Every Flavour Beans

This post describes how to convert an AVI(DivX/XviD) compressed file to iPod compatible format. If the source video files are in DVD format, read this first. I will write about converting DVD format directly to the iPod format using a single application(eg: StaxRip) in future posts.

Converting AVI to iPod Format Using Videora iPod Converter

1. Download and Install Videora iPod Converter by googling for it.
   Run the application from the Start menu. The main window looks like this.
   
2. Click the ‘Settings’ button(top menu) and select the preferred output format. After you are satisfied with the settings, click the ‘Save Settings’ button at the bottom. This step has to be done only one time. The settings can be further customised for each conversion job separately.
   
   All the formats listed in the ‘Profile’ drop-down box are compatible with iPod player (and Sony PSP), so they affect only the output size and quality. A 2-pass encoding takes more time to get processed.
   
   To change the paths where the output files should be stored, go to the ‘Devices’ tab in the Settings window.
   
3. Click the ‘Convert’ button in the menu to go to the file conversion window.
   
   Then click the ‘Select File’ button(located at the bottom of the window) to select the file to be converted. After selecting the source file, wait for a while for the settings to be shown in the middle panel of the window.
   
   Once the settings appear, change the ones you want to for this particular conversion job and then press the ‘Next’ button to go to the next step.
   
4. Optionally set a title for the job and finally click ‘Start Converting’ button to start the conversion process.
   
   The progress of the conversion process will be shown in the displayed window.
   

The existing MP4 files that are not compatible with iPod player can also be converted using Videora iPod Converter. If you want subtitles to be hardcoded in the video file before you transfer it to iPod using iTunes, then read how to merge subtitles with AVI files and do the Videora conversion after doing the subtitle merging process.

All the above tasks can be accomplished using just a single application too(these applications might use multiple applications behind-the-scenes to get the job done), like StaxRip, Handbrake etc. But the advantage of the above procedure is that it allows the DVDs to be compressed and stored in AVI format as the primary goal and then to convert these AVIs to the specific format of whatever device(iPod, PSP, Zen Vision, N800 etc) the files need to be played on as per requirements.

When converting a movie from a DVD to the AVI(DivX/XviD) format, the subtitles can be included in the output file by selecting appropriate settings from the conversion software(AutoGK, SimpleDivX, #1 DVD Ripper). Some applications hardcode the subtitles in the output file whereas some also allow external subtitle files to be created. But if you have obtained the AVI files from a different source than a DVD(a friend, Internet etc) then you have to search for suitable subtitles for the movie on the Internet and use a media player that supports displaying the subtitles from external files to play it. VLC Media Player is one such application that supports displaying subtitles in various formats(SRT, SUB etc). One usage scenario is described below:

1. You own the DVD of a film but don’t have the patience to use a software to convert it, along with the subtitles, to the compressed AVI format. Or perhaps the DVD doesn’t include the subtitles for the language of your preference at all. In such cases, you can search and download the subtitle files for the film from the Internet. Here are some options to search for the subtitles in various languages:
   http://www.divxsubtitles.net/
   http://www.opensubtitles.org/
   http://subscene.com/
2. Now you can view the film with the subtitles that you have downloaded using a media player like VLC Media Player or Windows Media Player. Keep the AVI file and the subtitle file(s) in the same folder and give them the same base file name(they will have different file extensions). If you run the AVI file now, the subtitles will automatically be displayed. You can also manually load a subtitle in VLC Media Player from the ‘Open File’ dialog box.
   
3. The above method works fine as long as you play the movies on your computer using a decent media player. If you would rather watch it on your favourite handheld device(iPod, Creative Vision:M, Nokia N800, Sony PSP, etc), its media player may not support displaying subtitles from external files. In that case, the only option you have is to hardcode the subtitles in the AVI file itself. To do this, I use the Free software AviRecomp, and the procedure to merge/hardcode the subtitles with the AVI file using it is given below. Once the subtitles are thus merged, the resultant AVI file can then be converted to the native formats of different handheld devices(topic of next post).

Merging Subtitles with AVI Files Using AviRecomp

1. This is how the example video looks before it is merged with the subtitles(English). We will see the result of the merge process at the end of the procedure to see the difference.
   
2. After installing AviRecomp on the computer, start it from the Start menu. The main window of the application looks like this.
   
3. In the “Source & Output” tab, click the “Open AVI” button and select the AVI file you want to merge the subtitles with. Then click the “Save AVI” button and select a folder where you want to store the output file. Finally, select the size of the output file(if you don’t want to recompress/resize, specify the same size as that of the original file – this will be faster) in “New AVI Size” drop-down box.
   
4. Go to the next tab by clicking on “Additions” button and check the “Enable/Disable” checkbox in the “Subtitles” panel. Then click the “Load Subtitles” button and select the subtitle file that you have downloaded from the Internet(see Step 2 at the top of the post).
   
5. In the “Settings” tab, you can specify various settings such as the priority with which AviRecomp should be run, if the temporary files or the source file should be deleted at the end etc.
   
6. Go to the last tab by clicking the “Queue” button and click the button “Add to Queue” to add this job the to queue. The above steps can now be repeated with more AVI files and added to the queue if multiple merge operations are needed to be performed.
   
7. When ready, click the “Start” button to start the merge process. The status will change from “Waiting…” to “Running…” state as a result.
   
   To see the % progress of the merge process, look at the title bar of AviRecomp in the Windows taskbar.
   
8. After the merge process is finished, go to the folder where the output file is created(as selected in Step 3) and play the file. The subtitles should now be hardcoded into the file. This file can now be converted to the native formats of different handheld devices to enjoy viewing them along with the subtitles.
   

You can search for a different application that is specifically made for merging the subtitles with the video files but AviRecomp can be used for purposes other than mere subtitle merging. It also allows adding black borders to the movie and place the subtitles on them. It also installs many other useful video related software like VirtualDub, AviSynth, VobSub etc, that it uses for doing its own job, making it unnecessary to download and install these software separately. AviRecomp is a very useful Free software to have on one’s computer.

SimpleDivX is a simple to use, Free software to convert DVD movies to AVI(XviD/DivX) format in a few straight-forward steps. It has got its limitations but if those can be accommodated, then it’s one of the easiest DivX/XviD conversion tools available. Below is a screenshot-guided tour through the steps needed to convert movies from DVD format to DivX/XviD format using SimpleDivX.

1. After installing SimpleDivX on the computer, start it from the Start menu. You will see the main window of SimpleDivX displaying nine tabs labelled ‘Input,’ ‘video,’ ‘Audio,’ etc, each containing settings related to that particular category. We will go through all of them one at a time.
   
2. In the ‘Input’ tab, select the folder where the ripped DVD VOB/IFO files are stored by clicking the “…” button. SimpleDivX will list all the IFO files found in the folder and lets you select one or more of them. If you only want to convert the main movie and no additional tracks, then checking “Select Main Movie” check-box will in most of the cases select the correct IFO file automatically. Unfortunately, SimpleDivX doesn’t show the lengths of the tracks associated with these IFO files(as do #1 DVD Ripper and AutoGK), so selecting tracks based on their play time is not possible from the SimpleDivX interface. Just make an estimate from the sizes of the VOB files in the DVD folder. If you want to convert all the titles and tracks from the DVD, make sure that you select ‘all’ from “Choose Title” drop-down box for every IFO file you select.
   
3. In the ‘Video’ tab, you can select the format of the input source(you are converting a DVD movie at 23fps or a home-made video at 29fps? this example is of a Movie), format of the output file(aspect ratio, resolution etc), and optionally, if the output should be cropped during the conversion. Select ‘Original’ as the Output Format to use the format/resolution of the original DVD movie or select a new resolution, for example, if converting for a specific target device.
   
4. In the ‘Audio’ tab, check the ‘Check Audio’ check-box in ‘Audio Streams & Languages’ panel if not already checked and select the audio stream you want to use for the AVI output file. The options are for multiple language and bitrate streams. Select the stream with the language and the bitrate of your choice(or the best choice available, like ‘AC3 6 Channel 448kbps’). In ‘Auido Format’ panel, select MP3 to save space or AC3(2 channels or 6 channels) for superior quality. Remember that if only a few options are available in this tab, it means that the original DVD movie supports only those many. Select the bitrate(say, 192kbps) and conversion sample rate(say, 48000 Hz) for the output file.
   
5. In the ‘Codec’ tab, select 2-pass video file for better quality(takes more time than 1-pass), XviD codec(DivX if converting for a device that plays only DivX), and ‘Do both passes’ in Pass Options(this last option is very important or you will get only intermediate files in the temp folder). You can configure more options like selecting ‘Very High Quality’ from the ‘Advanced Settings’ of XviD codec.
   
6. In the ‘Compression’ tab, you can either select the bitrate of the output file(above 800kbps is recommended) or the size. To do the latter, select ‘Enter final movie size’ and specify a size(any size that shows ‘normal quality’ or even ‘medium quality’ should be acceptable; or a bit rate greater than 800kbps) in ‘File Size’ text box. I select a file size of 700-900 MB for 90-120 min movies(larger sizes for movies with good graphic and audio content). You will learn the proper setting for this field for different type of movies with experience.
   
7. In the ‘Misc’ tab(that should have been called ‘Subtitles’ tab), check ‘Create subtitles using VobSub’ checkbox and select the preferred language for the subtitles from the ‘Language’ list box. SimpleDivX generates external subtitles only(no hard-coding) and that too only in VobSub format(two files per output video file, supported by media players like Windows Media Player). I think it is better extract the subtitles in preferred format(a single srt or sub file, for example) directly from the DVD using a separate application.
   
8. In the ‘Project’ tab, uncheck the check-box ‘Overwrite Files’ if you want to play safe like me, and choose if you want to spit the generated AVI output file into several files(for ex, to fit on CD-ROMs etc). If this is the only conversion you want to do, then move to the next tab; otherwise, select ‘Batch Mode’ in ‘Batch Settings’ and click the ‘Add’ button to add this job to the batch/queue: Now you can go back to the Step 1 and repeat all the above steps to add more conversion jobs to this batch. To change the settings of a particular conversion job, select it from the list and click the ‘Modify’ button; this modification feature of added jobs is sadly absent from AutoGK.
   
9. In the ‘Output’ tab, select ‘Shutdown windows when finished’ if you want to shut down the system after all the conversion jobs that you have selected are completed, and then click the ‘Start’ button to start the conversion process. A command window and the ‘Status Information’ panel within SimpleDivX ‘Output’ tab will show the information about the conversion process.
   
10. You don’t really have to change anything in the ‘Setup’ tab. From this tab, tools that are recognised by SimpleDivX(and installed on your computer) can be added by clicking “….” button but the basic ones needed by SimpleDivX will already be there. One can also set the priority of SimpleDivX application from this tab: Select ‘highest’ if you are not running any other applications on the computer(not even in the background, except anti-virus software etc) or ‘lowest’ if you are running an important task in the foreground and don’t want SimpleDivX to make it run slower. You can also set all the settings of SimpleDivX to their default state if you think that you have messed them up with wrong choices and want to make a fresh start.

The media conversion procedure using SimpleDivX is simpler than what may appear from the above description, for I have talked about settings that can safely be ignored in their default settings. Here is a summary of the steps to get simpler picture of the process:

1. Open the folder where ripped DVD files are stored. Check the ‘Select Main Movie’ check-box and select ‘all’ from the Title drop-down box if the option is available.
2. Go to ‘Audio’ tab and select the preferred audio language from ‘Auido Streams and Languages’ panel.
3. Select 2-pass video file option and preferred conversion codec(XviD) from the ‘Codec’ tab. Make sure that ‘Do both passes’ is selected in the ‘Pass Options’ panel.
4. Specify big enough size in the ‘File Size’ text box in the ‘Compression’ tab until it at least says ‘Medium Quality’ in the description or until the bitrate shown becomes more than 800kbps.
5. Go to the ‘Output’ tab and click the ‘Start’ button.

I remember reading somewhere on the Internet that it is better to manage the temporary folder of SimpleDivX manually(delete everything from the folder every few days) and uncheck the ‘Delete temp files when finished’ check-box from the ‘Project’ tab. I concur with this assessment, otherwise SimpleDivX seems to mess up with the conversion process one or the other way. Apart from this minor annoyance, and lack of good support for subtitles, SimpleDivX is an amazingly simple to use application for DivX/XviD conversion.

While the main strength of #1 DVD Ripper is ease of use, AutoGK is a conversion application that allows a lot of customisation of various settings, and is also Free software. Most of the configuration settings have good default values but can be changed to suit one’s requirements(eg: I never go with the default “2CD – 1.4GB” conversion size; 75% quality setting gives me smaller file sizes). AutoGK does everything that #1 DVD Ripper can do, and more, but perhaps with a little more work and less elegant user interface. It’s functionality can be enhanced by installing, optionally, other Free video related software. A step-by-step procedure of a typical conversion process using AutoGK is given below.

1. Start AutoGK from the Start menu.
   
2. The main window looks like this. First two text boxes(step 1) are for the source and destination folders; the following two boxes(step 2) allow the selection of audio tracks and subtitles of preference; left panel(step 3) below these text boxes is for selecting the size/quality of the output AVI file, right panel is for changing conversion settings; and the bottom two panels show the conversion queue and log messages.
   
3. First of all, click the “Browse for input folder/file” button at the far right of the first text box and browse to the folder where the ripped DVD files are stored. Select a VOB file to convert just that VOB file; a track usually spans multiple VOB files, so it is usually more correct to select an IFO file(there may be multiple tracks in a single IFO, in which case AutoGK prompts to select any one track; I don’t understand why it doesn’t allow all the tracks to be selected at one go). If there are multiple IFO files in the folder, select one of them(ISO of the main movie perhaps) and you can repeat the procedure with other IFO files after adding the current job to the queue.
   

   Next, click “Browse for output file” button to the far right of the second text box, browse to the folder where you want the output AVI file to be stored and enter a name for the output file.

4. The most important decision to make in the conversion process is the size/quality desired for the AVI file. AutoGK allows the parameter to be specified in three different ways:
   
   1. Select one of the standard output file sizes(2CDs, 1CD etc), or
   2. Specify a custom size(550MB, 1.2GB etc) and let that size define the quality of the output file;

   

   3. You can also select the quality instead, as a percentage of the original movie quality, and let that define the size of the output file. Be careful of this setting as different DVDs will end up generating AVIs of different sizes, sometimes quite large, for the same quality percentage selected. You don’t want to get disappointed to see a very large file generated after an 8 hour conversion process(AutoGK once converted an 11GB DVD movie – Pride and Prejudice, BBC Productions – to 20GB AVI files after a 50+ hour conversion process!) . For typical 90min/3.4GB DVD movies, 700MB AVI files have decent quality, 1.4GB AVI files have excellent quality and you probably don’t want to go for any bigger sizes than that.

   Once you have specified the Size/Quality of the output file, you can optionally configure more conversion settings by clicking “Advanced Settings” button(you can make AutoGK show still more configurable options by pressing various special keys; see AutoGK manual).
   
   Important ones are:

   • Output Resolution
   • Audio Bitrate
   • XviD or DivX codec
   • Forced or external subtitles(read AutoGK manual for more information)

   After you are satisfied with the settings, Click “Add Job” button to add the job to the queue. Make double sure about the selected settings as you can not edit them once the job is added to the queue; you have to delete the job and add it again with the new settings.

Repeat the above steps to add more IFO files(from the same DVD folder or a different one) to the job queue. After adding all the conversion jobs, Click “Start” button to start the conversion process.

During the conversion process, a lot of windows keep opening and closing automatically, just ignore them.

AutoGK is a very popular application and has a large community to share the many different ways in which the application can be used. If you need much more than simple DVD to AVI conversion functionality, with a lot of configuration options, then AutoGK is the right tool for you. If you would rather use a simpler application similar to #1 DVD Ripper, but without having to shell out money to buy it, then SimpleDivX, hopefully the subject of the next post, is an application worth checking out.