Two questions about autoGK

[Vanderlow]

If I want to seperate a movie into two haves, but at a specific point/chapter if I have AutoGK convert it and it uses the same resolution (I usually use min 640, so lets say 640x480 on both) will they be "connectable" (made into one movie) by virtualdub?

How do I experiment with sharpmatrix as oppose to soft matrix, I don't see it in the advanced settings, but I thought I tripped into a menu that showed me a alot of fields?

TIA

[unskinnyboy]

If I want to seperate a movie into two haves, but at a specific point/chapter if I have AutoGK convert it and it uses the same resolution (I usually use min 640, so lets say 640x480 on both) will they be "connectable" (made into one movie) by virtualdub?So you want to separate or join?

If you want to separate on your own, disallow splitting by AutoGK by giving the size +/- 1 MB from the standard CD sizes, e.g: If you set the target size as 1400 MB, then AutoGK will assume that you intend to obtain 2x700 MB files and split it accordingly. So give the target size as 1399 MB or 1401 MB, which will disable splitting. So now you have a single avi file. Follow this (http://www.doom9.org/virtualdub_procedures.htm#Splitting) guide to split the file as you please.

To join, the files, follow this (http://www.doom9.org/virtualdub_procedures.htm#basicjoin) guide. If VirtualDubMoD doesn't work for some reason, try Avi-Mux GUI.


How do I experiment with sharpmatrix as oppose to soft matrix, I don't see it in the advanced settings, but I thought I tripped into a menu that showed me a alot of fields? Press CTL+F9 in AutoGK. It will bring up the 'Hidden Options'. You have this option there.

[Vanderlow]

Well on my first question is, I would like to convert one half of a movie at a time and I can do that by just ripping chapters 1-7 then converting to 1 CD and then going on to chapters 8-14 and converting it to 1 CD. But I want to make sure someone can rejoin them later, if they have the same resolution is that all I have to worry about?

[unskinnyboy]

Yes, just make sure the files are processed the same way so that the video framerate and audio format remains the same. In this case, I'd recommend AVI-Mux GUI for the joining (guide (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~noe/Video-Zeug/AVIMux%20GUI/en_join_files.html)). Even if the video framerates differ by a small amount by any reason (file_a.avi is 23.97600 and file_b.avi is 23.97601), then Nandub/VirtualDubMoD won't work. You will have to change the framerate on one of them then, which in turn could mess up the A/V sync etc. AVI-Mux GUI on the other hand, will handle it fine. Considering that you are using AutoGK and assuming your movie is of uniform material, then both encodes should be processed the same way.

But a better way is to encode chapters 1-14 at a single go, and then split the movie at the frame # where chapter 7 ends. So that way you would have processed all the chapters the same way and joining is guaranteed whichever tool you use. This is the method I would recommend if the joining is intended to be done by someone else and you are not available to provide support.

[manono]

Hi-

Although encoding the whole thing at once and splitting at the desired place afterwards will give him both halves with the same quality, it won't give him both halves with the same file size. So, if the plan is to put each half on its own CD, then that won't work.

His original plan isn't so good either. If you split it by chapters, half the chapters on their own CD, then you have 2 problems. One would be that there's no guarantee of getting the same resolution out of each half, thus precluding joining them again later on. You can get around that by forcing the same horizontal width for both halves. But then you have another problem, and that is that the 2 halves will have a different quality. That is, the 2 halves won't compress the same. For example, in a lot of movies the action picks up in the second half, so you'll get most of the explosions or gun battles or whatever, later on. You split those hypethetical 14 chapters into 7 chapters each and force the same resolution, the quality of the second half CD will be worse than the first. AutoGK will take steps to remedy that by changing the matrix and the resizer, but there's only so much it can do. In addition, without having the compression test results, you have no idea of the ideal resolution for the final encodes.

There's no easy answer for what you hope to accomplish. I also sometimes want to split at a better place then just by doing the whole movie and then splitting at the 700 MB mark, because you'll often have to cut in the middle of a scene. What I'll do is to run a compression test on my own (with SelectRangeEvery(280,14) at the bottom of the script) and then do some looking around for a convenient place to split that makes each half about the same size. I don't care about doing it at a true chapter point, just a major scene change, but since you'll be using AutoGK for the encoding, and DVD Decrypter for the splitting, you'd then look for the closest chapter point at which to split them into nearly identical sizes.

AutoGK isn't ideally suited for what you want to do. Much better would be GKnot, using the Trim command to do the splitting. However, if you don't care much about the relative quality of the 2 halves, using your method along with forcing the same horizontal width might be OK.