Simple x264/x265 Launcher v3.02 (2022-06-16)

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Are you sure you really have the latest version?

Qt v4.8.3 broke Drag&Drop on the Window platform. After I knew about that issue, I reverted to Qt v4.8.2 and uploaded a new build.

So please make sure you got build #360 and you also updated all the DLL's, i.e. do not copy over the EXE file only!

(BTW: The Drag&Drop issue is already fixed for the next Qt version and I will update to Qt 4.8.4 as soon as it becomes available)

[VideoFanatic]

I downloaded your program from here under "Download new version with queuing support". That page gave me this: x264_x64.2012-09-26.exe

I've no idea what you're talking about in regards to updating all the DLL's. I just double-clicked on the exe file to install the program as I did in the past. What else do I need to do?

I loaded the About page in your program and it says it's version 2.06.360. If the drag and drop feature is supposed to work in the 2012-09-26 version then how do I make it work because it doesn't work for me!

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Build #360 (2012-09-26) is the latest version, indeed.

That version ships with Qt 4.8.2, which you can check in the "About" dialog too. There is nothing special you need to do to get Drag&Drop working, it is supposed to work "out of the box".

For me it definitely does work using build #360 (2012-09-26). I'm using Windows 7 and never tested Vista, but that really shouldn't make a difference

Anyway, if there ware some problem with Drag&Drop already in Qt 4.8.2, then there isn't much I can do. The problem would have to be reported to the Qt bugtracker, so the Qt guys can fix it.

BTW: You are not running Simple x264 Launcher with "elevated" rights, do you? Drag&Drop from a none-elevated application (e.g. Explorer) into an elevated one doesn't work...

BTW2: You might want to give my LameXP program a try. It is being built with Qt 4.8.3, but incorporates a Qt patch that is supposed to fix the Drag&Drop issue introduced in Qt 4.8.3.

[VideoFanatic]

My apologies. It was Explorer++ that was causing the problem. That program doesn't seem to allow drag and drop.

[VideoFanatic]

The program is portable, nothing is installed, it just copies the folders onto your PC. To uninstall it, just delete the "installation" folder.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by jq963152

Hello,

nice app!

Some suggestions/requests though:

(1) You can easily add "--level" to the advanced options, if you really need to enforce a specific Level. Most of the time it is recommended to simply let x264 set the most suitable Level for your footage.

(2) You can easily update the x264 binaries. Unless the new x264 build broke compatibility with the command-line interface (which usually doesn't happen), the GUI doesn't need to be updated. I upload new packages from time to time, but I can't create a new package for each x264 revision number.

(3) What about allowing additional "--tune" entries in the advanced options? I don't really like adding more controls to the configurations dialog. Especially because those two tunes that you might want to add additionally are not useful and not recommended for the great majority of the users (both, "zerolatency" and "fastdecode", strongly cripple the encoder settings for a highly specific purpose).

(4) Avisynth is considered a prerequisite for Simple x264 Launcher. After all this app was primarily written to use 32-Bit Avisynth with 64-Bit x264. So I won't remove the warning message, because a missing Avisynth means that a major feature of Simple x264 Launcher will be broken. But I'm planning to add VapourSynth support soon

(5) holygamer said it all. The "installer" is pretty much an SFX archive. To uninstall, use Ctrl+Del on the install folder

[Kisa_AG]

Originally Posted by LoRd_MuldeR

(2) You can easily update the x264 binaries.

Hello LoRd_MuldeR.

Thanks for this GREAT tool!

Please can you describe which x264 binaries is possible to use? If I remember correctly, in the past you've recommend Generic binaries from Komisar (komisar.gin.by). But Komisar don't update binaries since x264 r2216.
Is it possible to use generic binaries from x264.nl? Is there any the difference?
Thanks!

[kypec]

Originally Posted by Kisa_AG

Please can you describe which x264 binaries is possible to use? If I remember correctly, in the past you've recommend Generic binaries from Komisar (komisar.gin.by). But Komisar don't update binaries since x264 r2216.
Is it possible to use generic binaries from x264.nl? Is there any the difference?
Thanks!

I believe replacing x264 binaries with JEEB's builds from x264.nl should be just fine. I did it in the past too when komisar's builds were "delayed"

[LoRd_MuldeR]

You can pick whatever builds you prefer, as long as they aren't broken and have been build with all the libs you need - which should apply to all builds from the "usual" sources

Yet another source is the MeGUI update server:
http://megui.org/auto/

[VideoFanatic]

In VideoRedo I move through my video 1 second at a time. MPEG2s are fast to navigate but h264 is slow and at worst it's realtime.

See the 2nd post here: http://www.videoredo.net/msgBoard/sh...ad.php?t=29834


He basically says to use shorter GOPs and try to set it to insert an I/IDR frame every second or so.

How do I do that in Simple x264 Launcher?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

MPEG-2 is much(!) simpler than H.264, so decoding MPEG-2 is much faster than H.264. Not very surprising

Furthermore, the longer your GOP's are, the slower seeking (navigation) will be. That's because decoding can only start at an key-frame. If you seek to a certain frame number and that frame doesn't happen to be a key-frame, then decoding has to start at the key-frame that precedes the desired frame. Then all the frames, from the key-frame up to the desired frame, have to be decoded (maybe skipping the B-Frames). Consequently, the larger the distance between the key-frames is, the more frames will have to be decoded on each seek operation (in average case). And thus a larger key-frame distance results in "slower" seeking. That's pretty much the same with MPEG-2 and H.264.

So if you want to ensure that seeking is "fast", you will have to limit the key-frame (IDR-Frame, in H.264) distance. Simply add "--keyint x" to the advanced options and replace x with the desired number. Default is 250. If you want one key-frame per second, you would set "--keyint 25", given that your footage is 25 fps. Needless to mention that setting a shorter key-frame distance will hurt compression efficiency...

[VideoFanatic]

Setting it to 50 makes navigation much faster but slower than MPEG2. I only lose 72 MB per 1 hour 30 minute file instead of 300 MB if I set it to 0! When you fill a Bluray disc that's only a loss of 504 MB compared to 2.1 GB. Zero gives navigation speeds as fast as MPEG2.

Just wondering if other programs have fast navigation by default (low keyframe distance) such as handbrake because I haven't heard of other people having slow navigation after using other programs to encode to h264?

I take it that the keyframe distance setting is the only way to speed up navigation?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by holygamer

Setting it to 50 makes navigation much faster but slower than MPEG2.

...as expected

If you make a video compression scheme more complex (H.264), it cannot decode as fast as its much simpler predecessor (MPEG-2). Better compression costs more CPU cycles. As always in life, nothing's for free.

Originally Posted by holygamer

I only lose 72 MB per 1 hour 30 minute file instead of 300 MB if I set it to 0! When you fill a Bluray disc that's only a loss of 504 MB compared to 2.1 GB. Zero gives navigation speeds as fast as MPEG2.

If you compare file sizes, I guess you encoded in CRF mode. As has been explained about one million times in this forum, the same CRF value does not give the same quality, as soon as you change other options - such as the key frame interval (or anything else). So you are comparing apples to bananas, i.e. your numbers don't say anything.

BTW: Setting "--keyint 0" means unrestricted, which means the key-frame interval will be infinite. That's the worst case for seeking! The encoder will still put key-frames at scene changes though, which mitigates things a bit.

[CORRECTION] Oups, "--keyint 0" means auto, not infinite. If you wanted an infinite key-frame interval (which you obviously don't want here!), you'd have to use "--keyint infinite". [/CORRECTION]

Originally Posted by holygamer

Just wondering if other programs have fast navigation by default (low keyframe distance) such as handbrake because I haven't heard of other people having slow navigation after using other programs to encode to h264?

Pretty much ALL applications that you can download/use (legally) for free and that output H.264 video are based on x264. And x264 uses 250 as the default key-frame distance. Of course front-ends like Handbrake or whatever might set their own defaults, overwriting x264's defaults. Using lower key-frame distance by default would mean faster seeking but worse compression. As for Simple x264 Launcher, it doesn't mess with x264's defaults, so you get what x264's uses by default (and what the select Preset/Tuning applies!) unless you overwrite the setting explicitly...

Originally Posted by holygamer

I take it that the keyframe distance setting is the only way to speed up navigation?

Yes! That and how navigation is implemented in the application which navigates through the H.264 stream. DGIndexNV, for example, creates an index file first. Creating the index file takes some time, indeed, because the whole file needs to parsed once. But once you have the index, seeking is fast and accurate (at least as fast as it can possibly be). Other apps might seek through the H.264 more or less "blindly" until the desired frame is found. This doesn't need an index file, but obviously will be much slower (in average case).

[docholliday]

How can i use it,cant use comand line,,,I want use 2pass and High L4.1 and Audio AC3 448 5.1,Can u help me?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

Originally Posted by Y@SH@R

How can i use it,cant use comand line,,,I want use 2pass and High L4.1 and Audio AC3 448 5.1,Can u help me?

No need to scream!

If you want 2-Pass rate-control and "High" Profile, then I would suggest to select those from the GUI



Level 4.1 can be enforced by adding --level 4.1 to the advanced options. And, as x264 is a video encoder, it doesn't encode audio.

[docholliday]

Tnx mate,but how can i resize for example i want 720p Resize,How can i do that ?

[LoRd_MuldeR]

You can (a) use an Avisynth script as input and then invoke one of the various Avisynth Resize-Filters in your script or (b) use x264's internal/built-in resize filter.

For the latter, simply add --video-filter resize:width=1280,height=720,method=lanczos to the advanced options. For details have a look here.

[VideoFanatic]

I sometimes get this error code: WARNING: Avisynth process exited with error code: 1. Usually I get a popup saying what plugin is at fault but these last few times I didn't. How can I find out what plugin is at fault?

It's weird, I got that message yet the encoding says it was 100% completed yet it obviously isn't as it only encoded a part of the file.

[LoRd_MuldeR]

This usually indicates Avisynth (or more likely one of the Avisynth plug-in's involved) has crashed!

You may try to open the identical script in VirtualDub and then try to play all the way through the end of the clip...

[VideoFanatic]

I don't really use VirtualDub. Do I just drag the script into VirtualDub then click on the play button? So if there's an error will VirtualDub give a popup showing what plugin is at fault?