Using Super Video Converter to convert .avi tv series for Instinct

There are quite a few tutorials on converting video to display on Instinct. And let me thank all of the posters who have offered tutorials on doing so. There have also been many recommendations regarding which conversion software to use to get the job done. But I decided to try the one (of the two) conversion software that I already had installed before venturing out to use something new.

I've spent the last day converting television series from .avi to .mp4 using Super Video Converter. Quite frankly, it couldn't be any easier. And the quality is superb. I've tried a few different settings using Super Video Converter and the one displayed below offered great quality and a size I thought was reasonable.

I don't think these settings are the definitive 'best'. You may want to tweak them to get a smaller file size (possibly trading video/sound quality for lower file sizes) and you might find better settings that offer the same quality at a smaller file size --- if you do, I hope you share your settings.

I tried these settings on Stardard Def .avi files of a single episode of '30 Rock' (original file properties: size 175mb, 624x352 pixels, 123kbs/mp3 audio, 23 frames/sec, 1141kbps data rate, XVID video compression) and 8 episodes of 'True Blood' (varying file properties specifications).

After conversion, using Super Video Converter, the '30 Rock' episode was 125mb (21 mins). The original 'True Blood' episodes ranged from 50-57 mins and all were 550mb. After conversion the 8 'True Blood' episodes ranged from 290-400mb. Quality is excellent when viewed on Instinct.

The attachment is a screenshot of the settings I used in Super -- these were all the settings I used (no hidden settings in menus -- just whatever was default).

At first I tried using a bitrate of 768 but that produced visual pixelization on the Instinct screen so I moved up to 1248 and that was beautiful. You might get great results using a bitrate somewhere in-between those two values -- I didn't test that, Yet (I was already very pleased).

I don't know what the original source files were for these episodes (DVD, HDTV programming, SDTV programming, etc..) so I can't comment on how these settings would work using specific source material. But obviously the sources files that I used were already compressed into an .avi format.

Hope this helps....