MeGUI - mencoder x264/snow/mpeg4/XviD GUI with AAC encoding and MP4 output

[Doom9]

MeGUI is my first attempt at a ripping software.

It is an mencoder based x264, XviD, Snow and libavcodec MPEG-4 (lmp4) encoder.
It supports all x264 features, all Snow features and a good number of XviD and libavcodec MPEG-4 features. In addition, it supports AAC audio encoding using the Nero AAC encoder (with BeSweet to decode the input audio), and muxing the result in an MP4 file using mp4box.

Supported input types: AviSynth scripts, AAC/AC3/MP2/MP3/MP4/MP4/WAV
Supported output types: AVI, raw video data, MP4 (audio and video)

MeGUI supports profiles for both audio and video so you don't have to configure every encoding job, but can just load your input and select a profile and you're ready to roll. There is a tab for Queues, similar from what you might know from VirtualDub.

In addition, there is a fully automatic MP4 creation facility with included bitrate calculations. You just need to specify a valid video and audio input, select a desired size and codec, and the GUI will do the rest for you.

Required tools:
.NET Framework 1.1
latest version of mencoder(it's part of the mplayer package, pick the version that best matches your CPU)
pgthreadGC2.dll (required when using mencoder & x264)
x264 CLI Alternative to mencoder for x264 encoding
besweet 1.5b29
latest version of mp4box(4/19 or newer)
DGMPGDec 1.21 or higher

check the readme file for more info on how to get started. Changelog of older versions comes bundled with the download.


Version history:

0.193 alpha 06/13/2005

bleeding edge alpha for the adventurous..

0.1915 05/08/2005, downloaded 338 times

new: supports x264.exe as alternative x264 encoder
new: supports x264 minimum gop size

changed: all references to merge jobs have been removed
changed: extension defaults to mp4 when using x264 for mp4 output (no separate muxing unless you are
in auto mode)

bugfix: the me type is set to the default in the GUI, preventing a mencoder abort if you didn't configure
the me type on your own
bugfix: invalid custom paths & working default path no longer causes a crash

0.1914 06/05/2005,

new: supports the AVC High Profile 8x8 transform in x264 (you will need a bleeding edge mencoder build for that.. CelticDruid has not yet released such a build at the time I'm writing this)
new: automatic vertical resolution suggestion for the AviSynth script creator, based on the DAR set and the croping values

0.1913 06/05/2005, downloaded 27 times

new: x264: all x264 options available in mencoder are supported. This includes abr, me range, me type, vbv buffer size, vbv initial buffer size, vbv maximum bitrate, bitrate variance (rate_tol), p8x8, number of threads and zones
new: xvid: supports adaptive quantizer (requires a brand new mencoder build, it was just added to mencoder yesterday) and zones
new: should be more stable towards improper AviSynth scripts (catches native Win32 errors as well now whenever it opens an AviSynth script)
new: additional disc sizes have been added as requested

changed: x264 options that do not apply to a certain mode are not used for the commandline anymore
changed: x264 and xvid credits rely on zones in the codec rather than external files. This will resolve whatever problems might have ocurred in the past using separate files and not use as much space because no files have to be merged anymore.


0.1912 05/16/2005, downloaded 609 times

new: dgindex is now run in its own thread so the GUI remains accessible while you create DGIndex projects
new: auto force film has been implemented. For now, open the new version once, close it again, then you can edit settings.xml to enable/disable it and set a percentage above which force film will be automatically applied

bugfix: chained jobs work properly now (broken since 0.1813)

0.1911a 05/16/2005 downloaded 62 times
changed: moved changelog from the 0.18x series from the forum to the included changelog
changed: updated readme file

0.1911 05/16/2005 downloaded 86 times

changed: autocrop function now uses 10 frames rather than 5, and uses the lowest possible crop value found if no majority can be found for one value from the 10 samples. This is done per crop value. In addition, I introduced a treshold to decide when a line/column is considered for cropping (got the idea from GKnot). It finally worked as it should in the few samples I have tried.

changed: non working DGIndex project files are now catched and no longer result in a crash.

0.191 05/15/2005 - downloaded 19 times

new: creates DGIndex projects (load them where you load the AviSynth script)
new: autocrop (it's a work in progress.. somebody come up with a better way than compare the color values of a pixel to the pixel in the upper left corner let me know)

bugfix: 5th subtitle track is now properly accessible

0.19 05/15/2005 downloaded 94 times

new: opens DGIndex project files.

bugfix: adding jobs, then deleting some and finally encoding no longer crashes
bugfix: changing the codec takes the encoding mode for the selected codec into account
bugfix: changing path of the desired executables updates the commandline immediately
bugfix: custom paths are fully functional now and do not throw an error if you don't have a copy of the executable in your megui path (it worked before and the custom path was used but the check prior to encoding wouldn't find the executable unless it was in the megui folder)

[Doom9]

my GUI only accepts AviSynth input and feeds them to mencoder via avs2yuv. That way you get the full power of AviSynth, and no hassle when trying to make mencoder to accept virtual AVIs made from AviSynth.

[buzzqw]

my GUI

???

what gui ?

BHH

[Yong]

Graphical User Interface

[kurt]

Originally posted by Doom9
Interesting.. just last week-end I wrote my own mencoder GUI specifically for x264 encoding. It supports all x264 parameters (needs testing though). But since I wrote it to try out VC# Express I'm having some trouble getting it to run on other machines.

@buzzqw: nothing to download yet

[buzzqw]

@kurt

oppss, sorry i missed it

thanks

BHH

[JoeBG]

Originally posted by Doom9
my GUI only accepts AviSynth input and feeds them to mencoder via avs2yuv. That way you get the full power of AviSynth, and no hassle when trying to make mencoder to accept virtual AVIs made from AviSynth.

Thats what we need. Where is the download? And the instruction?

[Doom9]

okay, here's a first version to be tested. I'm afraid you need the .net runtime 2.0 (still in beta). It doesn't encode yet, and the 3rd tab is still disabled (just got the defaults this second.. I don't write a parameter in the commandline if it's left at the default value to make it easier to spot problems in the commandline.. but that complicates my commandline generation). Also, no encoding so far, but you can copy & paste the commandline to a commandprompt.

Not that at this point I'm only looking for errors in the commandline generation. Once all the options work and encoding works as well, I'll release the source so whoever wants to see more options can add them personally.

initial version downloaded 465 times prior to removal

[SeeMoreDigital]

When I tried to run the .exe file I got this: -




Cheers

[Doom9]

do you have the .net framework 2.0 beta1 installed or the 1.1 framework? The reason for writing this gui basically was that I wanted to have a peek at .net 2.0.
It won't work if you don't have the 2.0 framework. All the nifty gui components require the new framework.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Sorry Doom9,

I wasn't aware that there was a 2.0 beta1 available. I only installed .NET in the first place, so I could test MPEG4 Modifier and Dolemite's (aka: stax) DVX


Cheers

[Doom9]

alright, I'm all done, encoding included. I finally resorted to a batchfile and some process list trickery to get the process priority down but I think we're pretty much there. Now all that needs to be done is go through every parameter and check if it works.

I also posted some screenshots so that you see what you're missing if you don't have the .net runtime 2.0

[Doom9]

bleh, why can't I attach multiple files at one?

[Doom9]

and the last shot

[bond]

Originally posted by Doom9
It won't work if you don't have the 2.0 framework. All the nifty gui components require the new framework.

you can get it here

nice screenshots doom9

[708145]

Nice work doom9!
I'm downloading the .NET2.0 ATM.

Does anyone know if and when mono will support this?

bis besser,
Tobias

I've downloaded the .NET 2.0 beta from the link bond provided and the current x264gui requires a newer version than that. The linked version is 2.0.40467 I think and as SeeMoreDigital pointed out via his picture the one required is 2.0.41013. Could someone please point us to this because I've scoured the Microsoft site and I cannot find it. In future Doom9, could you provide a link to the required redistributable alongside the GUI download link? Thanks.

[RedDwarf69]

Originally posted by bond
[B]i think a mencoder gui will surely give x264 and snow a boost and it would also ensure easier support for latest/future technologies than vfw and platform independance imho

Someone can give a summary of what are the actual limitations of vfw (and if mencoder corrects)?
We will be able to use variable framerate but no CODEC currently search for ways to use this, correct? And something else?

[Doom9]

@superdump: I compiled it using the Visual C# Express CTP build from October. I'm afraid it comes with a different .NET runtime that you can download (I've not found it for download). So what I'll do is compile again with the beta1 IDE, that should fix the problem. I'm just hoping that once .NET 2 gets out of beta we can get beyond such petty issues (that I've never had before with .NET.. stuff compiled with 1.1SP1 works just fine in 1.1 and even 1.0 if you take care of the little differences there are between the 1.1 and 1.0 release).

Anyway, I'll let you know when the beta1 compatible build is up.

As far as mono goes, once they incorporate Windows.Forms 2.0.. they now support Windows.Forms 1.1 (still limited though).. I wouldn't expect anything to run before Mono 2.0, but eventually the GUI should run under Mono regardless of the platform. Though by then I hope somebody has written a better GUI, it's really simplistic.

Now if somebody has me a reference documentat that explains all snow configuration parameters, their allowable and default values, I might be able to add snow support as well.

[iapir]

Originally posted by RedDwarf69
Someone can give a summary of what are the actual limitations of vfw (and if mencoder corrects)?
We will be able to use variable framerate but no CODEC currently search for ways to use this, correct? And something else?

So far the only solution I know is to encode different parts separately and then merge the result together with timecode files in Matroska.

It would be nice someday to have an API and an editor to do that. But mencoder is not designed to do that anyway. It has somehow the same limitations as VfW.