An Easier 2pass in DVD2AVI 1.82

[Nic]

Using the attachment, run your 1pass DivX4 as normal, then double click on 2pass.exe

then just leave it.....It sits there and waits for the first pass to finish and then runs the second pass automatically. (if you want to check its loaded (it doesnt come up with anything, unless it errors), open task-manager (ctrl+alt+del) and look for 2pass)

I only wrote this last night & have only tested it on Win98SE. So it may not be perfect (as its only a very simple fix)....Please report bugs exactly (or wanted features,etc) & ill fix it.

-Nic

[Nic]

It works in Win2000 fine :)

It makes 2pass very easy & automatic in DVD2AVI, I hope this will be of use to the community...

Cheers,
-Nic

[prot0vision]

I supplied Ogo (or someone posing as Ogo) my modified DVD2Avi 1.76 which had 2 pass support in it, but I never heard back or saw any use of it.

I gave it to him since its only useful in his version of DVD2Avi which has resizing built-in.

If I could get his source code for 1.84 (? Which has been promised for a while now), I could add my code in about an hour...

prot0vision

[Nic]

Yeah I emailed him too, its weird, in one of his last posts he said he he'd release 1.83 on about the 26th of October! But my little prog will have to do for now, makes it simple enough, ya just run it once you've got the first pass going and leave it.

1.84 added Lame support to 1.76 which is ok, but I wouldn't mind adding azid support if we ever get the 1.82 source (ac3dec isn't that great)

(also Ive been fiddling around with vstrip, so I could add that, but it might complicate matters)

I hope people find my prog useful as a stop-gap....& I hope we get the source soon.....

Cheers,
-Nic

[trbarry]

I don't know about 1.82 but 1.84 source is on Doom9 sources.

- Tom

[Nic]

True, but 1.84 doesn't have the resizing source, which is what we all want (from 1.82). And Ogo hasn't released that yet, theres little point in adding new code to anything else.

-Nic

[trbarry]

Back on Oct 24 in this thread (http://rilanparty.com/vbb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=1314&perpage=20&pagenumber=3) Ogo wrote:
I've sent the source code of 1.82 to doom9 monday, should appear on the site anytime soon.

So what's up?

I'd like to have it too, maybe to add GreedyHMA and HDTV support, though I may never get to it.

- Tom

[ppera2]

Hmmm...
And what is about setting much higher bitrate for first pass ?

How can I set different bitrates for first & second pass ?

About support - IVTC is my first candidate.

[dvdyke]

We need VOBtoMP3 .07 support in DVD2AVI! (as well as 2 Pass DiVX4 of course) :)

[Nic]

Yeah, i'd love to make improvements to 1.82 (although im in the UK (PAL) so I dont deal with much NTSC style stuff, so its probably best I leave IVTC to someone else).....

I wonder if Doom9 lost it(with all his computer troubles) or never received it......Ogo seems to have dissappeared....

-Nic

[trbarry]

Has Ogo ever released any source of any release?

And GreedyHMA handles IVTC/deinterlace for both PAL & NTSC if I put that in there.

But it would still need resize code & Prot0visions 2-pass stuff. It seems a shame to duplicate the effort but maybe it would be worth it based upon 1.84 if Ogo never comes back.

And I really do want one that can handle ATSC/HDTV streams. Likely no one will do that soon if I don't add it myself. :(

- Tom

[Nic]

Ive been following the GreedyHMA thread, good stuff indeed Tom. Hmm, Id hate to have to redo what Ogo has already done, (especially since he implemented it so well), If we could eventually have GreedyHMA as part of DVD2AVI, along with AZID & LAME (linking through DLL's) & full 2pass support - then that would be a major leap forward :)

Didn't BlackSunSoft have contact with Ogo..... :confused:

I guess we'll try & find him & failing that.....start again :-(

-Nic

[ppera2]

I must tell here that Doom9 don't like DVD2AVI from some reason.
He also don't like to say to people bad news.

So don't expect too much support from him, maybe he even will not say anything here :D .

Look at this post as attempt to check is Doom9 visits this section at all :cool: .

[Nic]

I heard him report he was "suspicious" of other versions, which is understandable, with jackei away & ogo coming and gone (did the same thing with M2A)....It does feel like there is no order to DVD2AVI.

However, I see DVD2AVI as the cornerstone of DVD conversion (ported to MPEG2DEC.DLL, Used to make d2v, etc etc). So any thing to enhance it is good in my book...It just needs properly organising & structure, I think we could get that soon..

-Nic

[Doom9]

@ppera2: just because I don't like your way of testing (I stated my reasons.. you have your own which I understand... but nevertheless people first and foremost only care how many fps they get in a real encoding scenario.. ) plus nic just stated my reasons why I don't like the MODs.. I use dvd2avi 1.76 every day.

@nic: attached is the latest source I got from ogo. If you want to try emailing him pm me and I'll give you his email.

[trbarry]

plus nic just stated my reasons why I don't like the MODs.. I use dvd2avi 1.76 every day.

Doom9 -

You lost me there. Is there something seriously to watch out for past 1.76?

Confused...

- Tom

[Nic]

Thats a good step forward,

Now don't everyone rush to add whatever they want so we have a bilion versions floating around, im away this weekend so I cant do anything till Monday.

Hopefully ill have Ogo's address & will be able to email him to see if he's still working on it. If so we should just wait a while.

Then again, of course, do what you want....I just think the above is probably best... - but what do I know?

-Nic

[trbarry]

I'm not real fast to do anything. ;)

But, yes Doom9 thanks, and I can at least start taking a look at it.

- Tom

[Doom9]

well... 1.76 works.. and works and works.. and when I look at the posts here about 1.82.. not so sure. I prefer to use a well working and proven solution over something unproven. I want azid to do my ac3 decoding so I don't need the version with the built-in mp3 encoder and I want avisynth to do my resizing.. kinda trust it more than the half finished ogo version.

[ppera2]

@Doom9: just because I mentioned you here it doesn't mean that I'm angry with you because of misunderstandings about speed test. But you should reply to me, especially because I asked first about that article.

Also, I'm not against MODs in such texts. Everything could be better.
I even think that such speed tests, benchmarks can't be done good by only one man. It was thread about it on this forum, without concrete result.
Some people need such 'synthetic' benchmarks for purpose of testing their system. Why is Sandra so popular ?

Not liking MODs may have some reasons, but then you are in fact in some way against open source concept. People don't like to change their doctors. But when original doctor is unable to heal, better is other than nothing.
And I wouldn't call DVD2AVI 1.82 as MOD, it is more like expansion.

[trbarry]

Not liking MODs may have some reasons, but then you are in fact in some way against open source concept.

I'm not sure he is generally saying he's against all mods, and certainly not open source.

But any new contribution has to show that it's solid and gives you warm fuzzies before you feel can really rely on it. Sometimes it has be used for awhile and prove it doesn't catch the house on fire. And if you hear rumors of smoke then it makes you wonder a bit.

I can live with that.

- Tom

[Doom9]

why do I feel that certain people just "don't get me"? trbarry was right to the point.

[ppera2]

What I 'don't get' is weak arguments, lack of experimental spirit.

Talking against hacks when DivX 3.11 and Nandub are big hacks ?

Not using resize because AVISynth does it best (if I understood) ?

I want programm which will alone and fast make so called simple encoding. So: decoding Mpeg2 (VOB), resize & codec handle .

Lack of DVD2AVI is bad codec handle.
I think that AVISynth is not purposed for such primitive, 4 line long operations as is used practically only for resize.
I use AVISynth often for problematic DVD's, but must tell that TMPGEnc makes better and faster IVTC in most cases.
Virtual Dub would be almost ideal if it could handle VOBs and had YUV filters.
I think that there is all required in open sources. Just someone must compose all that.
We should in our discussions focus on such things - how to improve software and tools, not discussing what is better, what we don't like.
Everybody has reasons for using that what usually use.

[Nic]

Heard back from Ogo, He was very friendly & helpful & I think he agrees that DVD2AVI should be organised well & add MP3 support under one version (no lots of different ones). He reckons that he could have a 2pass + MP3 Enc DVD2AVI out by next week.......Im going to looking into some stuff too :)

Cheers,
-Nic

ps
I feel im too much like Doom9, I still use VStrip + Azid + Lame all by commandline, I just dont trust anything else yet....silly really :)

[dvdyke]

That's all very well and nice but just plain old MP3 doesn't cut it. I like the AC3 to Azid to Lame MP3 with switches. The new VOBtoMP3 is getting better everyday. If there was some of that in DVD2AVI along with 2 pass DiVX, Proper resizing (Like in the other dudes version) and maybe the ability to use Vdub filters it would be great!

Let the various versions appear for all I care. At some point they will all converge to become one all in one app that is all singing all dancing. Can't wait :)

[Nic]

I agree with U on the MP3 support, theres no point in adding anything half-heartedly....It has to be full MP3 VBR (user access to most switches)

But one step at a time.... :)

-Nic

[Rhaegar Targaryen]

so far all of the LAME gui's written by people in the divx community have failed to impress me... why? because they don't have support for user-definably switches and presets.

the true power of the latest versions of the LAME alphas/betas are in the various "tweaks" that the audiophile coders implement... they are all undocumented switches and can make a big difference in movie soundtrack encoding if you choose the right ones.

having checkboxes for all of lame's documented switches is pointless IMHO... just have a field to pass user-defined switches to the lame.exe executable.

[Nic]

I dont quite agree with you, but I see your point. If I start implementing some stuff from Azid+Lame into DVD2AVI then ill probably have to look into profiles rather than many many switches, I dont want to use the command-line exe, but I suppose its a possibility that I should look into (as it would satisfy everyone if properly implemented........

-Nic

[dvdyke]

The problem is (As the person who is writing VOBtoMP3/BeSweet in the audio forum is finding) is that the Lame DLL does not support all the switches that the EXE does).

[Integrator]

Okay, since this has become the 'my opinion on the state of DVD2AVI' thread, here's some of mine.

"I just wanna punch a button and have it do everything _I_ want. Screw what anybody else wants." This is unfortunately a prevalent attitude displayed by many in different sectors of the ripping community. Big surprise. Life is like that. :)

DVD2AVI is a cornerstone of ripping (any kind) along with SmartRipper and Vstrip. These programs were always intended to be a part of the '20 tools' approach. Even thinking about adding css & ifo parsing to DVD2AVI is heresy. The best is already available.

Anything done to further DVD2AVI should only be to enhance its use as a UNIVERSAL tool. Not to belittle the effort, but MP3 doesn't benefit anyone making m2v's for whatever purpose. The lame.dll approach IS insufficient (for 20 tool users' needs), and quite frankly, I don't even see what's wrong with console Lame. How is learning to use a gui easier than just typing in good settings from someone you trust? (or you could, god forbid, learn the program - a tough one, I realize). It's not like we're batching 20 tracks ripped from an audio CD. This isn't intended to be as harsh as I just re-read it, but I'll leave as-is. Point being, DVD2AVI 1.76 already has more sound support than _I_ ever expected, and it's adequate. Incorporating 3 or 5 other '20 tools' audio approaches is inappropriate. And that's just what I see being mentioned in this thread.

Good resizing is a great idea, but if it's not carried thru to the vfp, it's broken. :mad: Universality is defeated.

2 pass support enhances universality, so I'm all for it. Command-line is cool, too - gives the ability to write 'mash the button' apps like DVD2SVCD. :)

The sad fact is, v1.76 code still isn't virtually perfect, and I rarely see anyone even mention that. I'm convinced that the little force film glitches are in the code. And I look at it a little from time to time. But I'm not even a half-assed coder. And I don't even have time to rip, let alone chase subtle bugs with insufficient skills.

Oh, yeah. What I'd like to see added? A third field option, 'Transcode'. Everybody knows we need a better way to transcode. :) Pass everything thru untouched, tff-rff added back after encoding similar to pulldown.exe. Would make the anime m2v crowd very happy.

So to sum up this ramble, turning DVD2AVI into one or several special purpose tools is WRONG. Just some '20 tool' nobody guy's opinion. I'll shut up now and go back to looking at the 1.76 tff-rff thing.


- Integrator

[ppera2]

Interesting post, Integrator. And unusually I agree with almost whole :p .

I must tell that I don't care much for audio compression support. Extraction & decoding works fine for me. I use Lame VBR to encode audio, it's fast, and I can set apropriate bitrate after encoding video to fill CD to end.

Why resize don't work in Vfapi ? Because ver 1.82 is not written for such purpose, not written from man who could do it so fast.
But it's good for 'simple encoding'. You don't need other programm for video.

I hope that we will see much enhancements in near future

[philippas]

Great Work Nick!:)

[Nic]

I see all the points here, but no need to be quite as agressive.

DVD2AVI audio is bad, no one should use it. Simple as that, I havent heard one good thing about it (or AC3DEC for that matter). So I think that needs to be re-vamped.

My point is that if your using D2V files for AviSynth or VFAPI, then you can do everything you want with VDub or AviSynth (and of course just use 1.74/1.76). But the functionality added to DVD2AVI wont bother you.

DVD2AVI could be a great platform for making ripping to DivX4 as quick and as easy as possible....While also allowing D2V files so people can do it there own custom way.

Force Film is a bit wrong, http://www.inwards.com/~dbb/ explains it better than I could...that needs to be approached too.

To sum up, whats your problem with adding things to DVD2AVI? If it doesnt screw up the people that use d2v then whats the problem? Because I know it will make ripping for newbies very easy (and for myself :)

-Nic

(ps Ogo is not going to port the resizing to VFAPI, he told me his reasons in his last email, & I agree with him)

pps
Of course this is aimed at Integrator, thanx to everyone else for the support, it may well have re-sparked ogo's interest in developing DVD2AVI quicker (but he does sound everso busy).

[dvdyke]

If I could 'MASH' DVD2AVI, Nandub, DiVX4, Azid and Lame together I would :)

[b0b0b0b]

Isn't dvd2avi audio great for just demuxing the ac3 files and finding out their delays?

What other utility does the same?

btw, why is it faster to run the 2-pass in dvd2avi than it is to frameserve it to virtualdub and do the same thing? Are we seeing the overhead of IPC?

[Nic]

VStrip does the de-muxing of ac3 & shows audio delay
(i.e. VSTRIP input.vob -!doSound.ac3 0xbd 0x80)

It depends on how you frameserve but there will probably always be some overhead....

-Nic

[Doom9]

about experimentation spirit:

I gave dvd2avi 1.82 a spin and compared the raw numbers with an avisynth/vdub encoding session. Here's the rundown:

Film: Scream3, R1, 720x480, 16:9
DivX 4.11, 2 pass VBR, quality/time: slowest, bitrate: 850kbit/s, default 1 pass values

DVD2AVI 1.82: crop 56/54 pixels from top/bottom, precise bicubic resize to 640x272, force film on, audio disabled

DVD2AI 1.76: force film on, audio disabled
avisynth 1.05, Virtualdub 1.4.7.
AVS script:
LoadPlugin("C:\PROGRA~1\GORDIA~1\mpeg2dec.dll")
mpeg2source("D:\scream3\scream3.d2v")
crop(0,54,720,370)
BicubicResize(640,272,0,0.75)

Crop in avisynth is exactly the same as in DVD2AVI, 56 pixels from the top, 54 from the bottom.

FPS:
DVD2AVI 1.82: 31.7
Avisynth&Vdub: 28.5

I remeber getting some higher values with avisynth.. maybe I should've restarted the pc in between encoding but anyways, obviously DVD2AVI 1.82 is a bit faster. However, when I was messing around with the resizer I got a crash and some strange behavior (when you move around the window the movie part of the window lags behind the rest). So.. you can get some more speed.. but you have to pay a price for that and the price is stability. I can't remember DVD2AVI 1.74/1.76 ever crashing on my 2 PCs... and 1.82 did the very first time I used it to encode. So, in conclusion, I'll definitely look into upcoming versions from OGO and watch this forum closely to see what other people have to say about the tool but atm I wouldn't switch my complete GKnot solution against DVD2AVI 1.82 even though I could gain some FPS doing so.. but I'd lose that again having to manually do the audio (lazyness is a bitch, isn't it?)

[b0b0b0b]

Wouldn't it be funny if ogo took the actual frame rate and just added 3 to it to convince ppl to use his software?

That's what I would do.

[hlD2002]

doom9, the funny thing on it, that dvd2avi 1.82 uses the resizing algorithm of avisynth... i think this is because ogo did some little speed optimations here and there... found out while tracing through the code...

;)

[ppera2]

Interesting.... DVD2AVI 1.82 (also 1.76) never crashed by me. And I use Win98SE, Win ME and Win2K.
But Virtual Dub and Nandub very often crash, usually right after load avs or Vfapi project.

DVD2AVI is still very limited. I need often IVTC, smoother, so I need AVISynth, VDub too. For making PAL VCD from NTSC DVD much more.
Maybe my lazyness is cause that I don't use GKnot ?

[trbarry]

I though someone else posted there was an issue with either Avisynth 1.05 or DVD2AVI 1.82 that resize had a problem because someone left out an emms instruction at the end of some assembler routine.

Someone posted about this just recently but I can't remember the details.

But I know that 1.05/1.82 combination does seem to me to crash more often then the older one.

- Tom