MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[tebasuna51]

...Is there any advantage switching to the 64 bit version of MeGUI?

AviSynth+ 64 can be fast than 32, but some (rare) plugins don't have 64 bits version.

Encoders 64 bits are also fast, but with MeGUI 32 you can use encoders 64 bits already.

[raymondjpg]

AviSynth+ 64 can be fast than 32, but some (rare) plugins don't have 64 bits version.

Encoders 64 bits are also fast, but with MeGUI 32 you can use encoders 64 bits already.

Thanks for the response. Doesn't look like much advantage, but I have installed the 64 bit version and presets imported from a 32 bit installation all seem to be working fine so far. I have kept the 32 bit installation on standby.

[tormento]

Is there a way to pass the PAR I can set in video preview to x264 SAR parameter?

[LigH]

Those are two different ratios. There is no simple pass-through. You will usually decide whether the picture is deskewed to SAR 1:1 (square pixels), or you don't want to apply any Resize function and encode anamorphically (then you need to know the SAR as the skew ratio).

[tormento]

Those are two different ratios.
I am trying to encode the DVD of Vizontele and the pixel ratio is completely wrong on the original material.

Usually, for DVDs, SAR is 64:45 but for this one, it's screwed.

The format should be 1.85:1 but it is encoded as 5:4.

I am trying to find the correct SAR to pass to x264.

EDIT: solved with good old ARS Calculator (https://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=782693#post782693)

[jlw_4049]

Is there anyway to Queue a job and it be set to postponed instead of automatically restarting?

I know you can toggle this in the options menu. However, I'd like a way to do all my testing automatically, once I get my final tests, setup my full render job and post pone it without going into the options, so I can test and setup another job so i can let them encode over time.

Thanks!

[beto]

Hello, I want to encode a DVD to HEVC and play it back in my iPhone 11.

I used MeGUI (last stable release) to perform the encoding with x265 (all-default-no-fancy settings) and muxing (to M4V). The file can be imported to iTunes (12.10.6.2) in Windows 10 (1909) but when trying to play it back it shows only a black screen (no video) although audio plays back apparently with no issues. If I use VLC or Movies & TV in Windows the file plays ok with no issues.

If I use x264 instead fo x265 and perform the exact same procedure everything works fine and I can playback the movie in both iTunes and in my iPhone with no issues.

Is it possible to create a playable HEVC video from a DVD and play it back in iTunes/iPhone 11 using MeGUI? If so how should I do it?

Thanks in advance for any help.

[LigH]

I see two possible traps here:

a) Can your device decode HEVC at all? And in addition, does it have Profile@Level restrictions you have to respect while encoding?
b) Did MeGUI flag the MP4 container as expected by iTunes? It has a control in the MP4 multiplexer, but you may have to add a manual job to the queue to use it this way...

[beto]

I see two possible traps here:

a) Can your device decode HEVC at all? And in addition, does it have Profile@Level restrictions you have to respect while encoding?
b) Did MeGUI flag the MP4 container as expected by iTunes? It has a control in the MP4 multiplexer, but you may have to add a manual job to the queue to use it this way...

Thank you for taking the time to look into it.

a) I am positive it can. I am trying to play the file on an iPhone 11 Plus with iOS 13.4 so it can play HEVC. As for Profile@Level I do not know if there are any restrictions in the iPhone. Does anyone know anything about that and can contribute?

b) I always set up the Apple TV flag in the MP4 multiplexer (I set Device Type to Apple TV in MeGUI). I always run the multiplexer at the end of the process separately joining audio and video. This works if I mux h264 video and the files play fine in the iPhone but does not work if I use hevc video.

ps. I do not use One Click Encoder or the Auto Encode features in MeGUI.

[jlw_4049]

Does m4v containers support HEVC? Can you play mkv or mp4?

Upon googling it I don't see anywhere that it says it supports HEVC.


https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/7685

tag for codec hevc in stream #0, codec not currently supported in container
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument
Error initializing output stream 0:0 --

encoded 0 frames
Conversion failed!



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[LigH]

I am not sure if "m4v" here is just an MP4 container with a renamed extension ... or really a different container specification. I have seen this extension used for MPEG4-ASP elementary video (without container) as well.

If there is MPEG4 (or newer) video multiplexed with audio, it certainly needs a container. I would assume that Apple TV should use ISO Base Media MP4 v2 as container too, just with some specific atoms.

The MP4 container supports HEVC video streams already (L-SMASH and MP4Box support their multiplexing); whether Apple TV supports them, is a different chapter.

[videoh]

"m4v" refers to a video elementary stream. That may not be what the questioner meant but it is the correct usage.

[bruno321]

I've started to play around with qaac which I had never used. I chose these options:

https://ptpimg.me/o76901.png

and I ran it on an MP2 file, this is the log:
https://ptpimg.me/stcvs8.png

My question is: did it go directly from MP2 to AAC or was there some intermediate encoding? (like MP2 to AC3 to AAC or something)

[LigH]

AviSynth source plugins decode audio to uncompressed PCM (and often floating point samples, because many audio filters expect that). Then the result is fed to the encoder.

[beto]

Does m4v containers support HEVC? Can you play mkv or mp4?

Upon googling it I don't see anywhere that it says it supports HEVC.


https://trac.ffmpeg.org/ticket/7685

tag for codec hevc in stream #0, codec not currently supported in container
Could not write header for output file #0 (incorrect codec parameters ?): Invalid argument
Error initializing output stream 0:0 --

encoded 0 frames
Conversion failed!



Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

If I mux the hevc video to a mp4 , m4v or mkv container they play ok using VLC or the native Windows 10 movie player in the PC.

In iTunes and other apple devices (iPhone, Apple TV etc.) they do not play at all. May be a limitation of the Apple devices regarding the container format. I do not know...

[beto]

I am not sure if "m4v" here is just an MP4 container with a renamed extension ... or really a different container specification. I have seen this extension used for MPEG4-ASP elementary video (without container) as well.

If there is MPEG4 (or newer) video multiplexed with audio, it certainly needs a container. I would assume that Apple TV should use ISO Base Media MP4 v2 as container too, just with some specific atoms.

The MP4 container supports HEVC video streams already (L-SMASH and MP4Box support their multiplexing); whether Apple TV supports them, is a different chapter.

I read Apple's documentation related to HEVC and it states that the iPhone records video in HEVC format and stores it in a MOV container. Maybe iOS only supports playing back HEVC in a MOV container and not MP4. Not sure if this is the case. At least it is what I could infer from the support documentation.

[SeeMoreDigital]

I read Apple's documentation related to HEVC and it states that the iPhone records video in HEVC format and stores it in a MOV container...Out of interest... Did Apple's documentation mention anything about supported 'Profiles'?

[beto]

Out of interest... Did Apple's documentation mention anything about supported 'Profiles'?

Nothing specific about that unfortunately.

[slick1109]

Hello. I am trying to figure out how to Downgrade the x264 codec in MeGUI.

Since I save backups during updates, I still have the previous x264 "obsolete" zip file. I would assume I simply extract the x264.exe file I want and overwrite the newer one in the "MeGui\tools\x264" folder, but after doing so, and checking the current version by running Update in MeGUI, it still shows the newer version. So I assume there is a better way to do this, or some Settings file that also needs to be changed as well.


[For anyone wondering WHY I want to downgrade, the reason is because my older Samsung TV will not play any of my recent encodes (via USB) after upgrading to x264 r2969. So I want to revert back to x264 r2935 which is the last version I used that works fine.]

UPDATE: So while I was waiting for a response, I tried changing my update settings from the STABLE server to the DEVELOPER server, which gave me a newer version of the codec (x264 r2991). I encoded a few second long video just to test it, and it seems like the r2991 fixes the problem. So something is clearly wrong with the x264 r2969 codec. However, I usually prefer to stay with the STABLE updates, so I would still like an answer to my question regarding how to downgrade my x264 codec to a previous version.

Thanks.

[sneaker_ger]

So something is clearly wrong with the x264 r2969 codec.
JFYI: It's a Samsung bug. x264 developers accommodated for such buggy players in the newest versions.

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/x264/-/commit/92d36908cbafd2a6edf7e61d69f341027b57f6f8
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/x264/-/commit/f9af2a0f71d0fca7c1cafa7657f03a302da0ca1c

[slick1109]

JFYI: It's a Samsung bug. x264 developers accommodated for such buggy players in the newest versions.

https://code.videolan.org/videolan/x264/-/commit/92d36908cbafd2a6edf7e61d69f341027b57f6f8
https://code.videolan.org/videolan/x264/-/commit/f9af2a0f71d0fca7c1cafa7657f03a302da0ca1c

Thanks for letting me know. I was able to confirm that the x264 r2969 encodes do play on both my PC and a friends Roku Ultra (via USB), but not on my Samsung TV. So I guess that explains it. Glad to find out it was fixed on newer versions of the codec.

Hopefully someone else on here will still help me figure out how to downgrade my codec since I prefer to stay with the stable releases for now.

[kalehrl]

Well, MeGUI isn't updated that often even when using develop so I guess you are pretty sure sticking to it.

[jlw_4049]

I have always used the development server. Never had an issue.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[sneaker_ger]

Since I save backups during updates, I still have the previous x264 "obsolete" zip file. I would assume I simply extract the x264.exe file I want and overwrite the newer one in the "MeGui\tools\x264" folder, but after doing so, and checking the current version by running Update in MeGUI, it still shows the newer version. So I assume there is a better way to do this, or some Settings file that also needs to be changed as well.
Does MeGUI even check against the .exe files (e.g. by running "x264 --version")? My guess is it alters AutoUpdate.xml when running updates through the GUI but not when you manually exchanged e.g. the x264.exe. So manually exchanging the x264.exe should make it work with the different x264 although it's not shown in the GUI, i.e. it's only a cosmetic issue? Maybe someone else can confirm.

[slick1109]

Does MeGUI even check against the .exe files (e.g. by running "x264 --version")? My guess is it alters AutoUpdate.xml when running updates through the GUI but not when you manually exchanged e.g. the x264.exe. So manually exchanging the x264.exe should make it work with the different x264 although it's not shown in the GUI, i.e. it's only a cosmetic issue? Maybe someone else can confirm.

I considered that as well. I would assume just replacing the current x264.exe file with the version I want to use would allow me to encode using that lower codec version, but I didn't know if that would cause any problems. I figured at the very least that a settings file needed to be changes as well, simply for the software to recognize that it is using a different version.

Perhaps not. Maybe it is only "cosmetic" in the sense that I will see it shown incorrectly in the Update screen, but it wont actually cause any issues. Thats why I asked the question because I wanted to know for sure, or if there was a proper way to do it.

[kalehrl]

I've just replaced older Xvid with the newer one and MeGUI doesn't complain at all.

[jlw_4049]

I don't think the main megui developer is around anymore. Which is a shame because the program is awesome. I hope it doesn't get left behind eventually.

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[hello_hello]

I think the only tool you can't "simply" replace with a different version is Avisynth+ and it's plugins, because MeGUI copies them to various sub-folders. To update Avisynth+ (if MeGUI is using it's portable version) you need to close MeGUI and replace the files in the "MeGUI\tools\avs" and "MeGUI\tools\avs\plugins" folders with the newer/desired versions, then when MeGUI starts it'll copy those files to it's various directories, oblivious to the fact they've changed. If you don't replace the files in those folders, MeGUI will replace Avisynth.dll etc in it's main directory and any copies in sub-folders with the older files again each time it starts.

[magnetite]

For some reason, whenever I make changes to a preset in the One Click encoder profile, it doesn't effectively update itself until after I close down and restart the application. Clicking the update button isn't enough to make the change.

[hello_hello]

For anyone running XP, MeGUI updates it's Avisynth+ to a non-XP compatible version when it updates Avisynth+ to version 3.5.1.
To get MeGUI working again, you need to follow my instructions in a couple of posts prior to this one, using the XP compatible versions of Avisynth+ and it's plugins from here (https://github.com/AviSynth/AviSynthPlus/releases).

The file you need to download is "AviSynthPlus_3.5.1_20200402_filesonly.7z"

[Lord Dredd]

Hi
I would be grateful if someone can guide and explain how deblocking works in the newer megui versions.

I read and re read a lot of older threads and my mind is totally confused about what are the sane values of alpha and beta,
Some claimed using-3.-3 to give a sharper look 1.e. not letting the x264 encoder to smoothen up the source
some claimed the safest option to just keep ( if one is inclined to give a sharper look to the video ) is -2,-1

I am totally confused now so mucj so that I have totally forgotten about how it works

every few months I get an urge to re encode a few of my videos just for the heck of it , these are again those times

HD and FHD both i am trying my hands on

[Zetti]

Hello.

When i cut videos, i can't get the last frame.

This cut should give me 33537 frames but it will only give me 33536 frames.

__film = last
__t0 = __film.trim(33536, 67072)
__t0

MeGUI will only let me cut these frames of a the video (33536, 67071), i have tried to edit the last frame to 67072 so i can get all frames but the last frame is still 67071

Can it be a bug in MeGUI or Avisynth??

[videoh]

If you mean the last frame of the file (rather than last frame of your trim) then specify 0 as the last frame. That will include the final frame of the file.

[Zetti]

When i specify 0 as the last frame, i still only getting 33536 frames and not 33537 frames.

[tebasuna51]

When i cut videos, i can't get the last frame.

This cut should give me 33537 frames but it will only give me 33536 frames.

__film = last
__t0 = __film.trim(33536, 67072)
__t0

MeGUI will only let me cut these frames of a the video (33536, 67071), i have tried to edit the last frame to 67072 so i can get all frames but the last frame is still 67071

Can it be a bug in MeGUI or Avisynth??

If your video have 67072 frames the last frame is the 67071 because the first frame is the 0

[tebasuna51]

I read and re read a lot of older threads and my mind is totally confused about what are the sane values of alpha and beta,
Some claimed using-3.-3 to give a sharper look 1.e. not letting the x264 encoder to smoothen up the source
some claimed the safest option to just keep ( if one is inclined to give a sharper look to the video ) is -2,-1

There aren't changes in MeGUI about that point.

If you limit the deblock filter (-3,-3) you can obtain macroblocks in the video, is recommended only with high bitrates (crf 16 for instance) and now you can obtain sharper look, if you want less bitrate (crf 19 for instance) is better let the default deblock (-1,-1).

BTW is your choice, limit the deblock filter -> risk of macroblocks at low bitrate.

[hello_hello]

When i specify 0 as the last frame, i still only getting 33536 frames and not 33537 frames.

If you navigate to the end of the video using the AVS Cutter you'll see something like this in the title bar above the preview.

44871/44872

Which shows there's a total of 44872 frames in human counting, while using Avisynth's counting (where the first frame is number zero) the last frame is number 44871.

Likewise the first frame would display as

0/44872

[Zetti]

I think i understand it now but it will make more sense that frame 1 is frame 1 and not frame 0

[stax76]

I guess most apps show the current frame zero based because most programming languages use zero based collections and programmers are used to that. Lua which is used by mpv is using 1 based collections. :)

[videoh]

I think i understand it now but it will make more sense that frame 1 is frame 1 and not frame 0 If you are a Pascal programmer, OK. C/C++ not so much. If you are not a programmer, who cares? RTFM.

[beto]

I am using version 2913 from the development update server. I am having an odd issue trying to index a VOB file obtained from a DVD.

Whenever I try to index this VOB file (using DGINDEX since L-SMASH and FFMSINDEX both appear grayed out to me with this MeGUI version) the file indexes partially and not entirely. It indexes around 45 minutes of the VOB file and the rest is not indexed and appears to be truncated. There are no apparent error messages.

If I use DGIndex directly (and not through MeGUI) the file indexes entirely with no issues.

The logs related to the indexing job are available below if anyone is interested:

https://pastebin.com/kyPXW7K5

I am on Windows 10 v1909.

Any help is appreciated.

Regards.

[Lirk]

MeGUI version 2913 crashes when using yadifmod2 plugin.

[jlw_4049]

When I setup a series of batch encodes, the workers will only do 1 encode at a time, regardless of how I set the worker settings.

[kalehrl]

Press start button and new video encode worker will start and then you won't need to manually start them once again.
When one finishes, the other will pop up.

[Lord Dredd]

There aren't changes in MeGUI about that point.

If you limit the deblock filter (-3,-3) you can obtain macroblocks in the video, is recommended only with high bitrates (crf 16 for instance) and now you can obtain sharper look, if you want less bitrate (crf 19 for instance) is better let the default deblock (-1,-1).

BTW is your choice, limit the deblock filter -> risk of macroblocks at low bitrate.

Thanks a lot for the tip
But -1,-1 aint default anymore, No matter the profile settings the default de-blocking values are 0,0 now , are you suggesting its best to use -1,-1 for crf values from 19 to lets say 21 ??
what about x264 and x265 , Should one stick to same -1,-1 for lower bitrates for x264 and x265 encoding ???

once again many thanks Big T :)

Also just to get some sharpness going at those crf values , do you recommend any avisynth sharpening filters as well , nothing complicated may be something internal just to give some sharp margins and stuff.
Thanks

[tebasuna51]

But -1,-1 aint default anymore,
You are right, -1,-1 is added by -tune film, recommended for film movies.

Also just to get some sharpness going at those crf values , do you recommend any avisynth sharpening filters as well

There are a internal filter Sharpen (http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Blur) but I never use it.

[Lord Dredd]

You are right, -1,-1 is added by -tune film, recommended for film movies.



There are a internal filter Sharpen (http://avisynth.nl/index.php/Blur) but I never use it.

Thanks a bunch Dear mate
Being an expert : what would you suggest to an eternal newbie and hobby encoder like myself , about getting good details and least blocking in a low bitrate x264 or may be x265 encode.

In x264 i tend to use slower preset always with no filters via AVISYNTH , try to use crf around 19 to 22 , sometimes I try and use 2pass with bitrates of around 1200 to 1600 to see how much details one can retain , but the fuzzyness in the background and margins can be caught when you watch the video from pretty near the TV ( Have a HD TV in my study 32inches )


Recently i started experimenting with x265 as well , but I was surprised to see that there is no option to look through advanced settings like x264 has , also I found the colors of a x265 encoded video are colder than x264 ( May be its just me ).

--- What would be your recommendations regarding encoding with x265 , MEDIUM , crf21 I guess ?? I always try and see how low one can go in bitrate but still maintain decent details and sharpness ..


Would be highly THANKFUL for the suggestions...
God Bless


EDIT :
I have heard a lot of people say that using VBR mode of encoding can prove magic for low bitrate encoding process, especially by settings qcomp to 0.9ish ( I know how our developers feel about qcomp here at MEGUI) hence asking again ...
How can one encode in VBR via MEGUI in crf and 2 pass encoding and whats the sweet value of qcomp

Thanks again

[tebasuna51]

I'm not a expert in video encode at all (my specialty is audio).

- Slower presets are always better if you don't care encoder time.
- Use filters only if the source need them.
- The bitrate 1200-1600 only for low resolution (DVD sources)
- x265 better improvements for high resolution (1080 or more)
- VFR can save some bitrate, but can be a problem for players or further recode.

Test yourself.

[Lord Dredd]

I'm not a expert in video encode at all (my specialty is audio).

- Slower presets are always better if you don't care encoder time.
- Use filters only if the source need them.
- The bitrate 1200-1600 only for low resolution (DVD sources)
- x265 better improvements for high resolution (1080 or more)
- VFR can save some bitrate, but can be a problem for players or further recode.

Test yourself.
sure
Any idea how to turn on VFR in megui ???
I dont see that option anywhere.


Thanks a bunch Dear mate
Being an expert : what would you suggest to an eternal newbie and hobby encoder like myself , about getting good details and least blocking in a low bitrate x264 or may be x265 encode.

In x264 i tend to use slower preset always with no filters via AVISYNTH , try to use crf around 19 to 22 , sometimes I try and use 2pass with bitrates of around 1200 to 1600 to see how much details one can retain , but the fuzzyness in the background and margins can be caught when you watch the video from pretty near the TV ( Have a HD TV in my study 32inches )


Recently i started experimenting with x265 as well , but I was surprised to see that there is no option to look through advanced settings like x264 has , also I found the colors of a x265 encoded video are colder than x264 ( May be its just me ).

--- What would be your recommendations regarding encoding with x265 , MEDIUM , crf21 I guess ?? I always try and see how low one can go in bitrate but still maintain decent details and sharpness ..


Would be highly THANKFUL for the suggestions...
God Bless


EDIT :
I have heard a lot of people say that using VBR mode of encoding can prove magic for low bitrate encoding process, especially by settings qcomp to 0.9ish ( I know how our developers feel about qcomp here at MEGUI) hence asking again ...
How can one encode in VBR via MEGUI in crf and 2 pass encoding and whats the sweet value of qcomp

Thanks again

I'm not a expert in video encode at all (my specialty is audio).

- Slower presets are always better if you don't care encoder time.
- Use filters only if the source need them.
- The bitrate 1200-1600 only for low resolution (DVD sources)
- x265 better improvements for high resolution (1080 or more)
- VFR can save some bitrate, but can be a problem for players or further recode.

Test yourself.


@ All tebasuna51 has been very helpful
I would be grateful if you guys can chip in with your specialist opinions regarding my queries I mentioned in previous post

[tebasuna51]

Any idea how to turn on VFR in megui ???

AFAIK, if the source is CFR and using AviSynth, like MeGUI do, it is not possible obtain a VFR encode.

Use HandBrake instead.