Totally clueless

[newbie]

Pardon me, I have no knowledge of editing videos...
Does anyone know where to download the original Microsoft mpeg-2 codec? Was there something special about that codec? And what's the difference between a mpeg-2 & mpeg-4 codec?


Thanks

 

[lakedude]

"Does anyone know where to download the original Microsoft mpeg-2 codec?" Which half and for what reason? Any co-dec has 2 parts a COder and a DECoder. If you can play a DVD on your system you already have the DECoder part. IMO MPEG2 is not a good solution for video. It is not that MPEG2 is bad, the problem is that it is more closely watched by because it is the DVD standard. MPEG4 is newer and better at achieving smaller file sizes at good quality levels. If file size is not a concern MPEG2 is fine.

Exactly what are you wanting to do? What is the source video? Where do you want to store/ship the final results?

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

 

[newbie]

Thanks for your explanation. I use SmartRipper to rip the DVD files, and then use Flaskmpeg to convert it to .avi, I'd just like to know wether I should use the mpeg-2 encoder or the mpeg-4 encoder... I seem to recall that there was something good about the Microsoft's mpeg-2 encoder for encoding movies, but it wasn't available anymore...

 

[lakedude]

Ok now we are getting somewhere. DVDs use MPEG2 coding so as soon as they are ripped they are already MPEG2. Notice that a ripped DVD is taking up several thousand megabytes. After conversion with flask you end up with a file that will fit on one or two 700MB CDs. If you code with MPEG2 the file size will be the same as the original rip and you will save no space but quality will be very good.

You still have not answered what the end purpose is. Is it to get a DVD movie to fit on one or two CDs? If so MPEG2 is not the way to go. Check out <A HREF="http/www.doom9.net" target="_new">http/www.doom9.net</A> for more info and downloads. Flask is seriously outdated. Check out G-knot and Fair Use. Fair Use is the program I use to do what I think you are trying to do. I'll help you more later after you tell me exactly what you are attempting.

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

 

[newbie]

Ripping DVDs to avi and burn onto CDs is what I'm trying to do. So which mpeg-4 encoder should I use to do the conversion, and which mpeg-4 decoder has better quality for viewing?

Thanks

 

[lakedude]

Do you want the CD's to be veiwable on a stand alone DVD player? If so you want to go MPEG1/VCD or get the new MPEG4 ready DVD player. Which program to use is a matter of taste. I use FU and DivX 3.11 for the following reasons:

FU does everything for you except audio so it is very easy to use. Fu does its own custom rip and it does a better job then any other ripper I've ever used. It ALWAYS works and ALWAYS syncs. After the rip you get a screen that lets you pick the final file size (one disk or two) exactly to the MB and the resoultion. After that a screen comes up to select the start and end position (always good to chop a little off both ends) and the same screen auto crops. You don't need to worry about the aspect ratio it keeps it perfect automatically. The next screen lets you choose between film at 24fps and video at 30fps, it does this automatically for you as well. It auto-detects the nature of the original DVD. Big hollywood movies are recorded at 24 and crappy pornos are originally shot on video at 30. FU can tell and picks the right coding automatically for you. The next screen lets you pick the video and audio streams and after that the program starts to work. 8 hours later you will have an AVI the exact size it needs to be and an AC3 sound file the needs to be converted to mp3 or vog-orbis. I use Be-Sweet GUI to convert the AC3 to MP3 and then use virtual dub to join the audio to the video. It sounds complicated but is actually easier to use then Flask. Think about the crop and resize in Flask. You gotta figure all that out for yourself and if you make a mistake the final video will be all out of aspect. FU does both things for you perfectly.

Others swear by other programs like G-Knot. Go to the forums on Doom9 and get some other opinions so you can be really confused.

Give me fuel, give me fire, give me that which I desire.

 

[newbie]

Thanks for your information, I'll look into these softwares.

 

[NurseMSIC]

Cheers, i'll look into FU too. I tend to use Virtual Dub at the moment, but that's only to keep files on my hard drive as a rule rather than burning to CD.

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