Hopefully this is a slightly bigger image here on this new link.

[URL=img159.imageshack.us][IMG]img159.imageshack.us[/IMG][/URL]

I converted about 4 vob files to MP4 using these settings & they worked well in VSL, I just feel I might be missing something important in my settings & don't want to start converting thousands of files until I get some feedback from other users.
This is the demo version of AVS video converter. I plan on getting the full version once I get your feedback.

Also, if anyone has any suggestions on how the output files can be named the same as the input files without having to manually rename them...it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Is there anyone out there that can KINDLY take aminute to look at the above screen shot and give a fellow DJ/VJ there opinion on whether or not these seem like good settings to save a brother from having to reconvert these files a second time.

Thanks in advance.

I guess no one is willing to take a look.

im pretty sure you win most posts in a solo thread. sorry to bust up your streak. just wanted to congratulate you on the win.

as long as i've gone ahead and busted up your streak,.. i guess it's only right if i actually provide some useful info. call me crazy but around here you'll get the best advice on how to do something, if you use the same tools that the other people are using.

for some reason, people around here are dead silent when asked for advice on software they've never heard of or seen.

also, they hate pictures. a simple text post of your settings would probably do better.

Yeah, A-swift...I certainly win the award on that one. I had another thread where I was having trouble getting VSL to work on my PC.....took forever to get a reply out of anyone....I have actually got the demo version working flawlessly now on my PC laptop but now need to convert about 4000 VOB Promo Only & other Original DVD rips to MP4. I don't wanna use some of the other applications (handbrake, media encoder)because my vobs do not contain the other parts of the file (i.e when U rip a VOb their are 3 or so parts to it. I keep only the part that has the actual video, the other info I have long deleted).

a-swift, I really do appreciate your response. I'm actually asking for someone to look at the settings & just comment on that & not to give their opinion on the software (since they may not be familiar with this particular software...but the settings are what I am asking about).

I will post the settings in a text format as U requested. The reason I did a screenshot is because everything I am asking is in that one screen shot. The firs link is the best at the top of the page (this image is bigger). the image in the link in the second post is actaully smaller (even though I thought it would be bigger).

I work as a Medical Doctor, I dee-jayed my way thru med school & continue to DJ even now....even though I started working as a Doc last year. I am to the best of my knowledge Birmingham, Alabama's only Video DJ with an existing residency. www.platinum-bham.com It is a 2.5 million dollar nite club, I am one of 3 resident DJ's there but the only one doing video. I used to use DVJ x-1's & then DVJ-1000's both of which the club owns & I also own them at home too. I later switched to virtual DJ because between working as a Dr & also doing Real Estate (house flipping) I don't have time to burn DVD's anymore. Virtual DJ worked flawlessly on my laptop as long as I did not use time codes (I use my mouse instead). Hence, I want to switch to Serato (for flawless time code control).
I have always owned the SL-1 but have waited till I can do video without a TTM-57 & without a Mac. That time is now & I am ready to buy the Plug-in ($200.00 in the pocket of Serato/Rane) but am dissapointed that no one would look at one screenshot and just say whether they do or do not agree with the settings (not the software). It is more dissappointing because Serato knows that people have to go thru extra work just to convert their various formats to MP4. I would have thought they would lend the most help to these folks having to convert files since they are having to do extra work to meet Serato's deficiency in this area (limited types of files supported).
Once again A-swift thanks for your response.

You might want to check out nik39's tool that he made. I'm sure it can save you a ton of time.

Forgive the above rant...I just did a 28 hour overnight call duty shift in the ER & just thought the screenshot would have been easier but I was actually able to include more info by typing it all out.

To A-swift & whoever else takes the time to help:

HERE ARE THE SETTINGS:

Input File Type: Vob
Output File Type: Mp4
Video Aspect: Original
Batch Mode
Split function checked
Resize Filter: Bilinear

Video Codec: Mpeg 4 (DivX/XviD Compatible)
Frame Size : 720 x 480
Width : 720
Height: 480
Frame Rate : Original
Bit Rate: 3000 (should I attempt to go higher....this worked without any stuttering or choking....I could convert a few files at a higher rate & see if they work?)

File Type (this is one of the areas I am unsure about which to choose?):
MP4 iso v.1
MP4 iso v.2
Mp4 PSP
M4v ipod (I converted a few files using this & they worked without problems)

Audio Codec: MPEG 2/4 Audio (do I need to change this to aac/160 kbps?)
Channels: Stereo
Sample Size: 16 bit
Sample Rate: 48000 Hz
Bitrate: 320 kbps

Quantization: h.263 (it does not say h.264)

Profile @ level: (not sure which to choose)
simple @ Lo
simple @ L1
simple @ L2
simple @ L3
ARTS @ L1
ARTS @ L2
ARTS @ L3
ARTS @ L4
Advanced Simple @ Lo
Advanced Simple @ L1
Advanced Simple @ L2
Advanced Simple @ L3
Advanced Simple @ L4
Advanced Simple @ L5

Encoding Type: Single pass
vs
Twopass - 1st pass
or
Twopass - 2nd pass

Optimizations: automatically detect

Well from what i can see you need to change your codec to h.264 (perferably x.264) and your audio codec needs to be aac. And you need at least 1 keyframe a second (perferably an avg of 15). If you can't achieve these settings it's time to find a new encoder. If i read correctly you don't use handbrake or mediacoder because you only have the VOB file... That's all you need. I've had great sucsess with both.

To Twizzle: I will look in to that. Thx.

thx itchie & everyone for your responses. I am using a PC laptop, I downloaded media encoder & handbrake & couldn't get them to work. Are U guys saying I can convert with either handbrake or media encoder on my PC laptop. If so I will give it another try since their is more info (settings etc) for these 2 applications.

Computer specs:
3GB memory, 2.5GHz, Nvidia 9700 video card, dual core processor, 2 Terabyte Western Digital External Hard Drive

Graham, I'm pretty sure I've been video djing at least as long as anybody here. Well before Serato was invented and long before Virtual DJ could do video. Before USB ports were invented even. I say that, only to say you can't guarantee that you'll ever nail your settings down forever.

I've re-encoded my entire library 3 times. If I figure out something that will make them look significantly better, then I'll do it again. Luckily, I've automated the entire process to batch encode across as many as 20 cpus I have. I can kick off an encode of the library in less than 5 minutes and it will run unattended until done. Last time around, it finished in less than 10 days if I remember correctly.

I guess, I should mention I rip from DVD to VOB uncompressed, which makes all this possible. I recommend you do the same. This way I never have to rip a DVD more than once.

Anyway, the point is, go with what you think looks good and works with your setup. Test it. Make sure it's what you want and then encode everything the way you like it. Be prepared to re-encode in the future and your setup will be future proofed.

Also, I hope you weren't serious that you are only ripping the 2nd part of 2 part videos. Hopefully you'll figure out sooner than later, that the breakpoint for those type of videos is in bad places more than not. This is why anyone who has been doing this for a long time understands that and rips all video parts for a single video into a single file.

To comment directly on your settings, they look fine. If they work on your system, then use them. Just make sure that you are using 2pass encoding, 3000k video rate at minimum. Your audio specification is worded weirdly, it should be AAC encoded audio at 160k minimum. If your encoder claims it will do 320 then go for it. As far as which profile to choose, that's a little different from most encoders. Most encoders make you choose your features and optimizations and then the encoder will choose the profile based on the lowest baseline that supports all the features you want. Might be worth researching the different profiles and seeing what you are willing to live with. Just remember that lower profiles are less complex to decode and higher profiles are more complex to decode (which uses more CPU and limits which devices can actually decode the file).

Just remember, simple devices can only decode simple profiles. If you don't care about any of this (which you shouldn't, unless you're trying to play a video on a cell phone or do a webcast with it), then just choose the best profile your gear can handle.

As computers get faster and things like H.264 decoder chips built into video cards become more common. You can damn well bet I'll be re-encoding my videos to use more complex features and higher bitrates.

This is why I stress that you create a workflow that expects you to re-encode your library in the future. If you don't, just be prepared to manually and painstakingly do this all again in the future.

A-Swift, thx for all your advice. I think however U misunderstood me. I sid that when I rip a VOB it rips it as : VIDEO_TS (I discard this)
VIDEO_TS.BUP (I discard this)
VTS_01_0 (I discard this)
VTS_01_0.BUP (I discard this)
VTS_01_1 (This is the only part I keep & rename as for example: (090 bpm) 50 Cent - In the club (XX)

I was simply implying that I thought someone else had posted that they were unable to use one of the enoding software (not sure if it was media encoder or handbrake) because of the other parts of each VOB file that they had discarded (as explained above).

No I do not split a Vob in to 2 or more parts (this is where I think U misunderstood me)...if anything, I comine the 2 chapters from promo only (into & main file) in to one complete file using DVD shrink or DVD decrypter. I also rip uncompressed to vob straight from DVD & keep alll my vob files for future encoding needs.


So in summary are u saying both media encoder & hand brake will work for PC's and will recgnize VOB files that contain just the main part as described once again below:
VIDEO_TS (I discard this)
VIDEO_TS.BUP (I discard this)
VTS_01_0 (I discard this)
VTS_01_0.BUP (I discard this)
VTS_01_1 (This is the MAIN PART that I keep & rename as for example: (090 bpm) 50 Cent - In the club (XX). I have done this for all 4000 files plus.

My Folders look like this:

(088) Ron Browz - Jumpin' Out the Window
(089) Jim Jones - Ballin'
(090) 50 Cent - In The Club
(090) 50 Cent - In The Club (Acapella) (Dirty)

Trust me...my vidz are organized, either uncompressed Vob (subscribe to promo only vidz x 4 years now, promo only audio x 7 years) or MP4 from Smashvidz & 8th wonder. Now I need to convert my vobs to mp4 to use with VSL. I think the mixes are tight, just need help with the converting stuff. I'm not too computer savvy cos most of my time goes on studying & stuff.

Ok yeah, we misunderstood eachother. "Ripping" a DVD does not mean simply copying the VIDEO_TS folder and it's files. That's the only way you would ever wind up with files like VTS_01_0* at all,.. that is to simply copy the raw files. Programs that actually RIP the VOB data will actually look into the DVD file structure and determine what bits belong to which titles/chapters. That's what ripping a file means.

a single VTS_01_*.VOB file might contain a whole bunch of videos. A ripping program will rip a specific chapter from that VOB file and give you a new VOB file with the bits for just that chapter.

some DVD vendors span a single video across multiple chapters, which is what I was referring to above.

To summarize,.. ripping does not equal copying raw DVD files. That's actually called "copying". DVD ripping programs rip individual chapter, titles.

first, i would try to get mediacoder workding. believe i have tried about 20 different apps for pc to convert and mediacoder is the best hands down. i can't believe it's free.

anyways, i would change these settings:
res: 640x480
output: h.264 mp4 2-Pass @ 2500 or 3000 kbps
audio: 160 kbps aac
interlace: try to use a interlace setting greater than YADIF mode 0.

I'm getting into the video aspect also and using the AVS video converter too. I'm with ya on the settings for the program. I've been playing around with it and haven't stuck to anything solid yet. I'll try your settings and see how it all turns out. Thanks for the tread. I'll check back later

respect on the DJ/Doctor/Real Estate Agent thing


I thought I was busy.

sorry I don't have any advice other than...

an Apple everyday keeps the Doctor getting paid

aka buy a mac.



I kid, I kid.....not

DJ Dub Cowboy...thanks for the props on the DJ/Doctor/Real Estate thing.
Also, thanks for the advice about the mac but U might have missed the point of my post. I have absolutely no problems thus far with VSL & compatibility with my PC. It works 100% flawlessly so far so there is no need to buy a mac aka apple. My problem stems from my ignorance with regards to converting files from one format (VOB) to another (MP4) which I would have to do whether I used a mac or PC regardless. All the same, I do agree with U...I will buy a Mac at some point....but not now.

I got lucky with the encodes and visual hub on the mac. Thats why I made the comment.

That PLUS, VSL works flawlessly on my computer right out of the box.

I just couldn't resist the doctor/apple joke

people underestimate what was the power of the visual hub on the mac was. this was a very pimpin encoder. i'm sad they deaded it. i still use it though from time to time.

it's the swiss army knife of encoding.

A-Swift,

What program are you using to convert your vids? AVS is ok but the quality is no good. just got my first DVD from PROMO ONLY and converting with ASV gave me decent results. I want better video quality.... can you help me.

yeah man, i'm not the best guy to ask for this since i use ffmpeg command line on linux for my videos. there's no one else here using linux or a command line program for video conversions. it best fits my workflow though, and i've been automating video conversion for over 10 years now.

i'd probably ask advice from some PC guys if you're on a pc or mac guys if you're on a mac.

OK Thanks for the reply. I'll c what help i can get