Help - Alternative Answer

[rav96]

Having just read the "Help" thread by timon, i realised that alot of you may not know the following!

You can play avi's on your TV not just by having to convert them to VCD but using a Dreamcast or PS2!
its soo much more better you can get more files and play time onto a CD with avi's then a VCD (esp SVCD's)

HOW?

well some nifty programmers have made Media players for these Beautiful consoles (Dreamcast has never died in my heart, still an awesome console)!

I recommend using the Dreamcast one because its alot more easier plus you dont need a Modified Console unlike that of the PS2 (has to be Chipped,swapTrick,slidecard etc)

They all support a range of Codecs

here are their sites

DCDIVX
http://www.moosegate.com/betaboy/dcdivx/

and a good DC Software site
http://homebrew.dcemulation.com/dcdivx.shtml

PS2 Reality Media Player
http://www.ps2reality.net/

For Dreamcast:
I Usually use Virtual Dub to reencode my avi's

The settings i usually use (to achieve optimally reduced file size with the quality)

Codec DivX v3 Fast Motion

(200-300kb, good for slow moving anime, eg azumangah Daoih, but still use fast moton coz file size tends to be smaller than using divx3 Low motion at same kb setting, plus less pixelation)

For top Quality video Use 300-450Kb, can use 500kb but looks the same as 450KB , also pixelation on fast movement is drastically reduced! (for example i borrowed I"s HK from my friend and encoded it and the Picture quality was nearly like that of the DVD, i was amazed. but SVCD quality is more realistic expectation at higher Kb)

NB you can use Divx 4.02 or up to DivX5.05, bt dont fiddle around with the settings too much and use the newest DivX5 release(you get mor errors) I just prefer v3 or v4 coz its easy to use


Bicubic Resize to 320x240 (though up to 496x496 is supported bt i dont recommend any higher) theres a wide screen setting i use but i cant remember it of the top of my head (d'oh)

Mp3 Audio Stereo at 11khz even 8 khz (pretty low i know, but i like to have small file size and using a Noise reduction filter the Sound is Good in my Opinion)
OR
Mp3 Mono at 22Khz (never use 44khz-then u can get freezes and the file size is larger)

Also DCDivX supports other sound formats NB no WMA support though , but i've never bothered trying em out also it is an MP3 player (nice bonus)

NB for those of you who have Realmedia files you want to encode into avi use EO video convertor Prog!(easier than tinra to use and supports higher versions than G2 conversion)

For those who want to rip DVD's into DC playable avi's use something like Flaskmpeg!

anyway that is all i can remeber for now

Hope it was helpful to you lot!

^_^

(NB its an intangible quality called Ravittude - sorry private joke and one of my nik names though its all about 96!!!)