MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[Carpo]

before i post what i think could be a bug in the calc part of megui could somone tell me what version the stable release is?

i see on sourceforge its 2177 - but version i have through update is 2179 - if i have a dev release (through my own stupidity of not sleeping enough aand too much drinking then i wont report the bug till i have tried the stable version) and turn off update of main exe :p

EDIT: was my fault not meguis - should have checked it was both mp4 for th audio i muxed and not 1 ac3 and 1 mp4 :p

[Sharktooth]

2179 is as "stable" as 2177... the only differencies are bugfixes for xvid.

[chelala]

Hi I dont understand well how to use the avc profiles.

I installed and updater downloaded all necessary files, including AVC profiles, whish is great help for me as I'm no guru on video encoding.

My problem is I know know whish order use it. Should I apply profile and then apply bitrate to fix space, or the other way ??

Thanks

harold chelala

[Sharktooth]

The profile for first, than the bitrate.

[Dayvon]

Quick stupid question.

You guys changed the Variable input on the AAC encoder. Which is better quality, Q=6.0 or Q=4.0? I get so confused with so many other "q" values with encoding....

[chelala]

ahh about AAC too

I had downloaded nero aac encoder my self from nero site, place it in tools of megui (I placed the sse2 version, because is a P-IV in my PC) and configure it's path in settings.

My question is: though all works well, Why it always produces aac-he, even when I select manually aac-LC ? I have tried to select aac-LC for mpeg4-asp in the mp4 container as nero recoder does.

thanks again

harold chelala

P.S. By the way, I like this place, all Q get answers really fast.. thanks. Hope can contribute some day...

[Sharktooth]

Quick stupid question.

You guys changed the Variable input on the AAC encoder. Which is better quality, Q=6.0 or Q=4.0? I get so confused with so many other "q" values with encoding....
Higher values corresonds to higher bitrates (Q stands for quality).

ahh about AAC too

I had downloaded nero aac encoder my self from nero site, place it in tools of megui (I placed the sse2 version, because is a P-IV in my PC) and configure it's path in settings.

My question is: though all works well, Why it always produces aac-he, even when I select manually aac-LC ? I have tried to select aac-LC for mpeg4-asp in the mp4 container as nero recoder does.

thanks again

harold chelala

P.S. By the way, I like this place, all Q get answers really fast.. thanks. Hope can contribute some day...
Can you please post your complete settings or a screenshot of the configuration you used?
EDIT: Did you save the profile?

[Dayvon]

Thx Sharktooth! You would think that higher Q means higher quality, but you never know. Take Lame for instance, V3 is better than V6... :rolleyes:

@ Chelala,
I definitely have gotten LC-AAC to work, quite beautifully as a matter of fact. If it still doesnt sound good enough to you, make sure you choose how many channels you want (multi 5.1, or 2 Channel stereo), and also make sure and use Variable Bitrate for the higher quality.

[chelala]

Hi What I do to try use AAC LC is:

- select avs for audio (like here teached me)
- and for the case LC I click "Config" button of the codec
- Being there I only touch a combo (AAC Profile) and change it from automatic to AAC-LC
- then OK and Enqueue or autoencode

thanks

harold

P.S. By the way I dont know how to place an image inside my post. I have no place to upload the snapshot

[Dayvon]

Is there a way to get a letterboxed image output in MeGUI?

I have a specific program that needs to playback the video, but it stretches video automatically to 4:3 if the resolution is anything but 4:3. So my 16:9, 2.35:1, and 1.85:1 MeGUI encodes play stretched in this player.

I figure there is some way in the AVScript to add the letterboxing, but I have no idea what that script would be, and secondly, I would like to know how to set that script into MeGUI's Script creator so the process is more automated then cutting and pasting in Notepad :D.

Thanks!

[Doom9]

I have a specific program that needs to playback the video, but it stretches video automatically to 4:3 if the resolution is anything but 4:3. So my 16:9, 2.35:1, and 1.85:1 MeGUI encodes play stretched in this player.You're going to sacrify compressibility for that, and a smart software should prevent people from doing bad things, not help them..
Throw a vocabulary of swearwords at the maker of this software..

[chipzoller]

I actually have the same problem but with one of my hardware players. Just doing tests converting my rips back to DVD with ConvertXtoDVD, if the source was originally any other AR but 4/3 and the black bars cropped off, it will only display it as 4/3. I guess this is just a dumb player, but it would be nice if there were a way around it.

[Dayvon]

You're going to sacrify compressibility for that, and a smart software should prevent people from doing bad things, not help them..
Throw a vocabulary of swearwords at the maker of this software..
Yeah, explitives are welling up, but there is little i can do. This is for a business application so the choice of presentation software is not necessarily mine. I just have to deal with it :angry:. Thank god the player can play Quicktime compatible files (mp4 H264 specifically), otherwise I'd be pissing and moaning like what!

So yeah, need 16:9's letterboxed to 4:3.... Help!

[foxyshadis]

Start like you normally would, make sure anamorphic encoding is off, and add this to the end of the script when done:

border=int((width*3./4-height)/2)
AddBorders(0,border,0,border)

That should force it to encode in 4:3. Expect bad edges unless you modify it to be mod-16 (there was a post a while back about that).

Sucks having to make up for such deficiencies.

[Dayvon]

@ foxy

Thank you soooooo much. This works beautifully. With the vid I'm encoding right now, at 640xXXX, it didn't have a mod16 problem so sweet!! This just fixed my woes in a heartbeat, now if I could figure out how to mux my files in MOV without going through Quicktime, I'm gonna be golden...

As always, Doom9 forums are a blessing from the video gods. Thank you!!!

[cc979]

i just want to check this before posting it as a bug, being using megui 0.2.3.2179 and when it start encoding x264 after a while of high cpu usage (normal) my mouse cursor starts moving to the top right corner when ever if move the mouse or click a mouse button, thought it was the mouse - a4tech wop-35

it started doing it on the last x264 update never before, and it only does it with megui, so not sure if its a bug or it is a driver problem - has anybody had this happen before, cheers

[Dayvon]

@ foxy and Doom9...

Ok I just thought you guys might get a kick out of this. So you know that *bleep* program that I have to use that needs 4:3 video to display properly? Well, that program stepped up it's P-O-S status today. I've been seeing some big troubles with resolution with the programs full screen display. The resolution looks like 256x192 instead of the 720x386 that it is.

So, I dropped a note to the software maker asking how to solve it. They said I have to MAKE THE VIDEO THE SAME RESOLUTION AS THE DISPLAY. I nearly couldn't believe it. What on earth? I've never heard of anything like that. Ever. So I made an anamorphic video source, at 4:3 with 800x600 and sure enough it looked good. I can overlook the whole stretching thing, but seriously, a program that can't even properly scale a video?

Just wow.

[foxyshadis]

It must be an "Enterprise Video Player". It's a good thing most companies are willing to pay a hundred times as much for a tenth of the functionality, or most of the consultants of the world would go out of business. The horror!

cc979, it sounds lke one of those goofy things where you might need to unplug and replug it (if it's usb), or restart the machine. Mouse drivers or the mouse itself occasionally start getting bad signals and acting all weird.

[check]

my mouse (bog standard MS optical) has a heavy enough cord that if left alone for a while, will slowly start moving towards the top of the desk as it's pulled backwards. Caused me no end in grief as I attempted to work out what the problem was with drivers, windows, etc etc when the solution was a simple mechanical one.

[cc979]

my mouse is a ps/2 connection and the cord is fastened to the desk so it does not move, its just odd that only happens when encoding with megui - i'm going check x264 from a command-prompt see what happens

cheers all

[foxyshadis]

Does it always happen? Or was it a one-time thing?

[B. W.]

I hope I'm not breaking the cross posting rule on the forums, but I've only had this problem with MeGUI (and Nero Recode, but that's a known issue already). I figured this would be a better place to post it.

I've tried encoding my movies with ACC and MP3 and every time I have to downmix the audio the volume is lowered. I have the increase volume option on and it doesn't seem to do anything.

I didn't have the problem with StaxRip of GKnot (using Xvid).

[~bT~]

I hope I'm not breaking the cross posting rule on the forums, but I've only had this problem with MeGUI (and Nero Recode, but that's a known issue already). I figured this would be a better place to post it.

I've tried encoding my movies with ACC and MP3 and every time I have to downmix the audio the volume is lowered. I have the increase volume option on and it doesn't seem to do anything.

I didn't have the problem with StaxRip of GKnot (using Xvid).
I thought it was me only, but I guess Im not alone now. It happens always with my encodes even though I have the increase volume auto option ticked. Another issue I have is, even though I select HE it still does LC? Any ideas???

[foxyshadis]

Audio normalization must not be getting called correctly, I'll see if I can look at it.

As for LC/HE, how do you choose and how do you measure? Note that most players will report HE as 22/24khz LC AAC; some will add an SBR tag, or AAC+, while still calling it LC. (Because technically HE is LC with benefits, as opposed to the other three AAC profiles that no one uses anyway.) Complain to the players' developers. If it actually is LC, you might simply have too high a bitrate for HE, I know nero simply will not use it above a certain bitrate. (The Nero devs all recommend strongly that you never force HE or PS, that you leave it on automatic unless your player can't handle HE.)

[squid_80]

i just want to check this before posting it as a bug, being using megui 0.2.3.2179 and when it start encoding x264 after a while of high cpu usage (normal) my mouse cursor starts moving to the top right corner when ever if move the mouse or click a mouse button, thought it was the mouse - a4tech wop-35
I had one of these 3 years ago, same thing happened (it's not software related). It will get worse, might as well start shopping for a new one.
It's a shame because it was a good mouse, those side buttons were very handy for playing Diablo II.

[cc979]

@foxyshadis and @squid_80
i un-installed the drivers it is ok, read some where that the a4tech drivers hand been re-designed for xp sp2 (some problems with previous drivers)
there are a nice mouse, but just incase it was a hardware thing, just bought a new-one - a ms comfort 3000 thing with a little tilt wheel its ok, just feels different probably get used to it tho

cheers

[foxyshadis]

Normalize is definitely getting called correctly, which makes sense; could it be that what you really want is dynamic compression instead of normalization? Usually movies are already normalized, but very uncompressed, which doesn't sound so great if you don't set up your playback filters to use compression. (Or can't, it's ffdshow audio's biggest ommission.)

I'm all for instituting a besweet wrapper avisynth plugin, which I think dizmon was working on earlier in the year, but I don't know if he left any of his work behind.

[bkman]

Question: Why does Megui set DAR to 1.85 on an uncropped source instead of 1.823?

[sjchmura]

THis should be easy: MeGUI, Autoencode, Profiles and bitrate (TS->MP4 DVD5_)

So when I press "autoencode" and choose say - 1 DVD5, it gives me a bitrate. If I que this then the bitrate is not automatticly set - correct? So I need to read the numbers off of the autoencode box, go into the HQ-slow (for example profile), and change the bitrate manually - correct?

[Doom9]

it gives me a bitrate. If I que this then the bitrate is not automatticly set - correct? That depends on your setup.. if you're encoding audio, the bitrate has to be adjusted to take the encoded audio into account (so that you get your desired final filesize).. the bitrate shown is set when you queue but it is updated once all audio streams have been encoded and just before the first pass of the video starts. There's no need for a bitrate in profiles.. in fact Richard wanted to make it a nullable field but never got around to doing it..

[acidsex]

Ok, I have searched and unfortunate;y havent found the answer or I have overlooked it. Why is it when I have a profile selected (1 pass Intermediate Quality) and when I select auto encode that it auto defaults to two pass? Is this a bug or is autoencode hardcoded to only do two passes? If it is the latter, is it possible to change it so that autoencode automatically uses the profiles selected? Because right now, I have to do everything manually (enque audio, then enque video, then wait for encoding to finish before I can mux.) It would be much easier if I could somehow either edit the autoencode to select the profile I want to use (ala one click encoder) or to have autoencode use the profiles selected by default and if no profile is selected, then default to the two pass that it currently does.

Thanks.

[sjchmura]

the bitrate shown is set when you queue but it is updated once all audio streams have been encoded and just before the first pass of the video starts. There's no need for a bitrate in profiles.. in fact Richard wanted to make it a nullable field but never got around to doing it..

Hmmm, well, it is NOT working that way. My steps

1. Take a TS (ATSC transport stream)
2. AVIsynth creator
3. It then places my avisynth file and ac3 file into the main window automaticlally.
4. Click "x264" and set for HQ-slow
5. Choose ND for audio 0.5 vbr (for the AC3 transcoding)
6. MP4 output
7. Click autoenceode DVD5

The file size comes out (for a 2.2 hour Star wars encode) to be 996megs no matter WHAT size I select in autoencode.

Also, even if you select the 1P (1 pass profiles) it will ALWAYS queue up 2 passes.

Is there something I can try to help troubleshoot this? I am sure others have seen this.

I have:

1. Uninstalled MEGUI
2. Uninstalled AVISYNTH
3. Reinstalled everything

Same result.

[acidsex]

Also, even if you select the 1P (1 pass profiles) it will ALWAYS queue up 2 passes.

Is there something I can try to help troubleshoot this? I am sure others have seen this.

I have:

1. Uninstalled MEGUI
2. Uninstalled AVISYNTH
3. Reinstalled everything

Same result.

Check my post right above yours. I have tried everything as well and uninstalled and reinstalled everything as well.

[Doom9]

and the logfile would be where? it really helps a lot if it's just on your harddisk....

[acidsex]

and the logfile would be where? it really helps a lot if it's just on your harddisk....

is this towards me or the other poster?

[sjchmura]

I can post the log - it CLEARY shows -bitrate 1000 (for example) that will NEVER be DVD5 size.

I will upload it later this eveing after I return home to help out. I will also do a 1-pass autoencode and show how, no matter what, 2 passes is always chosen

[Doom9]

megui dumps its whole internal working in the log, especially in autoencode and one click mode.. with the log you can see what megui does between the end of one job and the start of another (such as recalculating the bitrate, etc). So, along with the info on how to reproduce, any post should contain the logfile.. it's always better to provide too much than too little information ;)

[Zeest]

In MeGUI the muxing stage fails when I do an AutoEncode. The encoding goes well but muxing just fails. Heres the error log extract


Starting job job2-3 at 9:54:25 AM
encoder commandline:
-o "C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Desktop\illusion-muxed.mkv" -A -S "C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Desktop\illusion.mkv" --language 0:eng -a 0 -D -S "C:\Documents and Settings\admin\Desktop\VTS_01_0 T01 2_0ch 192Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3" -split 700MB --no-clusters-in-meta-seek
successfully started encoding
Processing ended at 9:54:27 AM
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Log for job job2-3

mkvmerge v1.7.0 ('What Do You Take Me For') built on Apr 28 2006 17:19:57

Error: The source file '-split' could not be opened successfully, or retrieving its size by seeking to the end did not work.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The current job contains errors. Skipping chained jobs


I also tried with Adaptive muxer, but that too gives me a huge error.

[Doom9]

I don't know if the mkvmerge syntax recently changed or suddenly doesn't support -split xx anymore but looking at the manpage it should say --split 700MB .. and I'm not sure MB is even supported, the manpage just says k,m,g

[bkman]

Question: Why does Megui set DAR to 1.85 on an uncropped source instead of 1.823?

Can't anyone answer this?

I'll be more specific: Why does the avisynth script creator in MeGui set the DAR to 1.85 on a 16:9 (PAL) source with no cropping applied when the anamorphic option is selected instead of the calculated ITU-R DAR of 1.823?

[SCIF]

Hi everybody!
I am translating contexthelp.xml to Russian now. I found one point of controversy.
<qpmin name="Minimum Quantizer">
<Advanced>
Enforces a minimum Quantizer. Prevents the codec from outputting frames with too much compression,
causing reduced quality. Note: This is disregarded in Constant Quality or Quality Based VBR modes.</Advanced>
<Basic>Set minimum Quantizer factor.</Basic>
<Recommended>10</Recommended>
<Default>10</Default>
</qpmin>
<qpmax name="Maximum Quantizer">
<Advanced>
Enforces a maximum Quantizer. Prevents the codec from outputting frames with too little
compression, wasting bits. Note: This is disregarded in Constant Quality or Quality Based VBR modes.</Advanced>
<Basic>Set maximum Quantizer factor.</Basic>
<Recommended>51</Recommended>
<Default>51</Default>
</qpmax>
I think i must same:<qpmin name="Minimum Quantizer">
<Advanced>
Enforces a minimum Quantizer. Prevents the codec from outputting frames with too little
compression, wasting bits. Note: This is disregarded in Constant Quality or Quality Based VBR modes.</Advanced>
<Basic>Set minimum Quantizer factor.</Basic>
<Recommended>10</Recommended>
<Default>10</Default>
</qpmin>
<qpmax name="Maximum Quantizer">
<Advanced>
Enforces a maximum Quantizer. Prevents the codec from outputting frames with too much compression,
causing reduced quality. Note: This is disregarded in Constant Quality or Quality Based VBR modes.</Advanced>
<Basic>Set maximum Quantizer factor.</Basic>
<Recommended>51</Recommended>
<Default>51</Default>
</qpmax>
How you think about possibility change or select contexthelp language, while installing megui?

[raziel666]

I used to be able to see some explanations on almost every x264 option in the config window, but since I updated my MeGUI to the latest version, I can't do that anymore. I've checked the Use AdvancedToolsTips from the Options menu. I've also uninstalled and reinstalled MeGUI but it didn't work out. Why is that?

[SoleBastard]

Why can't I select 2-pass ABR encoding in the MeGUI NeroDigital AAC Encoder Configuration tab?
I would like to compare the quality of 5.1 AC3 transcoding to AAC using 1-pass ABR, 2-pass ABR and a size corresponding VBR setting.

I tried using Foobar2000 (0.9.2 and 0.9.3b3) but it messes with the channel order and gives me a 96kbps file instead of 256! The console only mentioned something about the wav having a 'too big packet size which might result in parts not being encoded properly'.

Perpaps there is another frontend that is able to trancode AC3/DTS to 2-pass ABR AAC? Or is 2-pass ABR a technically a bad idea to use with multichannel content?

[Doom9]

Why can't I select 2-pass ABR encoding in the MeGUI NeroDigital AAC Encoder Configuration tab? because of the reason you will find if you use the search engine no this board..

And as far as reinstalling goes, be advised that megui uses an xcopy installation.. meaning you don't need an installer, you just copy files around. MeGUI leaves no traces anywhere on your system except for some files below the megui program path.. if you delete the folder where megui.exe is in, it is gone from your system with no trace left behind. There's an installer from x264.nl but all it does is copy files and create a few shortcuts.. you can't change anything by "reinstalling" and the only way to reset anything is delete the profiles folder and the settings file.

[SoleBastard]

Do I have to start all my posts with: 'Yes, I have used the search, but...' with a list of keywords I've used? :confused:

Ofcourse I've tried to use the search, I also tried searching at HA.org and with Google. Call me what you wil, maybe I'm having a blind spot, but I can't find a clear answer to the questions I stated in a concise way imho.

[acidsex]

So can anyone answer why the autoencode automatically defaults to a 2 pass mode even if 1 Pass Intermediate is selected?

[hkl8324]

It seems that I can not use Megui to act as the front end of mencoder to encode xvid/x.264 anymore, am I correct? (only encraw.exe and x264.exe can be used now...)

[Doom9]

It seems that I can not use Megui to act as the front end of mencoder to encode xvid/x.264 anymore, am I correct?Yes. supporting multiple encoders is cumbersome and leads to more errors.. plus x264.exe is more frequently updated.

So can anyone answer why the autoencode automatically defaults to a 2 pass mode even if 1 Pass Intermediate is selected?Well, that depends on how you set things up of course. There's a section called "Automated Encoding" in the settings.. it has an entry "number of passes".. I don't know what "1 pass Intermediate" is but if I create my own ABR profile, and then in the auto encoder window I select "No target size (use profile settings)", then I only get a single video job.

but I can't find a clear answer to the questions I stated in a concise way imho.Then why do I recall multiple threads that point out that with frameserved audio 2 pass audio encoding with that particular encoder is not possible?

Do I have to start all my posts with: 'Yes, I have used the search, but...' with a list of keywords I've used?That would be nice so other people could learn to form better searches.. it ain't easy to use a search engine after all.. the proper terms and the proper filters can lead to bliss or complete and utter frustration.

[acidsex]

I am using the default profiles that are downloaded when updating MeGUI. I am assuming its Sharktooths profiles. Ill try to create new profile using his seetings and saving it and then try that one and see if I get the one pass ABR mode instead of the two pass.

[acidsex]

Tried changing the default passes in the autoencode settings and the lowest it will let me go is 2 so that means I cant set it for one pass ABR. Any other suggestions?