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If they're smart, .avi. Make it a codec that plugs in alongside XviD, Huffyuv, etc., and you'll have a sizable amount of capture/editing/playback software that'll be able to use it right off the bat.

Well, the Ogg DirectShow filters already make it easy: Just install the DS filters, and all players support Ogg stream format (.ogg/.ogm) and Vorbis audio near-automagically!

You can create an .ogm from any .avi video file and Vorbis audio file with OggMux (can be found from the usual place).

Besides, the Ogg format is better than RIFF (aka .avi) - for example, using subtitles with .avi DivXes is often pretty challenging (separate file, in zillions of different formats); Ogg files can have subtitles multiplexed in them.

I personally use OggMux from VP3.1 and Vorbis source; works just fine in Windows with any player, but xine segfaults, even when it supposedly reads Ogg, plays Vorbis and any VFW data. =( Must try again later...

GordianKnot (available here) helps to automate the button. Someone should ask the author for an 'idiot' button. Select the soundtrack you want, resolution, size of the finished product, and click 'rip'.

Of course, there are enough open source and free apps that could be automated, its not stopping anyone from making their own home-brewed gordianknot. To piss off the big guys, remember, make it a win32 binary with very easy setup. :)

Go to Doom9 and read the guides.

They are called Mini-DVDs, do a search for them on google.

http://www.digital-digest.com/dvd/articles/odedi a_ minidvd.html

Doom9's guide to MiniDVDs

There is a DVD-Player compatibility list around someplace. . . .

Oh fuuuck man, even Ulead's consumer software now days makes MiniDVDs!!!! cruddoooo!

VCDhelp.com of course has the compatibility information, as per usual.

Here

Yeesh.

http://www.doom9.org contains lots of information and tools to work with AC3 plus DVD, MP3 etc. The tools are mainly for expert users as they are mostly commandline only. Althought some of them come with GUI wrappers, I am not sure if they are much help as they are perfect examples of GUI from hell (no offends!). They will get the job done if you are willing to commit quite a bit of time.

Of course if you don't have a good decoder/speakers don't waste your time on AC3.

you can extract the audio and the mpeg 2 streams with dvd2avi. you can get this from www.doom9.org on the software page. Since an SVCD is so small, you should be able to stick at least 4 cds on a DVD with no transcoding.. Of course, you need to make menus and stuff like that..

"First an update on the XviD situation. The release of the Sigma source code does not mean it's all over, it's far from being over. The license agreement which you have to agree to before you can download, and install the codec is not compatible with the GPL. Furthermore, it can now clearly be seen (download the source code and have a look for yourself) that the Sigma codec is pretty much a copy of the XviD codec, but all the copyright notices of the original developers have been removed and replaced. This does not only violate the GPL but copyright laws - you can't just take a program, change a few lines and change the copyright statements, you only have copyright protection for the parts you wrote on your own. And related to this the Sigma codec also contains code taken from the OpenDivX project, the files were outfitted with 2 different copyright notices which is quite funny."

I hope that Sigma will respect GPL licences. I will for sure stop every purchase of Sigma stuff where I work.

"First an update on the XviD situation. The release of the Sigma source code does not mean it's all over, it's far from being over. The license agreement which you have to agree to before you can download, and install the codec is not compatible with the GPL. Furthermore, it can now clearly be seen (download the source code and have a look for yourself) that the Sigma codec is pretty much a copy of the XviD codec, but all the copyright notices of the original developers have been removed and replaced. This does not only violate the GPL but copyright laws - you can't just take a program, change a few lines and change the copyright statements, you only have copyright protection for the parts you wrote on your own. And related to this the Sigma codec also contains code taken from the OpenDivX project, the files were outfitted with 2 different copyright notices which is quite funny."

I hope that Sigma will respect GPL licences. I will for sure stop every purchase of Sigma stuff where I work.

Best one Pretty good Ok

Best one Pretty good Ok

Best one Pretty good Ok

You seem to be confused as to what ogg really is. Blame part of this confusion on Microsoft, who would lead you to believe that because a file has the extention .ogg and plays audio when you run it that it's an audio file.

The ogg format is a stream format, much like the avi format (published by Microsoft) is. Ogg's primary advantage is flexibility: you can embed practically anything into an ogg stream (video, audio, subtitle streams, whatever) that your player can interpret at the other end. Furthermore, the stream is fault-tolerant and should play even if damaged or incomplete.

(The ogg audio file you're thinking of is actually a vorbis audio stream multiplexed into an ogg.)

Probably the best place on the web right now to learn about video codecs and stream formats is doom9. You will also find that in the forums they are doing active research concerning a new stream format called mcf (well, actually an old stream format, I think it was specified before ogg) and a way to burn raw mcf streams to a CD a la VCD.

Doom9 also performs codec comparisons every time a company / individual / group thinks that they've produced the Latest and Greatest video codec. VP3 was obselete many months ago when it was being compared to div3 and even wmv8, both of which are suboptimal when compared head-to-head these days with div5 and xvid.

Another thing to keep in mind is that VP3's patent-unencombered state is a two-edged sword: while you don't have to worry about maybe having to pay MPEG4 license fees, you also don't have a chance in hell of being playable on any next-generation DVD player. Sure, if you're a game manufacturer and you're looking for a video and audio codec to use in in-game movies, you'll probably use an ogg file with a VP3 video stream and a vorbis audio stream; however, if you're producing video of your son's first steps that you want to throw into your grandfather's new DVD player, you'll be doing it in some variety of MPEG4.

-inq

As far as video quality, vp3 is a good bit behind the better mpeg4 variants such as divx and xvid according to this codec comparison, and this one also seems to be saying that vp4 isn't up to their level either. Both articles are focused on dvd-ripping, which involves resolutions typically from 400 to 700 (horizontal) at around 0.15 to 0.4 bits per pixel, so as to fit an hour-plus movie onto a 700mb cdr at a decent resolution. If vp3 and vp4 weren't designed to be optimal in these ranges then the comparison might be fair, but in general it seems like mpeg4 is the better bet if any halfway decent bitrate (500+ kilobits per second) is available. Of course, the patent-free nature of the xiph codec is what'll be attractive about it.

As far as video quality, vp3 is a good bit behind the better mpeg4 variants such as divx and xvid according to this codec comparison, and this one also seems to be saying that vp4 isn't up to their level either. Both articles are focused on dvd-ripping, which involves resolutions typically from 400 to 700 (horizontal) at around 0.15 to 0.4 bits per pixel, so as to fit an hour-plus movie onto a 700mb cdr at a decent resolution. If vp3 and vp4 weren't designed to be optimal in these ranges then the comparison might be fair, but in general it seems like mpeg4 is the better bet if any halfway decent bitrate (500+ kilobits per second) is available. Of course, the patent-free nature of the xiph codec is what'll be attractive about it.

Currently it is possible to transcode multi channel DVD audio to multi channel Ogg Vorbis.

Currently it is possible to transcode multi channel DVD audio to multi channel Ogg Vorbis.

AC3 can support up to 6 channels, which is the same as 5.1.

Not really, divx only specifies the video format. You can plug in any sound codec you want to, including AC3. Here's a nice guide

The famous (and best) DVD Backup Resource Doom9 has a nice guide on ripping DVDs under Linux using transcode, DivX 4 and a bunch of Perl scripts...
Since it's a Doom9 Guide the quality has to be good...
X

The famous (and best) DVD Backup Resource Doom9 has a nice guide on ripping DVDs under Linux using transcode, DivX 4 and a bunch of Perl scripts...
Since it's a Doom9 Guide the quality has to be good...
X

the quality ends up being extremely poor

What have you been smoking?!? Ripping a DVD to ~700MB DivX (MPEG-4) results in a quality that is better than rental VHS! Check out Doom9 for more info (like this example of DVD ripping).

the quality ends up being extremely poor

What have you been smoking?!? Ripping a DVD to ~700MB DivX (MPEG-4) results in a quality that is better than rental VHS! Check out Doom9 for more info (like this example of DVD ripping).

No, you couldn't care less about DivX.

Sorry DivX Networks.. your time in the limelight is over. Time for a better codec to come around

You should check out XviD - developed from the open codebase that DivX4 also came from, but completely free (GPL, even). It doesn't have B-frame support yet, so it doesn't compress as well as DivX5, but it's easily a match for DivX4.

The best place to find information about XviD is to read the XviD forum at Doom9 - many of the XviD developers are active participants there.

The problem with Ogg Tarkin it is still pretty much an experiment, using techniques which is way ahead of its time. 3d wavelets haven't been heard of in any other standard which are under development.

XviD, however, exists today. It is a fully GPL'ed MPEG4 codec. However, it cannot exist legally in any form other than an experiment because the MPEG4 license still has to be paid for in order to use XviD. XviD, like LAME, will mostly exist as CVS sourcecodes under guise as an experiment, with many rogue sites around the world providing binaries (usually with automated daily compiling).

Personally, I wouldn't count on the quality of VP4 being anything earthshattering. Tests of VP3 quite clearly shows that it is behind DivX3, DivX4 and XviD in terms of quality, so something has to really shape up. This might probably be due to a lack of 2-pass VBR encoding feature in VP3. Meanwhile I will just continue to encode my rips in XviD, encode the audio with Vorbis and mux them together into an Ogg container. If VP4 or VP5 really turns out to be good enough, I would probably try to find a way to mux that video stream into the Ogg container too.

Doom9's site is the premiere site on the web for video encoding. Doom9 actively tries to get his hands on the newest encoding tools, and periodically he tests them to see which codecs give the best results.

It used to be that along with the lastest versions of DivX, he tested WMV and VP3; he doesn't anymore: WMV and VP3 consistently lost and lost badly to div3 sbc, div4, and xvid. You can't say that VP3 is "the next DivX" when it's can't outperform the ancient div3, much less div4 or the newly released div5 / xvid.

[shameless plug]

I really, really, /really/ like xvid. It's an open source reimplementation of Project Mayo, the project that led to the development of div4. Development is fast; I have realized significant gains in quality and usability in even the past two weeks. The codec is fast; on my crappy windows machine it crunches frames faster than div4 and div5 and its playback filter (w/postprocessing!) uses fewer CPU cycles than div4 or div5's.

If you want to play around with xvid, the easiest way to start is to go to the xvid forums at doom9.org and read about what the codec can do for you.

[/shameless plug]

-inq

Doom9's site is the premiere site on the web for video encoding. Doom9 actively tries to get his hands on the newest encoding tools, and periodically he tests them to see which codecs give the best results.

It used to be that along with the lastest versions of DivX, he tested WMV and VP3; he doesn't anymore: WMV and VP3 consistently lost and lost badly to div3 sbc, div4, and xvid. You can't say that VP3 is "the next DivX" when it's can't outperform the ancient div3, much less div4 or the newly released div5 / xvid.

[shameless plug]

I really, really, /really/ like xvid. It's an open source reimplementation of Project Mayo, the project that led to the development of div4. Development is fast; I have realized significant gains in quality and usability in even the past two weeks. The codec is fast; on my crappy windows machine it crunches frames faster than div4 and div5 and its playback filter (w/postprocessing!) uses fewer CPU cycles than div4 or div5's.

If you want to play around with xvid, the easiest way to start is to go to the xvid forums at doom9.org and read about what the codec can do for you.

[/shameless plug]

-inq

VCD on the other hand doesn't work quite as well for me, mainly due to the constant bitrate (CBR) used in MPEG1 (SVCD uses variable bitrate (VBR) MPEG2). The CBR tends to make things extremely blocky/washed out with the poorly taped home videos (you know, we're not all human steadicams, jerky videos are a staple of modern living IMHO)...

About making an (S)VCD for free, it can be done. You use VirtualDub for video capture duties, TMPGEnc for MPEG1/MPEG2 encoding (as I think I said earlier, it also handles the sound duties, and has built-in templates for VCD, SVCD and DVD (in PAL and NTSC formats)) and GNU VCDImager for creating the BIN/CUE files to burn (advanced features include making semi-reasonable chapters and I think SVCD even supports using menus and stills). Two of the three tools suggested are even open-source/GPL'd (TMPGEnc is, unfortunately, closed-source, and the author(s) imply in some of the dialogues that they intend to charge $$$ for it in the future (they've been saying this for the past year, and they still do releases about once a month)). That leaves a video editting package (in the event you want to edit your videos or add titles, etc) and the actual CD burner hardware (which, with the prices of 16x/24x CD-RW drives hovering in the $100-170 range, is not an object generally). For video editting, the only viable option I've come across is Adobe Premiere.. if anyone has any suggestions on free/cheap video editting tools for Win32, I'm curious what other peoples experiences are. =) For more info on (S)VCD's, including compatibility with stand alone home DVD players, as well as tools and FAQ's on creation, I suggest the following--

VCDHelp.com

Doom9.org

There's other good sites, but those should be enough to get people going that are curious.

see this thread for instructions. Reading there, it seems that not everyone is equally bothered by the audio being sped up for PAL. I'm pretty sure I am, though.

It looks like Divx5 is released, and DivXnetworks are resorting to implanting spyware (or charging $30 for the pro version) to offset the licensing costs. This might have some effect on the XviD (open sourced derivative of DivX) though, but looks like it will go the same way as the LAME MP3 encoder, as discussed in this thread

Hmm, kinda. The parts are there, but no-one has put them together in a neat package yet. That's probably since Linux video software has really taken off in just the last 6 months.

There's mplayer which is a great player for any video-format out there. It can even play DVD's, although it doesn't have menu support like Ogle. It can also rip DVD:s to MPEG-4 (a.k.a DivX) using a couple of different encoders. Xvid is my favorite open-source MPEG-4 encoder, it's also got good reviews on Doom9 (good place for DivX info!).

For the TV-in recording part you can use a $50 WinTV card and the Video4Linux drivers. On top of that you need an audio-video capture application that can use encoders such as Xvid and Lame to encode to MPEG-4 (video) and MP3 (audio). I use NVrec. If you try the NVrec suite, use the DIVX4rec app (with the Xvid library instead of divx4linux which isn't maintained anymore). On my P-III 500MHz I can compress 29.97 Hz (NTSC) 320x240 in real-time to 800 kbit/s (video) + 80 kbit/s (audio). It takes about 5 hours to make a one-pass encoding of a DVD, so with a faster CPU it's probably possible to do real-time de-interlacing and encoding of 640x480 video.

A drawback is that NVrec is a command-line app for recording, I'm working on a patch for real-time preview on Matrox G400 TV-out. Or if you have a fast enough computer you might be able to run mplayer on the file as it is being recorded. This would allow for Tivo-like pause and resume. It might be a problem with AVI files from NVrec though since I don't think they're streamable.

Now, to put all of this together you need some kind of control application. That's not really that hard to write compared to all the other pieces (mplayer, xvid, nvrec). I've been working on one for the last couple of months, and have an alpha version that is usuable. It only supports the Matrox G400 for TV-out, and is a little crude, but it works good enough that I have it hooked up to my TV for everyday use. It's controllable by a remote control (see Lirc), using a very simple text-menu system to view tv, play avi/mpeg/mp3/dvd, record tv-in and rip DVD's. I'm getting ready to put it up on Sourceforge as Freevo within the next couple of weeks.

The application is written in Python which is great for stuff like this. Once the basic stuff is done, it might be cool to make a plugin architecture where you could interface to other stuff. For instance, with OSD (on screen display), it is easy to add things like new mail notification while you're watching TV. Or new Slashdot headlines, ICQ chat notif, phone caller ID interface, www control, etc. And, of course, an interface to some kind of tv-guide.

I haven't really found any other complete applications like this. Not that I've looked that hard, I'm always looking for an excuse to write software. mplayer might end up with all these feaures eventually, it is improving at an incredible rate at the moment.

You should probably switch from using DivX 3.11 to using XviD (the free continuation of the OpenDivX project). Recent viewing tests at
Doom9 have shown that it has at least as good quality as DivX 3.11 and DivX 4, but you get the extra benefit of it being open, and rapidly developed.

Also, you probably want to switch to using something like the excellent Gordian Knot (see the download link at Doom9 for it). See the ripping/encoding guides at Doom9.

.ogg is a media container, like .avi, .asf, (or .mov -- Quicktime -- which is a better comparison).

Vorbis is an audio codec. You can in principle use Vorbis outside of its Ogg wrapper (there is code to do this in recent versions of NanDub, but it never really left the experimental stage).

More interestingly, you can wrap DivX video + Vorbis audio (+ subtitles, + anything else) inside an Ogg wrapper, and get a versatile, streamable replacement for .avi files. See doom9.org for more information on this (note that people have taken to giving ogg movies the extension .ogm, due to everything in the Windows world being file extension based, and their being no good all-in-one .ogg audio/video player).

Actually it's called "The Definitive DVD Backup Resource" :)

But you can find all the software (and some pretty decent guides) which the article talks about on this site, it's the best there is....

I think you should check the P2P networks again. I think new videos are more often released as DivX 4 than 3.11. Also, DivX 4 is superior in countless ways, including native 2-pass encoding, the fact that it's not a hack and is under constant development, and is backward compatible. There are countless guide based on the DivX 4 format. 3.11 is going out, with good reason. Doom9.org

Well, sure. I understand that the best site is http://www.doom9.org.

It covers everything from basic Flask-based encoding to "professional" Divx encoding.

Another one is that it doesn't seem to be carry all the encryption and other baggage that DVD has: you don't need a special, expensive "for Authoring" drive and media to get around all the copyright baloney. No watermarking. No lossy compression.

I mean, DVD-R is so crippled that the latest thing in the ripping community is making "mini-DVDs", CD-Rs burnt with (a few minutes of) DVD-quality video.

If you have a multi-disc DVD changer (and more and more geeks do), then you can spread the movie out among a few CD-Rs, and have an almost seamless transition. There are even firmware hacks to make initially uncooperative players support the format.

If equipment makers get on the bandwagon, we could have a more lightweight format for VCDs, and even double-length audio CDs. I hope it takes off.