HCenc 025

[hank315]

Try this one:

*INFILE           h:\work\hcenc bug\_chromosphere_test_480i.avs
*OUTFILE          H:\work\hcenc bug\test_output.m2v
*BITRATE          4600
*MAXBITRATE       9200
*FRAMES           0 3565
*PROFILE          best
*GOP              15 2
*INTERLACED
*TFF
*INTRAVLC         2
*MATRIX           mpeg

and:

AVISource("_chromosphere_test_480i.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

Seems the *CHROMADOWNSAMPLE command screws up, don't know why ATM.

[Trixter]

I'm afraid that .ini just makes things worse. Now it just hangs earlier in the 2nd pass, with a different error message:



Were you able to reproduce this on your setup? What does my file package do on your test/development machine?

[TheSkiller]

@Trixter You're still feeding HCenc with YUY2 (4:2:2), add ConvertToYV12(interlaced=true) at the end of your AVS script. This way HCenc can skip the chroma downsampling (as the chroma gets downsampled by AviSynth).

I'm going to download your file package and try to encode the thing.

Edit: OK, downloaded it. Changed ConvertToYUY2() to ConvertToYV12(true) and used your HCenc settings. Error at 86% (total) "underflow, fixing VBV", freezes.
Then I removed *CHROMADOWNSAMPLE from the ini, still the same error.
Then I used Hank's settings (GOP 15-2), which gives me the same error that you get, "VBV at critical level".

[Trixter]

Yeah, I was pretty sure *CHROMADOWNSAMPLE wasn't the problem; the issue is with bitrate (you can see the VBV buffer empty right when the problem happens). Besides, the sample clip has no chroma info anyway ;-) (joking, I'm sure that has nothing to do with it, it's a high-contrast clip with a lot of motion which is obviously difficult to encode)

Hank, any thoughts, progress?

[hank315]

@trixter

If I use the next HC.ini file:

*INFILE           G:\hcenc bug\_chromosphere_test_480i.avs
*OUTFILE          G:\hcenc bug\out.m2v
*LOGFILE          G:\hcenc bug\out.log
*BITRATE          4600
*MAXBITRATE       9200
*FRAMES           0 3565
*PROFILE          best
*GOP              15 2
*INTERLACED
*TFF
*INTRAVLC         2
*MATRIX           mpeg

and AVS script:

AVISource("_chromosphere_test_480i.avi")
ConvertToYV12()

The encode finished without a problem.

This is a source which is pretty tough for MPEG2, quantizers are very high.
Just look at the next links:
HCenc encode
CCE encode

If the *CHROMADOWNSAMPLE command is added, HCenc freezes at 69% in pass 2.
That's weird because the down sample routines aren't used, the source is already YV12.
Still investigating, I thought this would be an easy one but it's not

[Trixter]

I tried these settings exactly and it worked. Since that chunk of footage is actually part of a much longer video, I then used those settings with the full video and it hung :-(

I'm not sure what else to tell you. I certainly can't upload the 141G source file for you to test...

[Trixter]

BTW in your screenshots you show a program called MPEG Analyzer Pro. Where can I download that program? I searched google for a while but couldn't find anything that looked like that program.

[hank315]

Still investigating but I have to admit my time for it is very scarce ATM

MPEG analyser Pro is a pretty old program which I still use to analyse MPEG2 streams.
Development has stopped AFAIK, developer is Jean-Luc Pons, I don't know if it's available for download.

[Trixter]

It's not available for download, could you make it available somewhere?

[Sharc]

http://www.labdv.com/software/encoding-en.html

You must register for downloading

[TheSkiller]

MPEG Analyser looks neat. But is it just me or is registering on that site not free? "Download service is restricted to VIP user. // Register for 1 year $$$39.90"

[Sharc]

Looks like, yes. 3 months is USD 19.90.
It's just the only link I found for downloading. I don't have it myself.
If you should find 9 more useful downloads there it's 2 USD each

[techreactor]

Originally Posted by hank315

Still investigating but I have to admit my time for it is very scarce ATM

Any luck with the new version ??, I see 0.26beta only.

[techreactor]

@hank, Also are there any plans to have a 64bit version of HC enc ?

With the new release of FFMpeg which has fixed many bugs and is available in 64bit version. FFMpeg has come hairline close to HCenc in terms of Bare eye Quality and encoding speeds have also improved drastically.

Hope to get the 64bit of HCenc someday.

[smok3]

@techreactor: care to share some complete ffmpeg command lines?

[AlanHK]

I encode in batch files and like to put all the parameters on the command line, and use "-noini" to make it independent of any ini file.

I'm just trying the lossless option, which you can set with "-lossless", but there does not appear to be an option to set the path of that or of HC's database. It then defaults to HC's program folder, and I don't have enough room to put a lossless file there.

Can you add -llpath and -dbpath to the batch options?

[zambelli]

Has anyone run into issues with 4:2:2 sources? When I use any YUY2 Avisynth source (regardless of whether I pick 4:2:0 or 4:2:2 output), HCEnc just crashes on me immediately. I've tried both 0.25 and 0.26beta versions.

Here is my config:

*INFILE           d:\videos\sources\foo.avs
*OUTFILE          D:\Videos\Sources\foo.m2v
*BITRATE          50000
*MAXBITRATE       50000
*FRAMES           0 10439
*PROFILE          best
*AUTOGOP          15
*DC_PREC          10
*INTERLACED
*TFF
*CLOSEDGOPS
*LASTIFRAME
*INTRAVLC         2
*MATRIX           mpeg
*LUMGAIN          1
*COLOUR           1
*PRIORITY         low
*CHROMAFORMAT     422

Note that I'm actually trying to use the 4:2:2 mode to produce 50 Mbps 4:2:2 mezzanines, so ConvertToYV12() in Avisynth is not an acceptable workaround.

[Carpo]

Any news on an update version of this great app or is the beta the last we will see of development Hank?

[Fishman0919]

Originally Posted by smok3

@techreactor: care to share some complete ffmpeg command lines?

Here's one I've used with ffmpeg and a sim ver with Mencoder... works well with encoding above 4500k

ffmpeg.exe -i "3.avs" -framerate 23.976 -aspect 16:9 -dc 9 -g 12 -qmin 1 -qmax 31 -maxrate 7500k -q:v 2 -b_strategy 1 -bf 2 -pre_dia_size 3 -dia_size 3 -me_range 24 -b_qfactor 1.0 -i_qfactor 1.0 -b_qoffset 0 -mbd rd -mbcmp 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -preme 2 -precmp 2 -subq 2 -skipcmp 2 -qcomp 0.7 -qblur 0 -scplx_mask 0.2 -p_mask 0.5 -last_pred 4 -bidir_refine 4 -deblock 0:0 -pass 1 -passlogfile ffmpeg -an -f mpeg2video pass1.m2v

ffmpeg.exe -i "3.avs" -framerate 23.976 -aspect 16:9 -dc 9 -g 12 -lmin 0.01 -mblmin 1 -qmin 1 -qmax 31 -qsquish 1 -maxrate 7500k -b:v 5000k -bf 2 -pre_dia_size 3 -dia_size 3 -me_range 24 -b_qfactor 1.0 -i_qfactor 1.0 -b_qoffset 0 -trellis 2 -flags:v +mv0+cbp -mbd rd -mbcmp 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -preme 2 -precmp 2 -subq 2 -skipcmp 2 -qcomp 0.7 -qblur 0 -scplx_mask 0.2 -p_mask 0.5 -last_pred 4 -bidir_refine 4 -deblock 0:0 -pass 2 -passlogfile ffmpeg -an -f mpeg2video pass2.m2v

[zambelli]

Also, has anyone done quality comparisons of HCEnc vs x262 encoder?