[quote name=\'clemon79\' post=\'125098\' date=\'Jul 25 2006, 12:00 PM\']
(Speaking of, can anyone recommend a good idiotproofed program or tutorial that will convert a given video file to Xvid, of the quality used on most torrent sites? I'd love to encode better but I don't seem to be able to get the hang of exactly what settings to do it at.)
[/quote]
This may not answer your question directly, but:
If you've already got it in another format (MPEG, etc.) and want to get it to XviD,
MediaCoder is a good option.
MediaCoder is pretty quick to encode a file and will handle just about any format, but the interface is a little tricky. You can tweak almost everything and I'm never sure when I'm using the best settings.
To get it from a DVD to XviD, I use DVD Decrypter to convert to a VOB file. From there, I use
Auto Gordian Knot to get it to XviD. (AutoGK can handle MPEG-1, MPEG-2, and AVI inputs as well as VOB.)
The beauty of AutoGK is that you can get as deep as you want with tweaking the settings, but you don't have to. The only thing you really have to specify is the target size of the output file. For my own caps, I aim for 8MB per minute of video.
I've found some assistance using the tutorials at
videohelp.com. They've got a pretty good "How To" section.
Curt