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Old 20th May 2006, 10:49   #1  |  Link
Nic
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WMNicEnc Update (VC-1 Support)

http://nic.dnsalias.com

Updated WMNicEnc (last update was 3 years ago!) to support modifiying the options of the new VC-1 codec.

Should make testing the settings easier than fiddling with the registry. Please let me know of any problems as I haven't had time to test yet.

Cheers,
-Nic
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Old 20th May 2006, 11:26   #2  |  Link
GodofaGap
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Many thanks Nic. Gonna try right away.
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Old 20th May 2006, 14:25   #3  |  Link
Jerry_Sm@rt
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any mirrors?can not link to the address here
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Old 20th May 2006, 14:43   #4  |  Link
Yama4050242
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Jerry_Sm@rt
try this
http://www.hidemyass.com/
i got it from ST
it works for me
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Old 21st May 2006, 04:43   #5  |  Link
zambelli
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Nice work, Nic, and thanks for updating the tool!

Some comments:
  • For settings that are just 0/1 switches (i.e. Force LoopFilter), it might be more intuitive if the "0" and "1" were replaced with "Off" and "On".
  • In general, having descriptive values (i.e. Weak/Medium/Strong instead of 1/2/3) might make the encoder easier to use. Otherwise, people will need to look up the descriptions online - so perhaps providing a hyperlink would also be a good idea.
  • When "Compression Optimization Type" is set to 1, I would expect all associated settings to automatically change. Even though that might make things more complicated on the back end, it would make the UI more intuitive, IMHO. Or consider separating "COT" from the other options and making it a radio button or something. Unlike other settings, this one's a preset so it would make sense if it were somehow "special".
  • The WVC1 complexity setting actually has a range 0 through 5. Default is 3 for offline encoding and 2 for streaming. Check out this reference.
  • If you wanted to support interlaced encoding, here's what you would need: a checkbox for interlaced encoding, another option to select field dominance (top/bottom/auto) and another to force the encoder to use a specific encoding method ("Video Type" AP registry setting).
  • You should add an option for Video Buffer size. Setting the buffer size to large values (i.e. 60 secs) on long offline encodes should improve the quality. It should be set to lower values on either short sources or when streaming.
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Old 21st May 2006, 09:52   #6  |  Link
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@Zambelli:
Quote:
For settings that are just 0/1 switches (i.e. Force LoopFilter), it might be more intuitive if the "0" and "1" were replaced with "Off" and "On"
Maybe your right. I may just do that.
Quote:
In general, having descriptive values (i.e. Weak/Medium/Strong instead of 1/2/3) might make the encoder easier to use. Otherwise, people will need to look up the descriptions online - so perhaps providing a hyperlink would also be a good idea.
That's what the tooltips are for, they only have to leave their mouse over the combobox to get a description of what the numbers mean. Also, the weak/medium/strong will work in some cases, not in others though where -2, -1, etc are options.
Quote:
When "Compression Optimization Type" is set to 1, I would expect all associated settings to automatically change. Even though that might make things more complicated on the back end, it would make the UI more intuitive, IMHO. Or consider separating "COT" from the other options and making it a radio button or something. Unlike other settings, this one's a preset so it would make sense if it were somehow "special".
Maybe, I'll have to consider how intuitive the right logic would be. i.e. if you turn it off, should the settings revert (& should it only change settings that are "Not Set" (Think I'm going to change that wording to "Default"))
Quote:
The WVC1 complexity setting actually has a range 0 through 5. Default is 3 for offline
True. But other codecs are effected by this setting too, and they don't have that range (sometimes just 0 and 1). Also, people either want it done quick or want it done well IMHO. But I think I will change the wording to "Min" & "Max".
Quote:
If you wanted to support interlaced encoding...
Yup. I need to add that. Thanks for the links
Quote:
You should add an option for Video Buffer size...
Again, your dead right. Will add that ASAP

Thanks for the feedback I'll try and find a nice compromise. I hope it's working well for people.

Now some questions:

1) Couldn't believe it was released 3 years ago....Any word on when Windows Media Format 11 SDK will be released? (if at all)
2) Are there any other Registry settings that might be of some use? A look through the WM DLLs suggests there are others, but maybe they aren't useful/working. Are there similar ones for Audio?
3) One of my colleagues was at a Hi-Def conference this past week and heard mention a couple of times of something called VC-2. Any relation to a future MS product in the works or is he confusing it with something with a similar name?

Thanks again,
-Nic
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Old 21st May 2006, 10:12   #7  |  Link
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Since your tool modifies registry entries in place, what happens with multiple instances of it running at once with different settings?

What are the prospects of a command line version, for integration into tools like MeGUI?
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Old 22nd May 2006, 10:26   #8  |  Link
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Seeing as suggestions are being thrown about the place, I have one. Maybe below the progress bar, there could be a status section detailing what frame is currently being encoded, how long it's taken etc.
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Old 22nd May 2006, 10:52   #9  |  Link
Nic
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The moon on a stick that's what you guys want.....

@Inventive: I'll try and add that in.

@berrinam: Sharing registry settings means that multiple versions will have to have the same settings if things are going to run smoothly. I may add some commandline parameters for encoding in the future.

-Nic
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Old 22nd May 2006, 16:40   #10  |  Link
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Thanks Nic. I was hoping you were going to release a new one of these.

- Tom
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Old 22nd May 2006, 22:58   #11  |  Link
zambelli
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nic
That's what the tooltips are for, they only have to leave their mouse over the combobox to get a description of what the numbers mean. Also, the weak/medium/strong will work in some cases, not in others though where -2, -1, etc are options.
The tooltips are useful, but they only describe the setting - not the possible values. For example, the tooltip for "Motion Search Level" describes the function of the setting, but it doesn't explain the meaning of -2, -1, 0, 1 and 2.

Quote:
Maybe, I'll have to consider how intuitive the right logic would be. i.e. if you turn it off, should the settings revert (& should it only change settings that are "Not Set" (Think I'm going to change that wording to "Default"))
Perhaps something like this: if you enable COT, the associated settings get auto-set regardless of their current values. If you disable COT, the associated settings revert to default values. That way you wouldn't have to keep track of "last state" in a separate array. I think users would quickly figure out that if they want to override any setting associated with COT, they need to set COT first, then set the overrides second.

Quote:
True. But other codecs are effected by this setting too, and they don't have that range (sometimes just 0 and 1). Also, people either want it done quick or want it done well IMHO. But I think I will change the wording to "Min" & "Max".
No need for that. You can get the maximum complexity level for the current codec by querying g_wszWMVCComplexityExMax. Min and max would be insufficient for WMV9 needs. WMV9 MP encoder has 5 complexity levels; WMV9 AP has 6. The difference between 0 and 6 can be the difference between realtime encoding and 0.05x encoding.

Quote:
1) Couldn't believe it was released 3 years ago....Any word on when Windows Media Format 11 SDK will be released? (if at all)
At the same time as WMP11... But I can't disclose any schedule details publicly. Considering that WMP11 will also ship with Vista... and there is more information publicly available about the Vista schedule... that ought to give you some hints about a possible timeframe.
Quote:
2) Are there any other Registry settings that might be of some use? A look through the WM DLLs suggests there are others, but maybe they aren't useful/working.
For the encoder... I'm not aware of any others. There are some registry settings that control the post-processing levels in the decoder and enable/disable DXVA, but that's about it.

Quote:
3) One of my colleagues was at a Hi-Def conference this past week and heard mention a couple of times of something called VC-2. Any relation to a future MS product in the works or is he confusing it with something with a similar name?
This is my first time hearing of it. Keep in mind, however, that "VC-1" is SMPTE's informal name for 421M. "VC-2" might indeed stand for "Video Codec 2", but it might not have anything to do with Microsoft.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 00:32   #12  |  Link
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Another cool set of options that you might want to consider supporting are the "Force Encoding Height" and "Force Encoding Width" registry settings. This allows the encoder to encode the video at a smaller resolution than the source, yet decode it at the original source resolution. What's the point of that? For example, if you're a fan of the "field discard" deinterlacing method, you could encode your 640x480 interlaced video as 640x240 progressive (where every other field is discarded), but have the decoder always decode it as 640x480.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 02:37   #13  |  Link
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Nic
Sharing registry settings means that multiple versions will have to have the same settings if things are going to run smoothly.
Actually, I believe registry settings only get queried once by the codec - at the beginning of the encoding session. So theoretically simultaneous encoding sessions should be possible - as long as they're not started at the same millisecond.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 04:19   #14  |  Link
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Quote:
Originally Posted by zambelli
No need for that. You can get the maximum complexity level for the current codec by querying g_wszWMVCComplexityExMax. Min and max would be insufficient for WMV9 needs. WMV9 MP encoder has 5 complexity levels; WMV9 AP has 6. The difference between 0 and 6 can be the difference between realtime encoding and 0.05x encoding.
Microsoft documentation team should update the MSDN codec part now, there's no VC-1 AP mention while the codec is already beta.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 05:21   #15  |  Link
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Am I doing something wrong....

I was testing a clip,and found that multiple passes + VBR = program disappearing...lol

I did set most of the advanced stuff,is there a conflict there somewhere?

*EDIT
Actually,any setting with VBR involved kills the gui(with all settings default in advanced).
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Last edited by Morbo; 23rd May 2006 at 05:33.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 06:54   #16  |  Link
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i havent tried because i dont know how to use the advance features for it to get good quality can someone make a small guide
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Old 23rd May 2006, 07:12   #17  |  Link
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Just what I have been looking for, thanks.
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Old 23rd May 2006, 08:23   #18  |  Link
Morbo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by killerhex
i havent tried because i dont know how to use the advance features for it to get good quality can someone make a small guide
Most settings are fine as is,IMHO......just the b-frames,and various preprocessing stuff needs to be disabled for a good "test".

BTW,if there is a guide to this tool somewhere.....I'd like to know too...just for more info on the settings(and effects there upon).
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Old 23rd May 2006, 08:39   #19  |  Link
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Hi, many thanks for providing the tool! On suggestion would be to make the compressoin settings box resizeable / much more hueger. When browsing through all the settings for something like WMA10, it's nearly impossible to make sense of the hundreds of items in the list as it is
Great tool otherwise, count me in for a CLI version
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Old 23rd May 2006, 09:10   #20  |  Link
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Useful prog!

Can you please explain the VBR setting, though? Does that enable CQ mode, or just VBR with the specified bitrate targed. And in the latter case, what does the VBR quality setting mean?
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