x264 64 bit fails, 32 bit works

[edwinbradford]

Hi everyone,

(I should point out that I'm a complete newbie to this). OK so I know 64 bit x264 comes up from time to time and I don't want to be a pain but I've checked every thread I can find and nothing seems to help. I'm capturing video games via a Japanese PV3 (http://earthsoft.jp/PV3/index.html) capture card to a proprietary ".dv" codec. Avisynth recognizes the format providing you install a warpsharp (http://seraphy.fam.cx/~seraphy/program/WarpSharp/index.html) plugin (I chose the SSE3 for my Quad processor) into the standard plugins folder. So far so good.

I want to convert the captures to mp4 via MeGUI and x264. With 32 bit x264 all goes well but with 64 bit versions downloaded from Squid x264cli_x64 (http://members.optusnet.com.au/squid_80/) or Cef x264_x86_r682 (http://mirror05.x264.nl/Cef/) it fails with the logged message:

Log for job job2

Job commandline: "C:\Program Files (x86)\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe" --pass 1 --bitrate 1000 --stats "E:\AV\Kingdom_Hearts.stats" --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --direct auto --filter 1,1 --subme 1 --analyse none --me dia --threads auto --thread-input --sar 1:1 --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output NUL "E:\AV\Kingdom_Hearts.avs"
x264 [error]: could not open input file 'E:\AV\Kingdom_Hearts.avs'

I'm on XP 64, of course, using the regular MeGUI and I've installed Avisynth as follows: Installed regular 32 bit Avisyth using installer, replaced "Avisynth.dll" in Windows/System32 directory with Squid's 64 bit version (http://members.optusnet.com.au/squid_80/).

Ran the following .reg file:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\AVIFile\Extensions\avs]
@="{E6D6B700-124D-11D4-86F3-DB80AFD98778}"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E6D6B700-124D-11D4-86F3-DB80AFD98778}]
@="AviSynth"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\CLSID\{E6D6B700-124D-11D4-86F3-DB80AFD98778}\InProcServer32]
@="avisynth.dll"
"ThreadingModel"="Apartment"

Created a 64 bit plugin folder named "64bit" in Avisyth's plugins folder and ran the following .reg file:


Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\AviSynth]
@="C:\\Program Files\\AviSynth 2.5"
"plugindir2_5"="C:\\Program Files (x86)\\AviSynth 2.5\\plugins\\64bit"

Placed 64 bit DirectShowSource.dll from Squid's directory in this new 64 bit folder (although I don't think I need it for now). As I'm so new to this I don't know whether something here is not supported or I'm doing something wrong? Thanks for any help.

[burfadel]

Every part of the process chain needs to be 64 bit for 64 bit x264 to work. I assume you've installed 64 bit avisynth? just installing the 64 bit directshowsource file won't work. Then of course, you have to make sure the decoder the directshowsource uses is 64 bit, and the other filters in the avisynth script!

So if directshowsource loads ffdshow for example, ffdshow needs to be 64 bit too :)

[squid_80]

Something's not right. If you install regular 32-bit avisynth on windows x64 you should NOT get an avisynth.dll in windows\system32 - it will be in windows\syswow64. If it appears in windows\system32 you must be using a 32-bit file explorer and cannot see the real system32 directory. Also don't attempt to extract files to windows\system32 using 32-bit winrar/winzip because they'll end up in windows\syswow64.

Having said all this it sounds like a waste of time anyway because there won't be a 64-bit plugin/codec to decode your odd source format, unless you can find a 64-bit port of that warpsharp plugin.

[Bigmango]

Having said all this it sounds like a waste of time anyway because there won't be a 64-bit plugin/codec to decode your odd source format, unless you can find a 64-bit port of that warpsharp plugin.

The 64bit ffdshow decodes about everything (everything avc/xvid/divx/aac/mp3 etc...). (I have the vistacodecs pack with the x64 addon installed on vista x64 and now use the x64 windows mplayer by default, everything is decoded fine (the vistacodecs pack includes the x64 ffdshow).

Edit: could someone please list a complete tool chain with gui that works (i.ex: megui + 64bit ffdshow + 64bit avisynth + 64bit x264,...) ?

[edwinbradford]

Having said all this it sounds like a waste of time anyway because there won't be a 64-bit plugin/codec to decode your odd source format, unless you can find a 64-bit port of that warpsharp plugin.

Well that solves it then because I don't think there is a 64 bit version and no-one knows who the original author is. Also, I realize I made a mistake thinking I`d replaced the "Avisynth.dll" in the Windows/system32 directory, I hadn't, I'd just added the 64 bit version and Avisynth was running in 32 bit mode ignoring it. Which is why it all worked with the 32 bit x264.exe.

I can live without 64 bit so long as it works, thanks everyone for the help, it's saved me hours and I'm happy, I'm getting great quality MP4 results without any tweaking or fiddling (yet).

[richardlfyang]

unfortunately, my megui does not work properly in 32 bit vista.

proviously, it worked fine!

try to figure out the problem! :(

[Sharktooth]

if you have problems with megui and vista, the solution is few threads away... just :search:
a good news comes from the fact we'll gradually switch to .net 3.5 and that will ensure vista 100% compatibility (shame on you, microsoft!!!).

[laserfan]

Trying to decide about an OS for my new Quad-core system, and came across this old thread. Is this statement below still true? Why would anyone bother with 64bit OS if there are still a lot of weak links in the decoding/encoding chain?
Every part of the process chain needs to be 64 bit for 64 bit x264 to work. I assume you've installed 64 bit avisynth? just installing the 64 bit directshowsource file won't work. Then of course, you have to make sure the decoder the directshowsource uses is 64 bit, and the other filters in the avisynth script! So if directshowsource loads ffdshow for example, ffdshow needs to be 64 bit too :)

[nurbs]

From what I read here you can use 32-bit decoder and avisynth and then use avs2yuv to get the frames to a 64 bit x264.exe. Only problem with that is there are no tools that do that for you so you'll have to use CLI. I think you need a special x264 build because it doesn't support 64bit Windows without patches. I might be wrong. There was a thread in the x264 forum about that. It was rather recent (november or december), use search.

[7ekno]

Vista x64 runs fine with the 32bit versions, you lose less then 10% speed for not using 64bit ;)

Depending on what you do, just use a 2-4GB RAM Drive + TwriteAvi to dump frames in Huffy on it. That will ensure subsequent passes use a RAMDrive as source, and they will fly! Keeps all cores busy at the same time too ;)

Of course it only works well if your videos are short enough to reside in 2-4GB lossless ...

7ek

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Trying to decide about an OS for my new Quad-core system, and came across this old thread.

1. Encoding performance is mainly limited by your CPU. The OS itself has very very minor impact on encoding speed. 32-Bit vs 64-Bit does have impact though!

2. Get Windows XP x64-Edition. Gives you access to 64-Bit applications, but safes you from the Vista pain. Runs absolutely flawlessly for me. And I do a lot of encoding ;)

3. On 64-Bit Windows you can use 32-Bit x264 just fine. It won't be any faster than x264 running on a "normal" 32-Bit system though.

4. 64-Bit builds of x264 for Windows have been provided recently and they run ~10% faster! Unofficial patches are required to build Win64 x264, but unless you build x264 yourself you don't need to care :p

5. Still for 64-Bit x264 you will need to use 64-Bit Avisynth, which is very limited compared to it's 32-Bit ancestor. That will never change, as 64-Bit and 32-Bit code can't be mixed!

6. One workaround is: Use 64-Bit x264 with "avs2yuv" to grab the input from a 32-Bit process through a pipe. This way you can use 32-Bit Avisynth with 64-Bit x264.


The commandline for running x264 with avs2yuv would look like this:
C:\Downloads\x264win64_mingw>avs2yuv.exe input.avs -raw - | x264_x64.exe --crf 22 --threads 6 --progress --output c:\out_x64.mkv -

I think it's only a matter of time until the popular front-ends will support this method. It would need to be called like this:
ExecWait("cmd.exe /c \"avs2yuv.exe input.avs -raw - | x264_x64.exe --crf 22 --threads 6 --progress --output c:\out_x64.mkv -\"");

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I've just put together a very basic GUI to launch 64-Bit x264 with 32-Bit Avisynth:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5663/x264x64shot1gp9.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5663/x264x64shot1gp9.png) http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3881/x264x64shot2nt1.th.png (http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3881/x264x64shot2nt1.png)

Please note that this is only an example of how it can be done. There are no further improvements planned for this program!

(Download link removed, see post below (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1233122&postcount=29) for updated version)

[deets]

I've just put together a very basic GUI to launch 64-Bit x264 with 32-Bit Avisynth:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5663/x264x64shot1gp9.th.png (http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/5663/x264x64shot1gp9.png) http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3881/x264x64shot2nt1.th.png (http://img56.imageshack.us/img56/3881/x264x64shot2nt1.png)

Please note that this is only an example of how it can be done. There are no further improvements planned for this program!

Download: http://www.mediafire.com/file/jzznkhjjit2/x264_x64.2009-01-02.7z

nice one!! ill test this out when back on the 64 bit main pc. wish i could program as i would love to do something like this :(

[LoRd_MuldeR]

nice one!! ill test this out when back on the 64 bit main pc. wish i could program as i would love to do something like this :(

lol, that messy piece of software took me ~30 minutes and it's very limited in functionality. It's really nothing great!

No batch processing. No automated 2-pass. Your parameters even won't be checked for correctness, so with wrong user input it won't encode at all.

However I hope the popular x264 GUIs will be able implement 64-Bit support in a similar way...

[deets]

lol, that messy piece of software took me ~30 minutes and it's very limited in functionality. It's really nothing great!

No batch processing. No automated 2-pass. Your parameters even won't be checked for correctness, so with wrong user input it won't encode at all.

However I hope the popular x264 GUIs will be able implement 64-Bit support in a similar way...

it is if you quit trying the 64 bit versions because your brain started to hurt :) what did you programs it in?

would you mind if put something up on my site and hosted the file, with a note saying how its just a basic untested prog etc....

anyway is all working well on my main pc :) i just used the command line from megui and pasted it in, minus the bits it alerted me to

[laserfan]

Thanks very much for this clear post LM, but... you suggested getting XP x64 and then said 64-bit x264 for Windows only gave a 10% improvement. If yes I think I will stick with 32-bit XP as most of the posts in here just confuse me and make my head hurt! :ow:

1. Encoding performance is mainly limited by your CPU. The OS itself has very very minor impact on encoding speed. 32-Bit vs 64-Bit does have impact though!

2. Get Windows XP x64-Edition. Gives you access to 64-Bit applications, but safes you from the Vista pain. Runs absolutely flawlessly for me. And I do a lot of encoding ;)

3. On 64-Bit Windows you can use 32-Bit x264 just fine. It won't be any faster than x264 running on a "normal" 32-Bit system though.

4. 64-Bit builds of x264 for Windows have been provided recently and they run ~10% faster! Unofficial patches are required to build Win64 x264, but unless you build x264 yourself you don't need to care :p

5. Still for 64-Bit x264 you will need to use 64-Bit Avisynth, which is very limited compared to it's 32-Bit ancestor. That will never change, as 64-Bit and 32-Bit code can't be mixed!

6. One workaround is: Use 64-Bit x264 with "avs2yuv" to grab the input from a 32-Bit process through a pipe. This way you can use 32-Bit Avisynth with 64-Bit x264.


The commandline for running x264 with avs2yuv would look like this:


I think it's only a matter of time until the popular front-ends will support this method. It would need to be called like this:

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thanks very much for this clear post LM, but... you suggested getting XP x64 and then said 64-bit x264 for Windows only gave a 10% improvement. If yes I think I will stick with 32-bit XP as most of the posts in here just confuse me and make my head hurt! :ow:

A 10% speed-up is in fact a significant improvement for video encoding!

And since there is no drawback with going WindowsXP x64-Edition, why miss the extra speed-up when your hardware can do it ???

Another reason to use a 64-Bit OS is the ability to use more then ~3 GB of RAM.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

what did you programs it in?

Delphi 7.0

would you mind if put something up on my site and hosted the file, with a note saying how its just a basic untested prog etc....

No problem ;)


Here is a small update, which fixes a few things. Probably the last update. This time I included the source, just in case somebody is interested.

(Download link removed, see post below (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1233122&postcount=29) for updated version)

[deets]

thanks :) ill put up a little page for people, if i find it a useful prog, so will others im sure...

an yep 10% speed up in the x264 world is a huge boost and if its for free, do not pass it up.

no excuse not to get a 64 bit OS right now, it will handle all the 32 apps just fine and more and more proper 64 bit progs are coming out. I got vista 64 purely for its ram support and the hope that in the future video apps would take advantage of benefits of 64 bit. seems it was the right choice, well for me, i know vista is hated by a lot of people here ;)

[laserfan]

A 10% speed-up is in fact a significant improvement for video encoding!

And since there is no drawback with going WindowsXP x64-Edition, why miss the extra speed-up when your hardware can do it ???

Another reason to use a 64-Bit OS is the ability to use more then ~3 GB of RAM.I get it. Gonna have 4Gb RAM in this box also.

...no excuse not to get a 64 bit OS right now, it will handle all the 32 apps just fine and more and more proper 64 bit progs are coming out...My only excuse is that I already have XP 32bit I can use/transfer to the new box. Guess I will look & see what 64-bit XP costs these days. Thanks for the input.

[laserfan]

I did order XP Pro x64 yesterday, and very soon will assemble it together with a new Q6600, 4Gb RAM, and an Nvidia N9600GT video card for use w/DG's NV tools. My current machine is a P4 so all my saved shareware/freeware/apps are 32bit.

After the OS is installed and tested, what do y'all recommend for baseline software installation? Latest Avisynth 2.5.8 or an MT version? There's an MT version of ffdshow I've already bookmarked.

If there are any words-of-wisdom, or pitfalls I should avoid, please let me know. I'm gonna start Googling on "building a 64-bit PC" but if anyone here knows of some good links (or just can list some basic rules for me) I'm all ears!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

I think you don't need to worry about application software, such as Avisynth or ffdshow. You can uninstall/reinstall them flawlessly at any time.

Also I don't think there are major pitfalls, as driver support for WinXP x64 is pretty good (chipset, network, graphics/sound card, etc), as long as you don't use archaic hardware.

But you should enable "AHCPI SATA" mode instead of "IDE-compatibility" mode in the BIOS before you install Windows. It's hard to switch afterwards.

For all the rest today's BIOSes are pretty smart to choose the right default settings. I only had to adjust the timings and the voltage for my "out-of-specs" RAM modules.

[deets]

yep i would also agree, had no issues at all on my vista 64 setup. just installed the same progs i would have normally. i try to get things down to an absolute minimum though, so just have coreavc, avisynth and ffdshow. all are the normal 32 bit version.

oh and LR i notice we have the same cpu and mainboard, good choice :p

[laserfan]

I think you don't need to worry about application software, such as Avisynth or ffdshow. You can uninstall/reinstall them flawlessly at any time...

yep i would also agree, had no issues at all on my vista 64 setup. just installed the same progs i would have normally. i try to get things down to an absolute minimum though, so just have coreavc, avisynth and ffdshow. all are the normal 32 bit version.
Thanks very much for your replies! They are very reassuring!

LM I looked-up AHCI mode both Google and in my BIOS manual and don't see anything re: my system. Maybe it's an Intel-only thing and my mobo chipset is Nvidia:

MSI P7N Platinum, Q6600, Corsair 4Gb 800MHz, MSI N9600GT Video, Couple Maxtor ATA133 IDE drives, LG GGC-H20L BD Sata, Win XP Pro 64bit

I will take it slow re: software installation for sure as per your base deets! Thanks again guys! :)

[asarian]

A 10% speed-up is in fact a significant improvement for video encoding!

And since there is no drawback with going WindowsXP x64-Edition, why miss the extra speed-up when your hardware can do it ???

Wasn't it established, somewhere along the way when testing these pipes, that the 10% gain you get will be lost again (if not more) by the slow, and crude, Windows way of using pipes?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Wasn't it established, somewhere along the way when testing these pipes, that the 10% gain you get will be lost again (if not more) by the slow, and crude, Windows way of using pipes?

Test it yourself!

For me the 64-Bit x264 with piped input from 32-Bit av2yuv runs ~15 faster than 32-Bit x264 with native Avisynth input.

This is on Windows XP x64-Edition ;)


32-Bit x264:
[h264 @ 0x28984e0]Cannot parallelize deblocking type 1, decoding such frames in sequential order
avis [info]: 1920x1080 @ 29.97 fps (417 frames)
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 Cache64
x264 [info]: profile High, level 5.0
x264 [info]: slice I:3 Avg QP:18.91 size:190605 PSNR Mean Y:45.70 U:48.93V:51.17 Avg:46.70 Global:46.40
x264 [info]: slice P:147 Avg QP:22.38 size: 79625 PSNR Mean Y:42.38 U:46.48V:48.65 Avg:43.50 Global:43.34
x264 [info]: slice B:267 Avg QP:24.30 size: 32516 PSNR Mean Y:41.09 U:45.90V:47.99 Avg:42.29 Global:42.18
x264 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 1.7% 23.7% 43.5% 25.1% 6.0%
x264 [info]: mb I I16..4: 4.5% 77.7% 17.7%
x264 [info]: mb P I16..4: 1.6% 20.5% 1.1% P16..4: 54.2% 16.0% 5.6% 0.0% 0.0% skip: 1.1%
x264 [info]: mb B I16..4: 0.3% 1.9% 0.1% B16..8: 53.6% 1.1% 1.7% direct:12.3% skip:29.1% L0:39.5% L1:55.2% BI: 5.3%
x264 [info]: 8x8 transform intra:87.2% inter:76.0%
x264 [info]: ref P L0 70.6% 17.4% 5.1% 3.1% 2.1% 1.7%
x264 [info]: ref B L0 81.1% 12.3% 3.7% 2.0% 0.9%
x264 [info]: ref B L1 94.4% 5.6%
x264 [info]: SSIM Mean Y:0.9678312
x264 [info]: PSNR Mean Y:41.577 U:46.131 V:48.245 Avg:42.752 Global:42.578 kb/s: 12050.31

encoded 417 frames, 1.77 fps, 12050.69 kb/s

64-Bit x264:
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 Cache64
x264 [info]: profile High, level 5.0
[h264 @ 0x23081f0]Cannot parallelize deblocking type 1, decoding such frames in sequential order
E:\HD\palvik-Clip003 - Copy_001.avs: 1920x1080, 30000/1001 fps, 417 frames
x264 [info]: slice I:3 Avg QP:18.91 size:190605 PSNR Mean Y:45.70 U:48.93 V:51.17 Avg:46.70 Global:46.40
x264 [info]: slice P:147 Avg QP:22.38 size: 79625 PSNR Mean Y:42.38 U:46.48 V:48.65 Avg:43.50 Global:43.34
x264 [info]: slice B:267 Avg QP:24.30 size: 32516 PSNR Mean Y:41.09 U:45.90 V:47.99 Avg:42.29 Global:42.18
x264 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 1.7% 23.7% 43.5% 25.1% 6.0%
x264 [info]: mb I I16..4: 4.5% 77.7% 17.7%
x264 [info]: mb P I16..4: 1.6% 20.5% 1.1% P16..4: 54.2% 16.0% 5.6% 0.0% 0.0% skip: 1.1%
x264 [info]: mb B I16..4: 0.3% 1.9% 0.1% B16..8: 53.6% 1.1% 1.7% direct:12.3% skip:29.1% L0:39.5% L1:55.2% BI: 5.3%
x264 [info]: 8x8 transform intra:87.2% inter:76.0%
x264 [info]: ref P L0 70.6% 17.4% 5.1% 3.1% 2.1% 1.7%
x264 [info]: ref B L0 81.1% 12.3% 3.7% 2.0% 0.9%
x264 [info]: ref B L1 94.4% 5.6%
x264 [info]: SSIM Mean Y:0.9678312
x264 [info]: PSNR Mean Y:41.577 U:46.131 V:48.245 Avg:42.752 Global:42.578 kb/s: 12050.31

encoded 417 frames, 2.04 fps, 12050.69 kb/s

[asarian]

Test it yourself!

For me the 64-Bit x264 with piped input from 32-Bit av2yuv runs ~15 faster than 32-Bit x264 with native Avisynth input.

This is on Windows XP x64-Edition ;)

That looks mighty promising. :) I recall another thread about this, but I think that was about Vista-64 bit.

Time to buy a 64-bit XP then.

[deets]

on vista 64 i go from 73.68 fps to 77fps :D 2.32 fps increase, about 3% increase :) but ill take it

[LoRd_MuldeR]

on vista 64 i go from 73.68 fps to 77fps :D 2.32 fps increase, about 3% increase :) but ill take it

70+ fps is pretty fast! Try slower settings or something like 1080p as input. Maybe piping overhead becomes less critical at "slower" encoding speed.

Okay, I decided to publish right another update to my x264 x64 launcher. Think that's better than the initial version:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wjzmme2nlhm/x264_x64.2009-01-09.7z

(Again: Don't expect much. This is a very very simply tool. Use one of the famous x264 GUI's, if you need advanced features)

[deets]

ok on a 720p HD clip i went from 7.19fps to 8fps so that seems about 10% :)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Here is a new "experimental" version with custom piping code:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/wjzmme2nlhm/x264_x64.2009-01-09.7z

This may (or may not) be faster than using the old "cmd.exe /c" method to create the pipe...

[ScootyPuffJr]

Thanks Mulder. The launcher works great (though I couldn't get the command-line it produced to work). The x64 output for me was actually 1fps slower over half a dozen tests on my x64 W2k3 box ... seems odd.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Thanks Mulder. The launcher works great (though I couldn't get the command-line it produced to work). The x64 output for me was actually 1fps slower over half a dozen tests on my x64 W2k3 box ... seems odd.

It seems 64-Bit x264 is only faster when using "slow" settings. Otherwise the speed-up is lower than the Pipe overhead.

BTW: I fixed a few things in the meantime, so you should get the latest "launcher" version here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1234822&postcount=1

[asarian]

It seems 64-Bit x264 is only faster when using "slow" settings. Otherwise the speed-up is lower than the Pipe overhead.

I'm known for my 'insane' x264 settings. :) So, I'm still with ya on the pipe!

Great launcher!

[laserfan]

It seems 64-Bit x264 is only faster when using "slow" settings. Otherwise the speed-up is lower than the Pipe overhead.

BTW: I fixed a few things in the meantime, so you should get the latest "launcher" version here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1234822&postcount=1
Can someone pls check the link to the file for me--I'm getting a "Bad request" & not sure about my ISP.

My x64 system came together slick-as-a-whistle from a hardware POV, now I'm trying to get my head around 32-bit vs 64-bit. I've got 32-bit x264 working but not (yet) 64...

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Can someone pls check the link to the file for me--I'm getting a "Bad request" & not sure about my ISP.

http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8461/checkfileej6.th.png (http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/8461/checkfileej6.png)

(Anyway, I have put up an alternative download link here (http://forum.doom9.org/showpost.php?p=1234822&postcount=1))

[echohead]

how difficult would it be to implement automated 2-pass with this? id like to take advantage of the speed jump, but using --crf on SD content is a bit excessive (im getting ~4500kbps with animation).

[LoRd_MuldeR]

how difficult would it be to implement automated 2-pass with this? id like to take advantage of the speed jump, but using --crf on SD content is a bit excessive (im getting ~4500kbps with animation).

Not complicated at all :D

(Note that a CRF encode looks almost identical to a 2-Pass encode of the same size. It's just that with CRF you can't predict the size in advance)

[echohead]

would you mind sharing where youre getting both x264 builds that your launcher uses (or are you compiling them yourself)? i tried updating them with sharktooth's latest builds, but there was something about them that the launcher didnt like...

[LoRd_MuldeR]

would you mind sharing where youre getting both x264 builds that your launcher uses (or are you compiling them yourself)? i tried updating them with sharktooth's latest builds, but there was something about them that the launcher didnt like...

The 32-Bit build is from http://x264.nl/ and the 64-Bit build was taken from this (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=143539) thread.

I recommend you get the latest package from this thread:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=144140

(It currently contains x264 r1096, 32-Bit and 64-Bit. Works without any problem for me)