MeGUI development

[Sharktooth]

yep, that's why it should not be placed in the avisynth plugins dir, or avisynth will try to autoload it (using the LoadPlugin) whenever an .avs is "run". that may cause problems.

[Emp3r0r]

I'm working on a bitrate calculator to help with choosing filesizes based on quality rather than just target filesize. I need this because:

• I rarely do a compressablity check
• I'm not as concerned about fitting to physical media
• When I do aim for a target size, I want to verify I'm using enough bitrate for the video

It essentially adds bits per pixel (bpp) as a prominent guide for choosing the filesize. The idea is that each codec has different efficiencies at different bpp. The ranges can be set and that allows the calculator to give an educated guess about the quality.

There is also one extra component that can be set based on the complexity of the source material. Changing this from low to high that will slightly skew the efficiency ranges.

My question, would anybody else find this useful? If so, I can work towards a patch for megui rather than a standalone app.

Prototype screenshots

[Sharktooth]

...and... bpp is useless coz it doenst take care of the compressibility of the source...
i've just replied to a guy in the italian forum that was unable to obtain a 8mbps encode (1080p) coz of the default min qp set to 10...
if the source slightly varies from the average compressibility, BPP becomes completely useless...
dont waste your time, all we need is a compressibility test... and i already know how to do it, it's just i dont have time...

[Emp3r0r]

@Sharktooth: I think you missed the point. Not everyone wants to take the time to do a compressibility test. Also, bpp has been useful to me as a guide for many years. Especially as I tend to encode at various resolutions.

With the calculator, if someone does a compressibility test you could just replace the "complexity" with "compressibility".

[Sharktooth]

maybe it could be handy if it will be only taken as a guidance.
ill think about it.

[Selur]

... taking it as general guidance and using it as an option to 'calculate by' like Emp3r0r suggested in his screenshot are different things.
I think a field that shows the bpp shouldn't hurt.

Cu Selur

[Adub]

@Emp3r0r,
I am most definitely interested.

[Emp3r0r]

Originally Posted by Merlin7777

@Emp3r0r,
I am most definitely interested.

Any suggested changes to the prototype?

Should we relabel quality to something else like, "potential quality" or "guidance"? and possibly make complexity more prominent and add some better explanations. I think veteran coder's know what makes a video harder to compress.

Edit: also it isn't obvious from the screenshots but both the audio and ranges were built to support an unlimited number. A scroll bar get's added automatically.

Edit2: the buttons next to the sizes allow you to toggle between "GB, MB, KB, kbps, Mbps"

Also, are the radio button's even needed, I'm not sure what purpose they serve.

[check]

Devs, I'm shutting down my MeGUI auto-update mirror as I'm planning to move MeWiki to a new machine with a bandwidth cap. I'm hoping to get this done before christmas. It will result in a few hours of downtime for the wiki too, but nothing serious. Might be worth looking for someone else to host an update mirror in the coming weeks. I can't really say how much bandwidth is required because it all depends how much gets updated, but in busier months it was hitting around 300gb.

I'll be looking again at setting up Trac once the wiki is on this new server. Side note: Trac is the most annoying web app I have ever installed .

Regarding BPP: I really don't see the point of including a tool for this metric. It's an inaccurate measure and would clutter up the program. It has fallen out of favour for a reason, I hope it dies soon.

[alexins]

check,
If necessary, I can open an extra mirror for MeGUI auto-update on its web server.

[shon3i]

It will be nice aslo to include M2TS calculation

[Kurtnoise]

and a coffee maker... what else ?

[Sharktooth]

@alexins: it would be great.
please contact check for the mirroring scripts.

[Sharktooth]

Originally Posted by shon3i

It will be nice aslo to include M2TS calculation

patches are welcome

[Reino]

Today I updated to MeGUI 0.3.0.3009 (and 0.3.0.3011 via internal update). I have a couple of questions/complaints.

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

version 0.3.x has a new bitrate calc. it will fit your needs for sure.

I'm sorry to say, but it does not. The Bitrate Calculator has to be functional for everyone who uses MeGUI in my opinion! As explained in the quoted thread, it doesn't fit my needs.
I've kept using MeGUI 0.2.5.1007 for a long time solely because the Bitrate Calculator showed me KBs. When I would change the bitrate, all filesizes (in KB as well as MB) would change automatically along. The Bitrate Calculator with 0.3.0.3011 only shows me MBs.
Forgot how the Bitrate Calculator with MeGUI 0.2.5.1007 looked like?

If you would be so kind as to (re!)include this very simple feature, then I'm a very happy man!

Another reason I had to update was because I couldn't use x264 anymore since ± rev.1000, which made me believe there were new features that MeGUI 0.2.x doesn't support.

I noticed the standard 2pass HQ profile now has --subme 7 (Subpixel Refinement: 7 - RD on all frames) set by default. What's the difference between --subme 6,7 and the new -subme 8,9? Is it really worth using as for the time it takes, as for the image quality it produces?

I noticed Adaptive B-frames got another option. MeGUI tells me the recommended setting is 1-Fast, while the 2pass HQ profile has 2-Optimal. So I guess it ís a rather important setting, or is it?

Where have the settings "RDO for B-frames" and "Bidirectional M.E." gone?

I also noticed the 2pass Anime_Toons HQ has Adaptive Quantizers disabled. Is this in some way harmfull for anime content?

Everything else looks very well origanized.
Oh yes, almost forgot... what are "Workers" and what can I do with them?

[Sharktooth]

about x264
about the calculator, see below.
workers are used for parallelizing jobs.
every worker can be run in parallel with other workers. that's for maximizing the CPU usage for encoders that do no support multithreading or to just encode 2 or more different things simultaneously.

bitrate calculator (how to set a custom filesize - same applies for audio.):

[Reino]

I was afraid you would come up with this...
This is not what I meant! I mean the other way around.
When I change the bitrate (with the little arrow-buttons for example) I'd like the filesize (preferably in KBs and MBs and maybe GBs to be future-proof) seeing changed accordingly, just like it did with 0.2.5.1007(!).
If I want to enter a specific filesize to begin with, I'd like to do it the same way I can now as with the bitrate. It's so discursive when you have to go through a menu to be able to enter a specific filesize in KBs, while the end result is still in MBs...
The 0.2.5.1007 Bitrate Calculator was oh so perfect for me in all these aspects!

[prOnorama]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

...and... bpp is useless coz it doenst take care of the compressibility of the source...
i've just replied to a guy in the italian forum that was unable to obtain a 8mbps encode (1080p) coz of the default min qp set to 10...
if the source slightly varies from the average compressibility, BPP becomes completely useless...
dont waste your time, all we need is a compressibility test... and i already know how to do it, it's just i dont have time...

I agree the bits/pixel ratio can only serve as a very rough estimation, it can vary greatly between sources

A compressibility test would be great, so I hope you (or anyone else) finds the time to implement it

[Sharktooth]

Originally Posted by CoRoNe

I was afraid you would come up with this...
This is not what I meant! I mean the other way around.
When I change the bitrate (with the little arrow-buttons for example) I'd like the filesize (preferably in KBs and MBs and maybe GBs to be future-proof) seeing changed accordingly, just like it did with 0.2.5.1007(!).
If I want to enter a specific filesize to begin with, I'd like to do it the same way I can now as with the bitrate. It's so discursive when you have to go through a menu to be able to enter a specific filesize in KBs, while the end result is still in MBs...
The 0.2.5.1007 Bitrate Calculator was oh so perfect for me in all these aspects!

what you say does not make any sense. the encoders rate control is not so perfect to hit the very exact size, also if you need a specific size, why dont you set it instead of highering/lowering the bitrate to reach your desired size?
you're grabbing the snake by the wrong end...

[check]

Originally Posted by Sharktooth

yep, that's why it should not be placed in the avisynth plugins dir, or avisynth will try to autoload it (using the LoadPlugin) whenever an .avs is "run". that may cause problems.

oops, my bad. I have a copy in my plugins dir though and no problems caused.