XVid and Video Encoding

[misterp]

Can anyone offer any help regarding encoding recorded TV shows into XVid (or another flavour)?

Ive been using VirtualDub MPEG2 and FFDShow for as long as I can remember, used it many times to convert a DVD to AVi, and used it a few times to convert TV shows into AVI's to keep too.

Anyway, recently, Ive downloaded a few TG episodes and amazed at the quality and file size.

I generally aim for 350MB for a 30~45 min show and 700MB for a movie (or thereabouts)

Im finding the output of my conversions is no-where near the TG and some other downloaded episodes. I tend to get heavy artifacting and when there is high motion (i.e water) and the overall quality isnt great.
Admittedly I generally only run a single pass-constant bitrate encode, so Im currently churning through a few episodes to see how the 2 pass- quality based encoding looks.

So can anyone help with either XVid or DivX or H.264 advise (which one do you find gives the best result/smallest file size)??
What settings do you find works best?, bitrate, filters, any settings to make sure are checked?
Do you use re-sizing options within FFDShow/XVid encoder or external in VirtualDub etc??
Im basically displaying them on a 16:9 HD 42" Panasonic Plasma. So anyone doing the same, Id be really interested to find out what you do.
Processing time isnt too much of an issue as I generally queue them up and let it go overnight and/or process them on my file server which is on 24/7

Im not after another application really, so I know there are others out there, but I like the power of VirtualDub and the options available.

I realise that viewing TV etc over any compressed format will be lesser than the original, and I know that its largely subjective/personal choice, but somewhere to start and run some tests would really help.

Anyway, thanks for any help if you can give it.

Cheers

Andrew

[argatoga]

I used to use virtualdub, and the one million other apps to go with it, to make reasonable dvd rips; now I just handbreak. It gives you a decent amount of control, and is easy to use.

[jeffy777]

I've used VirtualDub some, but I'm not an expert on the settings.

Personally, I prefer to use AutoGK:
http://www.autogk.me.uk/

The only settings I really adjust are the file size, and I make sure the stand-alone compatibility is checked so that the file plays smoothly on my DVD/DivX player.

[roaming]

I use VirtualDub and use its resizer with the 0.75 bicubic option. I also use Gunnar Thalin's area based deinterlacer with the interpolate option if I have to deinterlace the video. I save it the first time using Huffyuv at the final size (ususally 640 x 360 or 604 x 340) that I want it to be and then do a 2-pass xvid on the Huffyuv video. If the video is 50 fps I use the decimate option in VirtualDub to halve the frame rate.

[misterp]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I had a look at the AutoGK and looks like a good product, but I notice over at Doom9 that development has ceased for this, so Im now trying AutoMKV, which allows profiles to used.
Ive checked and found there are some predefined profiles also (1 pass and 2 pass) so i`ll try those first.
Interesting to see what you do roaming, is there any specific reason you encode to Huffyuv first rather than use Virtual dub resize option, then 2 pass to Xvid?. Realise that Huffyuv is lossless, but have you found a difference between both methods?

Cheers

Andrew