MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[nurbs]

Hard to tell really. Every resizing costs some quality IIRC so you would want to avoid unnecesary iterations. It probably doesn't matter much as long as you don't resize to a much lower resolution. Personally I just crop the source and encode anamorphic.

[Dr.Khron]

I don't know about the blocking. Is the DVD scratched?

Hmm, I don't know, I'll have to dig it out. However, a careful viewing of my ripped soure VOBs did show some blocking! This suggests that there is something wrong with the disk, or else maybe the rip.

Thats another thing: I did a full file-mode rip of these DVDs months ago (we've being playing them off the HD with MPC). I'm used to Robot4Rip, which allows you to rip your PGCs directly from files on a HD. However, I could only get DVD Decrypter to rip PGCs from a DVD, not an HD! As a workaround, I made an ISO from the files and mounted it in Daemon tools, and then ripped from that with DVDD. However, now that I'm looking for scratches, its worth digging out the original disks.

Ripping individual PGCs with DVDD is a pain for TV episodes...
Are there any ripping front ends for MeGUI?


Also for cartoons you may want to set deblocking to 1,1

Hmmmm.... There is also an option for "Mpeg2 Deblocking"
when making the AVS script (I guess thats an AviSynth filter). Would that be a better choice since I can see the blocking in the source Mpeg?

[nurbs]

There aren't any ripping frontends that I know of. I feel your pain though. Most of the DVDs I own are TV series.

About the deblocking: There is a big difference between deblocking in h.264 and avisynth.
The h.264 deblocking is a tool to make encoding more efficient (don't ask me how, I think it has something to do with making it easier to predict motion vectors on deblocked frames).
The avisynth script generator option really makes dgdecode deblock the source before encoding. You need that if there are actually visible blocks (see below) in the source, and even then you are probably better off using a dedicated avisynth plugin for the job.

Looking at the pictures you posted I don't think the avisynth deblocking would help much. It helps to remove visible borders between blocks by smoothing the source.

[Dr.Khron]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up.

I also found some very good information on h.264 deblocking on DeathTheSheep's site.
http://gabextreme.googlepages.com/DeathTheSheep_x264_VfW_guide.html


The profile I started with was set to -2,-1.
I'm going to use 1,1 for my next run.

[check]

if you are using coreavc to decode the video, check instead with ffdshow. Coreavc is known to produce a few bugs on decoding some streams, especially is alpha deblock != beta deblock. Also, you can encode a pre-render pass to speed up the encoding and also hopefully reveal if the errors are in the input or the output. Read the wiki for information on it.

[Dr.Khron]

Hmmmm.... well, last week I was having some filter/spliter conflicts, so I uninstalled EVERYTHING, including my old copy of Gknot.

Then I installed the latest CCCP package. Everything seems to work great now, except for my 264 encoding problems.

I'm pretty sure that I'm using FFDshow to decode. I'll taqke another look at that.

[Dr.Khron]

Also, you can encode a pre-render pass to speed up the encoding and also hopefully reveal if the errors are in the input or the output.

I tried this, and it crashed. I have plenty of disk space, so there is no reason why I wouldn't use it. Here is the log:

Starting job job1-2 at 5:01:27 PM
Starting preprocessing of job...
Preprocessing finished!
Calling setup of processor failed with error The file D:\DVD Ripping Temp\S03E01\hfyu_S03E01.avs cannot be opened.
Error message for your reference: AVISource: couldn't locate a decompressor for fourcc FFVH
(D:\DVD Ripping Temp\S03E01\hfyu_S03E01.avs, line 1)

I'm not sure what went wrong there... Not sure why I'd be missing the Huffy decompressor, if thats what its saying.


Also, I'm having trouble encoding the audio... I was going to put the original AC3 files into MKVs, but someone in another thread suggested I try AAC. Its very important to me to maintain the surround sound in the primary audio track.

I tried FAAC first, becuase thats the most common one. It seemed to work great: 6-ch was maintained, quality was good, size was much smaller.

Track 1.AC3 75,688 KB
Track 2.AC3 32,438 KB
Track 3.AC3 32,438 KB

Track 1.ACC 53,674 KB
Track 2.ACC 22,802 KB
Track 3.ACC 23,278 KB

Then I read this in the MeWiki:
FAAC: Another AAC encoder, not-very-good quality output. Use ND/CT AAC instead

So, I decided to try ND AAC. Even though I had it set to "Keep Original Channels" in the audio config, it clearly downmixed the 6-Ch track to 2-Ch, based on file size alone.

Track 1.MP4 27,457 KB
Track 2.MP4 27,435 KB
Track 3.MP4 27,329 KB

I don't know what else I could change in the MeGUI settings to to fix this...

However, I am getting closer to the results I want with the video encoder. More on that later.

[jmnk]

I seem to recall that it was discussed before but I can't find the thread. When the audio is converted in MeGUI (let's say mpeg-1 to mp4 format via nero utility) - how could I find what was the commandline used (and/or the entire avs that was fed to nero audio conversion utility)? Mainly, how could I find out what filter was used to open a particular audio file (like for ac3 it would be nicac3source - but I want to see what happens in general)?
regards

[nurbs]

So, I decided to try ND AAC. Even though I had it set to "Keep Original Channels" in the audio config, it clearly downmixed the 6-Ch track to 2-Ch, based on file size alone.

I never had any unwanted downmixing.
Without the bitrates and number of channels for the AC3s and MP4s and most importantly the settings you used when encoding it's really hard to tell anything. You could always open it in a DirectShow Player and then check the ffdshow audio tray icon for how many chanels the encoded file has. Other programs (VLC, Yamb?, ...) will probably show you as well. If we are still talking about the Simpsons, maybe audio was encoded with 6ch but 4 of them are mostly silent which would explain the low bitrate if you used quality based encoding.

[check]

@dr khron: you need to enable huffyuv decoding in start->cccp->ffdshow video onfig -> codecs -> set huffyuv to 'libavcodec'. As for nero, some people have reported this, as I never encode 5.1 output I'm afraid I can't help. That said, you should check the number of channels in the stream with a tool like mediainfo or ffdshow's audio decoder status window while playing. As for the wiki statement, the quality is still probably better than mp3, but as always (and this is in bold because it's very important): choose with your ears. :)


@jmnk: megui doesn't expose that information. The answers however are reasonably simple: it will use one of nic's audio sources if an appropriate one exists (read the txt file in the avisynth plugins directory for more info), will load .avs files straight up, and will fail for others.

[jmnk]

@jmnk: megui doesn't expose that information. The answers however are reasonably simple: it will use one of nic's audio sources if an appropriate one exists (read the txt file in the avisynth plugins directory for more info), will load .avs files straight up, and will fail for others.

@check - thanks a lot. So directshowsource filter is never used for opening audio files?

[check]

not as far as I know. If you want to be sure, the best way is to simply create an avs source yourself. That way you can control whatever is used.

[jmnk]

not as far as I know. If you want to be sure, the best way is to simply create an avs source yourself. That way you can control whatever is used.
thanks. well - I did not say the "real" reason for my question. I wanted to learn how to create a proper avisynth script for audio processing by looking at how MeGUI does it. I thought it would be a best way in addition to reading avisynth documentation.

[steve77]

Jeez, I wish I had seen this tread :(

Anyway, I have a problem that I started discussing in the "official thread" but would probably fit best here:

I think I found a script that MeGui doesn't like
DirectShowSource("D:\Work Folder\MySource.wmv")
Lanczos4Resize(512,384)
Import("D:\Work Folder\SeeSaw.avs")
a=last
b=a.degrainmedian(mode=3)
SeeSaw(a,b,sootheS=50)
degrainmedian(mode=4)

The script "SeeSaw" works fine when I'm using Mpeg2Source(). However, SeeSaw in conjunction with DirectShowSource() and any WMV file invariably crash.

It actually pops up the preview window, all is well, I can go play in the bitrate calculator, and even make it to the settings, but after 30 seconds it crashes.

I'm using the same script minus the SeeSaw() funciton and Megui is working fine.



SeeSaw+Mpeg2Source+MeGui = OK
SeeSaw+DirectShowSource and Media Player Classic = OK
SeeSaw+DirectShowSource+MeGui= Crash after about 20 seconds.

So there you have it. I just retested everything today to make sure... and it still holds.

[check]

peculiar. Are you encoding with x264? Try just running x264 from the commandline:
"C:\path to\x264.exe" -b 100 [for a small output file] "C:\path to\input.avs"
See if that crashes too.

[steve77]

I couldn't get it to work... but in any case I think it might be irrelevant: it's not that I can't encode x264 videos, it's that I can't even "enqueue" an encoding using MeGUI, because it crashes before I can press the Enqueue button...

[check]

you aren't using vista are you..?

[steve77]

Well lookie what I found:

http://img459.imageshack.us/img459/9049/errorsj1.jpg

And this isn't a conincidence, I had finally gotten your method via the commandline to work and it gave me the same error message.

I basically feed the following script in megui (which works fine in absence of the SeeSaw function).


DirectShowSource("D:\Work Folder\poolparty.wmv")
Spline36Resize(576,432)
Tweak(-11.0,1.05)
#Import("d:\work folder\seesaw.avs")
#a=last
#b=a.degrainmedian(mode=3)
#SeeSaw(a,b,sootheS=35)

And once it Enqueued properly into megui, I shut it down, got rid of the # signs in the avs file and re-openend megui. It allowed me to press the "start" button where I got the error.

So error at commandline and error with my shortcut method.... no coincidence there.

x264 just updated didn't it?

I rolled back to r620 and:

http://img475.imageshack.us/img475/2261/error2yj0.jpg
Looks like it's working

EDIT: The plot thickens - I give it a try in MeGui an it crashes, but:

http://img106.imageshack.us/img106/2592/error3ik3.jpg

AND the stats file in the output directory was modified right after I started the encode: I'm going to let it run overnight, but if I wake up and have a perfectly functional video, it means that megui crashes for some reason.

[check]

hmm, so you think there's an issue with x264? Post a nicely detailed bug report in the MPEG-4 AVC forum and wait.

[steve77]

No, I think it's MeGui. As we speak right now, even though MeGUI is closed, x264 is running in the background... as can be seen in the last picture.

Furthermore, the .stats file is updating in the output directory, which means that x264 IS working on something intelligent... even though megui crashed long ago.

I think that my first error was a fluke, and that x264 actually does work....

[foxyshadis]

MeGUI isn't hosting x264 directly, so if it does crash like that, you'll get that behavior. Which is good, but on the other hand, with the window hidden it means you just have to wait for task manager to show it stopping. ;_;

Kind of cool, actually, never seen it do that before. Any error message when megui crashes?

[steve77]

No message, it just goes ahead and exits. And a little update to confirm my suspicion: I let it run overnight and the 1st pass file created as expected. I took the command line options from the 1-2 job file in megui, and cut/paste into the commandline version.

Sure enough, it's working great. Currently running at 20FPS...

So it's official; MeGUI, DirectShowSource and SeeSaw don't like to play together.... strange, but true.

[sillKotscha]

just a question about: "Encoding with xvid doesn't work"...

if you can see *Error opening input file extra\_____.cqm* than the correct path to the correct quantization matrix isn't set up properly (as stated in the wiki (http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/MeGUI_FAQ#Encoding_with_xvid_doesn.27t_work))

but as the following pictures show I have set up everything as it should...

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/5041f422c8.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/4d42837bea.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

nonetheless I get this error unless I choose the pass to the appropriate *.cqm file manually...

would a 'global' setting be possible (e.g. via the setup menu) that you can define where all cqm's can be found... like with avisynth - where you can define the path to all avisynth filters...

thank you, sill

[rack04]

Is anyone else getting "error loading profile" and "error loading jobs" error message? I'm getting this everytime I open the application.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a199/rack04/MeGUIError.jpg

[check]

sounds like some sort of corruption. delete all the files by hand and if needed redownload them.

[sillKotscha]

here is a clip (http://ldbs.heraldsq.com/mtv02_orig.mpg) on which MeGUI's automated source type analysis fails...

dgindex recognizes the stream as follows:

http://img2.freeimagehosting.net/uploads/10e3c324e3.jpg (http://www.freeimagehosting.net/)

I've tried to help this guy here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=123251) but I'm no expert concerning de-interlacing and least of all concerning ntsc clips...

that's why I wanted to let MeGUI analyse the clip but as you will see it fails...

is that a corrupt clip, a special case or just bad luck?

EDIT: Source should be hybrid (mostly NTSC of course).

[check]

it's impossible to tell. If it only fails on this one source, it could be any.

[wacco]

Hi there. When I use MeGUI to encode a dvd (d2v file) I've made. I am going to encode it into Xvid. However, the final size always gets over 1.5 GB, which is a little too much. I've even tried using the
"Autoencode" and checked with the Bitrate Calculator, but every time I encode it gets over 1.5 Gigabyte. The video is 1:08 hours.

[check]

What bitrate was used? After you choose the target filesize with the bitrate calculator, click apply and then go to the codec config and double check the bitrate was applied successfully.

[wacco]

What bitrate was used? After you choose the target filesize with the bitrate calculator, click apply and then go to the codec config and double check the bitrate was applied successfully.

Ok. I now used the calculator and set my final video size to 600Mb. It did change in the codec config. Bitrate 1100.
I start encoding now, and will see how it turns out.

[Selur]

Got a little question:

What is the command line switch that should be triggered by 'border mask' in MeGui? (LMP4 configuration->advanced)

Cu Selur

[wacco]

What bitrate was used? After you choose the target filesize with the bitrate calculator, click apply and then go to the codec config and double check the bitrate was applied successfully.

The bitrate was appllied, but the size still gets over 1,5 gb. I have no idea why it gets so big when I specify that I want it under 700 mb. Here are two screenshots:

http://www.freeimagehost.eu/thumbs/db0437113221.gif (http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/db0437113221)
http://www.freeimagehost.eu/thumbs/b510ae113222.gif (http://www.freeimagehost.eu/image/b510ae113222)

[Selur]

What does the Xvid->Advanced tap show?
Wild guess by myside would be you, selected Xvid and didn't Load Defaults before making your own settings in the Xvid configuration and the Quantizers are still restriced form an earlier loaded profile,...

[wacco]

You are right Selur. I had not reset to default first. I will try with that before using calculator this time. Thanks you very much!

[FlyingPJ]

Hi, I'm completely new to megui.

I created a d2v of my mpeg file and when I go to create an avisynth script, I get this error message.

http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=meguira6.png

How do I fix this?

[cc979]

Hi, I'm completely new to megui.

I created a d2v of my mpeg file and when I go to create an avisynth script, I get this error message.

http://img169.imageshack.us/my.php?image=meguira6.png

How do I fix this?

you have got avisynth installed ?

and maybe related to spaces in the pathname

trying it in a folder like c:/temp or something

[fight2win]

what does mpeg deblocking in megui avisynth script creator does?

[check]

check it out with your eyes :)

[check]

sorry for the doublepost, but who's in charge of megui.org? mewiki is taking a vacation and will be afk for a week or two, I'm hoping to get it mirrored somewhere.

[totya]

Hi all!

Mí question is, which xvid profiles generated better quality :

xvid '>90% comp check'(HQ)
or
xvid '>30% comp check'(HQ) ?

I don't understand what is this : 30%,90%...

Else I where found detailed documentation of MeGui (if available anywhere) ?

ps.: MeGUI Wiki (http://mewiki.project357.com/) link is unavailable

[kurt]

@ totya: it depends on the source. have a look at Teegerdeck's presets thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119399

[totya]

@ totya: it depends on the source. have a look at Teegerdeck's presets thread: http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=119399
Thank you!

[Deano123]

How come when encoding with megui with right settings in birate cal the size still over flows, ripped 2cd rip and came out to be 1.58GB.

[check]

did you check the bitrate was set correctly? Please post the output from the log window.

[Deano123]

did you check the bitrate was set correctly? Please post the output from the log window.

oh sorry new feature in video config, never knew.

[leo-nl]

I updated MeGUI to the new version of 1041. But 'AutoEncode' doesn't work anymore. Nobody has this problem?

[Ronin-7]

I updated MeGUI to the new version of 1041. But 'AutoEncode' doesn't work anymore. Nobody has this problem?

Yes I get that too a workaround is to select AutoEncode from the Tools menu and it will work.

[homerpez]

I guess after a brutal tongue-lashing from overseers, this is a better place to post this than where I tried...

Latest development build of MeGUI seems to have AVS (Avisynth) totally borked. Trying to load any video material will result in a "protected memory" error and it refuses to load.

Avisynth works perfectly in all other situations (in fact, I just finished a 100% CQ encode with Virtualdub Mod, using the same AVS file I tried in MeGUI, and there were no errors).

Anyone else? Having this issue? (Running Vista 32)

[Dr.Khron]

"overseers", LOL... Yeah, I hear they carry whips, too.
Seriously tho, if you are having problems with the development build, shouldn't you post in the development thread?


As for my question... What does MeGUI do with the "DVD Decrypter generated info file"?

I just did a bunch of PGC rips using PGCDemux, not DVDD... Since I don't have the info files, I can't use the MeGUI D2V tool. Not a big deal, but with short anime episodes its nice to que them up.

[check]

Seriously tho, if you are having problems with the development build, shouldn't you post in the development thread?
Shouldn't you read at least the first post of a thread before posting in it? yes :)

As to your question, it uses the information to determine stream languages.