Question about codecs and compression

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Yet another movie codec related question. This time I'd like to know what would be the best way to compress movies.

There is a movie that in DUK format is 1,74 Mbs, and which in uncompressed AVI becomes 29,7. Since there are more movies, and much bigger ones, uncompressed is not an option. The program I'm using, Virtualdub, allows for the following codecs:

Cinepak Codec by Radius
Codec Intel IYUV
DivX@ 5.2.1 Codec
Indeo@ video 5.06
Intel 4:2:0 Video V2.50
Intel Indeo (R) Video R3.2
Intel Indeo@ Video 4.5
Microsoft H.261 Video Codec
Microsoft H.263 Video Codec
Microsoft RLE
Microsoft Video 1
TrueMotion@ 2X Archiver
TrueMotion@ 2X Compressor (doesn't seem to work well)

Now, the question is - which of these offers the best compression AND is bound to be on just about every computer? I could try them all, but I don't know which are common to most PCs. And in the very particular case of the best looking, DivX, that annoying logo at the lower left of the screen is an obstacle. If anyone can tell me how to get rid of it, I'll probably go with DivX; if not, I'd like to know the best compressors out of this list (quality is a factor, too, naturally). And whether such compressors are common and bound to be in most people's system or not, in which case distribution of said codec would be a must.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Indeed I am tempted to - but as I've said, the little logo in the corner is something I can't have.

Oh, a thought just occurred to me... if I compressed with DivX PRO, would the logo disappear? If not, and if the logo must always be present, then thank you but I need an alternative.

[Mozesh]

I think it is more about which codec you find the best.
All CAN be good.
But Divx is one of the best, Xvid would be good too.
I use Xvid myself, it works fine for me.

[LGM]

VirtualDub supports any codec that DirectShow and Windows does... So download and install Xvid and use that. It's free and efficient!

[strazer]

I think you can turn the logo off. Look around the DivX settings.

[strazer]

On the user's side, yes. Go with XviD then.

You could also use MPEG-1 which every Windows system is capable of displaying by default. It's not in your list, you need an mpg encoder like TMPGEnc.
It's not as efficient (filesize) and good-looking as the newer codecs but for short videos with not much detail it's an alternative.

[Orieac]

I would say divx or xvid. But since some divx features are only available on the PRO version, my choise goes to xvid (free).

Mp3 is a good choice for the audio compression.


Orieac

[strazer]

From the VirtualDub documentation:

What codec should I use to make sure that everyone can play it?

    It's rather depressing, but these are the only three video codecs that are available under retail Windows 95, without installing additional software:

        * Radius Cinepak
        * Intel Indeo R3.2
        * Microsoft Video 1

    Cinepak is the best of the three, which isn't saying much.  MPEG-1 support did not become available until the introduction of ActiveMovie in Windows 95 OEM Service Release 2 (possibly OSR1 as well), at which time Indeo 4 is also included.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Hmmm, ok, thankyall - I decided that DivX was the best way, and thanks for tipping me about the "disable logo" thing. It's still twice as big as the original DUK... but then, it now has twice the quality, so I guess it balances out in the end.

[scotch]

There's no point increasing the quality, it can't get any better than the original.  DivX is a good codec, you should be able to get a similar filesize or even lower than the original movie without much loss in quality.  Just need to play with encoding options.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

There's no point increasing the quality, it can't get any better than the original.

Oddly, that's not so. Once I decompressed it (it had been compressed using Duck Truemotion) it had decidedly higher quality. The trick was then compressing it again, but retaining the newfound quality.

[Kweepa]

Once I decompressed it (it had been compressed using Duck Truemotion) it had decidedly higher quality.

That's an insane claim.
The reason it looks better after you decompressed it must be that your DUK player wasn't playing it properly.

It might be difficult to make the filesize lower with DivX because the DUK compression will have left artifacts that DivX doesn't know are artifacts and will try to reproduce at the expense of original movie details. It's unfortunate that you don't have the original uncompressed movie.

[Orieac]

It's still twice as big as the original DUK... but then, it now has twice the quality, so I guess it balances out in the end.

Try a lower bitrate to decrease file size.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

That's an insane claim.
The reason it looks better after you decompressed it must be that your DUK player wasn't playing it properly.

Heh. I'm getting tired of using half-words, so I' say it all now. The movies in question are from Phantasmagoria 2. When playing the game, I saw them interlaced and with a less-than-average quality. If I convert them, they lose their interlacing and look a lot cleaner - not just due to the interlacing. It just looks better. So OK, maybe it was not the compression that made it look bad but the game's engine. Heh - nevertheless, the fact remains that even if I *were* to use the original compressions, it wouldn't do much good since almost no one would be able to see them.

Orieac - Interesting suggestion. But would that mean quality loss? (Sometimes I hate to know so little about these things as I do...)