Ideal Video Encoding for MVP

[s116262]

With the dizzying amount of options for encoding video and sound, what is the highest quality with full compatibility for watching through the MVP?

Your suggestions will help me cut down hours of experimenting with different encodes! Thanks!

[ASD]

AFAIK the mvp only has native support for mpeg 2 and mp2 audio.

I use Super Video Converter (free) to convert to this from ripped DVD's and recorded DVB-T.

Works perfectly including ffwd and rwd etc.

Rather juicy file sizes though

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[Rory]

GBPVR on my machine (PAL TV Card) records TV as Mpeg 2 at 720 x 576 at 2400 kbps and Audio as CBR MP2 at 256 kbps. It is interlaced and 16 x 9.
I use TMpgEnc see this link encoding in Super Video CD which at 480 x 576 is pretty close to what GBPVR produces at good file sizes. Only caveat is that MVP plays the recordings in the upper part of the TV, although I know there is a fix for this. If you have a good quality source, the results are very good, and encoding is pretty quick, although it all gets a bit messy on the audio side, if you have avis with ac3 you have to demux the audio and re-mux after conversion, and if it's mp3 audio I always convert to PCM before conversion using the "Avi Audio Decompressor" that comes with "Avi2VCD" see this link

cheers

[Deusxmachina]

With the dizzying amount of options for encoding video and sound, what is the highest quality with full compatibility for watching through the MVP?

Full compatibility probably has to be 720 or 704 x480 mpeg2. The MVP can only display mpegs. If you don't require a fast-forward button when watching, if your computer is powerful enough the computer can convert other file formats on the fly to play on the MVP.

I can watch .avi, .mkv, divx, xvid, etc, including 1080i and h.264 without doing anything to the files. But since the computer is converting the files on the fly, fast-forward doesn't work much, and for some reason I can't watch live HDTV. I don't think not being able to watch live HDTV is a CPU power problem, but if it's not I don't know what else it could be.

So if you have a decently-fast computer, you don't have to convert anything if you don't mind not having fast-forward. I don't encode anything just to play on the MVP, so can't help there.

[cgsample]

I can watch .avi, .mkv, divx, xvid, etc, including 1080i and h.264 without doing anything to the files.

I'm confused about all the different formats. Let's assume that the PC is powerful enough, what's the best format to use for smaller files size without hurting the video too much?

My hard drive is full of MPG2s and I need to make room.

[elite]

I'm confused about all the different formats. Let's assume that the PC is powerful enough, what's the best format to use for smaller files size without hurting the video too much?

My hard drive is full of MPG2s and I need to make room.

With the very cheap cost of disk space at the moment I'd say get some more and stick with MPEG2 if you're tied to the MVP - This is the way I decided to go so can't advise on other formats

[fausto]

I use Super Video Converter (free) to convert to this from ripped DVD's and recorded DVB-T.

I thought GBPVR already saved recorded DVB-T (actually, all recordings for that matter) as mpeg-2. Why do you need to convert it?