Software : SmartRipper, FlaskMPEG 0.6, VirtualDub I use the Thunder plugin for FlaskMPEG so I can convert a whole movie at once instead of having to stitch AVIs together.

Output size : 512x288. This is the correct aspect ratio for most letterboxed movies. Most letterboxed movies end up using 288 scan lines on a standard NTSC TV, so using this # for the DivX rip means NO resizing when playing the rip on a TV

Frame rate : 23.97fps. This is the standard for film. Using a lower frame rate allows the codec to put more detail in each frame, making the rip look sharper than one that uses 30fps at the same bitrate. The tradeoff is that scene changes sometimes happen in the middle of a frame because of framerate conversion, which can be a little disconcerting. This *only* happens when watching a rip on TV, not on a monitor. In my informal tests, I'm the only one that even notices it.

Codec : DivX 4 Beta at 1800-2400Kbps I've got a 40GB hard drive dedicated to storing movies, so I don't worry about fitting a movie on one CD. I go for 2 CD rips. At that high of a bitrate, DivX is almost indistinguishable from DVD.

Audio : 192K MP3 Mmm

If I'm giving a copy to a friend, I'll feed the high-bitrate DivX rip through VirtualDub and let VD recompress it at ~800Kbps. The weird thing is that VD does this pretty damn fast - FlaskMPEG takes 5-7 hours to make the original, but VD will recompress in about an hour on my Athlon 850.

This message has been edited by damien_s_lucifer on August 20, 2001 at 12:35 PM

Cheers