HELP!!! MP4/H.264 to Xvid

DublinWriter

I recently bought one of those stand alone little Pinnacle capture boxes in order to transfer my old collection of VHS tapes to Hard Disk.

My problem is that the Pinnacle box only encodes videos to interlaced MP4/H.264 format.

Fine if you're watching on a fourth generation IPOD, but not so good if you want to watch the digatised files via Windows Media Player because of the 'comb-edge' artifacts once the action speeds up.

The long and short of it is that I want to convert the interlaced MP4/H.264 format files to non-interlaced Xvid (or even divX) format.

What tool should I use to do this? I tried using Premier, but it doesn't support importing MP4 clips. I also downloaded a batch-converter called 'Madz-Converter' but it refused to open the captured files.

Again, any help greatly appreciated.

Richard O' Shea

the h264 codec is the best compression/quality ratio codec there is available. Converting an mp4 h264 file to xvid will reduce its quality rarther than enhance it.

perhaps your problem might be coming from a low data rate during the capturing procedure itself. check your capture settings in the pinnacle software.

your problem may also be coming from your playback device, try playing the h264 files in quicktime rarther than windows media player. the latest versions of quicktime have native support for h264 while windows media player is best left for wmv files only. also try the vlc media player, it plays just about every file format going, is a light install , and 100 percent free and has no trouble with h264

it is also worth noting that h264 compression is a real resourse hog, meaning many older computers with chips under 1ghz struggle to play back in a smooth manner. if this is true in your case then converting them to xvid would resolve the problem.

if you still want to convert them xvid go to http://www.xvidmovies.com/faq/
and they have all the info u need.

all the best

artvandulet

Dude,
Two absolutely essential and freeware video converters -
Mpeg Streamclip
SUPER


Any converting you'll need to do, you'll be able to with these.
Did I mention they are Free!:D

DublinWriter

Thanks Richard and artvandulet.

Richard O' Shea wrote: »

the h264 codec is the best compression/quality ratio codec there is available. Converting an mp4 h264 file to xvid will reduce its quality rarther than enhance it.

The biggest problem I have with h264 is the fact that it's interlaced.

Playing it via VLC, Quicktime or even Windows Media Player shows comb-like jaggies at the edge of fast moving objects. Selecting any of the de-interlace options with VLC makes the playback even worse in terms of quality.

Richard O' Shea wrote: »

perhaps your problem might be coming from a low data rate during the capturing procedure itself. check your capture settings in the pinnacle software.

I'm not using software to capture, I'm using this device from Pinnacle:

http://www.pinnaclesys.com/PublicSite/us/Products/Consumer+Products/Home+Video/Studio+Family/Instant+Video+Recorder.htm

I can select the second-best capture mode on it, which produces non-interlaced 640X480 MP4 video files.

Ideally, I'd like to use the Divx/Xvid formats as my Kiss PVR will play them on my TV without problems and I can also watch them on my PC.

MP4 seems technically great, but only if you own a 4G IPOD or PSP!

Most of the conversion software I've checked out doesn't seem to deinterlace the H.264 files properly.