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View Full Version : Please help DVD >> MPEG for PTV


Palm Cow
02-26-2004, 11:48 PM
I don't have a whole lot of hard drive space on my comp, i.e., not enough to copy all of a DVD onto it. So could someone give me a link to a thread or site or something that can precisely guide me how to:

Get my DVD to a 230MB or less MPEG for my PPC, but
Not using gigs and gigs from my HD (it's okay if I have to put the MPEG on my HD though :D).

Any links? Please? THANK YOU!

Jason Dunn
02-27-2004, 12:02 AM
You're looking for a real-time transcoder...that's a tough one, since most I'm aware of still need a lot of HD space.

Palm Cow
02-27-2004, 03:05 AM
Well, let's say I do have plenty of HD space? What then?

You see, I have several (20+) gigs free; I was just looking for a smaller-scale sort of thing.

So is there something free that could do a Wizard and pop out an MPEG that's 230MB for my PPC? Or something that would do that with more work?

Jason Dunn
02-27-2004, 03:25 AM
Sure, there are two solutions I know of that are specifically designed for the DVD to PPC market:

http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&jid=AA5X2A5E3BX93FEA654D1EE1E7259BXE&platformId=2&productType=2&catalog=0&sectionId=0&productId=94375

http://www.handango.com/brainstore/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&jid=AA5X2A5E3BX93FEA654D1EE1E7259BXE&platformId=2&productType=2&productId=101963&sectionId=0&catalog=30

We've reviewed DVD to Pocket PC as well:

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/articles.php?action=expand,23403

Falstaff
02-27-2004, 03:26 AM
One guide that says it was made with limited HD space in mind is at PocketMovies.net. (http://www.pocketmovies.net/dvdrip.php)
There are a lot of DVD to AVI/DiVx or MPG FAQ around the net. But most of them are not easy to understand, or need much disk space (most of them implies to have huge AVI intermediate file before encoding to MPG), or are not relevant in the Pocket TV context.
Other guides you might check out are:
BigD's Video (http://www.bigdsvideo.com/) (I use this guide and like it a lot)
Pocket Matrix (http://www.pocketmatrix.com/guides/dvd2divx/)

maikii
02-27-2004, 11:52 PM
FIrst of all, could you explain why you want your final file for the PPC to be an MPEG? Not common for PPC. MPEG-1 or MPEG-2?

I would say that the two most common video types used on the PPC are the .wmv format, which can be played with the Windows Media Player that comes on the PPC, or divx format (which would have .AVI extension), which can be played on freeware players like PocketMVP. Both of these file formats (being variants of MP4) will get smaller file sizes than MPG (1 or 2) files.

How to turn a DVD into MPG files? Well, DVD video is already in MPEG-2 format. First of all, if it is an encrypted DVD, you would need to de-encrypt it, which could be against the law in your locality. Then, the resulting video files have the extension .VOB. They are actually MPEG-2 video, however, and if you change the extension on them to .mpg, they will probably play in any program that can play MPEG-2 video. (I don't know of any PPC program that does, there could be one.) They will be about a GB each, and a DVD could have several of them. I don't know how you would fit them on a PPC. Better to compress further to .WMV or DIVX.

For more details on how to do stuff like this, look at web sites like:

www.dvdrhelp.com and

www.doom9.org

I found a program (free) there called Autogordian knot that works good. You can input a decrypted DVD into it, and output a DIVXed AVI. There are other programs that will do that also. If you take the .avi file as an intermediate step, you could then import that into Windows Movie Maker or Windows Media Encoder (both free) and save as .wmv, if you prefer that format. (I have also just renamed the .VOB files on the DVD as .MPG, imported those into WMM, and created an .WMV that way.

Palm Cow
02-28-2004, 02:18 AM
Ugh ... I want the movie so I can watch it on the move!

Well my PPC is 2k2 so I can't have WMP v9 on it and that gets complicated.

So any non-.wmv solutions for me then? Whatever, I was just thinking, I like PocketTV, and it's freeware and plays MPEG-1 and -2.

So ... what are your suggestions?

Falstaff
02-28-2004, 03:13 AM
I suggest using one of the guides I listed above and then you can use Pocket MVP (http://www.pocketpcfreewares.com/en/index.php?soft=449) to play the DivX files. Thats what I do, good quality, small file size, and good playback.

Pat Logsdon
02-28-2004, 03:18 AM
So any non-.wmv solutions for me then? Whatever, I was just thinking, I like PocketTV, and it's freeware and plays MPEG-1 and -2.

So ... what are your suggestions?
I'd suggest two things. First, check out the doom9 guide to AutoGK (http://www.doom9.org/autogk.htm) (if the link takes you to the home page, just search for "autogk" on the left navigation). It includes links to all of the (free) software you'll need, and it'll do all of the decrypting/converting work for you. Follow the instructions in the guide.

When you're done, you'll have a divx file that can then be tweaked so it'll play on a PPC. You'll basically need to shrink the size of the video, rotate it, and lower the bitrate. There's an excellent guide (http://www.mypdacafe.com/articles/read.php?id=181) at mypdacafe.com. Follow all the steps.

When you're done, all you'll need to do is install PocketMVP (there's a link to it in the mypdacafe guide), and copy it to your PPC!

8)

Palm Cow
02-28-2004, 04:27 PM
Okay I'll try that and post my results! Thanks!

8)

Pat Logsdon
02-28-2004, 07:18 PM
Okay I'll try that and post my results!
Please do!

Thanks!
No problem. :mrgreen:

Palm Cow
02-28-2004, 07:38 PM
Okay I ran into a prob.

http://www.bigdsvideo.com/bigdsvideoencodingguides/id17.html

Using that guide, I followed the ripping instructions, and it popped out a few (6) .VOB files from my The Matrix DVD. But the other program (DVDx 2.2 or something) only recognizes IFO files, and there are none! Sorry i'm on the run if this doesnt make sense thx!

EDIT: Alright I figured it out, I just had to tell it to look for MPEG files and then it could see the VOB's. I hope this works, thanks guys! 8)

Palm Cow
02-29-2004, 07:04 AM
Stupid 800MHz of crap ... it just NOW finished making The Matrix into 2 (wtf?!) MPEG's! Why! I mean, it looks like I accidently had some setting to have it fit VCD's (700MB on the first one, 400MB on second), so is there any way to join the 2 AVI's I'm getting this started on right now tomorrow, into one large AVI of death? Or something?

Pat Logsdon
02-29-2004, 09:10 AM
Stupid 800MHz of crap ... it just NOW finished making The Matrix into 2 (wtf?!) MPEG's! Why! I mean, it looks like I accidently had some setting to have it fit VCD's (700MB on the first one, 400MB on second), so is there any way to join the 2 AVI's I'm getting this started on right now tomorrow, into one large AVI of death? Or something?
I'm not sure why you're doing the conversion this way. FYI - DVD is MPEG-2. What you've got now is MPEG-1. Now you want to convert the MPEG-1 to DivX (avi) which is MPEG-4. You've got an entirely useless step there (MPEG-1) that wastes time and degrades the quality of your final output. :?

It'll be better and faster if you follow the instructions in the guides I linked - you'll rip straight to DivX (MPEG-2 to MPEG-4), and the resulting file will play in PocketMVP, and will fit on a 256 MB SD or CF card. If you've got a 128mb card, you can use Virtual Dub to split the final file into as many parts as you like. That'll take about a minute to do. 8)

So my advice would be to start over and not mess with the files you have now. :mrgreen:

Palm Cow
02-29-2004, 04:07 PM
Well ... the quality is fine on the first half (2/3) of The Matrix is good, and I'm VDubbing the second half (1/3) now. I'm just wondering if there's any way to squish the two DivX files into one, longer one???

Palm Cow
02-29-2004, 05:40 PM
Disregard that. I'm ripping Finding Nemo directly to a DivX right now, and then I'll compress it, as the file will be about 1.1GB.

Palm Cow
02-29-2004, 08:29 PM
IT WORKS! THIS IS TEH AWESOME!

For Nemo, I used DVD Rip N Burn (freeware) to rip it to a ~1GB DivX, then I used VirtualDub (freeware) to compress it to an awesome stereo 191MB file of death! And I still have plenty of memory for documents, MP3's, etc. :D thanks!

Ripper014
03-01-2004, 11:10 PM
Is there something special I need to know about "DvD Rip N Burn"... I loaded it into my computer but I can not get passed the first part of the program... when I load in the DvD I want to convert... it does not seem to want to load...

Any ideas...?

Falstaff
03-01-2004, 11:28 PM
Is there something special I need to know about "DvD Rip N Burn"... I loaded it into my computer but I can not get passed the first part of the program... when I load in the DvD I want to convert... it does not seem to want to load...

Any ideas...?

I think the error you're talking about is that the DVD is not unlocked or somthing like that. You have to open the movie with a DVD player, then just close the player and try opening it with Rip N Burn, it's the same with SmartRipper.

Palm Cow
03-02-2004, 04:16 AM
Yes, I have to unlock it with the DVD playing thingy on my computer.

Hope I helped :D.

Ripper014
03-02-2004, 05:36 AM
That does not seem to be it... it just says to me that the program is not responding... it also tells me that the program is not setup correctly when I check for an update as well... so maybe I will just pass on it.. I just like the idea of doing it all in one pass...

But thanks I appreciate the responses...

The PocketTV Team
04-03-2004, 09:32 AM
> FIrst of all, could you explain why you want your final file for the PPC to be an MPEG? Not common for PPC. MPEG-1 or MPEG-2?

Actually MPEG-1 is very a very common format on Pocket PC, and those files can be played by PocketTV Classic, a very popular and free MPEG Player (www.pockettv.com).

You can usually get much better quality using MPEG than WMP on Pocket PC, but MPEG files tend to be larger.

There is a good guide for converting into MPEG:

Simple Guide for making MPEG files optimized for Pocket PC or Smartphone (http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.php?p=3415#3415)

The guide include links for more information on ripping DVD's.

maikii
04-08-2004, 11:12 PM
> FIrst of all, could you explain why you want your final file for the PPC to be an MPEG? Not common for PPC. MPEG-1 or MPEG-2?

Actually MPEG-1 is very a very common format on Pocket PC, and those files can be played by PocketTV Classic, a very popular and free MPEG Player (www.pockettv.com).

You can usually get much better quality using MPEG than WMP on Pocket PC, but MPEG files tend to be larger.

There is a good guide for converting into MPEG:

Simple Guide for making MPEG files optimized for Pocket PC or Smartphone (http://forum.pocketmovies.net/viewtopic.php?p=3415#3415)

The guide include links for more information on ripping DVD's.

Sorry, I wasn't aware of that.

Still I would guess that many times more people watch movies on their PPC in either WMV or DIVX format, due to taking up much less space. They also can be played on free players, WMP9 for WMV (comes with the WM2003 OS), or Pocket MVP for DIVX files.

The PocketTV Team
04-08-2004, 11:38 PM
Yes, DivX files are smaller than MPEG-1 files, but in general they are also lower quality.

Actually some tests were recently done, and the results seem to be that same size files in DivX and MPEG-1 will be about the same quality on Pocket PC when played with PocketTV (for MPEG) and PocketMVP (for DivX).

See http://discussion.brighthand.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=102321

MPEG may not be as popular as DivX on desktop PC's, but it is a very popular format on Pocket PC and Smartphone, and it can be played with free players everywhere, too. On desktop PC, WMP can play MPEG, naturally.

About 1 million people have downloaded the free PocketTV player for Pocket PC, that's a pretty large number. Probably about as many people have downloaded PocketMVP, even though they are not counting the downloads.

So I'd say both formats are about as popular. DivX requires a bit more "hacking" to get good results when encoding. MPEG is more straight forward for the average users.

Ripper014
04-09-2004, 01:19 AM
The files are not only smaller but significantly smaller than Mpeg... and I beg to differ regarding the statement that Mepg files are of a better quality. At lower bitrates there is no comparision.. in my humble opinion... DivX is much better than Mpeg.

I have not used Mpeg in over 5 years... my main format of choice would be DivX... but I do encode occasionally in Wmv...

The PocketTV Team
04-09-2004, 02:37 AM
The files are not only smaller but significantly smaller than Mpeg... and I beg to differ regarding the statement that Mepg files are of a better quality. At lower bitrates there is no comparision.. in my humble opinion... DivX is much better than Mpeg.

I have not used Mpeg in over 5 years... my main format of choice would be DivX... but I do encode occasionally in Wmv...
Just like with DivX, MPEG file size depends on the bitrate you use when encoding.

In the old times, most MPEG-1 files were encoded at about 1.5 Mbits/sec. That's the bitrate used by VCD (Video-CDs).

Nowdays, using state of the art software encoders like TMPGEnc, you can get the same quality with MPEG at a third of the bitrate (i.e. at 500 Kbit/sec or less). This makes MPEG files about the same size as DivX files, for equivalent quality. The advantage on using MPEG on slower devices, like Pocket PC's, is that it is much easier to decode than DivX, so you will get a higher framerate, too.

You can read the posting I was refering to above, some guy did some comparison tests and the results are interesting.