IMPORTANT:
Please, remember that converting a DVD into a Divx is
legal only if you own the original copy of the DVD (and in a few countries
maybe not legal at all). If you are unsure about
the laws of your country, you had better to seek a legal advice before
reading these guide.
The guide of this page
is a creation of my own (thanks to my knowledge about video and free
software). The results are excellent, better than any all-in-one software
(like Flaskmpeg), but you will need to perform a few steps (nothing of
very difficult, though).
First we need to rip
the DVD on our HD. So we need a ripper and a software for playing DVDs on
our Pc, like WinDVD or
PowerDVD.
For ripping, I would suggest you Smart Ripper, or DVD Decrypter.
Look for them on
Google, or click on
SmartRipper,
or (better) DVD Decrypter
.
The other apps you need
are: DVD2avi,
VFAPI, Calc,
VirtualDubMod 1.4.13, and of course
(PLEASE NOTE: If you think
this guide is too difficult for you, you can choose the
easy guide, where you can create a divx
with no effort).
Once you have
downloaded
SmartRipper, run it and insert the DVD in the
player. Click on Movie, then on Target
(at the bottom of the screen),
where you will have to choose the directory where saving
the .vob. After some minutes you will have all your files on
the HD. Consider that you need AT LEAST 7-8 GB free on the HD, or you will
not go far.
Once the ripping is
completed, it is always a good idea checking it has been decoded
correctly. Try to play your files with WinDVD or PowerDVD to be sure that
it is all Ok. There should not be pink or green blocks. The movie will be
a little squashed, but this is normal.
Now we can begin our
process of conversion.
1) Open the file
VTS_01_INFO.txt (or with a similar name) that is located
in the directory you saved the DVD and look hor the audio track. Look at
the position of your language (the first will have the number 1 with
DVD2avi, and so on).
2) Run DVD2avi.
Click on
File->
Open and load your .vob (you
only have to select the first, and all the others will be automatically
added).
3) Audio->Track Number
and select the number of your language (that you have
chosen from the VTS_01.txt),
Then select Audio->Dolby Digital->Dynamic
Range Control ->Light and Audio->Dolby
Digital-> Decode if you want a WAV
audio (to be converted in mp3),
or Audio->Dolby Digital-> Demur
for leaving the AC3 unchanged
(if you prefer the divx with
AC3 or Ogg
Vorbis audio). AC3 is better, mp3 is smaller
and more compatible (Ogg Vorbis is the best choice, but less compatible:
you must have the right codec installed, etc).
4) File-> Save project...
choose a name and save. You will
have a file .d2v with all the datas of our
DVD (plus a file .WAV o .AC3).
After some minutes
(depends by your CPU) the process
will be completed.
Now extract
VFAPI in an empy
directory. Double click on vifpset.bat,
then run VFAPI-Conv.exe. Click on Add Job.
Open the file .d2v that you have
just saved than click on Convert. A fake .avi
file will be created.
Everything is very
fast, you will need a few moments.
Now run
VirtualDubMod. File->open
video file and load the .avi
that you have saved with VFAPI.
Click on Video-> Filters.
Click on Add, then select
resize and OK.
Uncheck Mantain Aspect Ratio.
Now you have to choose the resolution of your divx.
Good values are
640 (width) and 272 (height)
if the ratio of the DVD is Cinemascope (2.35:1),
or 640
(witdh) e 360 (height) if the DVD
is 16:9 (1.78:1). For understanding the ratio, if
your eye is not very experinced, there is a simple hint: Play the original
DVD, click on pause on a bright scene, then measure width and height with
a ruler (directly on your monitor). Now divide width/height and you will
have your aspect ratio. Look if the aspect ratio is more similar to 2:35
or 16:9 (1.78:1). If you do not want to use a ruler, you can try with 2.35:1 then
switch to 1.78:1 if this does not fit (the characters of the movie will be
squeezed or stretched).
When
you have chosen width and height, click on Resize method
and select "precise bicubic (A=1.00)".
If you are skillful with graphic you could find quite
weird this choice (bicubic and not bilinear for reducing), but
VirtualDubMod
works better in this way (and I have done many experiments).
Now click OK,
then
Cropping. Use the slider bar and frame movement buttons to find a good
part in the video where you can see clearly where you need to crop. Then
change the numbers any of the four number boxes X1, X2,
Y1, Y2, up to crop all the black part of the picture. It is important to
crop ALL the black part, otherwise the quality of divx will be penalized
(the divx codec has troubles in converting a black line followed by a
bright area and will waste a lot of space). If you have even a little
doubt, it is better cropping a line more than a line less. When you
have done, click on OK.
Now that we have
completed the video reduction, it is time to compress in divx.
First we have to choose
the bitrate. Run Calc
and experiment a little. Try to insert 750 for Video K/bits per second, 128 o 160
for Audio, and write the
total time of the movie (Total
Video Time); you can even type
with some minute less, you could crop a few minutes of the end titles
(this is not funny for the people who have realized the movie, but 700MB
for a CD are really a few, if you want to make a good work....
The total space taken by the divx will be shown in MB.
Now you can try to change a little the value of 750 and
observe how the total size modifies. A bitrate value around 900 would be
very good for a divx on one CD only, but consider that with bitrate valuesover 700 you should have good results
(provided you follow ALL the hints of
this guide. With other apps, the results are worse; the reason can be
mainly found in the great feature of resizing by VirtualDubMod, and from the
Cropping). If you increase a lot the bitrate the quality enhances a
little, but the total size increases exponentially.
PLEASE NOTE:
It should not be difficult creating Divxs of a very good
quality of up to 120 mins on 1 CD of 700MB (mp3 audio), cutting a part of
the end titles if needed (end titles may take up to 90-100MB and more).
If the movie is longer than 120 mins, consider to spread it on 2 CDs (if
possible with AC3 audio).
Now come back to
VirtualDubMod and go to
Video->Compression->Divx Pro 5.1 Codec (o
the divx codec you own ), then click on
Configure. Choose
Multipass-1 pass, and insert your bitrate
value (that you decided with calc).
Click OK, and again
OK. Check that Audio is set on ->No Audio, and you can
go! File-> 'Save as avi'.
Once the first pass has been completed,
come back again to Video-> Compression-> Divx
Pro 5.1 Codec
and choose Multipass-
nth pass,
without modifying anything. Again
File-Save as avi and you have completed the video
part (after an hour or more, depends by your CPU. With a 2GHZ CPU, you
should need about 2 hours per pass).
If you want to enhance (slightly) the quality, you can perform a 3rd pass,
choosing again File-> 'Save as
avi'.
When the enconding has
ended, you can give a look to your video part with any
divx player (there
will not be the sound, of course!)
First you have to
install DbPowerAmp (free), or
Easy CD-DA Extractor (shareware), or your
favourite application for converting WAV to MP3. I will describe the
process with DbPowerAmp, but this process is similar with any of these
application. Easy CD-DA is better, and more configurable (you should spend
a couple of minutes to set all its parameters to High Quality, for having
an excellent result)... but you can use it only for a few weeks (you can
register for 20$, though).
Run DbPowerAmp Music
Converter, load the .WAV that had been saved by DVD2avi and click on
MP3 Lame.
Now move the slider
(in the green bar) on the bitrate you desire (the bitrate you chose with
Calc) generally 128, 160 or 192kbps. Click on Frequency and set it
on 48000Hz.
Click on Convert,
and after a few minutes (depends by your CPU) the mp3 audio of your divx
will be completed.
Now open the mp3 file
in Winamp, or in another mp3 player and listen to it. If the volume il too
low, you need to increase it. Launch MP3
Gain, open your mp3 track and set Target 'Normal' Volume to
a value about 93 - 99. Now click on Analisys->Track Analisys and
Modify Gain-> Apply Track Gain. Done. You do not even need to save.
The volume will be increased without any loss.
(NOTE: I have used this
process rather than creating the audio directly in Virtual Dub, since in
this way you can achieve better results. For a further enhancement of the
quality you can choose a Variable Bit Rate -VBR- clicking on Advanced in
DbPowerAmp and selecting VBR, but in this case there divx will be more
difficult to handle, especially if you want to convert it to VCD, or SVCD,
etc.)
Since the mp3 is ready,
we can join audio and video.
If you have decided for
AC3 (maybe with a 2 CDs divx),
the process is the same from here
(when I write Mp3, consider AC3, of course!!!).
Run
VirtualDubMod 1.4.13 open your
video, select Audio->CBR
MP3,
load the mp3 file that was saved by
DbPowerAmp and select Video->Direct
Stream Copy.
Now click on
File->Save as avi and you have done.
In a
few minutes the divx will be completed.
If you need a
consideration about
audio, the AC3 gives better results (obvious, it is the audio of the DVD),
while the conversion in mp3 gives results quite good, but takes less
space, making possible creating 1 CD (700MB) Divxs.
A great solution would
be the audio codec Ogg Vorbis, with excellent audio perfomance in a very little
space; you can try this with a Music Converter that supports Ogg format
(converting Wav to Ogg, like Easy CD-DA Extractor), and selecting OGG
rather than CBR MP3 in VirtualDubMod. Anyway, you should consider that mp3
is ALWAYS compatible, while Ogg needs the right codec installed (you can
install the K-Lite codec Pack).
Here is the guide to create divx
with ogg vorbis audio.
Good
encoding-conversion-creation to everyone!!!
