Any advise on re-encoding films/series

[Mophun]

I use the PiMP a lot to view downloaded movies and series of all kind. Most of them won't play on the PiMP without reencoding.
I tried the Mediaconverter, PocketDivxEncoder, Dr.Divx and VirtualDubMod to reencode the XVIDS, to get the best result.
I recently 'discovered' that the videopart is mostly less than 640x480, so this part shouldn't have to be reencoded (= loss of quality). The audio part is almost always at 48000kHz, which is no good because my pmp only accepts 41000khz (128kbps) at the most. So this part needs to be reencoded.
I tried to use VirtualDubMod to only reencode the audio part, but the results are stuttering movies.
Do any of you have better experiences doing this?

[kenya1]

I had the same problems with some of my movies but for the better part the Mediaconverter does fine with some loss on the picture quality though.I usually get my movies from Supernova and those mostly come ready to play without any further conversion needed to work on my player.I'm not really sure how else the movies would be re-encoded but its a problem I've had myself for a while now.

[Mophun]

I guess there must be a tool that van poperly re-encode the audio part of a Divx/Xvid.
Found something: AviUtl
I'll have to try is at home later.

[Astec]

DVDx should work thats what I use.

Converts straight from source.

[Mophun]

Originally Posted by Astec123

DVDx should work thats what I use.

Converts straight from source.

But I don't have the source!

[dorhir]

i have pmp 140 and i can see movies and tv series with 48000khz.
if my pmp can't play a downloaded movie from the net, i use PocketDivxEncoder. its the fastest and easiest program.

[SimonD]

Originally Posted by Mophun

But I don't have the source!

You do have the source, what he means is simply use the original file you wanted to convert and that should be ok.

As for the problem with the sound whilst using VDub, are you doing the process correctly, basically you need to choose Audio - Direct Stream Copy from the original file, then go to the File - Save WAV, save the wav file where you want to. Then open the converted file, choose Audio - Full Processing Mode - Wav Audio (it will then prompt you for the location of the WAV file), then open Compression, choose the MP3 settings you want and then you should simply be able to save the AVI file, be advised you should change the video encoding to direct stream copy as well, so you don't have to re-encode the avi at the same time.

If you have any issues please give me a shout, as for the recommendations of using PocketDivx Encoder, that's also a very easy way of doing things, far more accommodating in my opinion than the iRiver Media Converter.
You can use VDub to do the whole thing, I have used it in the past and to be honest it's a really great bit of software, there are some good filters to resize the video and it supports the divx and xvid codecs really well. You can also batch encode with Vdub.

[ELIAH]

where can i find PocketDivxEncoder can you please give me a link

[SimonD]

Originally Posted by ELIAH

where can i find PocketDivxEncoder can you please give me a link

Rather than asking here you could simply have Googled pocketdivx encoder and gotten it from there.

As it happens it's the first site.

[pvoveris]

I searched around on the forums and found part of the info I'm looking for but it doesn't seem to work. I'm using PocketDivXEncoder and using the Archos AV4xx settings, but it doesn't seem to let me change the size. It is at 720 x 480 or thereabouts, and it won't let me change to the 320 x 240 size that seems to be recommended.

Is there another bit that I am missing, or can someone who uses it post their configuration for those of us new to this?

Many Thanks
Peter

[SimonD]

Originally Posted by pvoveris

I searched around on the forums and found part of the info I'm looking for but it doesn't seem to work. I'm using PocketDivXEncoder and using the Archos AV4xx settings, but it doesn't seem to let me change the size. It is at 720 x 480 or thereabouts, and it won't let me change to the 320 x 240 size that seems to be recommended.

Is there another bit that I am missing, or can someone who uses it post their configuration for those of us new to this?

Many Thanks
Peter

As you look at the screen, on the lhs half way down the page is where it tells you the size of the movie output, there should be a button to allow you to resize there (it opens up into another screen).

Unfortunately you will need to do that to all files as it won't default to that setting.

[pvoveris]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I saw the option to resize, but it appears to be greyed out and I cannot change it. I'm using version 3.50, select the AV4xx settings, it states that the max size is 740 x 480, then I sleect the avi file I want to convert, then it greys out the resize box and I cannot change it.

Any ideas?

[eliau]

could somoone post the best settings for pocletdivxenc for pmp.
volume brightness etc..

[Astec]

pvoveris- dont use the av4xx settings just go in without accepting any settings and then set it up from there. Volume is just increasing the volume above normal or below, and brightness is the same its all what you like rather than a standard setting.

[SimonD]

Originally Posted by Astec123

pvoveris- dont use the av4xx settings just go in without accepting any settings and then set it up from there. Volume is just increasing the volume above normal or below, and brightness is the same its all what you like rather than a standard setting.

I use the av400 settings without any issues at all, I have PDE open at the moment and I can change the default output to anything smaller than 720-540.. I can't see why you are being restricted.

Is there no way you can click on the change button? because no matter what settings I use on the advanced tab I can't get mine greyed out.

[pvoveris]

After your reply, I went back to it, and found it is just the avi that I was trying to convert that wouldn't let me change the size. I tried a different movie and I was able to specify the size and it converted it fine. Went back to the original movie and again it wouldn't let me change it. Odd.

[Astec]

Can you tell us the details of this movie and maybe we can offer some advice as to how you can encode it for the PMP.

[pvoveris]

CODEC is div3 DivX 3 low-motion 480x256 bitrate 979 fps 23.97 sound mp3 128kbps@44100, streamtype is OpenDML AVI.

I let pocketdivxencoder do the conversion, and then used it to do another encode this time to the correct size and it worked ok. The first encoding changed it to DX50/divx divx5.0 bitrate 1202@23.97 fps with sound at 128@44100.

Still have no idea why it allows me to convert the second one, but not the first.

[Astec]

Whats the file name? where did you get it and I will try to encode it myself.

[Jesster]

I've been having trouble getting the audio to synch up properly on a couple files when reencoding them with PocketDivxEncoder, so I'm looking to try something else. Some people on this board have mentioned DVDx as a good program for reencoding files, however after installing, it seems to be only a DVD ripping tool. I can not seem to find a way to open an existing divx/xvid file and reencode it. Am I missing something?

-=The Jesster: Gatchaba Goose=-

[SimonD]

Originally Posted by Jesster

I've been having trouble getting the audio to synch up properly on a couple files when reencoding them with PocketDivxEncoder, so I'm looking to try something else. Some people on this board have mentioned DVDx as a good program for reencoding files, however after installing, it seems to be only a DVD ripping tool. I can not seem to find a way to open an existing divx/xvid file and reencode it. Am I missing something?

-=The Jesster: Gatchaba Goose=-

As a matter of interest what firmware version are you using? The reason I ask is that prior to v2.03 I wasn't having any sync issues but I am now. I will be going back to v2.01 tonight.

Also the files you are converting aren't by any chance originally encoded using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) instead of CBR (Constant Bit Rate) are they? If you are then there is your problem, to correct it you would need to use something like VirtualDub to grab the audio in a wav file, reencode and using the wav as the source audio rather than the original sound.

As far as encoding apps go, PDE is a good one, another decent one is DrDivx which is also a point and go util. One that requires a little more user interaction is VirtualDub, the thing is that VDub is more powerful in a number of ways, it allows you to decide on the codecs you will use.. for both Audio and Video (so you're not stuck with using just Divx.

[Astec]

http://www.labdv.com/dvdx/ if you are willing to pay for the latest


This is the old one. http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2140-10323705.html Its free