DivX 4 encoding guide

By now most of you have probably heard about DivX 4. The main project by Divxnetworks it has been positioned to be the successor of the good old DivX3.11 (most of the time just called "DivX") codec. Originally, Projectmayo, as the project was known from the beginning looked like an open source development, but as it appears now that open source project called OpenDivX, was just a testbed for the real DivX which is a commercial codec, even though as private users you do not have to pay for its use. This has lead to some confusion and considerable anger. You can get the full range of this on the Projectmayo forums and read the official statement from the developers.

Nevertheless we have to consider their position, and as it's quite hard to make money with open source software, especially when you cannot charge for support as in case of a codec they'd get that for free on this very page and the forums, as long as we can use the technology freely we shouldn't complain too much. DivX is also going to be available for all platforms, starting with Windows and Linux which are already available, and many more to come.

You will need the following software for this guide:

SmartRipper
DVD2AVI
VFAPI
TMPG & VFP plugin (only if you have to perform IVTC)
VobSub (if you want subtitles)
VirtualDub
BeSweet & BeSweet GUI or HeadAC3he
Nandub (if you want to use AC3 or VBR MP3 sound)

And after that software barrage let's get started.

Note for the fearless: If you don't have to perform IVTC and don't need any subs (or are good at reverse engineering how DVD2SVCD does its permanent subs) you could fork off to the GKnot Guide and get back here to perform the actual encoding step upon saving the avs file. In that case you would have to load the .avs instead of the VFAPI AVI. Note that this method is completely unsupported.

Step 1: Rip the DVD

SmartRipper is one of the few IFO parsing capable rippers, which means that it automatically drops not-needed information during the ripping process, which makes it ideally suited for the task. Should SmartRipper fail you should first try to install ForceASPI (you can find that on the software page, don't forget to reboot) and if this doesn't help then try vStrip. vStrip should be able to rip ANY DVD but you have to start a software DVD player before using it.

Step 2: Create a DVD2AVI project

In this step we're going to create a DVD2AVI project file. This project file can be later converted to a pseudo-AVI file for frameserving purposes. Please do not forget to write down the values mentioned in the guide.

Step 3: IVTC (if needed)

Since you've already performed step 2 you should know whether this step is necessary or not. IVTC allows us to encode problematic NTSC source at 23.976fps instead of 29.97fps which results in better quality at the same size.

Step 4: Create a pseudo AVI

Using the VFAPI Converter we're going to transform our DVD2AVI (or TMPG if you performed IVTC) project into something that Nandub can open.

Step 5: Set VirtualDub

Now we're ready to start with the hard part. First of all you have to start up VirtualDub, then apply the resize filter, then you can add subtitles if you need them, and last but not least you encode the movie. If you plan to use other filters apply them before step 5b.

The codec setup step explains all the codec parameters, I strongly suggest you use 2 pass VBR and put the bitrate to what your bitrate calculator gives you.

5a) Resizing
5b) Subtitles (optional)
5c) Encoding

Step 6: Decode AC3 to MP3

In order to get a direct AC3 to MP3 conversion in the highest possible quality using both azid and lame you can use either BeSweet or HeadAC3he.

Step 7 : Adding the audio

Now we have to join our soundless AVI File and our MP3 audio file.

Step 8 : Splitting (optional)

If your output file is larger than a single CD you might want to split it up ;) Note that while this page talks about VirtualDub you must use Nandub if you use another sound format than CBR MP3. Only Nandub (and VBR MP3 VirtualDub) can properly handle VBR MP3 tracks and formats like AC3 and Ogg/Vorbis (though I didn't describe the latter two in the guide).

This document was last updated on 05/28/02