[Vaders Scar]

Ok I just got a Toshiba SD290.
I thought it was playing my Avi's ok, albeit with a slight drop in quality. Then my friend brought some of his over. The quality on them was great. After bugging him for 20 min to find out what software he used to convert them from DVD it transpired they were downloads.
Now the file sizes are comparable, yet the quality difference is massive. I'm currently using DVDfab5 and Autogordian knot. Is there better freeware I could be using or should I be looking to purchase some to get this quality jump?

And can we please skip the moralising this time? I'm Scottish and Scots law allows me to make copies of my own DVDs as long as it's for my own use. My Dad's used to be in the Police and I checked with him before doing any of this.

[dogolopee]

Ok I just got a Toshiba SD290.
I thought it was playing my Avi's ok, albeit with a slight drop in quality. Then my friend brought some of his over. The quality on them was great. After bugging him for 20 min to find out what software he used to convert them from DVD it transpired they were downloads.
Now the file sizes are comparable, yet the quality difference is massive. I'm currently using DVDfab5 and Autogordian knot. Is there better freeware I could be using or should I be looking to purchase some to get this quality jump?

And can we please skip the moralising this time? I'm Scottish and Scots law allows me to make copies of my own DVDs as long as it's for my own use. My Dad's used to be in the Police and I checked with him before doing any of this.

If you want to drop 20-30 bucks quicktime pro have some great export options and you can adjust settings fairly well.

But before I spent money I'd look at your settings and what codecs you are using with DVDfab to see if you can tweek them a little to improve quality. My guess is he is using a different codec than you but may not realize it.

Then I'd try google and see what programs there are you might like an just try the free ones.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

[Twisted1616]

There's DVD Shrink. It's quite popular, I believe.

But file sizes being comparable means nothing on it's own. For example if you have a 700MB movie and your friend has a 700MB TV show then the quality of his video will obviously be a lot better.

[Vaders Scar]

But before I spent money I'd look at your settings and what codecs you are using with DVDfab to see if you can tweek them a little to improve quality. My guess is he is using a different codec than you but may not realize it.

Just some ideas off the top of my head.

How do I check the codecs?
I'm off to have a look but suggestions welcome.

There's DVD Shrink. It's quite popular, I believe.

Yup, I tried that earlier today to see if it would help. It didn't.

But file sizes being comparable means nothing on it's own. For example if you have a 700MB movie and your friend has a 700MB TV show then the quality of his video will obviously be a lot better.

I know. I should have mentioned that my hour and a half movie was twice the size of his 45 min program. My bad.

[Twisted1616]

But file sizes being comparable means nothing on it's own. For example if you have a 700MB movie and your friend has a 700MB TV show then the quality of his video will obviously be a lot better.

I know. I should have mentioned that my hour and a half movie was twice the size of his 45 min program. My bad.

Well, then the only thing you can do is raise the bitrates and dump a larger sized encode... Or cut your movie in half.

Unless you're also using an inferior codec. But now I doubt that is the case. Either DivX and Xvid should be fine and is most likely what you and your friend are using anyway (I would think that is a default setting in most ripping programs).

[Cybercat]

They probably both use xvid as that's the common option and it seems to be the default for autogordian knot, but he probably has a fixed bitrate and the downloaded video a variable bitrate made with several passes. Just using the same codec isn't enough, there's all kinds of settings to tweak.

[Twisted1616]

There's nothing wrong with CBR if done right and I find it likely that the friend's downloaded show is a scene release, in which case it'd be unlikely to be VBR.

[Vaders Scar]

Well, then the only thing you can do is raise the bitrates and dump a larger sized encode... Or cut your movie in half.

Ok, how do I raise bit rates?

[Twisted1616]

I don't know. I've never used the programs you're using.

[Vaders Scar]

Ok I got a perfect picture.
Only I did something wrong and there was no sound.
Trying it again as we speak.

[Vaders Scar]

And we're done.
Thanks to everyone for their help.