up to taste here.

I can use almost any video application to view, and hear, the final DivX output: Windows Media Player, RealPlayer or Nero Showtime along with the DivX Player, and I have a DivX certified DVD Player as well, which cost me less than $50 at Wal-Mart.

I've basically only given the basics here, which should serve as a start, but everybody's equipment and source material is different. Experimentation will find the most successful results. Use small files at first just to explore. Try different bitrates, modes and enhancements and see what works best for you. I compare the final results of two clips with two VitualDub windows open with the exact frame of each side-by-side to see which looks better.

I hope it all helps. So far I've benefited with tons more storage and manageability of my video, as well as great looking clips. I can also convert any back to MPEG-2 with great results when I want to make a "traditional" DVD. Yes, in theory it's lossy, but not with the naked eye.

But believe it or not, some clips came out even better in DivX than the original, including the smaller size. Really!

Any feedback, or any questions, are more than welcome. If anybody wishes to contribute, or correct me, thanks in advance!

[sjj1805]

Thank you for sharing this with the forum.
I have pasted a link to this post in our Tutorial
VS: Encoding in DivX format using Video Studio

[PuzZLeR]

Sure thing Steve.

Yes, VideoStudio does really produce excellent DivX video, which looks great even on a big-screen with an inexpensive stand-alone playing it. I'm very impressed.

However these basic tips are merely just a start for experimentation. Alot will depend on the user's machine, source video, settings, etc.

I hope they help.
Geordie.