Unplayable, oversized/undersized files...

[gravety]

Hi,

Firstly:

Clean WinXP install with: DVD Region Killer, AutoGK 2.20 final and little else installed.

Episodes were ripped using IFO mode DVD Decrypter final. The DVD drive is a Sony and connected to the Secondary Master with a HD connected Primary Master and no other drives (The reason I mention this is that LAME crashed every time when I ripped with the DVD on Primary Slave!)

Problem:

Files always come out under/over sized and will not play back. I have re-installed XVid, re-ripped, tried a different DVD, searched, tried a different DVD drive (several actually), run several system test utils with no problems (memtest+ passed 37 times clean)...

Log:

[03/10/2005 18:06:31] AutoGK 2.20
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] OS: WinXP (5.1.2600).2
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Job started.
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Input file: E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_PGC_01_1.VOB
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Output file: E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_PGC_01_1.avi
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Output codec: XviD
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Audio 1: Audio Stream 0 AC3
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Subtitles: none
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Format: .AVI
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Target size: 140Mb
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Custom resolution settings: fixed width of 512 pixels
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Custom audio settings: VBR MP3 with average bitrate: 128Kbps
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Started encoding.
[03/10/2005 18:06:31] Demuxing and indexing.
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Processing file: E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\VTS_02_PGC_01_1.VOB
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Source resolution: 720x576
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Found PAL source.
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Source aspect ratio: 4:3
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Color correction enabled.
[03/10/2005 18:06:48] Analyzing source.
[03/10/2005 18:08:02] Source has percentage of interlacing in motion areas: 58.09
[03/10/2005 18:08:02] Source is considered to be interlaced.
[03/10/2005 18:08:02] Output will contain 33653 frames
[03/10/2005 18:08:02] Decoding audio.
[03/10/2005 18:08:28] Normalizing audio.
[03/10/2005 18:08:53] Encoding audio.
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Using cartoon mode.
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Audio1 size: 22,393,704 bytes (21.36 Mb)
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Overhead: 1,346,176 bytes (1.28 Mb)
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Video size: 123,060,760 bytes (117.36 Mb)
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Running compressibility test.
[03/10/2005 18:10:26] Writing the following script to E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\agk_tmp\VTS_02_PGC_01_1_comptest.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\ColorMatrix.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\kerneldeint.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\agk_tmp\VTS_02_PGC_01_1.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1.06666666666667
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 512
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
KernelDeInt(movie,order=1,sharp=true)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
LanczosResize(out_width,out_height)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
ColorMatrix("Rec.709->Rec.601",mmx=true,hints=false)
SelectRangeEvery(250,15)
===========================================================
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Duration was: 1 minute, 57 seconds
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Speed was: 17.21 fps.
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Compressibility percentage is: 40.30
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Using softer resizer.
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Chosen resolution is: 512x384 ( AR: 1.33 )
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Predicted comptest value is: 41.80
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Running first pass.
[03/10/2005 18:12:24] Writing the following script to E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\agk_tmp\VTS_02_PGC_01_1_movie.avs
===========================================================
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\autocrop.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\ColorMatrix.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\RemoveGrain.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\PROGRA~1\AutoGK\filters\kerneldeint.dll")

movie = mpeg2source("E:\VOBS\eps1\VIDEO_TS\agk_tmp\VTS_02_PGC_01_1.d2v")
cropclip = autocrop(movie,mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=0,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
fixed_aspect = 1.06666666666667
c_width = width(cropclip)
c_height = round(height(cropclip) / fixed_aspect)
input_par = float(c_width)/float(c_height)
input_par = (input_par > 1.4) || (input_par < 1.25) ? input_par : (4.0/3.0)
out_width = 512
out_height = round(float(out_width) / input_par)
hmod = out_height - (floor(out_height / 16 ) * 16)
out_height = (hmod > 4) ? (out_height + (16 - hmod)) : (out_height - hmod)
new_aspect = (float(out_width) / float(out_height)) / fixed_aspect
KernelDeInt(movie,order=1,sharp=true)
autocrop(mode=0,wmultof=4,hmultof=4,samples=10,aspect=new_aspect,threshold=34,samplestartframe=0,leftadd=0,rightadd=0,topadd=0,bottomadd=0)
BicubicResize(out_width,out_height,0,0.5)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)
ColorMatrix("Rec.709->Rec.601",mmx=true,hints=false)
===========================================================
[03/10/2005 18:30:01] Duration was: 17 minutes 36 seconds
[03/10/2005 18:30:01] Speed was: 31.85 fps.
[03/10/2005 18:30:01] Expected quality of first pass size: 42.08
[03/10/2005 18:30:01] Running second pass.
[03/10/2005 18:51:27] Duration was: 21 minutes 26 seconds
[03/10/2005 18:51:27] Speed was: 26.16 fps.
[03/10/2005 18:51:27] Job finished. Total time: 44 minutes 56 seconds


System Spec:

AMD Sempron 2600+
MSI KT4A-V
256MB DDR400 RAM
Seagate ST3200822A HD
Sony DW-Q28A (Region free with Liteon RPC util)

Help!

Thanks in advance, Graham

[CWR03]

Start by uninstalling, then reinstalling XviD and try again. It's a very common problem.

[gravety]

Is there any special procedure for this then? As I said in the original post I have re-installed XviD (a few times in fact!) - I even wiped the PC clean and re-installed just the few items needed for AGK....

Is there a buggy version of XviD? I have used the ones from AGK 2.18b and 2.20 stable.

Also, when encoding an episode should you open the IFO or VOB file (or doesn't it matter)? I have tried both with the same results, I have also tried encoding to a % quality with the same results...

[CWR03]

Yes, you said you re-installed XviD, but did you first uninstall it? I don't know what you call "wiping the PC clean," but if you were referring to removing AutoGK, it wouldn't remove XviD. Go to www.xvid.org, or www.doom9.org, and get the latest XviD. Install it, then click Start > Settings > Control Panel, open Add or Remove Programs, find and uninstall Xvid, then re-install it again. You cannot install XviD over a previous version without problems. Installing the newest version, then uninstalling it will remove it, then you will have a "clean install."

[gravety]

Yes XviD was uninstalled before the latest compiled version from http://www.koepi.org/ was installed. By "wiping the PC clean" I am referring to formatting the hard disk and re-installing Windows XP.

Anyway, after re-installing XviD LAME started crashing again. Whatever I tried to encode LAME would crash doing the audio. I then installed the VIA INF and changed the network driver to the older version on the MSI website. This appeared to solve all problems and I managed to encode a film and several episodes ...

... Until today when LAME crashed doing a recode of the film I had done before! So, I deleted the VOBS, rebooted and it crashed again and again ...

I have currently swapped the RAM for another stick (despite memtest+ reporting no issues) as it is now my best guess. It has so far encoded one film.

I will give it a few more days until I can say whether this has fixed things.

[gravety]

Basically, it turned out to be heat related. The thermal paste on the CPU had become impacted on the base of the heatsink (being a test machine the CPU had been swapped several times).

Since cleaning and re-applying some Arctic Silver the system has been fully stable and has done a number of days encoding without problems. The CPU temp has also dropped to 46C from 59C under load!

Notes:

Prime95 Options->Torture Test->Blend was crashing within a few minutes, when it was stable for quite some time on my main PC. WARNING: The second run of Prime95 corrupted the Windows XP install! (this caused little problem for me but make sure you have stuff backed up).

See: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=54130

The machine was never really unstable and had previously completed a whole nights encoding (must have been a cold night :D) and a whole nights memtest+. It was also never locking, just the symptoms with LAME etc listed above.

Thanks to CWR03