TopHouse
Well, I use video a LOT! I've seen all the arguments for what format is best, Vobs, Divx, Mpeg1, etc etc So, after much research, here it is, my definitive answer. I've tried the various formats, heard the arguments for and against each format. So :-
A quick rundown of my system, just so you know what we're dealing with.
CPU Pentium 4 3.00 Ghz 600 series (600 series have 1 meg instead of the normal 512k of onboard cache)
RAM, 2 gig DDR
Graphics, Radeon X1800 OCR2 (a limited edition card with ALL pipelines enabled and a whopping 512 meg of DDR3!)
It's no slouch i can assure you!
VOB
OK, it's uncompressed, it's the full quality, full sized file, no arguments there, BUT, what i will say, is from my findings, VDJ doesn't handle VOBS too well, I don't claim to be an expert here, dont know if it's the file size or the decoding, but I tire of constantly seeing the "loading" message in the preview screen and the high CPU usage whilst it's doing it.
DivX
Now I'm not talking mega compression here, I'm talking high quality (in fact INSANE quality in the converter) meaning that each music file is in excess of 100meg. As far as quality is concerned, I see no difference between these and the original VOB's, however, be it VDJ or windows, or the codec, what I do see is that the whole VDJ system seems a lot happier handling these, I see no constant "Loading" message, in fact they load very smoothly and load up similar to the normal mp3 files, albeit a little slower. However, the conversion from VOB's to high quality Divx Files is VERY time consuming. CPU usage during loading and playing is a LOT less than VOBS.
MPEG1
Again, high quality, I do find that for equal quality, the file size of mpg1's is slightly higher than that of Divx's, the average being about 120 meg. I've heard all the arguments regarding this allegedly being the best format because the gfx card does most of the decoding instead of taking CPU time. One word, it's a seven letter word and starts "bull" Watching the CPU usage, it's around the same as for DivX, no noticeable difference between the two. A Major advantage is though, that conversion from VOB to mpeg 1 is a LOT faster than conversion to DivX. That is the ONLY advantage I've seen.
All the above is not speculation, not guesswork, I've tried the 3 formats, the above is what I have SEEN!
Conclusion
Being a long time Bittorrent user, i've worked with Divx for a long time, quite a number of my vids are in DivX format, maybe I'm a little brainwashed because of that, who knows. But purely for speed/time reasons, I'm now seriously considering ripping all my future stuff to mpeg1
For ripping I use two tools, either 'Smartripper' or 'dvddecrypter'
For DivX conversion, for me theres only one tool DrDivX 2 OSS (using a custom config)
For mpeg conversion, TmpGenc Express (again using a custom config)
There it is, for what it's worth, my view based on 'experience' NOT guesswork or speculation. If anyone want's to know more, just ask.
A quick rundown of my system, just so you know what we're dealing with.
CPU Pentium 4 3.00 Ghz 600 series (600 series have 1 meg instead of the normal 512k of onboard cache)
RAM, 2 gig DDR
Graphics, Radeon X1800 OCR2 (a limited edition card with ALL pipelines enabled and a whopping 512 meg of DDR3!)
It's no slouch i can assure you!
VOB
OK, it's uncompressed, it's the full quality, full sized file, no arguments there, BUT, what i will say, is from my findings, VDJ doesn't handle VOBS too well, I don't claim to be an expert here, dont know if it's the file size or the decoding, but I tire of constantly seeing the "loading" message in the preview screen and the high CPU usage whilst it's doing it.
DivX
Now I'm not talking mega compression here, I'm talking high quality (in fact INSANE quality in the converter) meaning that each music file is in excess of 100meg. As far as quality is concerned, I see no difference between these and the original VOB's, however, be it VDJ or windows, or the codec, what I do see is that the whole VDJ system seems a lot happier handling these, I see no constant "Loading" message, in fact they load very smoothly and load up similar to the normal mp3 files, albeit a little slower. However, the conversion from VOB's to high quality Divx Files is VERY time consuming. CPU usage during loading and playing is a LOT less than VOBS.
MPEG1
Again, high quality, I do find that for equal quality, the file size of mpg1's is slightly higher than that of Divx's, the average being about 120 meg. I've heard all the arguments regarding this allegedly being the best format because the gfx card does most of the decoding instead of taking CPU time. One word, it's a seven letter word and starts "bull" Watching the CPU usage, it's around the same as for DivX, no noticeable difference between the two. A Major advantage is though, that conversion from VOB to mpeg 1 is a LOT faster than conversion to DivX. That is the ONLY advantage I've seen.
All the above is not speculation, not guesswork, I've tried the 3 formats, the above is what I have SEEN!
Conclusion
Being a long time Bittorrent user, i've worked with Divx for a long time, quite a number of my vids are in DivX format, maybe I'm a little brainwashed because of that, who knows. But purely for speed/time reasons, I'm now seriously considering ripping all my future stuff to mpeg1
For ripping I use two tools, either 'Smartripper' or 'dvddecrypter'
For DivX conversion, for me theres only one tool DrDivX 2 OSS (using a custom config)
For mpeg conversion, TmpGenc Express (again using a custom config)
There it is, for what it's worth, my view based on 'experience' NOT guesswork or speculation. If anyone want's to know more, just ask.
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 3:53 am
Rune (DJ-In-Norway)
Thank you! Very informative...
And just what I needed.. ;) I'm in the beginning of collecting music videos, as it looks for certain than the biggest clubs here will start with video djs real soon ;)
And just what I needed.. ;) I'm in the beginning of collecting music videos, as it looks for certain than the biggest clubs here will start with video djs real soon ;)
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 4:04 am
halo_djk
I thought VOB was MPEG2, and that would be compressed?
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 8:03 am
A Man and His Music
I have only used VOB's, so can not evaluate the others. My experience has been extremely well. From the beginning VDJ has handled these files with ease on my machine. P4 3.0g, 1g of ram, 6600gt video card. I am not sitting around waiting for the files to load. As a matter of fact, I start playing as soon as i hit load. I don't have to wait for it to be fully loaded, and it doesn't take that long anyway. As for my CPU going up, I don't really care as long as my machine continues to run. I did 8 hour shows on Monday and Tuesday, all video. I had one freeze due to a bug, that has been fixed. Your conclusions about the other two formats may be correct, but to say that VDJ doesn't like VOB's, is not true. At least on my machine, VDJ loves my VOBs.
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 9:17 am
phillydj
VOB plays well here too
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 9:20 am
TexZK
MPEG1 is the best performance format, as it's decoded by the GPU. Bazzooka, who's a Guru of video mixing, uses this format after ripping videos (all original) and the CPU load is very very low, like if you are playing normal MP3 files.
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 1:21 pm
DJ Cyder
Vob's are geat here they rip fast and all you have to do is title them. My system is far below yours and i've got no problem with vob on my system. Could be an nvidia vs ati thing :)
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 7:09 pm
Rune (DJ-In-Norway)
yeah.. loose the nvidia .. ;) lol..hehe... just kidding:)
Posted Sat 07 Oct 06 @ 8:05 pm
therealbjthedj
i rip everything down to vob, hell hard drive is cheap, i built a RAID array that's 2600 gigs and i cost me a little over a grand,
i found with compressed formats the cpu ran harder,
the only problem i have with vobs is windows media wont play them
www.rumjungle.ca
i found with compressed formats the cpu ran harder,
the only problem i have with vobs is windows media wont play them
www.rumjungle.ca
Posted Sun 08 Oct 06 @ 1:38 am
MusicalMadness
I think you'll find VOB is indeed an MPEG2 file....
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/vob.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/mpeg-2.cfm
http://people.csail.mit.edu/tbuehler/video/extensions.html defines a vob as "Video object file. Used in DVDs. Contains MPEG-2 video and several possible audio formats, as well as menus and interactivity."
I have a 300g WD drive(270g in reality) loaded with 841 videos of which all but around 100 are still in vob format. the remaining ~100 are in the originally purchased MPEG1 format. All together, they use about 128g of drive space.
When converting vob directly to a true MPEG2 format, it appears to compress files approx. an additional 20%.
I too use SmartRipper, DVDDecrypter, as well as #1 DVD Ripper, and TMPGEnc XPress 4.0
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/vob.cfm
http://www.afterdawn.com/glossary/terms/mpeg-2.cfm
http://people.csail.mit.edu/tbuehler/video/extensions.html defines a vob as "Video object file. Used in DVDs. Contains MPEG-2 video and several possible audio formats, as well as menus and interactivity."
I have a 300g WD drive(270g in reality) loaded with 841 videos of which all but around 100 are still in vob format. the remaining ~100 are in the originally purchased MPEG1 format. All together, they use about 128g of drive space.
When converting vob directly to a true MPEG2 format, it appears to compress files approx. an additional 20%.
I too use SmartRipper, DVDDecrypter, as well as #1 DVD Ripper, and TMPGEnc XPress 4.0
Posted Mon 09 Oct 06 @ 6:19 pm
djcel
TopHouse wrote :
VOB
OK, it's uncompressed, it's the full quality, full sized file
OK, it's uncompressed, it's the full quality, full sized file
You are not the first one to make the mistake. Vob is MPEG2 for the video so a compressed format ;-)
(and AC3 or DTS for audio)
Posted Mon 09 Oct 06 @ 6:39 pm
TopHouse
Cel, by uncompressed, I meant from the source DVD, I wasnt counting 'at source' compression. So in effect, the vobs people are ripping from their own DVD's are uncompressed.
Posted Mon 09 Oct 06 @ 7:19 pm
kamakuakane
I have been using vobs from the start and they load quickly and run without any issues. CPU usage is minimal. Long load times could be due to your system configuration. For example: If your are using a single drive for both the app and video or just a single drive for the video. The hard drive might not be able to provide the video file fast enough to the app. My computer specs are on my blog. I have been using VDJ since July 2005 without any issues.
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 7:07 am
erdi
so if VOB is compressed format then which format is uncompressed, or is there sush a thing. i thought that VOB is the WAV of video. silly me. :O
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 10:03 am
low-fat-al
AVI is uncompressed video and can be approx 180 megs per minute of video time.
I personally rip my videos from DVD and just rename the VOB to MPG extension and most of the time resample the audio from whatever format to 44khz MP2 audio at 256kbs quality. I have no problems loading and playing videos.... although I haven't made a comfortable switch to version 4 at all. Still using version 3.4. Version 4 is not stable enough for me.
I have about 2500 music videos on a 500 gig hard drive and it has approx 40 gigs free now. I need to expand so I can expand my ever growing library.
Thought about the DIVX and MPG1 formats and it is entirely TOO time consuming to convert them. Sure you save some space but if time is money then I would rather be making money so I can buy more storage to fill the less time consuming way of having video content.
My guess besides the CPU and memory (ram) specs ... the video card has A LOT to do with the performance.
I personally rip my videos from DVD and just rename the VOB to MPG extension and most of the time resample the audio from whatever format to 44khz MP2 audio at 256kbs quality. I have no problems loading and playing videos.... although I haven't made a comfortable switch to version 4 at all. Still using version 3.4. Version 4 is not stable enough for me.
I have about 2500 music videos on a 500 gig hard drive and it has approx 40 gigs free now. I need to expand so I can expand my ever growing library.
Thought about the DIVX and MPG1 formats and it is entirely TOO time consuming to convert them. Sure you save some space but if time is money then I would rather be making money so I can buy more storage to fill the less time consuming way of having video content.
My guess besides the CPU and memory (ram) specs ... the video card has A LOT to do with the performance.
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 11:46 am
frd1963
VOB works best for me too. I do see the "LOADING" screen when I first load a VOB onto a deck, but that only lasts about 1/10th of a second, and the video is ready to start playing immediately after that, even if not yet completely loaded.
CPU time while running and mixing 2 VOBs fullscreen is about 8% on P4 3.0Ghz
Granted, I am using firewire 800 for my media, but I have to say that I (unfortunately) didn't notice any load time improvement when I changed from firewire400 to firewire800.
The only times I did have issues with load time were when I was using 'Windows video decoder' for VObs rather than "Internal video decoder", and also when I was using USB for my media.
Also, to clear up the compressed vs uncompressed confusion... VOB is full DVD quality, and yes, DVD's use MPEG2 compression. MPEG2 is a lighter compression than DiVX and the average MPEG1. VOB is uncompressed in comparison to the original DVD, and converting a VOB into MPEG1 or DiVX, does add compression.
CPU time while running and mixing 2 VOBs fullscreen is about 8% on P4 3.0Ghz
Granted, I am using firewire 800 for my media, but I have to say that I (unfortunately) didn't notice any load time improvement when I changed from firewire400 to firewire800.
The only times I did have issues with load time were when I was using 'Windows video decoder' for VObs rather than "Internal video decoder", and also when I was using USB for my media.
Also, to clear up the compressed vs uncompressed confusion... VOB is full DVD quality, and yes, DVD's use MPEG2 compression. MPEG2 is a lighter compression than DiVX and the average MPEG1. VOB is uncompressed in comparison to the original DVD, and converting a VOB into MPEG1 or DiVX, does add compression.
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 4:14 pm
jaakko
I recently got my new laptop and i'm new with videos. I must buy a new external harddrive for them because I have no more free space. What type of harddrive is fast enough?
There is Buffalo drivestation 250Gb (Usb 2.0, 7200rpm) on sale on local store. Is it fast enough?
What about firewire hard drives? They are more expensive but faster maybe?
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 9:01 pm
phillydj
usb 2.0 suppose to be 480mbs firewire 1394 is 400mbs but supposedly 2.0 isnt faster
you can look here http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
regardless there both fine for VDJ
you can look here http://www.firewire-1394.com/firewire-vs-usb.htm
regardless there both fine for VDJ
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 9:09 pm
scooby1971
hi there im woundering why cant i get on virtual dj radio could any one tell me how im on virtual djmp3 mix
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 11:38 pm
phillydj
scooby1971 wrote :
hi there im woundering why cant i get on virtual dj radio could any one tell me how im on virtual djmp3 mix
Please stay on topic,
VirtualDj radio is only for Pro users and above
Posted Tue 10 Oct 06 @ 11:38 pm
