gknot consistently makes files far too small?

[wibblyone]

I am trying to master GKnot and the problem I have is that it consistently makes files that are too small (however much I move that slider around!). For example, I have been trying to rip a yoga video (yoga.d2v, yoga.avs) that consists of two vobs to create a divx file of 800 mb or so and I cant make one larger than 190 mb no matter how I fiddle with the settings, so obiously the quality is poor even though I can play the file back (with audio) in wmp or divx player etc. Clearly I am most of the way to getting gknot to work but unless I can get more control over the file size the results aren't really watching.

Here are my settings:

pal 25 fps non-anomorphic 4:3; mode = calc avge bit rate; codec = divx5 pro; duration = 4259 secs (70 min 59 sec, 1 hr 10 min 59 sec);1 cd = 800 mb total size (819200 kb); audioa = 160 kbps; calculate frame overhead = checked; 1 x vbrmp3 = checked; video avge bitrate = 1403 kbps; video size 712 mb (729306 kbps); dvd2avi = 106481 frames at 25.000 fps; 0.234 bits/(pixel*frame); autocrop set to smart crop all; output of 239616 pixels 576x416 w-modul 32 h-modul 16

I suspect the problem is hinted at in error messages in the attached log file but I find them a bit cryptic. in particular the line "Error: Could not open F:\For_Editing\DivX\Yoga\yoga.log" - there is no yoga.log file. At what point should have it been generated, and is its absence causing the file-size issue?

Thanks in advance for any help :-)

[jggimi]

Welcome to the forums! I hope you find them useful.

There are some common reasons why the log file may not be found. Check out this sticky thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=48936) from the Gknot forum. You may have one of these issues. (This thread also goes into what that log file is used for.)

Looking at your Gknot_log, I noted that you are using Gknot 0.26; that release has been supplanted by newer releases since. If I recall correctly, 0.26 will not work with DivX 5.03 and newer releases due to changes in the codec's API. You'll note that this is one of the possibilities listed in that FAQ.

If, after getting your log file issue straightened out, allowing 2-pass encoding, you may still have undersized files. I noticed, from your log, that you have not done any compression checks -- of course, if you have codec problems, you can't do one anyway -- but you'll find some good advice about compression checks in this sticky thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24584) from the DivX 5 forum, which will help you hit your intended file size with the highest possible quality (for that size, in that resolution).

[wibblyone]

Thanks very much; that's very helpful. I am galled by the fact that I didn't find that thread on the forums but I really appreciate your taking the time to reply. A first glance suggests it may indeed be a codec problem; I'll get the latest GKnot and reinstall DivX then take it from there.