Converting divx/xvid avi's for apple tv

[dubbed82]

Hi all, i just got a turbo.264 and am converting some divx avi's in preparation for an apple tv i plan on getting soon. when using the "apple tv" setting, i get an mp4 file that's double the size of the original file, and looks worse!
i tried it again, using the same bit rate as the original file (1103 kbps) and not only is the file still bigger than the original, but again it looks worse.
am i doing something wrong? what settings should i use to preserve the same quality and size as the original divx file?
can i do a "pass through" to keep the video quality the same?

i'm new to this so any help would be greatly appreciated! thanks

 

[frankiepdx]

Mac or PC?

 

[dubbed82]

Mac or PC?

mac

 

[frankiepdx]

Give this a try. At least you'll know the answer quick instead of waiting an hour.

http://users.skynet.be/fc047310/DriveIn/Home.html

 

[dubbed82]

Give this a try. At least you'll know the answer quick instead of waiting an hour.

http://users.skynet.be/fc047310/DriveIn/Home.html

thanks, but i dont see how this will allow apple tv to play divx files without re-encoding?

 

[frankiepdx]

Sorry if I misread your post. I saw "convert Divx " and thought this would help. There are Apple TV hacks to play DivX but as it stands right now, i'm not able to help you, I'm sure others have a better idea for your needs.

 

[ibglowin]

Use iSquint

AppleTV setting.

H.264 setting and High Quality setting.

File size should be almost exactly the same as your AVI file and quality should be the same. Thats my experience anyway. Not sure how you would use the turbo stick adapter with this but the iSquint software works great and its free!

 

[dubbed82]

anyone else have experience re-encoding divx files into mp4?

 

[northy124]

Use QuickTime Pro .Mov works fine and you can also export to .MP4 if you want to. Well worth £20/$30 if you ask me. Much quicker than re-encoding plus you don't lose quality of the re-encoding.

Northy124

 

[speakerwizard]

you should be able to open in visual hub or quicktime pro and passthrough the video and audio into an mp4 without any further compression.

 

[err404]

I've never used a turbo.264, but I found the conversion with VisualHub to be very close to the source file quality and about the same size.
One thing to keep in mind... if any of your encodes are in surround sound, you might want to wait until v2 comes out to see what your audio options are before converting you files to stereo.

 

[anotherstation]

just a quick question for anyone who's converted using isquint

has anyone actually downloaded a 1gb or so film from a torrent, converted, then played it back on the appletv. is there any loss in quality between the picture?

 

[cowm007]

Divx video has to be re-encoded to h264 so pass-through won't work. What was the size of your original file and how long was it?

I have a turbo.264 too and my files come out to be about 12mb/min of video. (450mb for a 40min show). I have a custom setting of 1500kbps and 640 width video.

 

[ibglowin]

I encoded several last week

Both were 1GB files. No difference at the settings I listed above. These were not DVD quality to begin with. They were pretty good for a full length but there was some sign of compression. They were no better and certainly no worse.

just a quick question for anyone who's converted using isquint

has anyone actually downloaded a 1gb or so film from a torrent, converted, then played it back on the appletv. is there any loss in quality between the picture?

 

[anotherstation]

ok, thanks.

by the way, which app is widely considered the best for converting? isquint or visualhub etc.?

 

[ibglowin]

Same Maker

One is the freeware version (iSquint) and the other is the Full blown Swiss Army knife of video conversion (Visual Hub). The paid version can do more but iSquint will do almost everything.

 

[wwooden]

I've been trying to figure this out with my turbo.264 for a while. Most divX files I download are around 350mb for a 42minute show. I want to convert these to an AppleTV/iTunes format without causing the file to increase size or lose quality.

I've setup my own settings in the turbo.264 software and have gotten pretty close. I set the output resolution to exact resolution of the original and set the video kbits/s to 1150. The audio settings are stereo and 128kps AAC. This causes a 350mb divX file to be around 375 after conversion.

 

[northy124]

Use QT Pro if you have it doesn't get bigger at all

 

[mrklaw]

for day to day stuff that I don't plan to keep, I just use 'high' setting and don't check the h.264 box. I converted some journeyman divxs - so about 45mins? and they took about 3 minutes per episode - thats on a 2.4GHz imac. Thats fast enough to just do in the background and be finished before I realise.

Bigger stuff that might convert to 720p takes a while, then I queue it up overnight.


Oh and I use visualhub. started with isquint but figured I'd get the full version - the developers deserve my money for a great app

 

[wwooden]

Use QT Pro if you have it doesn't get bigger at all

I have QT Pro, but when I go to export, it gives ton of options. I just want one that says it will convert the given file to h.264. What setting are you using to achieve the same file size?

 

[northy124]

I just leave it do it's thing don't change a thing (I don't that means)