Garbled/Corrupted frames in RV9

[LeonMcNichol]

Alright, I'm not sure if I'm in the right forum or not or if this has been answered. I searched for this topic, but ended up with a lot of OGM threads and no RV9 ones.

I recently tried RV9 to check the quality of it for size with anime. I must say, I'm really impressed. Better than divx at about the same bitrate at half the resolution. (640x480 is what I tried. Made it fit into 100mbs. Though, ended up with a lot lower file size than I shot for... 87.8MBs...) :) Anyways, I finally figured out how to make the subtitles display (now I just wish RealText had anti alias) when I noticed a few garbled frames. Like these two:

http://www.ravensgarage.com/~leonsite/images/badframe01.jpg
http://www.ravensgarage.com/~leonsite/images/badframe02.jpg

I converted using AutoRV9 XP v1.3 beta 2. (I like this program a lot, though it kind of messes up when adding the subtitles. Have to edit the smil. Plus, I wish there was a job queue. Where you can encode several episodes overnight.) I left it pretty much default. The settings I did change were:

Filters-
InverseTelecine: DeComb

Audio-
Channels Mode: Stereo
Bitrate: 64 Kbps

Codec-
Maximum Framerate: 24
Total File Size: 100
Select E.H.Q. Mode: Extra High

Can someone tell me what do I do to not get this? Was it EHQ?

Oh and does anyone know how to make RealMedia play on a second monitor using the multi moniter option? When I drag it into my TV's window, I get sound, but no video. (Kind of like what happens when you try to screen capture.) I'm very newbie when it comes to things like this. When I open avi files with realone, it shows up like it should. Hmmm... Seems when you open MPEG files in RealOne it does the same thing. ><

[karl_lillevold]

I'm really impressed. Better than divx at about the same bitrate and half the resolution
I am glad you like the quality. Your encodes at 640x480 look very nice.
Well, except the garbled video.

So thanks for sending me those extracts. It made me realize a rather serious problem.. You are not really using EHQ, just the old RV9, which can create corrupt bitstreams if the encoderComplexity option is used (this is the parameter that EHQ sets in the audience file).

The problem is that AutoRV9 1.3b2 includes a older version of Producer. So even though you enable EHQ you will not really get it unless you replace the Producer it has in softs/RP9_Light with the latest milestone from Helix Community. See this thread on EHQ (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=55193).

DC will be releasing another update soon, but until then, you have to update the Producer it includes.

Thanks!

[karl_lillevold]

Originally posted by LeonMcNichol

Codec-
Maximum Framerate: 24
oh, i just remembered, i was going to mention this: a useful advice is to never change the maximum framerate unless you are doing very low bitrates. if by chance you set max frame rate to 24 fps, and you want to use Producer's inverse telecine, frames will get dropped before inverse telecine has a chance to analyze the frames - and it will not work correctly. Just leave max framerate at 30, when Decomb drops frames so the input framerate to Producer is 23.976, that will work just fine.
Originally posted by LeonMcNichol

Oh and does anyone know how to make RealMedia play on a second monitor using the multi moniter option?
The renderer in RealOne does not support overlay surfaces on multiple monitors, but there are alternatives that does .. maybe not perfectly, because there are problems with multiple monitor overlay support. I do not have much experience with it.

[Atamido]

Originally posted by karl_lillevold
The renderer in RealOne does not support overlay surfaces on multiple monitors, but there are alternatives that does .. maybe not perfectly, because there are problems with multiple monitor overlay support. I do not have much experience with it. This is typically a video driver issue. A lot of video cards don't support overlay on two monitors simultaneously. But, you can usually select which monitor you want. I have seen them label the one that overlay will work on as the Primary display? But if it is the case, there is usually some sort of overlay option.

[LeonMcNichol]

Alright, I don't know if I updated producer right. >< I'm still getting the grabled frames. I re-encoded the episode last night and ended up with 3 points where the image got corrupted. Two of which were in similar areas of the previous time, though, those two weren't as severe (grabled either the bottom or the left lower corner). The last one though, at the very ending before the credits, was a bad one. The whole frame was messed up.

Can someone do me a favor and package me the whole \Rp9_Light\ folder with the updated producer for AutoRV9 into a zip file and make it available for idiots like me? >< This way I can know it's my fault somehow in causing this.

BTW, I'm ending up with undersize files. I shoot for 100MBs and end up with 88MBs, though the quality is great, I still can't fit more than 7 on one disc at that size...

As for the overlay issue with realone. I can view it on my TV if I set it to one source using two monitors. Then setting which is primary and which is secondary. This is actually the way I used to do it, but that monopolized my desktop as well. I actually figured out I could extend my desktop onto a second monitor much later (I'm an idiot.) and drag and drop zoomplayer into it and play my movies that way. I like this process a lot. :D

[karl_lillevold]

can you open a command prompt window, cd to the folder where autorv9.exe is, then cd to Softs\Rp9_Light, then type 'producer -v'
you should see something like

producer -v
Helix(TM) DNA Producer 9.2 Build number: 9.2.0.254

Which version number do you see?

[LeonMcNichol]

Helix(TM) DNA Producer 9.2 Build number: 9.2.0.254

That is what I see. Hmmm... That's the same thing you wrote? Is this the version I'm supposed to have?

[karl_lillevold]

hmm, i just realized, perhaps you only updated producer.exe. That won't help. RV9 encoding and EHQ lives in the erv4.dll. You can find this in Softs\RP9_Light\codecs. Can you right click on erv4.dll in this folder, and look at the description. It should say "RealVideo 9 EHQ". Thanks!

EDIT: The one that comes with AutoRV9-1.3b2 says "RealVideo 9" only.

[LeonMcNichol]

Yep, have that in the Description.

Modified: Friday, June 20, 2003, 7:54:26
File version: 6.0.7.2646
Description: RealVideo 9 EHQ

[karl_lillevold]

hmm, then I am not sure what the problem is. The error in the bitstreams you created should occur only when using that pre-EHQ DLL. I was wondering if you could extract a couple of minutes around one problem point from your source material (Chopper XP should work), and send this extract to the ftp address I provided. I think I have to see if I can repro this on my end. Could you also include the file c:\AutoRV9_Movie.rpad that AutoRV9 created for your job?

[LeonMcNichol]

Welp, thanks to karl_lillevold, I was able to figure out my problem. (Actually it was the other way around. I helped him figure it out.) It was due to AutoRV9 trying to use the pre-EHQ dll. Karl contacted the creator of AutoRV9 to have him come out with a new version that includes the good producer version. So things like what I experienced wont happen again.

I would like to thank all the people that helped me out. Mainly karl_lillevold for his big help in finding the problem.

Eventhough it takes me 6 hours now (was 4 when I had the problem), I really like the quality of the encodes. Plus thanks to gabest, playback isn't so limited as it was and I can play the video on my TV screen now, leaving it two monitors and not just 1 with two outs.