[defused]

You guys are in luck, I made a guide for my friend with like TONS of pictures. I will go through it one more time making sure I don't miss anything. Then I'll post a download link. Or create a website. I don't know yet.



Lol, yeah... well, first 15 pages or 10, I don't know, was all about testing to see if MeGUI would be able to produce high quality h264 video without any dropped frames. And look like it did with some correct configures!! Then the rest of forum was all helping people.

Any chance you got that tutorial made, Im having the hardest time with Megui

[jarod71]

Any chance you got that tutorial made, Im having the hardest time with Megui

try xvid4psp...

[JPSiemer]

Hmmm... So scene-rips are already re-encoded?

So basically a scene-rip is a full rip of a Blu-Ray movie that is then re-encoded using something like x264 or DivX?

So people are downloading scene-rips and then re-encoding them AGAIN to make them playable on an xbox? Is this REALLY going to result in better quality than re-encoding a DVD rip just once? I find it hard to believe that a BRC movie that's been re-encoded twice will be better than a DVD that's only been done once, especially when you don't know what settings the first person used for the first re-encode.

Yes, BluRay scene rips are re-encodes (@720p & 1080P) of the original BluRay compressed with H.264 (NOTE: stick with H.264 / stay away from XviD scene rips... they look like DVDs!) Then some people come along and re-encode the scene rips down to a standard definition resolution that is suitable for low-end devices (such as the Xbox) -- these kinds of rips are called BRRips. ~99% of the time, re-encoding the scene rip will yield better results over any DVD of the same video. Keep in mind that when HD was the original source, even re-encodes of re-encodes of re-encodes are going to look as good, if not better than a DVD source (if done right - and if H.264 was the only codec used each time), because DVD's use a horrible video compression codec called MPEG2, which removes a ton of sharpness, color, and detail from the original source. Have you seen how bad The Lord of The Rings looks on DVD?

[jarod71]

Yes, BluRay scene rips are re-encodes (@720p & 1080P) of the original BluRay compressed with H.264 (NOTE: stick with H.264 / stay away from XviD scene rips... they look like DVDs!) Then some people come along and re-encode the scene rips down to a standard definition resolution that is suitable for low-end devices (such as the Xbox) -- these kinds of rips are called BRRips. ~99% of the time, re-encoding the scene rip will yield better results over any DVD of the same video. Keep in mind that when HD was the original source, even re-encodes of re-encodes of re-encodes are going to look as good, if not better than a DVD source (if done right - and if H.264 was the only codec used each time), because DVD's use a horrible video compression codec called MPEG2, which removes a ton of sharpness, color, and detail from the original source. Have you seen how bad The Lord of The Rings looks on DVD?

xvid looks great and it is not sd resolution, it is 720p xvid. this is a hd resolution, it may not be as sharp as h.264 or detailed but it is a world of difference better than dvd.

[JPSiemer]

xvid looks great and it is not sd resolution, it is 720p xvid. this is a hd resolution, it may not be as sharp as h.264 or detailed but it is a world of difference better than dvd.

Agreed that XviD compression is better than DVD's MPEG2, but I disagree that XviD looks "great". In fact, although the compression may be better, the overall fidelity of XviD encoded video is actually much worse. That is why the BluRay/HDDVD standard uses MPEG2 and H.264/VC-1 and not XviD/DivX.

[jarod71]

Agreed that XviD compression is better than DVD's MPEG2, but I disagree that XviD looks "great". In fact, although the compression may be better, the overall fidelity of XviD encoded video is actually much worse. That is why the BluRay/HDDVD standard uses MPEG2 and H.264/VC-1 and not XviD/DivX.

All this is true what you have said, however, xvid 720p will play with no dropped frames on Original xbox whereas h.264 will not. Or it (h264) will at a much lower bit rate. the point is, it is not as great as blueray or as nice as h.264 mkv dl from the web, but it is way better than dvd and I want to keep my original xbox and this is as good as it gets, I say try it and see if you like it. Your mileage may very, but I am very satisfied with the quality. Pixilation is minimal, and nothing like a 700mb divx movie, my movies clock in close to the original reencode 3-5gb and avarage bitrate of 4500. they look and sound great. I keep the 5.1 soundtrack at 640kbs ac3. I love it. I primarily use xvid2psp now, but still use visualhub on mac for the ocassional movie that has issues in xvid4psp. I am having some issues with ff and rw on certain mkv's but not all, and If under 4gb I usally stick with avi as a wrapper as it seems more compatible with xbmc/xbox. all and all, it is great.

[sion28]

Jarod71,
Thanks for the info about XviD4PSP. I'll have to give that a try when I have time. What profile do you use to encode an xbox compatible 720p XviD movie?

Have you tried megui with the method outlined in this thread? If so do you feel that your 720p xvid encodes are better than a 480p x.264 encode as described here?

Maybe I've misunderstood you, but I find it hard to believe that the xbox can handle a 720p video at a bitrate of 4500 bps. Is this really true?

Thanks!

[JPSiemer]

Jarod71,
Thanks for the info about XviD4PSP. I'll have to give that a try when I have time. What profile do you use to encode an xbox compatible 720p XviD movie?

Have you tried megui with the method outlined in this thread? If so do you feel that your 720p xvid encodes are better than a 480p x.264 encode as described here?

Maybe I've misunderstood you, but I find it hard to believe that the xbox can handle a 720p video at a bitrate of 4500 bps. Is this really true?

It's been no mystery that the Xbox can handle 720P XviD movies at reasonable bitrates with minimal skip. It also does even better with HRHD XviD's (960x540 pixels) with zero skip. The most recent topic and profile settings/information about encoding 720P video is: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=46732

[jarod71]

It's been no mystery that the Xbox can handle 720P XviD movies at reasonable bitrates with minimal skip. It also does even better with HRHD XviD's (960x540 pixels) with zero skip. The most recent topic and profile settings/information about encoding 720P video is: http://forum.xbmc.org/showthread.php?tid=46732

There's no doubt that a 720P XviD will be crisper over a 480P H264, but I wonder how much color information and contrast is lost, and how much pixelation occurs. Jarod71, if you could, post us some screenshots comparing one over the other.

I don't have any 480p h.264 available. But as soon as I have time, I will post screen shot from original 720p h.264 which is not playable on xbox and my reencode of the same file to 720p xvid that is playable. average bit rate of 4500 is for real. It can go higher than that, xvid2psp uses vbr 2 pass, and there is much less pixelization than you would think. It is beautiful video and probably the best the xbox is capable of rendering from 733mhz cpu.

[JPSiemer]

After playing around with some encodes, I realized that 720P XviD's may be a viable option after all. In terms of overall visual quality, here's how various settings stacked up...

The 60 frame 720P XviD (4400 Kbps) came in first place. It had some minor pixelation, and was way more crisp in sharpness over both H264 videos. It weighed in at 1.24MB

The 60 frame 480P H264 (1300 Kbps w/ Deblocking) came in second place. It had some minor pixelation, and was slightly less crisp than the H264 w/ CABAC. It weighed in at 471KB

The 60 frame 480P H264 (1300 Kbps w/ CABAC) came in third place. It had some major pixelation, and was slightly more crisp than the H264 w/ Deblocking. It weighed in at 473KB

The 60 frame 720P XviD (2200 Kbps) came in last place. It had some unbearable pixelation, and was a little less crisp in sharpness over the XviD (4400 Kbps). It weighed in at 595KB

In these tests, I disregarded size when rating. Instead, I based these results on visual pixelation and sharpness (I was going to do color and contrast as well, but all came out the same in those areas). In my opinion, the amount pixelation is the most important and sharpness is next in line.

So the only disadvantage is: while the 720P XviD @ 4400 Kbps looked the best, it was 2.7x larger than the best looking H264.

I am going to do a couple more tests, such as 720P and HRHD H264's at very low bitrates, 480P XviD's at high and low bitrates, etc... and rate them from first to last place.

[jarod71]

After playing around with some encodes, I realized that 720P XviD's may be a viable option after all. In terms of overall visual quality, here's how various settings stacked up...

The 60 frame 720P XviD (4400 Kbps) came in first place. It had some minor pixelation, and was way more crisp in sharpness over both H264 videos. It weighed in at 1.24MB

The 60 frame 480P H264 (1300 Kbps w/ Deblocking) came in second place. It had some minor pixelation, and was slightly less crisp than the H264 w/ CABAC. It weighed in at 471KB

The 60 frame 480P H264 (1300 Kbps w/ CABAC) came in third place. It had some major pixelation, and was slightly more crisp than the H264 w/ Deblocking. It weighed in at 473KB

The 60 frame 720P XviD (2200 Kbps) came in last place. It had some unbearable pixelation, and was a little less crisp in sharpness over the XviD (4400 Kbps). It weighed in at 595KB

In these tests, I disregarded size when rating. Instead, I based these results on visual pixelation and sharpness (I was going to do color and contrast as well, but all came out the same in those areas). In my opinion, the amount pixelation is the most important and sharpness is next in line.

So the only disadvantage is: while the 720P XviD @ 4400 Kbps looked the best, it was 2.7x larger than the best looking H264.

I am going to do a couple more tests, such as 720P and HRHD H264's at very low bitrates, 480P XviD's at high and low bitrates, etc... and rate them from first to last place.

if size is not a concern, it is the way to go...

[sion28]

I am going to do a couple more tests, such as 720P and HRHD H264's at very low bitrates, 480P XviD's at high and low bitrates, etc... and rate them from first to last place.

I'm very interested in what the best compression method is for 480p (DVD) as I don't have much of a collection of HD material, so while cool to know about, the 720p encodes aren't going to be something I'd use very often. (I have loads of DVDs in my collection waiting to be ripped for use on my xbox!) I'm not a fan of downloading such big files... too impatient! :-)

So please let us know if you feel you've found anything better for 480p dvd encoding than the current thread's how-to.

[sion28]

After playing around with some encodes, I realized that 720P XviD's may be a viable option after all. In terms of overall visual quality, here's how various settings stacked up...

What tool(s) did you use for this comparison? megui? XviD4PSP?

[JPSiemer]

I'm very interested in what the best compression method is for 480p (DVD) as I don't have much of a collection of HD material, so while cool to know about, the 720p encodes aren't going to be something I'd use very often. (I have loads of DVDs in my collection waiting to be ripped for use on my xbox!) I'm not a fan of downloading such big files... too impatient! :-)

The best codec for 480P on the Xbox is H.264 if you are concerned with good quality video at a small file size.

If you are not concerned with file size, it is possible to get a better looking XviD at a little more than triple the bitrate.

[JPSiemer]

What tool(s) did you use for this comparison? megui? XviD4PSP?

MeGUI for H.264 - XviD4PSP for XviD
For H.264, I was using my profiles.
For XviD, I used Jarod71's settings.