Anybody use MPEG4 Direct Maker?

[afruff23]

It's shareware, but it's still great. It can convert directly from DVDs to the X5's format and it's easy to use with AV syncing options(audio shift). A batch converter is included as well. It also supports some formats that VDM doesn't(WMV, 3GP, realplayer video, quicktime video). The quality is good. Just make sure you set MP3 to 128 kbps or less and set xvid video to CBR 300 kbps or less(do higher ones work?) and set FPS to 15(or 13 for best results).

It's much easier to VDM and sill produces good vids.

[Zeus's Uncle]

I usually run 192 kbps on my xvid videos if they are coming from a high quality source like a DVD. Is this a limitation of the converter?

Edit: Or is that 128 kbps part of the shareware limitations? I couldn't find it referenced on their website.

[afruff23]

Umm.. x5 format video must have mp3 set to 128 kbps or lower. I said video can be 300 kbps or lower. That has nothing to do with the converter's limitations, but rather the X5's limitations.

The only shareware limitation is a watermark at the top, and I believe the batch converter doesn't work. I think it's only good for 30 days as well.

[Zeus's Uncle]

So you are saying that built-in to the application, when you choose the x5 settings, it will not let you go any higher than 128 kbps? If so, you might as well just do the settings yourself so you can get higher quality files. I can assure you that the x5, as a device, can handle videos with CBR 192 kbps for the audio, that's my standard setting. I use that and 256 kbps for the video.

[afruff23]

Oh, I thought 128 kbps mp3 or lower is a requirement for the X5 to play it. I would rather have higher quality video than higher quality sound, but the program does allow you to select higher bitrates. There are no limitations programwise for bitrates.

[Zeus's Uncle]

Ah, coolness. I haven't exactly figured out the limitations of the x5, but I do know that at 256 kbps for the video, if I go with max VBR on the mp3, when there are spikes in the audio data the video will skip. I ran into this with some music videos I was making of late night show musical guests. It'd be interesting to see what the max bitrate on the video would be, I haven't stressed this out much, but the x5's hardware (read screen) is the major limiting factor on the quality of video in my opinion, whereas sound always comes out nice. I've found I don't watch anything longer than a few minutes anymore on my player anyways, unless I'm flying.

Since you're going to have to shell out the dough for this converter, you might want to do a comparison with the offerings from TMPGEnc aka Pegasys first. http://tmpgenc.pegasys-inc.com/en/product/index.html Their XPress version has a very easy to use 4 step interface, but you can still get at all the settings you need to configure with it. It seems to me to be a more professional application.

[HiMDforMe]

why pay for software when other free programs do just fine? i do like the other video codecs this software supports, but can you convert from those formats with the shareware version?

[Zeus's Uncle]

I'm with you HiMD, I generally suggest all the free stuff first. WMV is a little more difficult for conversions, I use TMPGEnc for it, though I have used WMM in the past. TMPGEnc also runs quite a bit faster than VDM on my system, by a factor of about 3. This means I can make my batches 3 times bigger for the night.

[afruff23]

I already mentioned all the shareware limitations: no batch converter(can be worked around since the normal covnerter allows more than one file to be converted at a time), 30 days, and a ~160x10 watermark at top.

I'm currently in a country with no intellectal property laws for software, so I have the pay version.

This supports some of the more oddball formats, which is what gives it an edge.