[MPlayer-users] mencoder: ripping a dvd to a 700MB avi questions

[Farrell Farahbod]

I am trying to rip some of my dvds to 700MB avi files, but the quality
isn't as good as i have seen in other 700MB dvd-rips.

here are the commands i use to encode a dvd-rip to a 700MB avi. (note: i
rip the dvd to a raw, uncompressed avi at first because for some reason
mencoder seems to hang my box a lot, and ripping them to my HDD makes my
work a little quicker.)

mencoder output.avi -ovc frameno -oac mp3lame -lameopts vbr:q=9 -o
frameno.avi
mencoder output.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=959:vpass=1 -vop scale=640:400 -sws 2 -oac copy -o
movie.avi
mencoder output.avi -ovc lavc -lavcopts
vcodec=mpeg4:vbitrate=959:vpass=2 -vop scale=640:400 -sws 2 -oac copy -o
movie.avi

(output.avi is the raw dvd-rip)

first: is there anything i could do to get a better quality rip, while
still retaining my 700mb limit? i have tryed a coupple different codecs
(divx4linux and lavc) and mpeg4 seems to be the best so far...

also: when i use the previously mentioned command to get my frameno.avi
file with vbr mp3 audio, the file is a little less than 1MB per minute
of audio--which seems to me like quite a waste for a movie in most
cases...i have set the quality to 9....the lowest...so i dont understand
why the size is so big. is there another option for lame i should use to
reduce the size while loosing very little noticable loss in quality?

are their any other commands for the 2 pass video encoding that would
give me better quality. (excluding the scale command---i dont want it
any smaller unless absolutely necessary)

and i have a couple questions of video options:

what is a quantizer? (and its reccomended level, if reccomended)

whats a rate control period, and reaction ratio? (and their reccomended
levels, if reccomended)

for divx4linux, whats the difference between the br,q, and crispness
settings? they seem to me like the same type of setting...

for lame, what do the vbr settings: mt, rh, abr, mtrh mean, which is
reccomended, and what are their differences?

for lame, whats the compression ration setting do? set how well (fast?)
it compresses to mp3?

for lame, whats padding?

for lavc:

whats codec(s) would you reccomend for what purposes (e.g. one codec for
typical movies, one for cartoons with little color variation, etc)

do u use the ratetol setting in place of a br setting? how exactly does
the ratetol setting try to stay within the specified file size limit?

what are macro blocks?

what does motion estimation do, and why use it? (does it make for a
higher quality file?)

how do the me_full, -log, -phods -epzs -x1 methods of motion estimation
work?

whats a quantizer graph, and why blur it?

what are motion vectors? why would you want four per macroblock?

what are B, I, and P frames?

what is pcm audio?

LASTLY: in general, what settings for the audio and video encoding
process would you recommend? (paste the example lines if possible)

OK, THATS IT! :)

in case you're wondering...i'm just starting to get a hang of mencoder,
and i have been reading the man page...which is the reason for all my
questions...

i have tried searching Google and this list answers to my question,
however i got little gratification.

any answers would be appreciated.

thanx,

-- 
Farrell Farahbod <upgrdman at mindspring.com>