View Single Post
Old 9th August 2005, 14:13   #4  |  Link
Sharktooth
Mr. Sandman
 
Sharktooth's Avatar
 
Join Date: Sep 2003
Location: Haddonfield, IL
Posts: 11,768
Faq

Read them carefully and DO NOT contact me by PM asking for help. Follow the forum rules and after searching if you cant find any answer, ask your questions in the forum.

Q1: When there will be a new build?
A: Daily. But since some time i dont build x264 for win32. So i link to external builds (usually x264.nl)

Q2: What does Summer Break mean?
A: It means, in summer, daily builds are no longer "dailies" for obvious reasons

Q3: Are yours official builds?
A: No, i'm not an "official" builder however the above links refers to builds.

Q4: What are the differences between "standard-SVN" builds and pathced builds?
A: Patched builds usually incorporate latest patches (beta or experimental - even from third parties and sometimes from me) that usually get committed to the SVN in the near future.

Q5: What does the MMX suffix mean? Do your builds use MMX only?
A: The MMX suffix (no longer used in the filename) means you need at least a MMX cpu to make my builds work, but if SSE/SSE2 are present they'll get used as well.

Q6: What compiler/software do you use to make your builds?
A: MingGW + GCC + YASM

Q7: I've heard the Intel compiler (ICL) produces faster binaries than GCC, why don't you use it for your builds?
A: The ICL would be faster only if the DSP routines (the ones that eat CPU cycles) weren't written in assembly language. So compiling x264 with ICL wouldn't produce any noticeably faster x264 binaries. Also ICL for windows is payware.

Q8: I've tried to encode a movie with the x264CLI and the output file is unplayable (or the CLI crashed during encoding). WTF?!?!?
A: Probably you tried to encode a 23.976 source or some other non integer FPS sources with an old x264 revision. Be sure to get an updated version and if you still have problems just use RAW output and mp4box to create a working MP4 file or check this thread for a workaround.

Q9: Will the latest GeexBox/XBMC play my x264 encoded files?
A: Yes but ensure you have the very latest version. Starting from 0.98.6 it supports h.264 main profile decoding only. That means no 8x8dct and no custom matrices are supported. Later GeexBox version may be updated with the latest libavcodec and may support High-Profile.

Q10: Can i play my x264 encoded files with my modded Xbox?
A: Yes, but it depends on how much you modified your xbox. The stock xbox is equipped with a 733Mhz CPU that is not able to decode all the x264 (or AVC in general) features. If you haven't the Xbox CPU mod (the CPU gets replaced with a 1.4Ghz one) there are some guidelines you have to follow when encoding your files with x264 or other AVC encoders.
Find more info in this thread.

Q11: What'st the difference between VFW and CLI?
A: VFW is Video For Windows, an ancient tech created by microsoft (copying some stuff from quicktime), full of quirks and not able to support modern codecs. x264VFW is a ugly hack to make x264 work (more or less) with VFW, hence softwares like virtualdub and its modifications. The use of x264VFW is NOT recommended. x264 VFW is no longer officially supported.
CLI is a general term that means Command Line Interface. The classic console (command prompt) command which is generic and has no limitations like VFW.

Q12: What is AVC2AVI?
A: AVC2AVI is a tool to place AVC raw streams in the AVI container. It is useful for editing your encodes using VirtualDub(mod) or similar video editors that do not support the MP4 format or other formats. AVI is usually bound to VFW. The use of h.264/AVC streams in AVI is not recommended.

Q13: x264 is slow as hell, why?
A: x264 source contains tons of optimizations but being a very complex codec (more than xvid and every other Mpeg4 ASP codec) that's a perfectly normal behaviour. More quality = less speed...but thanks to those optimizations, x264 can be even blazing fast. If you want more speed do not enable all the bells and whistles and keep settings to a sane level.

Q14: Where i can get older versions of your builds?
A: I dont keep an archive of my old builds, so actually you can't get them unless someone has them mirrored somewhere. However you can get old revisions compiled by celtic druid or bobor. The links to the sites are provided in the first post.

Q15: The included MeGUI doesn't work or crashes. What can i do?
A: MeGUI is no longer included in my builds. Please uninstall x264, get and install latest MeGUI version from http://www.sf.net/projects/megui. It will automatically get a x264 build during the auto-update.

Q16: Sometimes the SVN/GIT revision is newer than the builds linked in this thread. Aren't yours daily builds?
A: Sometimes the changes in the new revisions doesn't affect the win32 builds or doesn't affect the final binaries at all. So compiling the new code revision is perfectly useless since the binaries will be exactly the same as the old one. Sometimes it can also happen i hadn't found some free time to compile new builds...

Q17: Is it possible to set an Aspect Ratio in x264 and what's Sample AR (SAR)?
A: Yes, you have to set the Sample Aspect Ratio (SAR) in the codec options. SAR is the same as Pixel Aspect Ratio (PAR) and it's different from Display Aspect Ratio (DAR).
To calculate the SAR starting from DAR you can use the following formula:
SAR (or PAR) = DAR*height/width.
More info can be found here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=100519
and here http://trac.videolan.org/x264/file/trunk/doc/vui.txt

Q18: Does x264 produce BluRay compliant h.264 streams?
A: Yes. Recently x264 was updated to be fully capable of producing streams playable on BluRay players. You can find a guide for BluRay encoding with x264 here: http://sites.google.com/site/x264bluray/home

Q19: Can i use VirtualDub or any other VFW based editor to encode with x264?
A: Yes, using a x264 VFW build but VFW is so obsolete and limited x264VFW is no longer mantained by the x264 devs and because VFW and AVI are not properly able to handle h.264 features without some "hacking" that could compromise compatibility, playback and/or editing.

Q20: If VFW can't handle correctly h.264, is there a software i can i use for editing in place of VirtualDub or other VFW based editors?
A: Currently there are few softwares that can do that. One is Avidemux (a free and complete editor similar to Vdub but not based on VFW) and then there are tools like mp4box and mp4creator (and relative GUIs) that can split, demux, mux and join mp4 files containing h.264 streams. MKVToolnix does the same for MKV files.

Q21: Is x264 (h.264 in general) compatible with DivX certified standalone players?
A: No. h.264 is a completely different codec and cant be played back by standalones unless specified.

Q22: Are there any other usable OpenSource h.264 encoders other than x264?
A: Yes and no. There are other OSS h.264 encoders but their development is discontinued or incomplete. However the Xvid dev team is working on Xvid AVC but they didn't release any code yet.

Q23: Is there a x264 1.0 build?
A: No, since x264 is in continuous development. The Unpatched builds may be considered more stable than the patched ones though.

Q24: Do x264 support multiprocessor systems or multicore CPUs?
A: Yes, check the --threads option usage.

Q25: What is/are the best...
A: Stop! There is no "best" as per forum rules. If you're looking for the "best" x264 options, most of the GUIs that support x264 come with a bunch of presets that will fit almost all your needs. If you're looking for the "best" h.264 encoder, then i suggest to use the forum search function and look for comparisons. However x264 is really good and can hardly be beaten by commercial encoders.

Q26: Can i use x264 for commercial purposes?
A: Yes but you need to contact MPEG-LA or Via for licensing the commercial use of a h.264 encoder since h.264 (also known as AVC or MPEG-4v10) is patented.

Q28: Where i can find more general info about h.264 and related standards?
A: Here: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=96059

Q29: What happened to your builds and why they're no longer updated?
A: I actually switched to linux. Maybe in some time in the future my builds will be back but the builds by x264.nl i linked in the first post are almost as good as mine.

... more to come.

Last edited by Sharktooth; 7th July 2010 at 13:37. Reason: updates.
Sharktooth is offline   Reply With Quote