Silly xvid encoding question

Dejana · Post by **Dejana** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 12:32 am

I'm following the Big Guide, and I'm up to the point where I'm ready to run a second pass to further compress my video. Dumb question about a detail that's unclear in the guide...

When I choose Save As for the second pass, do I save over the first pass or do I save it as an entirely new file? I've tried it both ways and it doesn't seem to get any smaller. I must be missing something obvious here...

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 1:30 am

The second pass isn't supposed to make it smaller, it's just supposed to distribute the bits more intelligently. It doesn't matter if you overwrite the first pass - the information the codec extracts (stored in a text file) is the important part, not the actual resultant video file. Also, use x264.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 9:37 am

i always save second pass as a new file

i label them 1pass and 2pass

Dejana · Post by **Dejana** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 10:46 pm

Tab. wrote:Also, use x264.

What's that? I'm new to the technical aspects of this.

I did get the second pass to work, thanks guys.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Wed Aug 22, 2007 11:44 pm

x.264 is a free implementation of h.264
what it means to people like us: smaller files and better quality (if you have a little computer power to encode/play it)
*shameless plug*
check out both versions of my "blue trailer" for an example of x.264 vs xvid

most (if not all) of those .mp4 files that are taking over the video announcements forum are encoded with x.264

meGUI is probably the easiest way to encode with x.264 (unless you like doing command line input)
see this thread for help on x.264. Most of the things explained in there carry over to meGUI

Dejana · Post by **Dejana** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 12:52 am

Thanks for the tip. I'm hesitating a bit since .mp4 isn't as universal, but I might give it a try with my next video.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:06 am

Dejana wrote:Thanks for the tip. I'm hesitating a bit since .mp4 isn't as universal, but I might give it a try with my next video.

It's about as universal as it gets, since QuickTime 7 plays H.264 MP4s, and QuickTime is bundled with iTunes, so pretty much everyone has it. It's also the format used by iPod, Apple TV, PSP(?), etc. And it's an open standard, so there's no reason not to support it. In other words, pretty fucking universal.

Dejana · Post by **Dejana** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:20 am

I had to download an extra player to run mp4s... and that's enough to stop some people, which is enough to make me think twice about using it.

BasharOfTheAges · Post by **BasharOfTheAges** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 1:50 am

Dejana wrote:I had to download an extra player to run mp4s... and that's enough to stop some people, which is enough to make me think twice about using it.

Unless you're using Windows Media Player (in which case, i'm sorry) you don't need to use another player - you just need to correctly set your system up with the proper decoder.

JaddziaDax · Post by **JaddziaDax** » Thu Aug 23, 2007 5:47 am

Dejana wrote:I had to download an extra player to run mp4s... and that's enough to stop some people, which is enough to make me think twice about using it.

this is why /shameless plug
some editors also put out two versions of their video O.o