MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[poisondeathray]

@francoeur - what version of avisynth are you using?

Just to troubleshoot for now, change your encoding settings to const. quality instead of 3pass

Were there errors/error logs?

Does you output "test.mp4" play at all? in VLC? Run mediainfo on that file, what does it say?

[lexor]

Well, 2 things to try:

1) DirectShowSource instead of AviSource. The later does some funky things on my machine, DSSource is far more reliable for me.

2) try using that command line that appears at the bottom of settings window in a DOS window (substituting full input/output filename paths of course), and see if x264.exe will do the same thing without MeGUI in the mix.

[francoeur]

#2051 I cant read the file, No error it says done for all three pass.

I'll try consta later and im using Avisynth 2.5

[alfixdvd]

The following script of avisynth play well in MPC but it fails in megui

LoadPlugin("C:\DvdTools\DGMPGDec\DGDecode.dll")
LoadPlugin("d:\movies\ColorMatrix.dll")
LoadPlugin("C:\DvdTools\filters\RemoveGrainSSE3.dll")
LoadPlugin("D:\movies\VSFilter.dll")

mpeg2source("D:\movies\PrisionBreak\prision.d2v")
ColorMatrix("Rec.709->Rec.601",opt=0,hints=false,threads=0,InputFR=false, OutputFR=true)
crop(0, 2, 720, 568)
TextSub("D:\movies\PrisionBreak\21_down.ssa")
TextSub("D:\movies\PrisionBreak\21_up.ssa")
Lanczos4Resize(688, 384)
RemoveGrain(mode=2)

When I open it in megui, the window of preview appears, and when I close it, also closes megui window after 1 or 2 seconds.

The problem seems to reside in the version of Vsfilter. With the versions 2.38, 2.37, 2.36 does not work, with the version 2.35 it works.

What's wrong ?
It is normal this behavior.

[Rodger]

Is there a way to encode cropped?

I have 1920x1088 Pixels which shall be reencoded to 1280x720.
Currently I use a simple resize which also includes, that the black lines (borders) in some/most movies are resized and reencoded.

Is there a way to encode "cropped" at lets say 1920*792 and let Megui or anything else ;) add the borders so that the SA-compatibility is still given. (1280*720 Pixels Video)

[francoeur]

I tried to render in Constant Quality as poisondeathtray suggested and it did the same thing. It only gave me an 138 ko file.

[poisondeathray]

#2051 I cant read the file, No error it says done for all three pass.

I'll try consta later and im using Avisynth 2.5

francoeur - you might want to upgrade to avisynth 2.5.7 or later, and try DirectShowSource instead of AviSource as lexor suggested

What OS are you using? (vista x64, etc..?)

[#2]

I'm trying to encode dv footage of wakeboarding. We mainly use it for video coaching purposes so I need to be able to smoothly seek and framestep back and forward.

With MPC 6.4.9.0 I seem to be able to framestep forward with all the x264 profiles but not backwards. If I set both the Keyframe interval and Min. GOP size to 1 I can then use the seek bar to smoothly seek back and forth but still not the framestep back key and of cource I have to more than double the bit rate.

Is there a player/decoder that will smoothly seek back and forward with P and B framed material with 25 - 250 framed GOPs? (I'm decoding with ffdshow Sep 30 2006 20:19:55) I seem to be able to seek easyly with some profiles on a Mac and very slowly with a lot of CPU useage with CE Main profile in Quicktime on my PC.

Where do I download the "Editing only" profile for Megui? Could this be what I'm looking for or is this really a playback/decoder issue?


Thanks for any help in advance.

[francoeur]

New script :

DirectShowSource("untitled2.avi")
ConvertToYV12()
I'm using windows xp
It look better.
I'm a nub lol thanks a lot.

[francoeur]

Worked, thanks alot guys.

[EroKaos]

How strong is

--aq-mode 2 --aq-strength 1.5

compared to the old

--aq-strength 0.5 --aq-sensitivity 11

because I used the default for -aq mode and --aq strength 1 but it still isn't good enough, and would --aq-strength 1.5 be overkill?

[Sharktooth]

aq-strength has been doubled (old 0.5 value = 1.0 in the actual version). aq-mode 2 is the same as the old default.
sensitivity is no longer an adjustable parameter.
so, it's a matter of trial and error...

[EroKaos]

so, it's a matter of trial and error...

Was afraid that would be the case :|
Well, --aq strength 1.0 wasn't strong enough so I'll work my way down.

Thanks

[Carpo]

which profile would people suggest for backing up to mkv - 720x576 videos, atm i use hq slow, but i will like to get the best quality i can without the pc taking days to encode the video, i will be making the back ups to store on my storage pc to be streamed over to the htpc as and when i want something to watch

[Sharktooth]

more quality means more time...

[rebkell]

which profile would people suggest for backing up to mkv - 720x576 videos, atm i use hq slow, but i will like to get the best quality i can without the pc taking days to encode the video, i will be making the back ups to store on my storage pc to be streamed over to the htpc as and when i want something to watch

I've been pretty happy with the PD-PS3-Xbox360 profile, I use 1500 bitrate for Standard Def DVDs and usually shoot for around 1 GB on my ~45 minute HD captures of network TV. The HD captures usually finish in anywhere from 3 to 5.5 hours. I'm using an AMD X2-6000 CPU.

[Carpo]

more quality means more time...
i know that but i dont want it to take alot more time

[Sharktooth]

i repeat myself... if you want more quality, it will require more time...
test the hq-slower and hq-slowest profiles...

[Rodger]

No answer to my question?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1123033#post1123033

[Sharktooth]

crop before resizing... look at the avisynth script creator window...

[anonova]

Is there no 16:9 mod16 DAR in megui with overcropping? I've noticed that megui always sets the DAR to 37:20 with overcrop.

I used autocrop, and it gave me crop( 4, 56, -2, -60). If I check overcrop (which uses crop( 10, 62, -6, -66)), I get 37:20. If I select encode to non-mod16 or resize to mod16, I get 1111:625, which is pretty much 16:9.

[Carpo]

i repeat myself...i already use hq slow :p - suppose i could give slowest a go over

[#2]

Has any one done a profile like the xvid editing only profile for x264. If not which existing profile should I tweek and how.

[jmartinr]

@ #2

I've encoded lots of sportsvideos with x264.

You can put your x264 videos in avis (by using avc2avi and then muxing them) and use MPC with the internal avi splitter enabled, or you could use virtualdub to go back and forth.

Decreasing the GOP-size will indeed make your player more responsive when going back.

[pxcasey]

So I'm encoding to x.264, and I want to queue up a job after it finished encoding to mux it using the MeGUI mp4 muxer. My problem is, the MP4 muxer Video Input field is not editable, it only takes input from the Open File dialog, which means it has to be a file that already exists, but obviously the file doesn't exist yet, since it's still being encoded. My workaround so far is to create a dummy file with the same name as the expected output file, queue up the mux job using the dummy file, then delete the dummy file.

Is there a better way to do this?

[Carpo]

hq-slowest = -18fps on the second pass, and thats on a progressive source, hate to see what it would be on interlaced!!!

[woeds]

Also, this is a bit weird, but I've discovered that when using MeGUI to encode anamorphically, my player _will_ show the image correctly if I tell MeGUI to use an MKV container instead of MP4 for the video. This only happens if I don't mux any audio in - as soon as I use MeGUI, mkvmerge or anything else to try and add audio, subtitles, or chapters, suddenly it stops playing in the correct aspect ratio. Even running mkvmerge to re-package the original MKV without adding any other tracks will break it. Is there anything about the x264.exe MKV output code that would make it any different than mkvmerge or MeGUI's muxer? It's a bit baffling.
I'm aware I'm quoting an old post, but I'm having the exact same problem.

I'm trying to convert an anamorphic DVD to a x264 mkv, this is my workflow
1 - Create d2v using DGindex
2 - Create AVS script
3 - Run megui (x264, hq-slow, anamorphic)

This produces a mkv video file which plays perfectly in WMP. The aspect ratio is recognized and I get a 16:9 image like I should.

The problem comes when I want to mux the audio in. I have the original AC3 track and I've tried to mux it in via megui and mkvmerge, but both give the same result. As soon as I take my video-only mkv file, and mux in the audio, the aspect ratio gets lost. If I open the muxed file in WMP it gets displayed in 4:3.

I've tried numerous settings, but just can't get the video and audio muxed while maintaining the AR.

[Sharktooth]

hq-slowest = -18fps on the second pass, and thats on a progressive source, hate to see what it would be on interlaced!!!
then buy a faster CPU. we cant do miracles (yet).

[Sharktooth]

I'm aware I'm quoting an old post, but I'm having the exact same problem.

I'm trying to convert an anamorphic DVD to a x264 mkv, this is my workflow
1 - Create d2v using DGindex
2 - Create AVS script
3 - Run megui (x264, hq-slow, anamorphic)

This produces a mkv video file which plays perfectly in WMP. The aspect ratio is recognized and I get a 16:9 image like I should.

The problem comes when I want to mux the audio in. I have the original AC3 track and I've tried to mux it in via megui and mkvmerge, but both give the same result. As soon as I take my video-only mkv file, and mux in the audio, the aspect ratio gets lost. If I open the muxed file in WMP it gets displayed in 4:3.

I've tried numerous settings, but just can't get the video and audio muxed while maintaining the AR.
All bug reports must be in the MeGUI's Bug Tracker on sourceforge.
Otherwise they will be ignored.

[Carpo]

then buy a faster CPU. we cant do miracles (yet).
my Q6600 does me fine thanks, was mearly saying about the drop in fps between slow and slowest - no need for the sarky comment

[woeds]

All bug reports must be in the MeGUI's Bug Tracker on sourceforge.
Otherwise they will be ignored.

If this is a MeGUI bug then I'll gladly submit a bug report. But seeing that it also happens with mkvmerge, I thought that it had to do with the .mkv container, or something that I did wrong.

[#2]

@ #2

You can put your x264 videos in avis (by using avc2avi and then muxing them) and use MPC with the internal avi splitter enabled, or you could use virtualdub to go back and forth.

Decreasing the GOP-size will indeed make your player more responsive when going back.


Thanks jmartinr. Is there a problem with seeking in mp4 and mkv containers?

What would be a reasonable gop size range?

[Sharktooth]

If this is a MeGUI bug then I'll gladly submit a bug report. But seeing that it also happens with mkvmerge, I thought that it had to do with the .mkv container, or something that I did wrong.
in that case you should report that behaviour to the mkvtoolnix devs

[spotter]

I am trying to encode regular dvd (tv shows) with megui and use the one click encoder, but am having an issue in that I don't quite understand how to do this right.

I don't want to resize or crop (therefore I want to end up with an 853x480 video as it displays in mplayer when I play the VOBs). With AutoMKV I can do this by just selecting it's anamorphic option and telling it to use original resolution.

however, one click encoder forces me to select a resolution.

any ideas?

[jmartinr]

Thanks jmartinr. Is there a problem with seeking in mp4 and mkv containers?

What would be a reasonable gop size range?

There's no problem with seeking in mkv and mp4, but going back frame by frame doesn't always work. That depends on splitter, decoder (use ffdshow) and player. I just found these solutions to work.

The slower your computer is the smaller your GOP-size must be. Try it, it doesn't work really smooth and flawless.

You can download and try one of my files (with keyint 125, still quite large, I tried to keep the files small) from: http://www.nkbv.nl/sportklimmen/media/Wedstrijdvideos/4237.html

[Sharktooth]

I am trying to encode regular dvd (tv shows) with megui and use the one click encoder, but am having an issue in that I don't quite understand how to do this right.

I don't want to resize or crop (therefore I want to end up with an 853x480 video as it displays in mplayer when I play the VOBs). With AutoMKV I can do this by just selecting it's anamorphic option and telling it to use original resolution.

however, one click encoder forces me to select a resolution.

any ideas?
The DVD resolution is 720*xxx (where xxx depends on PAL or NTSC) and it's encoded anamorphically.
So in Advanced config, select 720 as resolution and check Signal AR.

[#2]

There's no problem with seeking in mkv and mp4, but going back frame by frame doesn't always work. That depends on splitter, decoder (use ffdshow) and player. I just found these solutions to work.

I tried your advice with avc2avi and it worked. Thanks. It would be nice to be able to frame step backwards with mkv containers as well.

Any one got a player, splitter, decoder set up that can frame step backwards with mkv containers? Or would mp4 be better.

Thanks again.

[jmartinr]

Any one got a player, splitter, decoder set up that can frame step backwards with mkv containers? Or would mp4 be better.

Thanks again.
You can also take up the habit of going back one key frame and then frame step forward. Works with MPC (Shift Left) with its internal MP4 and MKV splitters.

If you find other solutions I would really like to know about them. :cool:

[jmartinr]

Any one got a player, splitter, decoder set up that can frame step backwards with mkv containers? Or would mp4 be better.
It just came back to me that I did some testing with zoomplayer a long time ago. And it works/does what you want. Just 2 minutes ago I retried with an MP4 and an MKV and it works (using zoomplayer 5.01, a bit old, ffdshow and Haali Media Splitter).

I just got so used to always using MPC that I totally forgot about zoomplayer being able to do frame step backwards too.

A newer version of zoomplayer will probably be able to do the same trick. :)

[PlazzTT]

Small bug I think with Kurtnoise13's build (when the B-Frames part was moved to the Main tab to introduce AQ in the Advanced tab): In the x264 configuration dialog, changes made to settings in the B-Frames section of the main tab aren't reflected in the command line display below (until you open the dialog again. The changes to the settings are saved okay.)

[Sharktooth]

yep, i think that build was made just to show the new b-frames options placement.
dont use it for "production" ;)

[Knuffi]

Did I miss an update of MeGUI 3?
There were several complaints about the unnecessary update message of MeGUI about .Net 2.0 SP1 in combination with Vista SP1 (the log page showes .Net SP1). I thought, I read something about "the next update will fix it". This was some weeks ago. As I still have 0.3.0.1004 and nothing changed in weeks, I put a bug in the bug tracker:
https://sourceforge.net/tracker/?func=detail&atid=798476&aid=1940923&group_id=156112 But the bug was closed without any comment. :confused:

[Sharktooth]

no... still no updates.
the bug is fixed though (the stable version is just working without problems) and it will not be present in the next builds.
Remember megui 0.3.x is a developmental and unstable version while 0.2.x is stable and working.

[Knuffi]

Ok - thanks for the info and the fix ... I will wait then.
I just thought, that it will be fixed in 0.2.x and 0.3.x simultaneously.

[Sharktooth]

there was no 0.3.x build since it is missing some stuff (profiles refactor)
once the refactor is complete i will make new 0.3.x builds.

[Neillithan]

I get an error during second pass encoding and I don't know why.

I am using the fully updated MeGUI 0.2.6.1046.

I input an AviSynth script which has uncompressed video and no audio.

I am using CE-Baseline profile. The only modified value is the bitrate, which I chose to be 800. It encodes the first pass just fine, but then the 2nd pass simply says "error" and it is not specific at all. Log file says nothing.

Edit: Log File (http://pastebin.com/d5d180ed3)

[Sharktooth]

you better post the logfile... even if you say it says nothing...

[GurkGager]

Hi. Im new to this program and encoding in h264 so please excuse me if this is a really stupid question. I have a DVD that i want to rencode to h264 nad keep the DD sound and mux them ino a MKV file. I have demuxed the audio and i have made the avisyth script using the editor included in MeGUI.

My problem is when im encoding the video. The first pass works fine. However the secound pass is aborted and the file is never finished. In the Queue window is just say "error" with no futher explanation. I have tried several times and it alsways end up with error, but no errormessages. The strange thing is that the encoding can runm for everything from 10minutes to 45min. Once i got to about 40% but most of the time, it end at 10-20% completion.

Am i doing somthing wrong? Can it be because im changing resolution? The orginial DVD is in 720x480. But the aspect ratio gets wacked, so im using 720x400 (16:9).

Please guys. I need some help here.

Log file say this:
Log for job job8

Job commandline: "D:\DVD\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe" --pass 2 --bitrate 3000 --stats "F:\Test\cloverfield.stats" --ref 10 --mixed-refs --no-fast-pskip --bframes 16 --b-pyramid --b-rdo --bime --weightb --direct auto --filter -2,-1 --subme 6 --trellis 2 --partitions p8x8,b8x8,i4x4,i8x8 --8x8dct --me umh --threads auto --thread-input --sar 1:1 --progress --no-dct-decimate --no-psnr --no-ssim --output "F:\Test\cloverfield.mp4" "F:\Test\cloverfield.avs"
avis [info]: 720x400 @ 23.98 fps (121798 frames)
x264 [info]: using SAR=1/1
x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX MMXEXT SSE SSE2 SSE3 SSSE3 Cache64
mp4 [info]: initial delay 2002 (scale 24000)

------------------------------------------------------

End of log for job8
------------------------------------------------------

[Neillithan]

Am i doing somthing wrong?

Absolutely not. I get the same error and the log file says nothing relevant. There is something wrong with the latest version of MeGUI.

[Sharktooth]

it's not megui.
try updating x264. i just uploaded a newer version to the auto-update server.
also, if you're using vista ensure you run megui with admin rights.