DVD problem

[FieldDoc]

I have ripped several DVDs to my pocket PC with no problems using the pocketmatrix.com guides as recommended on these forums. My problem stems from trying to rip a new DVD of mine - Family Guy Season 2.

Everything seems to go smoothly until I view the final .avi file. It is crap! It goes all blurry around the edges when the characters move and although its watchable it is not enjoyable - especially since I am able to watch Star Wars very comfortably.

I am using virtualDub and am encoding at 250Kb/s. I have to say that even when I preview the file in virtualDub before I compress it it looks a bit dodge. It says on the back of the cover that it is CP copy protected - could this be an issue? I'm not sure it is though as Star Wars has the same copy protection logo on the back and it is fine.

Appreciate any help guys.

[LorryDriver71]

Family guys a cartoon right? cartoons will look dodgy. But 250K is very low for a video, I have audio with a higher Kbps than that. Try increasing to 400+ Kbps.

[Jude]

Are you compressing to MPEG or DivX? If you're using MPEG, 250 kbps is a bit low, 400 kbps would be more appropriate. But if you're compressing to DivX (and you did say you were using Virtualdub and looking at an AVI file, so I guess you are) then 250 kbps is just about right.

Here are a few things you can check or do to improve the quality of your video.

When you rip the DVD check to see if De-Macrovision or Remove Macrovision is checked in the options of your DVD-ripping software.

Decimate the framerate in Virtualdub. If it's animation, this is rarely filmed at a full 24-30 fps anyway so you're better off halving the framerate. Less frames will result in better image quality per frame.

Crop out any extra black bars or lines around the frame, the edges where the black meets the frame of the video uses up a lot of data.

Make sure that both the X and Y pixel measurements of your video are divisible by 16. For example: 320x240, 320x 176, 240x176, 240x160. DivX compression works in blocks of 16 and so this makes for more efficient use of your bitrate. Using values not divisible by 16 forces the encoder to waste a lot of data.

Use a smoothing filter. Do a search in google for virtualdub filters and go look for smart smoother. Download it and copy it to the virtualdub plugins folder. For animation, weighed average, weighed with difference, check grayscale, and maintain diffweight >2 works well for cleaning up animation and making it more compressible.

Install the latest version of DivX (5.03 as of now). It's multipass encoding function works with the latest version of Pocket MVP (0.8q). More passes (3 or more) results in better quality.

[FieldDoc]

thanks for the advice Jude. What is happening is that the image is fine until fast movement occurs. When the image changes suddenly, the outside of the characters kinda have a halo of black bars around them (if that makes any sense!). I tried what you suggested but i'm not having any luck.
Any other ideas?

[Jude]

Oh! It sounds like you're having interlacing problems. Use a deinterlacing filter. Good ones are "smart deinterlace" and "deinterlace area based".

[GingerTommy]

I agree, it sounds like an interlacing issue.
I had the same problem converting my Star Trek: TNG DVDs, and using the Deinterlace filter with the Duplicate field 1 option gave excellent results.

I would suggest that you arrange your filters so that the Deinterlace is first, then the resize followed by the rotate. Good luck.

[FieldDoc]

THANKYOU!!
It most certainly was an interlacing problem and now, thanks to you guys, i've fixed it!
Thanks again!

[rzanology]

well...heres another way of doing this, I usualy take my avi file, and import it into windows media player. after that i set the export file to be custimized for pocket pc, it does degrade the quality a tiiiiiny little bit, but the file is muuuch smaller, there fore i get more movie for my space. Also sence you guys like video, i suggest you look into pocket hack master, it pushes the chip nicly, so the video plays really smooth.