Help me understand transcoding

[ram4x4nut]

I've been seeing transcoding a lot here lately and just want to know more about it. First off, what are you transcoding? DVD's in a drive, avi files pulled from the web, divx or xvid rips of dvd's?

What are the minimum systems specs for transcoding an xvid file?

What software are you using to rip dvd's into files?


I know these are somewhat vague questions, I'm just trying to get an understanding of what the uses are and determine if it's something i want to start messing with.

Thanks!

Ram

[HtV]

I think there are 2 ways of transcoding done:
1- from avi to mpg, for mvp users.
2- from mpg to avi, to save disk space.

I know for the first (avi>mpg) you'd need a ~2mhz cpu to be able to do it in real time.

Zproces is a plugin that covers this complete area.

cya Hans

[SuMo]

what are you transcoding? DVD's in a drive, avi files pulled from the web, divx or xvid rips of dvd's?

That sums it up I guess

What are the minimum systems specs for transcoding an xvid file?

depends if you're looking for realtime transcoding when using the MVP, as HtV said, a 2 Ghz system would be the minimum. If you just want to transcode a file to an other it doesn't matter. Faster system-> faster transcode.

What software are you using to rip dvd's into files?

I'm using several, DVDdecrypter and VideoReDo are favorites.
Virtual Dub, TMPEGenc sometimes and PocketDivx encoder, for transcoding movies to be watched on my PDA