Avi mux-GUI + subtitles: playback on H/W players?

[jkwarras]

Hi,

I'm planning to distribute some of my shortfilms, and I'll like to do it in 2 formats:

1) AVI: Xvid (asl5) + mp3--> For Standalones H/W players + 'old' PCs.
2) MKV: x264 + ogg + srt subtitles--> For modern PC playback.

My question, as I don't know anything about H/W devices is when creating the AVI file, I would like to also mux the subtitles (srt) using Avi mux-Gui but I don't know if this is supported by H/W players. If it isn't then I'll make subtitles available for external download in srt format. I also know that I should not use Open-DML avi output.

Thanks in advance

[niamh]

no it isn't. You'll have to leave them as external, most players (not all), support them

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by niamh

no it isn't. You'll have to leave them as external, most players (not all), support them

Thanks for the info. That's what I thought but it's always better to ask that to do silly stuff

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

2) MKV: x264 + ogg + srt subtitles--> For modern PC playback.

Naaah!

Generate the encode using Nero Recode2, with AVC video, AAC audio and VobSubs subtitles in .MP4


Cheers

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Generate the encode using Nero Recode2, with AVC video, AAC audio and VobSubs subtitles in .MP4

It's Nero Recode better than x264? I'm really new into h264, I used to encode everything into xvid before...

BTW, do you mean vobsub subtitles like in a DVDRip? Can this be muxed into mp4? (I've never used this container, I'm used to mkv, but I know in the future H/W devices will handle mp4).

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

It's Nero Recode better than x264? I'm really new into h264, I used to encode everything into xvid before...

That would be like comparing XviD (free-ware) to DivX (pay-ware)....

Nero certainly got the ball rolling with regard to generating encodes with MPEG-4/AVC (h264). They also kept the video format faithful by pairing it with AAC audio and placing the streams into the .MP4 container.

The guys behind x264 have done (and are continuing to do) extraordinary work. Plus, their codec provides access to some settings that are not available in Recode2.

I could not say one is better than the other!

Originally Posted by jkwarras

BTW, do you mean vobsub subtitles like in a DVDRip? Can this be muxed into mp4? (I've never used this container, I'm used to mkv, but I know in the future H/W devices will handle mp4).

Yes, VobSubs like you get on a DVD. Recode2 is able to place VobSubs (upto 2No sets) directly into .MP4

And hopefully soon, we shall have some "third party" muxing tools that will allow us to play with VobSubs in the same way we can now with the audio, video (and chapter) streams in .MP4


Cheers

[jkwarras]

I'm trying to mux the streams into an mp4 without luck so far. I have this:

- 1 x264 video file in avi
- 1 he-aac audio file in mp4
- 3 subtitles files in srt

I've tried mp4muxer and now wth yamb, but I can't get an output file. With yamb 1.2.1 there's an screenshot of the mux settings:



Note: The output file doesn't exist. I expect the tool to write the new mp4 file.

I get the following error:
Cannot open destination file H:\Mis cortos\12h15\Websites\12h15-h264-2pass.mp4: I/O Error


Any ideas?

[SeeMoreDigital]

First: Visit this forum thread and pick up the newer versions of YAMB and MP4Box.exe

Second: You will need to de-mux the x264 video stream from out of the .AVI container to an elementary .CMP video stream. You can do this via YAMB's "extract" options.

Third: Mux the .CMP video stream with your AAC audio stream and your SRT streams... And you should now obtain a working file!

I say should, because I have not generated any muxes with SRT subs


Cheers

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

First: Visit this forum thread and pick up the newer versions of YAMB and MP4Box.exe

Damn, I've followed all your steps, and it doesn't work. Same error. If I log into the administrator account to mux then I get an msvcrt.dll error. Really weird. I uninstalled halli splitter (matroska splitter) to avoid some conflicts between nero and this filter, but it doesn't work.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

Damn, I've followed all your steps, and it doesn't work. Same error. If I log into the administrator account to mux then I get an msvcrt.dll error. Really weird. I uninstalled halli splitter (matroska splitter) to avoid some conflicts between nero and this filter, but it doesn't work.

It sounds like you've installed defunkt's latest MP4Box.exe compile. If so it's not working quite right

Try using Sharktooth's MP4Box 0.3.1 - Dated: 30 Jun 2005.


Cheers

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

It sounds like you've installed defunkt's latest MP4Box.exe compile. If so it's not working quite right

Yeah, I installed that one

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Try using Sharktooth's MP4Box 0.3.1 - Dated: 30 Jun 2005.

Damn, I get this error:
Video format H264 not supported - recompress the file first

And I can't extract the raw from the avi. I'll try Celtic Druid build.

Thanks for the info

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

Damn, I get this error:
Video format H264 not supported - recompress the file first

Jizzz...I get this error with all the builds now...

But I can mux xvid+aac+srt without problems (a part that subtitles are loaded (halli splitter) but not displayed), so it seems it's related to h264 video. This is weird.

[SeeMoreDigital]

Errrmm... you have got M$ .NET correctly installed haven't you?


Cheers

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

Errrmm... you have got M$ .NET correctly installed haven't you?

I think so. I've uninstalled and reinstalled .net again, but same problems.

Anyway, i've managed to make it work. Apparently the problem is with x264 in avi container. I've reencoded one stream into x264 with MeGUI and put it into an mp4 container. Then I can mux x264 + aac into mp4

OT: I'm trying to find a guide about x264 configuration and options, but I don't find it . Can someone recommend me one? My x264 encodes seems 'washed out' compared to the xvid of the same clip (with same bitrate and avs file). Thanks

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

OT: I'm trying to find a guide about x264 configuration and options, but I don't find it . Can someone recommend me one? My x264 encodes seems 'washed out' compared to the xvid of the same clip (with same bitrate and avs file). Thanks

Ok, I've found this:
http://www.mplayerhq.hu/DOCS/HTML/en...feat-x264.html

I've also checked the x264 doom9 guide, but it seems that it uses an older build of the x264 codec and I'm not sure if some of the tips about b-frames (no more than 1) still correct.

Thanks for all the help

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by jkwarras

My x264 encodes seems 'washed out' compared to the xvid of the same clip (with same bitrate and avs file).

It was the deblocking option. If it's enabled the clip is too washed, without it it looks better, a little blocked but not as much as the xvid one

[SeeMoreDigital]

As a matter of interest, what format is your source?


Cheers

[jkwarras]

Originally Posted by SeeMoreDigital

As a matter of interest, what format is your source?

It's DV. I use some avisynth filters to remove noise (hydridFuPP mainly). On Xvid it looks fine as always (target is 900kbps), but with deblocking enabled in x264 it's really washed. When disabled it looks similar to the xvid encode.