I have DVDfab 5 with mobile options. What I like to know is what would be the best format to convert my TV show to (from dvd) that will play on my hard drive player (also what setting to set) I was hoping to get the best quality for size even if is not much smaller then a full DVD however to make it easy I would need each episode to be one file.
Can someone please help me?
This question has been asked many times. The answer I usually give is to try some conversions and see if they meet your expectations for video quality and size savings. These (along with processing time) are the trade offs. If your TV has a large screen, you may be happiest using VOB Passthrough, which has the same picture quality as the original DVD. Your storage device must be able to support very large files (NTFS file system) and MPEG-2 playback. Try one of the MPEG-4 conversions also, you may find that they are good enough for your purposes. I would suggest one of the profiles that uses H264 video and either AAC or same as source audio (again, your player must support all this). DVD to Mobile has many options, I’m sure one will meet your needs.
Thanks for your reply I played around with a profile you post in a other post last night and the pic was great even the sound and the 20min episode was just about 350mb with 1tb that not a problem however if able to get it smaller with the same high quality that would be better however my main question is with your profile I news it made the show 4:3 giving me the black lines down the size of the screen. Also it has subtitles.
(the profile was ARCHOS 504/604 avi(mpeg4 + mp3 audio)
my test show is season 1 of how I met your mother
The format the player can play are
Video supported: AVI,MPEG,VOB,ASF,IFO,DAT,MP4,TS,DIVX HD,ISO,DMF
Audio supported: MPEG3,WMA,LPCM,WAV,OGG,AIFF,AAG.
Thank you for all the help you can give.
I still use that profile sometimes, but most often now I use another one I made for the Archos 7, which makes MP4 files with H264 video and AAC audio. Neither one of these should change the picture to 4:3 if you are converting a widescreen movie/TV show. To prevent subtitles, you must be sure to remove the checkmarks in the subpicture boxes (lower right area) before you click Next.
Here is a link to the Archos 7 profile:
http://club.cdfreaks.com/2220441-post19.html
It also has instructions for installing the profile. When you try this one, it will present you with several screen size choices that will have the same aspect ratio. For better video quality, choose one of the larger ones, for smaller file sizes, choose the smaller (480x???). After you choose the screen size (on the Conversion Settings page), adjust the video bitrate slider so that the bits/pixel reading is between 0.15-0.2. See if this video quality is good enough. If it needs to be just a little better, increase the video bitrate slider for a reading of about 0.3 or 0.4, if it needs to be a lot better, choose a larger screen size from the list. With these settings, a 1:45 movie will be about 450-500 MB after conversion, larger with the higher bitrates or screen sizes. Also, the Archos 7 profile has the audio level default set to 150%; if this is too loud, reduce it to 100%.
I giving your Archos 7 profile a go now will see how it goes.
I noted in DVDfab that it has the show list as 4:3 however when played in Cyberlink Powerdvd on my 22" widescreen the show fills the screen and same when playing the DVD on the TV. Any idea why this maybe? or more the point how I can makes the copy widescreen with out a lost in pic quality?
Thank you again Signal for all your help.
I have no idea. Many players and TVs have an automatic zoom function that will make anything fill the screen, no matter what the original aspect ratio. If the original is widescreen video in a 4:3 letterbox, it will show in DVDFab as 4:3, but the DVD to Mobile automatic cropping function will usually remove the black letterbox and let you encode just the active widescreen video. The choice of output aspect ratio is automatic in DVDFab unless you select “Supported by device” on the Advanced Resolution Settings page and force it to another ratio (not recommended). If I remember correctly I put common aspect ratios (1.33, 1.78, 2.35) in the Archos 7 profile, so you can choose Supported by device and select different ratios for testing. If you experiment with profiles and settings, it is faster to convert only a single chapter using the Title Start/End Settings button (set the start and end chapter to the same number).
I just had a go with your Archos 7 profile and the hard drive player say invalid file I think the audio code as aac is not listed as supported maybe why, also with this profile there was no great big black lines down the side it fill the screen on the computer anyway HDP will not play it. The video and audio on the computer are great. I am seeing how a different profile goes now at 640X480 as I had one working the other day just had black line down the side I see how it goes.
You may be better off trying the generic.avi.xvid.[B]mp3[/B] or [B]audiocopy[/B]. I’m surprised the player doesn’t like AAC, it is very commonly used. The audiocopy profiles all process faster if the player will tolerate AC-3 (or whatever is on the DVD).
generic.avi.xvid.mp3 was the one I was doing last night at 640X480 it plays not a problem on the HDP however I still have the black line down the size ( not as big as other profiles but still there)
All I want is to have it play off the HDP looking the same as when I play it off the dvd (Here I was thinking this should be easy)
I just did a VOB copy and it plays great full screen on the TV the lot(off the HDP) just a problem at 850MB for 22mins is a lot. Over 18GB a season (at 22mins each, making a 42min show 32GB a season) I was hopping for about half that. Any idea anyone please
Generally, DVDFab does not encode black bars if you have cropping set to Automatic. 4:3 content will always be displayed with black bars on the sides on a widescreen TV unless your player or TV have zoom settings that let it fill the screen (but this will usually chop content off the top and bottom). You can use the Manual Crop controls in DVDFab to take 4:3 content and make it “fake widescreen”, again by chopping content off the top and bottom. You can also try encoding the video to a larger screen size, but the conversions will take longer and the files will be somewhat larger. This may or may not help, depending on how the display/zoom functions interact between your player and your TV. DVDFab is flexible but it is not magic.
I did it again this time I crop 30 off the top and bottom and why there is still a black line on the sides it only a little one (I can happily live with) generic.avi.xvid.mp3 was the format I went with in the end.
Thanks for all your help Signals