Mpeg to Divx tutorial

1.About this tutorial

This tutorial has been broken down into 6 chapters which explain the process of converting an MPEG1 or
MPEG2 DVD file into a Mpeg4 ("divx") formatted AVI file. There are several projects available online which
allow you to convert DVD's to DIVX avi, using tools such as the popular mencoder. The difference between
Avidemux and these other projects, is that Avidemux allows you to edit the file before encoding it, and to do a
visual check of what you are doing.

Understanding Mpeg file types 

Supported Mpeg Formats

Video Only Video & Audio
m1v mpg
m2v vob
x vdr (mpegTs)

m1v means "MPEG-1 Video", i.e. a file which only contains a so called elementary video stream, without
any audio.
m2v means "MPEG-2 Video"
mpg is a program stream containing the multiplexed video and audio streams.
vob is a DVD systems stream which contains video, audio and additional information, it is a also a
program stream
vdr is a transport stream containing video and audio(s). It is supported but without sync correction.

Getting a usable VOB file using mplayer 

Code listing 1.1

mplayer dvd://1 -dumpstream

This will create a file in your working directory called stream.dump. This is an avidemux compatible
vob file in mpeg format with various audio streams

Loading and Indexing your Mpeg File 

Load this stream.dump file into Avidemux by either clicking the "Open" folder icon in the toolbar, or
going File->Open Video

You will now be presented with a dialog box asking if you would like to index the mpeg, say yes.

The following dialog box will ask you how you want to index your mpeg. Mostly, this is to choose the
audio. Since I like doing things the easy way, we will click "Scan file for audio stream". This feature will
 read the vob file and present you with a dropdown list of audio stream choices. Generally the default, or
first in the list is the best choice. Click "Ok" to begin indexing the mpeg. This may take a number of
minutes depending on the speed of your machine.

Note: Avidemux does not read mpeg streams. It has been designed to read an mpeg stream index. An
mpeg steam index is a plain text file containing a description of the mpeg and the location of frames
throughout the stream. This file allows avidemux to random seek and stay accurate. Said otherwise,
without the index, avidemux cannot handle mpeg files.

2.Editing features and options

NSTC versus Film 

Some DVD are coded as 23.976 aka FILM (most movies actually). Some others are coded as 29.96
(NSTC), soap for example. In the first case, the DVD player does a operation to convert it on the fly to
NSTC format (telecine). So the mpeg header always says 29.96 as it will always be the final format.

Avidemux uses mpeg2dec to decode mpeg streams (with a little patch). Mpeg2dec does not do the
telecine on FILM movie (and that's better that way).

It means that avidemux cannot tell the difference between FILM and NSTC. So if the mpeg looks
progressive (not interlaced) and obvious desync appears (and gets worse and worse), use Misc-
>Change fps and set it to 23.976.

For PAL mpeg, there is no problem, it is always 25 fps.

If audio is present, avidemux will try to guesstimate if the video is 23.976 by comparing audio and
video duration.

Cropping 

Cropping is useful in removing the black borders along the top and bottom of the video in a widescreen
format.

To crop the video, we must apply some video filters. Before selecting the filters however, use the slider
bar at the bottom to select a spot in the middle of the movie. The reason for this, is that auto crop
feature will adjust the cropping based on the current frame.
Now press F1 to popup the video filter list.
Click "Add" and select the Crop filter.

Now select the "AutoCrop" button. You'll notice the black areas will now appear in green to show the
areas where the video will be cropped.
If you like the way it looks click "Ok" and then close the video filters list.
Resizing 

If you'd like to resize the video to something smaller, bring back up the video filter list. To correctly
resize a video, it is very important to take the aspect ratio into account. The aspect ratio is the shape of
a pixel. On a PC it is mostly square, however, on a DVD it could be 4:3 or 16:9. So, select the input
aspect ratio (16:9 is the most common for DVD) and target aspect ration (1:1 for Avi, 4:3 or 16:9 for
DVD). Then select the resizing method, bilinear is generally good enough for downsizing. You probably
will want to check the 16 round up to be sure the final width and height are multiples of 16. Then move
the slider until you reach the desired width.

More video filters 

Depending on the source, you may want to add more filters (subtitling, denoiser, deinterlacer...). See
video filters for more information on available filters. One of the best I've found is the "Mplayer Denoise
3D" filter. This filters smooths the image a bit. Default values on it are fine.

At this point, the video is ready for any editing you may wish to do. For information on cutting please
see the Cutting Guide.

3.Configuring the encoder

Codec 

Obviously we want to encode the video, so we set the video to process mode (F5).

Time to select a codec. My two preferred are Xvid and Lavcodec. You can use windows based tutorial
for Xvid as the options are the same. For lavcodec, have a look in mplayer documentation.

Configuring the codec 

Start by opening the codec selection dialog box by pressing F3. The Configure codec box should look
something like this.
 Now click in the codec options box and choose "xvid". After selecting the codec click the configure
codec button. We are going to choose 2pass and ender in a final size for the video only. The audio size
will be added to this to give you your total size.

4.Configuring the audio encoder

Before converting your DVD file to mpeg, you have a few choices for audio streams. There are Internal
and External streams. Here is what I mean.

Internal audio 

This means you use the audio stream you choose when indexing your vob file. If you would like to use
a different audio stream from the stream.dump or vob file, you will need to re-index your file.

External audio 

This is a feature that allows you to choose an external audio stream instead of the origional audio
stream you selected when indexing your file. To select a different audio stream or track, navigate to
Audio->source.

Audio codec 

You have quite a few choices here for your codec.

Uncompressed audio
FFmpeg mpeg audio
FFmpeg ac3 2 channel
Toolame mp3
Lame mp3
FAAC

Let me review a few of my favorite options.

Uncompressed audio

This means PCM audio. Big, but lossless.

Lame mp3
 This option allows you to create an avi with mp3 audio. The lame encoder does an excellent job
at VBR encoding.

Do i want processing ? 

Processing simply means whether or not to process any of the above steps we just walked through.
For example, if you would like to leave your audio track the way it is, and not use a different codec such
as mp3, then you don't want processing.

If there are any audio filters which you wish to apply, then you will need to process the audio. Audio
filters can be selected by pressing F2 then choosing the appropriate filter.

For more information on audio filters, check audio filters

If you would like to process your audio simply press F6

5.Saving

Now select File->Save avi and wait a few hours. Done. Avidemux will do pass 1 then switch to
pass2 (including audio).