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Variable Settings

Purpose: Compare DVD quality to DivX5 quality

Movie: Swordfish
DVD and VCD viewed in: PowerDVD 4.0 XP
DVD to MPEG-4 tool: GKnot 0.27
Input Settings: DVD2SVCD was used to rip the DVD (vStrip). DVD2AVI was used to make the .d2v project (32-bit SSE MMX, Forced FILM, YUV, PC Scale). GKnot was set to fit it to 700MB, NTSC anamorphic, Pixel cropping. W-Modul=32, H-Modul=16. WxH=512x224. Aspect Ratio=2.286, Aspect Error=1.2%, W-Zoom=70%, H-Zoom=61%. Bits/(Pixel*Frame)=0.6=392. Load-> 73.3% of 0.533 CompressibilityTest. Neutral Bicubic for the Resize Filter, no Field Operations or Noise Filter. Codec=DivX5 2-Pass, Bitrate=1078 kb/s. Everything else kept default.





Comparison with Standard Sizes

1. Standard Size DVD ScreenShot (960 x 540) (NOT .AVI)


2. Standard Size DivX ScreenShot (512 x 224)





Comparison with Similar Sizes

3. DVD ScreenShot: Same as above


4. DivX ScreenShot: enlarged, and black bars added


5. DVD ScreenShot: Cropped Black Bars, and made smaller to match original DivX Screenshot.


6. DivX ScreenShot: original DivX Screenshot.





Conclusion: Probably the best DVD to DivX Tool you can possibly find, and it takes probably a max of 5 hours on a standard length movie, but of course, it all depends on the movie and your equipment. The colors look fine, and a bit soft in some areas, but sharper than what I expected. The only problem I found was the proper resolution, that's why the frame size looks a bit small. The tutorial calls for 0.17 bits/pixel*frame for 1 CD.

It came out to W-Modul=32, H-Modul=16, WxH=704x304, Aspect Ratio=2.316, Aspect Error=-0.1%, W-Zoom=98%, H-Zoom=82%.
0.174 Bits/(Pixel*Frame).

The Compressibility Check brought back 0.210 bits/(pixel*frame), Load -> 39.4% of 0.533 CompressibilityTest.

The tutorial suggested having between 60-80%, so I set it to:
W-Modul=32, H-Modul=16. WxH=512x224. Aspect Ratio=2.286, Aspect Error=1.2%, W-Zoom=70%, H-Zoom=61%.
Bits/(Pixel*Frame)=0.6=392. Load-> 73.3% of 0.533 CompressibilityTest, which totally contradicts the 0.17 bits/pixel*frame suggestion.

Next time, I'll set it to the first suggestion, rather than what the Compressibility Check gave me.