MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[berrinam]

Actually, DirectShowSource should use the pixel_type parameter:
DirectShowSource(...,pixel_type="YV12")
to avoid unnecessary colorspace conversions. Since the Avs script creator doesn't natively support vobsub yet, we can hardly be responsible for the problems it causes yet. However, MeGUI should currently check for colorspace problems just before encodes and will detect if it isn't YV12. Either this is broken again, or this settings isn't being used, but I don't think ConvertToYV12 should be added to the Avs creator.

[Limobar]

I have a question about resyncing audio (LC-AAC) and video (x264) in a mp4 container. I'm using MeGUI and often the audio/video are out of sync. I will describe the way I'm correcting this at the moment. I'm wondering if there is a faster way.

- I use MPC to find out the exact time difference.
- I use MKVMergeGUI to adjust the audio file (result is a Matroska-file).
- I use MKVExtractGUI to demux the audio.
- I use YAMB to remux the audio/video.

As I'm using XBMC (Xbox Mediacenter), LC-AAC in a Matroska container is often not possible. Is there a way to directly remux the mp4 file with the correct sync values? YAMB appears to have this option, but nothing happens when you use it.

[chipzoller]

@Doom9:
http://rapidshare.de/files/29636690/ronin-cut.rar.html
Should be everything you need.

[Doom9]

MeGUI should currently check for colorspace problems just before encodes and will detect if it isn't YV12.Can you tell me where that check is? I can't seem to find it.

[Doom9]

@chipzoller: I'm afraid I can't reproduce this behavior. After finally figuring out I needed to get and put vsfilter.dll into my AviSynth plugin directory, I could play the avs, and I can encode your sample as well (there are no subs though, but vsfilter is being loaded as without it I only get an error message).

[JarrettH]

Megui won't let me download aacenc32 or any of the avisynth filters too.

[Sharktooth]

what aacenc32? If you mean nero aacenc then you have to manually download and place it in the right folder (licensing problems). Next time :search:
For what concerns the avisynth filter i have no problems downloading them.

[JarrettH]

Updating nicaudio. File 14/14.
Error: The path to save nicaudio to is invalid.
Update completed.
0 files were completed successfully
14 files had problems.

etc :D

Just saw nero, I'll copy it

Do I need aac.dll still?

[hkl8324]

It there any chance this little program (swiss army knife IMHO) will be ported to Linux (Or *nix) OS?:)

(Oh, can it be run on Wine? I havent tested :D)

[Sharktooth]

Updating nicaudio. File 14/14.
Error: The path to save nicaudio to is invalid.
Update completed.
0 files were completed successfully
14 files had problems.

etc :D

Just saw nero, I'll copy it

Do I need aac.dll still?
do you have avisynth installed?
It there any chance this little program (swiss army knife IMHO) will be ported to Linux (Or *nix) OS?:)

(Oh, can it be run on Wine? I havent tested :D)
Im working on the mono port... but it will require avisynth 3.

[chipzoller]

@ Doom9:

Well, I think I've either solved the problem or at least created a work-around solution. It seems MeGUI will shoot up 100% CPU usage even before adding the job to the queue, but it does so with the preview window open and adjust x264 encoder settings. What *may* be significant is that because the script contains burn-in subs, the preview window displays (upon loading the script) a scene in which the burn-in subs are displayed. This may or may not have anything to do with it, but in any case if I close the preview windows just after loading the script I can continue configuring the encoder settings, add the 2-pass job to the queue, and encode successfully. And it was still hanging even after I updated MeGUI to the most recent version, but this work-around seems to work at present. I still have no idea why it's behaving like this but it definately seems like a MeGUI problem.

[JarrettH]

do you have avisynth installed?

Thanks that fixed it! I just did a reformat and decided to grab all my apps after the installation and left all that ffdshow/avisynth nonsense for last :cool:

[foxyshadis]

chipzoller, do you have the latest vsfilter? I helped fix a bug several months ago that caused a similar hang in it. (To find out, you can always get process explorer, open megui's properties, and look at the threads window. If it's vsfilter.dll chowing it all it's that bug (or a related one). If it's avisynth then it's probably one of the other filters.)

[Doom9]

Ideas?
~MiSfitI see lots of filters, CQM, everything to make my hair stand out in all directions - all over my body. You need to gradually lower the complexity of your scenario until you can lay the finger on the exact cause, or better, start with the most simple script involving this source, then gradually increase complexity of the scenario until you know which option caused the problem.
Then you need to cut a sample from the source, and post the script and settings required so that somebody else can reproduce it.

[chipzoller]

@ foxyshadis

Yes, I have v2.37 (and I did read your post you mentioned) unicode version but the script encodes fine in VirtualDub for example, just has problems in MeGUI. I did get the script to encode finally in MeGUI, however, so all seems to be well. I'd still like to know what caused the hang; I may look into it a bit more if I have the time.

[Eleo]

Hi... I'm new to this. I was following the Wiki/guide and naturally was confused on precisely what to do in some cases. Since one thing can be the difference between success or failure...

I have created a D2V and demuxed the audio and I have two .ac3 files; presumably the second one is like director's commentary or something? I have no idea; that's my best guess. But I've created an avs script and I calculated the bitrate and such and set up the encode for HQ-Slower (would anyone recommend I use HQ-Slowest?) but am wondering if I have to do anything for audio... The guide said don't bother encoding audio if you have AC3 so does that mean I can just go ahead and begin encoding the video and expect audio to accompany it when it's done (presumably within the container and not isolated from the video)?

Edit: Damn it I'm such an idiot... If I had just continued through the guide I would have found out. Meh, sorry. My other question still stands, I guess, although it might be in the wrong thread by itself:

Also, should I be using an MKV or MP4 container? Or rather, not "should I" but what would people generally recommend?

[check]

Hi, I wrote the guide and feedback is 100% welcome - I should start actively seeking it out a little more actually. As to your questions:
o with audio files, simply play them to see what they contain. DGIndex outputs the number of channels in the audio filename (ie lookingdown T01 2_0ch 192Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3 means two front speakers and no rear speakers (ie stereo)) as well.
o HQ-Slow vs Slowest vs whatever is very much your own choice. I personally use something that's even slower than HQ-Slower, but not everyone is happy with 24hr+ encoding times :^).
o Keeping ac3 or transcoding to mp3/some other format is again your own choice. ac3 is usually at either 384 (3mb/min) or 448 (3.5mb/min), whereas a stereo mp3 @ 128kbits is around 1mb/min. I keep the ac3 because space isn't an issue for me and I prefer to not encode, but depending on your sound system and so on you should make your own choice. If you only have a stereo sound system try encoding to ND AAC with quality 0.3 and see if you can hear a difference. You'll certainly notice a sound difference at least ;).
o Audio is NOT automatically added to the video when done. You have to add it in the Muxing step. The output formats available are dependant on the input formats (no h264 in avi, no vorbis in mp4, etc etc)
o Personally I prefer MKV because it can handle a metric ton more codecs and formats, and none of the advantages of mp4 are really that advantageous for me. Also, no ac3 in mp4!
Hope this helps.

[Sharktooth]

I've uploaded a new mp4box version that supports vobsubs in the megui autoupdate server and linked x264 against the latest libgpac.
Please test it and tell me if you have any problems with mp4 files.

[frodeste]

If you have the info file it'll show you the proper audio tracks and languages.. if not, you just have to figure out that info on your own and if you e.g. select track 8 and there's no track 8.. you just won't get any audio.
but it runs without that file, it's just always good to have it. And file mode... if your titleset contains additional content, you realize that file mode is going to get you that additional content (e.g. fbi warning, mpaa ratings and other annoying stuff) as well.. and it has nothing to do with file versus ifo mode.. it's about activating the info file option in dvddec.

What if I already copied my dvd to the harddrive using DVDShrink (no compression)? What is the easies way to create this file?

[Doom9]

What is the easies way to create this file?Enter DVD again, start ripping, abort. I think that'll write the file. And then learn that DVDDec is THE tool to rip.. you get two very important text files written for free.. many apps rely on those and don't reinvent the wheel by having their own IFO parsing.

[frodeste]

Enter DVD again, start ripping, abort. I think that'll write the file. And then learn that DVDDec is THE tool to rip.. you get two very important text files written for free.. many apps rely on those and don't reinvent the wheel by having their own IFO parsing.

Thanks. I will do so. As for the other DVDs. That would take to much time. (even with aborting..)

I wonder if I could trick DVDDec to read existing DVD files from the harddrive, as if they were on the DVD and copy them to a new location. Must do some research I think :)

[Eleo]

I'm not sure where to put this since it could have something to do with MeGUI or it might just be x264 in general. Anyway, I recently encoded Star Wars Clone Wars Volume One using MeGUI. During the process I noticed that for some reason in the source video that there were very thin, black, 2-pixel borders on the bottom and the right. I cropped these out using Auto-Crop; as I felt they shouldn't be there. I was actually confused as to why they were on the source DVD.

On my encoded mp4, in each frame the rightmost border is shifted two pixels up. And every second or so it sort of "flickers" in this area. I double-checked the DVD for this behavior and it isn't there. I don't know if this has anything to do with me cropping. Or maybe it has something to do with how I resized the video because it's anamorphic.

I can't seem to get a screencap of the flickering because it comes and goes so often. It's enough to be distracting, though. I have a cap of the way the border is shifted up:
http://img505.imageshack.us/img505/1420/clonewarsproblemru9.png
Notice how the thick lines in the artwork don't match up to the 2 rightmost pixels.

Meh, eight hours of encoding wasted. :( Needless to say I'm pretty disappointed because otherwise the quality of the video is excellent.

I pretty much followed this guide (http://project357.com/MeGUIwiki/index.php?title=Main_Page) on how to use MeGUI.

Does anyone know where I went wrong?

EDIT In hindsight I'd say I went wrong. The auto-crop tool seems to be imperfect. (Last night I was trying to crop the black borders from Crouching Tiger; auto-crop did nothing to it; I had to remove them manually. Keep in mind these borders were HUGE.) Auto-crop removed two pixels from the right and four pixels from the bottom; when it should have cropped 0 pixels from the right and two pixels from the bottom. I ended up cropping actual video; maybe this is where I screwed up. I'll re-encode and see if there's a difference. Bottom line is I'm never trusting auto-crop again.

[frodeste]

Hi, I wrote the guide and feedback is 100% welcome - I should start actively seeking it out a little more actually. As to your questions:...
Hope I can be forgiven by adding a couple of items on the todo list in the wiki. If you like, I would be happy to help you on writing more. (Although I would need a little assistance along the way)

[Sharktooth]

@Eleo: auto-crop doesnt always work as expected (even for AutoGK, StaxRip, etc...). The preview window is there for a reason...

[Eleo]

o yeah preview window why didnt i think of dat

EDIT Although I know what caused it to happen, I don't think the sort of flickering should happen; if you crop it it should just be cropped out, right? Shouldn't be any negative side effects even from cropping the actual picture.

I've noticed thin black borders on a lot of stuff I'm looking at. Another example being Arrested Development Season 1. In some cases it's only present in some frame/shots but not others. Is this a limitation of the source video or was the DVD just not put together with as much expertise as there should be?

[junglemike]

Guys, I have a problem encoding audio. I tried encoding ac3 to mp3 and also tried mp3 to ogg and in both cases this fails.
Maybe i am doing something wrong. I don't know. I searched the wiki megui guide, and also this thread, but notheing.
here's what i do:
megui version 0.2.3.2192.
1) in the audio input field, i browse for the .ac3 files, than 2)choose desired audio profile, which is mp3@128kbps cbr.
codec:mp3
container:mp3.
3)hit engueue (in the lower part)
4) Error appears in the job status.
5) I go to the log and see the following message.
Exactly the same error apperas when i try to encode mp3 to ogg for example:
Log for job job1
Error:
MeGUI.AviSynthException: Script error: there is no function named "NicMPG123Source"
at MeGUI.AviSynthClip..ctor(String func, String arg, AviSynthColorspace forceColorspace, AviSynthScriptEnvironment env)
at MeGUI.AviSynthAudioEncoder.encode()
Would really be greatful if some1 could help me out.

_Edit:
Ok guys, fixed the problem. After finding out that exactly same setup worked fine on my other computer, i unistalled megui, and reinstalled from the scratch. Now everything works back again.

[PlazzTT]

I'm having trouble with the auto-updater.

There's just one update left I haven't installed and it's because it keep freezing.

It's the STx264 update from version 29 to 30. It says "Updating STx264. File 1/1." and it looks like it downloads it (the progess bar goes to 100%), but then it stops. The Update button is grayed out, and the Abort button or anything else in meGUI doesn't work, so I've to end task.

[cbarroso]

Move the autoupdate window and you are going to discover another window behind it... :p

[jtarrio]

Hello,

I'm having an issue whenever I use the adaptive muxer of MeGui (BTW it has the same shortcut key (Ctrl+M) as to hide it in the system tray, so it doesn't work). What happens is that I select the video source, and the two audio sources, and the resulting MP4 file contains each audio track twice (total 4 tracks), and of course the file size exceeds what I'd calculated in the first place.

Here's the output from an MP4Box -info on the resulting file:

C:\Documents and Settings\jtarrio\My Documents\DVDs\ELDIADELABODA_SCN>mp4box -info "The Wedding Date
.(2005).x264.AAC5.1.mp4"
* Movie Info *
Timescale 600 - Duration 01:24:55.338
Fragmented File no - 5 track(s)
File Brand isom - version 1
Created: GMT Fri Aug 25 08:54:36 2006

File has root IOD
Scene PL 0xff - Graphics PL 0xff - OD PL 0xff
Visual PL: AVC/H264 Profile (0x15)
Audio PL: AAC Profile @ Level 4 (0x2a)
No streams included in root OD

Track # 1 Info - TrackID 1 - TimeScale 25 - Duration 01:24:55.240
Media Info: Language "Undetermined" - Type "vide" - Sub Type "avc1" - 127381 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Visual Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x21
AVC/H264 Video - Visual Size 560 x 304 - Profile High @ Level 5.1
Self-synchronized

Track # 2 Info - TrackID 2 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 01:24:55.338
Media Info: Language "English" - Type "soun" - Sub Type "mp4a" - 119422 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 6 Channel(s) - SampleRate 24000 - SBR SampleRate 48000
Synchronized on stream 1

Track # 3 Info - TrackID 3 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 01:24:55.338
Media Info: Language "Spanish" - Type "soun" - Sub Type "mp4a" - 119422 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 6 Channel(s) - SampleRate 24000 - SBR SampleRate 48000
Synchronized on stream 1

Track # 4 Info - TrackID 4 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 01:24:55.338
Media Info: Language "English" - Type "soun" - Sub Type "mp4a" - 119422 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 6 Channel(s) - SampleRate 24000 - SBR SampleRate 48000
Synchronized on stream 1

Track # 5 Info - TrackID 5 - TimeScale 48000 - Duration 01:24:55.338
Media Info: Language "Spanish" - Type "soun" - Sub Type "mp4a" - 119422 samples
MPEG-4 Config: Audio Stream - ObjectTypeIndication 0x40
MPEG-4 Audio AAC LC - 6 Channel(s) - SampleRate 24000 - SBR SampleRate 48000
Synchronized on stream 1

No problem, I just remove them with MP4Box, but it's a bit annoying and I was wondering if it's a known issue.

BTW, this doesn't happen with the MP4 Muxer, only with the Adaptive Muxer... What's the difference?
Cheers...

[Doom9]

You obviously know your way around mp4box.. have you considered looking at the megui logs to check for a difference in commandlines? Just an idea ;)

[Carpo]

is there any issues if you were to mux an xvid and aac audio into an avi container

sorry if this has been asked and answered b4

[Sharktooth]

Dont know if divxmux (the avi muxer used in megui) can handle aac in avi, but i highly doubt it can...

[Carpo]

didnt think it would :(

[Doom9]

If the adaptive muxer works as it should, once you add an avi & aac audio, the container choice would be limited to mkv.

@edit: I just checked and it indeed does that. And you can't even add an mp4 audio in the divxmux muxer.
You might however be able to add an x264 in avi and an mp3 and divxmux will just tell you that it doesn't support that video type.

[Eleo]

Hello,

I'm having an issue whenever I use the adaptive muxer of MeGui (BTW it has the same shortcut key (Ctrl+M) as to hide it in the system tray, so it doesn't work). What happens is that I select the video source, and the two audio sources, and the resulting MP4 file contains each audio track twice (total 4 tracks), and of course the file size exceeds what I'd calculated in the first place.
I'm having the same issue. It worked out fine with the mkv muxer, though.

[Blue_MiSfit]

hey guys,

So... We got a spanking new MacPro today - quad core 2.66 Xeon, 2 GB FB-DIMM, 2x250GB SATA... Awesome.

I got BootCamp (Windows XP) up and running nicely and everything seems in order. However, when I attempted to load in MeGUI, I ran into an error. It installs just fine, but when I try to run the auto update, it says that it doesn't recieve the XML file. I assume this means that the server that handles auto update is down.

Is this in fact the case? If so, is there any ETA on getting it up and running again? Not to pester anyone or anything like that, I just REALLY REALLY REALLY want to do some tests with this badass quad core monstrosity!!!!! :D :D :D

Thanks folks
~MiSfit

[quake74]

Yeah, autoupdate is down here too (29/8/06 11AM GMT-1). It says

Retrieving update file from server...
Error: Couldn't connect to server. Try again later.
Error: Could not download XML file

[jtarrio]

I'm having the same issue. It worked out fine with the mkv muxer, though.
Glad to know I'm not the only one. It happens to me whenever I use the adaptive muxer, every single time, so I guess it's a bug? Maybe we sould post this in the bug report thread? Is nobody else having this problem?

[~bT~]

I had this error a while back and now I have it again.

http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/2373/bilderman20060829135811nx2.png

I havent added any dll's since my last rip with MeGUI and I also have the TIVTC.dll in my Avisynth folder.

[Eleo]

Glad to know I'm not the only one. It happens to me whenever I use the adaptive muxer, every single time, so I guess it's a bug? Maybe we sould post this in the bug report thread? Is nobody else having this problem?
Actually for me it only happens when I have two audio tracks. Having one audio track works fine for me with the adaptive muxer.

[Sharktooth]

That's an avisynth related error.
for some reasons seems the filter doesnt get loaded.

[Xebec]

Noob question. Surprizingly cannot find any answer to it here. MeGUI does not encode audio. Video encoding works and I get my result, but audio - no way.
My input - AVI (xvid/mp3). I tried using AutoEncode for it and 6 steps method as in MeGUI guide. AutoEncode just ignores audio. Using 6-steps method, I chose the same AVS script as is created for video and as a result I get this error:

System.ApplicationException: Can't find audio stream
at MeGUI.AviSynthAudioEncoder.encode()
-----------------------------------------------------------

I decided to give MeGUI a try after realized that StaxRip is not supported anymore.

[check]

change the audio = false in the avs file to true and you can use it to encode audio - but to save time you should make a new script with only the first line so it doesn't waste CPU transforming the video too.

[Xebec]

Thanks man. Everything works!

[Carpo]

ok prob a stupid question but - i know which x264 profiles to use but the naming of the xvid profiles is a bit confusing to me, which do u use and for what purpose, i mean you have HQ slow HQ slowest and so on for x264 but with xvid its XviD '_rt_30% comp. check' (HQ)

[check]

Sharktooth has a thread about his presets and the naming conventions - as to the xvid ones, the % refers to the compressibility test result from enc(?), basically lower %'s reflect higher compression.
So if you are backing up a DVD to xvid and you are going to use a full DVD5 worth of space chances are you'll want to use the >90% setting. If you are doing a 3hr movie to 700mb you'll be looking at something more like 30%. Be aware you have to download the quantization matrices for the xvid builds seperately though and put them into a new folder called extra in the xvidencraw folder in megui\tools

[Carpo]

so if your doing say a 2 hr film with ac3 audio its an idea to stay around the 30% mark (even if audio used is mp3?)

edit: i just found the thread in that explains what each profile is good for :)

[ricardo.santos]

i rember from the top of my head that the update doent work with neroaac because of some legal issues/licenses remember reading that we have to do it manually. but i thought that was solved has neroaac reference is still there in the update window. not a big problem anyway.

will uninstall megui and install it again and let you guys know of the results

thanks

Hi, finally i had the time to format my Pc, everything works now. Thanks for all your advices.

Just have a small question:
is x264 supposed to be direct competitor with xvid/divx or with Mpeg2?

When i backup my dvds i plan to watch them on SAP, so i made quick test with a 5 minute vob :

xvid/divx= 35 mg home theater profile(used avi.net since it has SAP compatabilty in "mind")
x264=35 mg HD DVD profile

video resolutions were the same as well as audio bitrate

when i tried to lower the final size with x264 picture quality degraded(blocks) so hence my question.

Thanks

[foxyshadis]

HD-DVD is significantly more restrictive than Home Theater; primarily the gop size is extremely short, and b-frames are few. Compare xvid with a 15 frame key interval to see what I mean. Unless you're actually making HD-DVDs (in which case a comparison is useless, given no way to use ASP), try lowering the bitrate with 250-300 keyint and 3-4 b-frames.

[Carpo]

is it worth doing an analysis pass and the 2 passes or just the 2 passes on their own ? do this serve any major purpose or does it just lend a helping hand ?