Submitted for Your Approval: GKnot 0.35 + XviD 1.1

[mig81]

Hi, I just did a GKnot 0.35 + XviD 1.1, 3 CD encode with VBR MP3 at 192kbps and I was wondering whether, based on my log, the encode turned out OK (file attached).

My second question is why, when I do a compressibility test with DivX 6 (lost of problems with it, as it were), I get outrageous percentages like 1153% and even with XviD I get something in the thousands of percent. However, the encode a) looks great, b) sounds great and is c) of a decent resolution, so I'm at a loss.

Thirdly: do you plan to implement further DivX 6 support, because 5.x worked like a charm and now DivX 6 keeps giving me 1 MB encodes adfter working on them for hours!

Thanks a lot in advance.

[mig81]

Um, so can someone answer this very simple question, please? All I want to know is whether the rip's audio and video are of decent bitrates.

[chilledoutuk]

bitrates seem fine more importantly watch it to see if the encode is good.

[mig81]

bitrates seem fine more importantly watch it to see if the encode is good.

Thanks for getting back to me. It seems fine visually. Are there any telltale signs of beginner's errors, though? Like I said, this is my first XviD 1.1 encode and I can't believe my eyes - it turned out to be quite spectacular - on the first try!

[numaios]

when I do a compressibility test with DivX 6 (lost of problems with it, as it were), I get outrageous percentages like 1153% and even with XviD I get something in the thousands of percent.
That's because you're using a really high video bitrate. 3 CDs for 1 movie... ¡ 2568 kbps! You are not increasing image quality if you go further 2000 kbps...

now DivX 6 keeps giving me 1 MB encodes adfter working on them for hours!
Remember you have to enter manually the video bitrate in the codec settings window (both in the 1st and the Nth passes) when using DivX 6.

By the way, I've seen that you're using a 832 x 352 resolution with a DVD input. Remember upsizing is not recommended!

[mig81]

That's because you're using a really high video bitrate. 3 CDs for 1 movie... ¡ 2568 kbps! You are not increasing image quality if you go further 2000 kbps...

Damn! Well, no one told me that, and, since the option is there, I always though that bigger is better.

Remember you have to enter manually the video bitrate in the codec settings window (both in the 1st and the Nth passes) when using DivX 6.

By the way, I've seen that you're using a 832 x 352 resolution with a DVD input. Remember upsizing is not recommended!

Mhumm. Another common-sense error - I suppose - resizing the original dimensions. Well, live and learn; thanks for pointing these problems out to me.

Do you happen to know if the DivX 6 thing will ever be made more automatic with regard to the manual bitrate entry?

[numaios]

You are welcome!

If you want to do a test, try this: the whole movie into 1 CD with XviD (2-pass encoding), Motion Search Precision set to 6, VHQ set to 4, VHQ for B-frames too, Trellis Quantization enabled, max. consecutive b-frames set to 2 (to 3 if the movie is very very long). And be careful with the resolution (moving the slider in GK, you will have to downsize). You'll see the results, amazing!

If you don't like it, then try with 2 CD's, but I would never use 3.

Do you happen to know if the DivX 6 thing will ever be made more automatic with regard to the manual bitrate entry?
If lenOx releases a new version of GK, maybe that issue will get fixed.

[mig81]

Mhumm, so Axed, could you explain "cleaning" and compressibility to me, please? I never actually got compressibility to work for me. I always get outrageous percentages in that little red window, so I don't use it outright... In fact, could you look at my logfile above and tell me whether compressibility could've made a difference?

[numaios]

Well, that's exactly what Axed said: if you get outrageous percentages in that little red window means that in that specific case you shouldn't use such a high bitrate.

If 2,500kbps of bitrate were really necessary, the percentage window would be yellow.

[mig81]

Aaaaah! I got it now. Thx a lot.

[numaios]

You're welcome :)

[CWR03]

Bitrate means nothing, and saying something like "Dont go above xxxx bitrate" isnt really correct. You should be using a Compressibility test to see what bitrate, and resolution, you want and work your way from there.

There is some importance to bitrate - for example if the bitrate is so high that it exceeds the transfer rate of the drive, the high-quality video is useless. Beyond that, though there are limits you just don't need to exceed as you're just wasting space. Resizing can be done above the source (unless AutoGK won't work that way, I don't know - I use Gordian Knot) but it is just more waste as you cannot improve on a picture just by making it bigger. Personally, I like to maintain one original aspect, usually width but it depends on the source, which prevents some distorting horizontal artifacts that I used to get with more automated setups.

[mig81]

Another valuable point. CWR03, could you give sample transfer rates for 7200 RPM SATA drives and, say 32x~50x CD drives? Or is there a place that lists that stuff?