What video format should I use?

ss4

I want to rip a home movie from dvd, but I don't know what format to rip to. Should I use avi, divx, xvid, wmv, mp4, mpg ... etc. What are pros/cons of each format?

I would like to be able to edit the ripped video, playback would be on the computer and I may want to burn it back on to another dvd.

Thanks

DatabaseError

xvid or x264

SJames_3

You can use DVDx to rip from DVD to XviD and VirtualDub to edit it afterwards.

You may want to look up a guide about which Xvid settings to use, as adjusting them will give you much better results.

ss4

tonyhague wrote: »

xvid or x264

Whats x264, how can I play/edit it?

SJames wrote: »

You can use DVDx to rip from DVD to XviD and VirtualDub to edit it afterwards.

You may want to look up a guide about which Xvid settings to use, as adjusting them will give you much better results.

It seems as though I should use xvid. Whats the difference between xvid and an avi file? What are the pros/cons of xvid compare to any of the other formats?

Livingthedream

The difference will be size and picture/audio quality of the converted file;
avi divx xvid mp4 are smaller and have excellent quality to size ratio (smaller files with DVD quality) using the divx codec you can reduce a 4gb dvd movie to approx 600-700mb
mpeg mpeg2 wmv are basicaly uncompressed video file and therefore larger and have the orginal quality of the author, DVD's use mpeg2 and older VCD use mpeg

I would use dixv for 2 reasons;
1. Less space on Hard drive
2. Can be burnt to disk or put on USB Strick drive and playered on some DVD players that support the divx format like this player
http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001151&langId=-1&searchTerms=divx&Submit=GO+%3E

divx player above is an example I'm not saying if its any good or not

malc_b

Contrary to the advice you have been given above I would say mpeg2. The reason is that you say you are ripping from DVD (which is mpeg2), you want to play on PC (which will play anything) and you say you may want to burn back to DVD (which will be mpeg2). Hence the minimum change is to stick with mpeg2.

Every time you change formats you introduce errors and can have some very odd resampling effects. Hence the best is not to change. Some video editing programs are smart enough just to recode the section around the edit, not the whole lot. So top and tailing a clip takes just minutes rather than perhaps 2hrs to recode say 1hr in full.

If space is important then Divx or xvid will give a smaller file, hence why these are popular to send files over the next. But you would not be able to make a real DVD without recoding back to mpeg2. Some DVD players will handle Divx but you would want to do a test recording try out first.

And, mpeg2 is not uncompressed like one poster said. It is just rather old and compression techniques have improved. It will however play on PC, DVD, etc. I think the poster is confusing it with camcorder DV tape (which is a non lossy compression, like zip, mpeg like jpeg throws away data) and on PC that ends up as DV avi (~30G/hr, compared with mpeg ~2G/hr, Dvix etc <0.5G/hr as a comparison).

Livingthedream

Just to clear up a few things, due to some incorrect information you will incur errors when you rip the DVD whether its to mpeg2 or divx as the data on a DVD is in VOB file and has to be converted anyway.

Also mpeg2 in its raw form will play on PC's via windows media player, but it will not play on most DVD players unless convert to DVD format, I think the poster was confused with jpeg file which do.

How big is your hard drive? that should be the factor in helping you make you choice as one DVD converted to mpeg2 will take up approx 3-4gb a few DVD's will fill it very quickly

Samanthas_2

Hello I need some help on YouTube.com involving downloading videos and uploading video to a new You Tube Account

Its based around the concept of Free Speech.

If you are interested please get in touch thanks

Samantha

Donnie

Samanthas wrote: »

Hello I need some help on YouTube.com involving downloading videos and uploading video to a new You Tube Account

Its based around the concept of Free Speech.

If you are interested please get in touch thanks

Samantha

Your post has been reported as SPAM.

DatabaseError

Donnie wrote: »

Your post has been reported as SPAM.

why? the poster has several other, completely unrelated posts on the board, she may have hijacked this thread, but that is NOT spam, and I stand up for her right to free speech against the oppressors (you)

ss4

Livingthedream wrote: »

Just to clear up a few things, due to some incorrect information you will incur errors when you rip the DVD whether its to mpeg2 or divx as the data on a DVD is in VOB file and has to be converted anyway.

Also mpeg2 in its raw form will play on PC's via windows media player, but it will not play on most DVD players unless convert to DVD format, I think the poster was confused with jpeg file which do.

How big is your hard drive? that should be the factor in helping you make you choice as one DVD converted to mpeg2 will take up approx 3-4gb a few DVD's will fill it very quickly

Ok, then I don't think that I should use mpeg2 because 3-4gb per dvd is quite big, I want about 750 mb to 1 gb per dvd, is this possible?
A few more questions: whats the difference between avi and divx/xvid and how good quality are wmv videos, which is the easiest to edit?