Help with DVD to Mobile

[scramblr]

I've been using DVDFab to copy DVDs for a long time with no issues. A few months ago I started using DVD to Mobile to put movies in my daughters IPOD Itouch and my LG phone, flawless. Now I'm trying to digitize my DVD library to use with 2 WDTVs and am having issues with picture quality.

DVD to DVD, Main Movie and VOB pass through work flawlessly, very clear crisp pictures, so I know it's not the TVs nor the WDTV players, but I've yet to get a compressed file to look good.

I don't know the exact terminology, so I apologize in advance. All the copies play through, but distorted. I can see "boxes or maybe pixalation (sp)?" on the screen, especially in fast action scenes. The outlines of bodies, buildings, etc., seem distorted, like they have a blur around them.

Used Gregiboy's Best Practice DVD to Mobile to the letter. Please let me know if I can provide further info. The source file is good, so I'm confident the issue is in my settings.

DVD Fab 6.2.1.8
Profiles: generic.avi.xvid and mkv.audiocopy, generic.avi and mkv.h264.audiocopy
Changes to Profiles: Fixed Bitrate to 1100.
Default Frame Resolution: 704x382
Encoding Method: 2 Pass
Frame Rate: 23.976fps

TVs:
52" JVC LT-52GZ79 LCD
22" AWOL LCD

System:
HP HXX 16 Notebook
Duo CPU P8400 2.2Ghx2
4GB Memory
Vista SP2 Home Premium 64bit

[AGJ]

Well you are trying to watch a file that was not meant to be watched on a large screen which would be why you not get good quality video. Give Gregiboy 52' mobile file a try located in his Best Practice DVD to Mobile. Look towards the bottom of the post here is link to it for you

[scramblr]

Thanks I'll try that profile. Guess it doesn't matter if my TV is not a Samsung. Also found some threads with similar issues which were fixed by increasing the bitrate. I'll try these two things. Thx...

[scramblr]

It's the bitrate, or at least one of the things affecting the quality. Used generic.avi.xvid.audiocopy. Started bumping it up, 1500, 2200, 3300, 4400, and finally 5000. The picture started getting better and better until my wife couldn't tell the difference between the DVD and the 5000 bitrate copy.

Obviously this is going to bump up the file size. Interesting that 1100 - 1500 works for some people with the same size TV but not for me. What other things could I adjust to bring the bitrate down and have good quality?

@ AGJ: You mentioned that I'm trying to watch a file not meant to be watched on a large screen TV. Do you know what profile would work well for a TV this size? Thanks in advance.

[Complication]

Interesting that 1100 - 1500 works for some people with the same size TV but not for me. What other things could I adjust to bring the bitrate down and have good quality?

It also depends on how far you sit from the TV versus the TV size and how well your playback device or TV upscales the picture to the large screen size. The closer you sit, the more detail you see and the more likely you are to notice the errors. This can be seen on the original DVD too. Play one while standing only a few feet from the screen and you will notice the compression errors. Blu-Ray will have less but at a cost.

[AGJ]

The only mobile profile I have done is the PSP one and I do the TV out option for that as I like to use the TV out option the PSP has but the TV screens are usually no bigger than 21inch so the quality is not that bad. Maybe give the XBox 360 conversion a try as that might work for that large of a TV you have

[GregiBoy]

It depends on the size of the TV, how close to it you are and the device playing it. My good friend W&B uses a WDTV & my Samsung profile so may be able to comment.

My comment is that I use a variety of players to play to my Samsung 52" TV and I sit about 4 metres from it (13ft) and this profile works well on all of them.

[scramblr]

O.K., all points make sense. We sit around 3-4 meters from the TV. Once we got to 5000 bitrate we started comparing the original DVD and also noticed the compression errors on the original, so we're good to go. Appreciate all your inputs.