DVD to H.264 - Recommended freeware programs?

[naripeddi]

I have a simple requirement.

I have 100's of old B/W movies captured off satellite box (via Canopus ADVC route) and converted to DVD-Vdeo folders.

Now I would like to convert them to H.264 (x264??) format so I can reduce the file sizes and still retain good amount of quality.

Can site staff suggest a (or a couple of) good free program to do this?

I know a lot of freewares exist (such as Handbrake, Avidemux, StaxRip, XvidToPSP...etc) but I want to know what site staff think is the best (free) program. Any advise that comes from the site staff I take it as golden standard usually.

Also, I need some help in terms of what settings to use (such as output resolution, bitrate/CRF, de-interlacing, MKV vs MP4...etc). I know detailed guides are in making, but I need a quick advise on the most critical settings. I will be watching the H.264 files on computer as well as on HDTV connected to Asus Media Player (similar to WD TV Live).

90% of my movies are PAL, old B/W, encoded to DVD at 720x576, audio at 320 Kbps AC3, without any fast motion scenes.

Thanks.

[msgohan]

I take it you deleted the originals when you converted to DVD. Are you going to delete the DVDs and recompress the x264s again when H.265 is standard? :S

My personal take:

Keep the same resolution. Use CRF instead of bitrate since you're apparently storing them on HDD.

Deinterlacing is a tough call. You should probably do several encodes and compare the quality between encoding a deinterlaced version and encoding an interlaced version that your Asus deinterlaces.

MP4 has wider compatibility with hardware than MKV. The only downside I personally find with it is worse subtitle support.

[naripeddi]

Thanks for the reply.

I don't plan to delete the DVD files, instead, they will be retained as my 'master' copies. The original master copies (DV files) have been obviously deleted due to their size. However, any future movies, I want to go direct from DV to H.264, avoiding the DVD step.

regards

[lordsmurf]

Avidemux is the freeware of choice around here.

However, I'm not fond of re-encoding just to save space. I always go for the best quality, regardless of size.

H.264 also does not handle interlace that well. So for shrinking DVD source home-captured off TV, it would not be a good choice. You're just making extra work for yourself, and making the video worse in the process.

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[naripeddi]

Thanks LS.

Regards