mark959022

I have done about 10 movies in the past couple weeks. I am using a core 2 duo and running it at 1 pass. You are suppose to have better results with 2 pass but every time I use 2 pass it has some sort of defect, usually the sound is a few 10ths of a second off.
I have been using dvdFab and AnyDVD converter. I paid about $45 bucks for Anydvd converter and I am using the free trial for dvdfab. I think dvdfab does a better job but they really both turn out good for a little phone screen. You can't get too hung up on the resolution but you do need to make sure you keep the resolution proportionate. The setting for the resolution depend on how the movie was originally filmed. Movies filmed at the 16:9 aspect ratio fill the screen if you use a proportionate resolution such as 800x480 or 480x272. The phone will enlarge the picture till one of the dimensions is maxamized. 16/9=1.7777 and 480/272=1.76 Most programs will give you the option to keep the resolution proportionate. Letterbox films are 4:3 or 4/3=1.333 so you will get bars at the top and bottom. You can change the film resolution which is actually changing the aspect ratio but it will distort the film. Imagine taking a movie that you are watching on your high def tv screen that has top and bottom bars and squishing it and stretching it so it takes up the entire screen. It will be bigger but it will be distorted. The other option is to cut the left and right sides off called cropping the video so that you can enlarge it without distorting the video. This will maintain the picture but cause you to lose some of the action on the left and right. I prefer to not crop letterbox films and and keep the proportionate aspect ratio.
As far as ripping goes, dvdfab has a free ripper that has been able to rip every new video that I have tried without a problem.
To set the encoded output size of the video, you will need to adjust the video bitrate. Dvdfab and Anydvd converter will allow you to set the video bitrate but DvdFab calculates the apx output video size. The higher the video bitrate, the larger the file and the higher the quality. I think 500 mb mp4 videos look fine on a tiny phone screen. I have been setting the output so that the video is 800 mb to 1 gb. The longer the movie the larger you may want the output. Heavy action movies that portray a lot of movement will look better if you use a higher video bitrate.

A quick rundown on DvdFab..
I have had good results using the following settings. You can use the dvd to mobile option or you can use the dvd to dvd option. The dvd to mobile will rip and encode the video to an mp4 format and the dvd to dvd option will rip the dvd to your hard disk in a vob format. I have had good luck using VLC media player to preview the vob files to ensure they are good. VLC is a free player that you should be able to find using google. VLC media player will also be able to give you detailed information about the ripped movie. I prefer to do it this way so I can watch the movie on my computer in full size. (not dimensional size but file size, think 5-8 gig.) Then I use the file to dvd option to encode the ripped vob into a mp4 video to watch on my DI.
The settings at this point are slightly critical. But I would imagine that there are several different setting that will still render a good looking movie. In DVDFab you can select the video source file and it will find and open the VOB files. It should automatically open all of the VOB files and checkmark them. You can set the output file to whatever you want on your hard drive. I am using the Apple TV settings under file to mobile at this point. You should have already ripped the dvd to your hard disk. The ripping part takes about 15 to 20 minutes. I use the setting dvd9 which does not condense the movie.
Once the VOB files load into DVDFab then you can click on edit. Below video format h264 you can adjust the video bitrate or the output file size. I usually adjust the video bitrate so that the file size is at an acceptable amount. You can also change the framerate. The dvdFab guide where I found this information suggested changing it to 25fps but our phone is capable of the preset fps and I think I read that adjusting the framerate increases the amount of encoding therefore decreases the quality. So I just leave that as it is preset. Then click on ok and start. Because you have chosen apple tv it will automatically pre select the closest resolution or aspect ratio. If the video was filmed at 16:9 then it should mostly fill the screen. If not then you would need to make further adjustments but I would suggest trying it like this till you get the hang of it. Then if you like the results, play around with cropping. I can give further instructions on cropping if anyone cares.
Please give this a try and let me know the results. Remember dvdFab is free to try and they let you use the entire program for about 15 days and they don't limit or restrict it.
One last thing...
All the movies I copy to my computer or my phone are movies I already own. I have purchased the DVD's at blockbuster or Amazon.com and back them up to mp4's so I can watch them on my phone while I'm traveling.