To really test hi-res, hi-quality video on the AV320, I pulled out my old DVD ripping software (haven't done that in a while) and ripped my SuperBit version of the Fifth Element (movie).
I encoded it with DivX 5.05, two pass, with 1200kbps average bitrate. The audio track was set to 160kbps CBR radium. The video res was set to 640x272@24fps. In essence this is only slightly lower than the original DVD res (which is720x304). This is approximately 80% or 90% the size of the original (depending on if you measure by pixel-count or the independent width or height differences). I used FlaskMPEG 7.8.29 (beta) to re-encode the VOB files I ripped from the DVD.
Looking at the AVI on the PC it is 100% fair to say it is VERY-NEAR-DVD quality. In fact, I doubt very many people would even notice a difference.
The final file was 1.2gigs for the 2-hour movie.
Basically, it looks great on the PC or on the AV320, LCD or TV-Out.
I plugged my AV300 into the composite NTSC video in port on my computer so I could compare, side-by-side the AV300's playback and the original AVI. Though could see some small differences, the AV300's video was incredible - almost as good as the original 100% digital transfer. Definitely VERY-NEAR-DVD. In fact, most of the playback problems were due to the fact that we are going from Digital to Analog back to Digital through an interlaced NTSC - a crappy format for video anyway.
The specific ways it didn't measure up: the AV320's TV out on my computer screen has a small amount of flicker (Due to NTSC's interlaced - this is an NTSC problem, not the AV300), a little lower sharpness (Due to NTSC Composite video, again the AV300 did as good as anything can here), and it is a little Hot color-wise (over saturated) (this could be due to my Video-In on my computer not being configured correctly).
But all of those are pretty minor. In other words, the Video-Out from the AV300 on this high-quality AVI was outstanding!
I do have one complaint, though: This high-quality AVI looks WORSE on the AV320 than it would have if I encoded it for 320x240 - the LCDs natural resolution. Why? Because the AV320 is doing nearest neighbor scaling of the high-res video down to the AV320's LCD res which results in some visual flicker particularly during pans. It isn't bad, really - and even understandable, but it is there. If you want to watch stuff ONLY on the AV320, DON'T encode it higher than 320x240 (or Cif - I'll have to see which one works best later).
This article was originally posted to Shane">http://www.shanebrinkmandavis.com/hom... Brinkman Davis' Archos Website
