MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread

[Sharktooth]

Why is MeGUI updating to x264 jeeb's builds instead of official builds ? Also is it the x64 version or x86 ?
coz vanilla x264 do not support HRD. hence no blu-ray compatibility.

[GibsonXXI]

GibsonXXI, the other common denominator is using the built-in deinterlacer. When I get a chance to run some more tests, I'll round out my post. Thanks for the information about your own efforts - I hope this turns out to be a minor problem.

True. for me, there's no point in using NVBeta1 unless i'm going to make use of the hardware de-interlacing, as i'm running Core i7 Which is more than capable of fast decodes on it's own.

My wish to use the hardware de-interlacing is based on my desire to compare a yadif / TDeint de-interlace on anime to the NVDe-interlacer and any possible performance gains are a bonus for me.

Let us know how you get on.

[St Devious]

There are no official x264 builds, unless you count the vanilla builds from x264.nl, and IIRC megui never used those, but always patched builds by different people who post them in the AVC forum. They are x86.

can i take x64 patched build from here in the forum and just replace the x264.exe file in the megui folder ?

[b66pak]

yes you can...
_

[St Devious]

is it possible to select the profiles all at once when you update megui and the "select profiles you want to import" pops up ?

[Guest]

Right click, select all.

[St Devious]

Right click, select all.

haha, lol :o

[St Devious]

In the muxer dialogue boxes, there is a button called queue.

After you press it, the dialog box closes and returns to main megui window. is there any way to make the dialogue box stay so that you can mux more streams without having to go upto tools and selecting type of muxer again. maybe like a queue and stay button.

[dwallersv]

I've been using MeGUI for a long time now on my WinXP machine. I keep it updated. I also keep MeGUI updated too.

Hadn't used it in awhile, and went to transcode (resize) some video today.

It won't run.

No errors, nothing. Silence. Click the shortcut, nothing. Click directly on the .exe, nothing. run it from a command line prompt, returns immediately, no errors, no output, nothing.

Check with Task Manager, no "hung" megui.exe out there.

Uninstalled, went to sourceforge, got the latest stable build, reinstalled.

Same behavior.

Rebooted.

Same.

I'[m desperate for any advice, trouble-shooting tips, anything at all here. The only thing I can think of to do next is to create a new OS install on another partitition, and install the tools there. That's an obviously sub-optimal way of doing this.

Please help this father on father's day! :-)

[alexcel]

found & fixed the culprit...

here is a fresh build (http://www.mediafire.com/file/ggjktjzfmyw/MeGUI_20090618-2.zip) for testing.

Now works like a charm!!!:thanks:

[Sharktooth]

I've been using MeGUI for a long time now on my WinXP machine. I keep it updated. I also keep MeGUI updated too.

Hadn't used it in awhile, and went to transcode (resize) some video today.

It won't run.

No errors, nothing. Silence. Click the shortcut, nothing. Click directly on the .exe, nothing. run it from a command line prompt, returns immediately, no errors, no output, nothing.

Check with Task Manager, no "hung" megui.exe out there.

Uninstalled, went to sourceforge, got the latest stable build, reinstalled.

Same behavior.

Rebooted.

Same.

I'[m desperate for any advice, trouble-shooting tips, anything at all here. The only thing I can think of to do next is to create a new OS install on another partitition, and install the tools there. That's an obviously sub-optimal way of doing this.

Please help this father on father's day! :-)
uninstall and reinstall net framework 2.0 and subsequent versions.

[Sharktooth]

In the muxer dialogue boxes, there is a button called queue.

After you press it, the dialog box closes and returns to main megui window. is there any way to make the dialogue box stay so that you can mux more streams without having to go upto tools and selecting type of muxer again. maybe like a queue and stay button.
no there isnt. however feel free to post a feature request on the feature request tracker in the megui project page on sourceforge.

[krackt]

First post here and I love MeGUI, wouldn't use anything else! so thanks to the devs for this great software.
I use the AutoEncode function with the x264 Standalone_Xbox_HiRes profile to produce vids in mp4 file format in an mkv container.
MeGUI previously produced a .264 file which I could then mux audio manually with the mkv muxer.
I've noticed that recently MeGUI (since about version 0.3.1.1042) produces a .mkv file and complains that the file already exists and appends _0 to the filename.
I checked the changelogs and the forum and nothing indicates a change to the intended behaviour. Shouldn't the output be a raw 264 file unless I want AutoEncode to create a muxing job?

Log
-[Information] Versions
--[NoImage] MeGUI Version : 0.3.1.1042
--[NoImage] OS : Windows XP Professional x86 SP2 (5.1.131072.2600)
--[NoImage] Framework used : 2.0 SP1 (2.0.50727.1433)
-[Information] Hardware
--[NoImage] CPU : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7300 @ 2.00GHz
-[Information] AutoEncode job generation log
--[NoImage] Split Size : null
--[Information] Eliminating duplicate filenames
---[NoImage] Video output file: C:\My Documents\My Videos\Dirty Harry\dirtyharry.mkv
---[NoImage] File already exists. New video output filename: C:\My Documents\My Videos\Dirty Harry\dirtyharry_0.mkv
---[NoImage] Muxed output file: C:\My Documents\My Videos\Dirty Harry\dirtyharry-muxed.mkv
-[Information] AutoEncode job generation log
-[Information] Log for job1 (video, dirtyharry.avs -> )
--[Information] [14/06/2009 11:33:31 PM] Started handling job
--[Information] [14/06/2009 11:33:32 PM] Preprocessing
--[NoImage] Job commandline: "C:\Program Files\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe" --pass 1 --bitrate 1257 --stats "C:\My Documents\My Videos\Dirty Harry\dirtyharry_0.stats" --keyint 240 --min-keyint 24 --bframes 6 --b-adapt 2 --b-pyramid --weightb --no-cabac --subme 2 --partitions none --ratetol 4.0 --qcomp 0.5 --me dia --merange 32 --threads auto --thread-input --sar 220:221 --progress --no-psnr --no-ssim --output NUL "C:\My Documents\My Videos\Dirty Harry\dirtyharry.avs"
--[Information] [14/06/2009 11:33:35 PM] Encoding started
--[NoImage] Standard output stream
--[NoImage] Standard error stream
---[NoImage] avis [info]: 832x352 @ 23.98 fps (147439 frames)
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: using SAR=220/221
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: using cpu capabilities: MMX2 SSE2Fast SSSE3 Cache64
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: profile Main, level 3.0
---[NoImage]
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: slice I:1752 Avg QP:15.81 size: 30695
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: slice P:50650 Avg QP:18.71 size: 10677
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: slice B:95037 Avg QP:19.79 size: 3973
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: consecutive B-frames: 2.5% 24.7% 37.4% 17.0% 7.1% 6.9% 4.3%
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: mb I I16..4: 47.4% 0.0% 52.6%
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: mb P I16..4: 30.6% 0.0% 0.0% P16..4: 57.1% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% skip:12.4%
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: mb B I16..4: 12.0% 0.0% 0.0% B16..8: 28.4% 0.0% 0.0% direct:18.0% skip:41.6% L0:31.9% L1:47.8% BI:20.3%
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: final ratefactor: 20.49
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: coded y,uvDC,uvAC intra:69.5% 58.0% 23.2% inter:21.0% 20.3% 0.8%
---[NoImage] x264 [info]: kb/s:1264.7
---[NoImage] encoded 147439 frames, 24.62 fps, 1264.81 kb/s
--[Information] [15/06/2009 1:13:26 AM] Postprocessing
---[Information] Deleting intermediate files
--[Information] [15/06/2009 1:13:26 AM] Job completed
-[Information] [15/06/2009 1:13:58 AM] Shutdown initiated

[dwallersv]

uninstall and reinstall net framework 2.0 and subsequent versions.Man, I was so hoping this would do it. Uninstalled 2.0 and up, and then reinstalled everything plus service packs from 2.0 through 3.5.

No joy.

Any other suggestions?

[Sharktooth]

check for viruses/malwares. if it doesnt start at all there should be something wrong with your OS.

@krackt: that's weird. i will check it.

[rack04]

Is adding --aq-mode 2 to the x264 planned to make use of AutoVAQ?

[Sharktooth]

dunno. it depends if it has a chance to be included in the official x264 sources.

[rack04]

dunno. it depends if it has a chance to be included in the official x264 sources.

Is this what your referring to?

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?p=1299332#post1299332

[Sharktooth]

nope. i mean if it has a chance to be commited to the official x264 git i will add the support to megui.

[rapscallion]

Megui has been working very well for me w/avchd preset.
Movie outputs have been consistently sized correctly.

Maybe it's a coincidence, but after x264 and core (to ver 1046) were upgraded yesterday , resulting file was ~8% undersized.

Not a problem, but I am curious about this part of the log :
---[NoImage] x264 [warning]: target: 10625.00 kbit/s, expected: 9979.74 kbit/s, avg QP: 11.7745
---[NoImage] x264 [warning]: try reducing target bitrate or reducing qp_min (currently 10)

Final bitrate was 9964 kbits/s., ~7% lower than the target.

So, would lowering the qp-min to , say 8, actually allow the br to be higher and would it make any difference in the pq. ( source was 18gb BD 1h 30m animated film, The Kung Fu Panda, original BR ~20 kbits/s)

This was my first animation back up and wonder if this type of source often has this result ?

[nurbs]

Lowering qp-min would fix it, but it wouldn't give any visible improvement in picture quality. You could probably use half the bitrate and you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. It happens because your source is very clean (not much noise and/or detail) which is not uncommon for animation.

[rapscallion]

Thanks nurbs ! That makes sense....it was just the first time I've come across this and "suspected" it might be the animation source.

[Sharktooth]

you saturated the encoder. the x264 output already told you the solutions to adopt. also, why on earth did you set a bitrate so high? if you want the "maximum" quality use CRF 18 instead... your encode is WAY to much an overkill, meaning you cant distinguish QP 11 from QP 18 (that's why QP 18 is considered "transparent").

[rapscallion]

you saturated the encoder. the x264 output already told you the solutions to adopt. also, why on earth did you set a bitrate so high? if you want the "maximum" quality use CRF 18 instead... your encode is WAY to much an overkill, meaning you cant distinguish QP 11 from QP 18 (that's why QP 18 is considered "transparent").

I set the bitrate @ the result bitrate calculator indicated for the length of the movie plus ac-3 audio @640 for sizing to a DVD9, per Jamos guide : Here (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=135795)

Has always worked fine using the preset "standalone avc-hd" settings, automated 2 pass, which,of course, does not have a crf option in it, from what I can see. Sould I be using it, and if so, where should it be inserted or is it only in 1 pass?

I gather from what you're saying then is that the source is way overkill @ ~20 kbits/s for this animated film ?

I did see the solutions to adopt but felt it was unnecessary to redo the encode just to get to the same or lower bitrate as I have now. (if I had ssim calculation checked, I would have a better idea of where the quality was, as well-I will from now on)

Edit : BTW, now that I think of it , I have seen this once before when I was using DVDRB to re encode Sex in The City, which was a long movie. The CCE encoder was saturated enough where the resulting DVD5 size was at ~ 89%.

[SacredCultivator]

Is it possible in meGUI to set the DAR to 16:9 / 4:3, because for anamorphic stuff, DVD's it reads at 853x480, even though in MPC in the details box it reads as 720x480... And when I set the DAR in meGUI to 16:9 NTSC, it didn't change it and was left at 720x480, when I muxed the file with YAMB and set it to 16:9 it gave me 873x480

So I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong... VirtualDubMOD on the other hand gives me jsut an extra pixel and gives me 854x480.

Not sure if I explained myself properly, thanks.

Hmm...

EDIT:
Semi solved... As it seems in my avs script I need to put in:
global MeGUI_darx = 16
global MeGUI_dary = 9

Guess that just means for me to disable those filters when using it in VirtualDubMod (Unless it works there too =X)

[Inspector.Gadget]

SC, I think you need to read up on DAR and PAR.

[Sharktooth]

Is it possible in meGUI to set the DAR to 16:9 / 4:3, because for anamorphic stuff, DVD's it reads at 853x480, even though in MPC in the details box it reads as 720x480... And when I set the DAR in meGUI to 16:9 NTSC, it didn't change it and was left at 720x480, when I muxed the file with YAMB and set it to 16:9 it gave me 873x480

So I was wondering if I'm doing something wrong... VirtualDubMOD on the other hand gives me jsut an extra pixel and gives me 854x480.

Not sure if I explained myself properly, thanks.

Hmm...

EDIT:
Semi solved... As it seems in my avs script I need to put in:
global MeGUI_darx = 16
global MeGUI_dary = 9

Guess that just means for me to disable those filters when using it in VirtualDubMod (Unless it works there too =X)
global MeGUI* are MeGUI macroes and not filters.
also as Inspecto.Gadget said, you need to read up on DAR and PAR (aka SAR).

@rapscallion: sorry, i overlooked the fact your encoding target is AVC-HD. In that case CRF is useless but megui cant know if a bitrate is too high before encoding the video.
In your case, your movie is either too short to fill the disc or too much compressible so the encoder is forced to use low quants to hit your desired bitrate.
however, looking at your log, your desired bitrate is 10000+ and 147439 frames @ 23.98fps... that means definatly that your movie is too much compressible to fill the disc (acceptable bitrates for single layers DVDs are no higher than about 8000kbps - that's about 72mins of video, including audio).
a big part of the cause of your problem is the resolution you used: 832x352. AVC-HD is meant for 1280x720 or higher res, not for standard resolutions... hence, you can put even 2 or more (probably 4, depending on the compressibility...) of those movies into an AVC-HD without loosing quality.
Also your source was already encoded and i dont want to know where it comes from (remember to respect the forum rules!), hence it is even more compressible since finest details were probably dropped in the previous encoding stage... re-encoding from the source would be much better for quality.

[rapscallion]

@rapscallion: sorry, i overlooked the fact your encoding target is AVC-HD. In that case CRF is useless but megui cant know if a bitrate is too high before encoding the video.
In your case, your movie is either too short to fill the disc or too much compressible so the encoder is forced to use low quants to hit your desired bitrate.
however, looking at your log, your desired bitrate is 10000+ and 147439 frames @ 23.98fps... that means definatly that your movie is too much compressible to fill the disc (acceptable bitrates for single layers DVDs are no higher than about 8000kbps - that's about 72mins of video, including audio).a big part of the cause of your problem is the resolution you used: 832x352. AVC-HD is meant for 1280x720 or higher res, not for standard resolutions... hence, you can put even 2 or more (probably 4, depending on the compressibility...) of those movies into an AVC-HD without loosing quality.
Also your source was already encoded and i dont want to know where it comes from (remember to respect the forum rules!), hence it is even more compressible since finest details were probably dropped in the previous encoding stage... re-encoding from the source would be much better for quality.

Thanks Sharktooth. Disc target is dual layer and resolution I used was 1280*720, NOT 832*352. (were you looking at another poster's log maybe.). This was mine :

---[NoImage] x264 [warning]: target: 10625.00 kbit/s, expected: 9979.74 kbit/s, avg QP: 11.7745
---[NoImage] x264 [warning]: try reducing target bitrate or reducing qp_min (currently 10)

[Sharktooth]

mixed up... :)
ok, so we have: a dual layer DVD and a 1280x720 encode. how long is that source (time and framerate or frames and framerate)?

@krackt: that's why you already have a file called dirtyharry.mkv in your output folder. there is no other reason it could happen.
now, ensure you updated megui to the latest version and ensure you selected RAW as file format for video.

[rapscallion]

mixed up... :)
ok, so we have: a dual layer DVD and a 1280x720 encode. how long is that source (time and framerate or frames and framerate)?


Source is 1h 31m, original *.m2ts @ 18gb, ~20 kbits/s
---[NoImage] avis [info]: 1280x720 @ 23.98 fps (132574 frames)

[Sharktooth]

then my conclusion is the source compressibility is high and x264 did a very good job.
in practice, the video (only) could be stored on a single layer dvd without loosing quality.
obviously it also depends on how many other contents (audio tracks and stuff) you will add.

[rapscallion]

Thanks ! BTW, when I compare the burned avchd to the original BD, on a 50" Pioneer Elite, they are indistiguisable to my eyes.

[Sharktooth]

i know... everything from quant 18 and below is generally transparent... and your encode is well below q18... that's why im saying you're wasting space.
you could store your movie in single layer DVD or fit 2 similar (in compressibility) movies in a dual layer disc.

[rack04]

I get the following vobsub error:

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

Here is the log file:

[Information] Log
-[Information] Versions
--[NoImage] MeGUI Version : 0.3.1.1046
--[NoImage] OS : Windows XP Professional x86 SP3 (5.1.196608.2600)
--[NoImage] Framework used : 2.0 SP1 (2.0.50727.1433)
-[Information] Hardware
--[NoImage] CPU : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz
-[Information] Log for job1 (sub, VTS_08_0.IFO -> VTS_08_0.idx)
--[Information] [6/25/2009 5:51:34 PM] Started handling job
--[Information] [6/25/2009 5:51:34 PM] Preprocessing
--[NoImage] Job commandline: "C:\WINDOWS\system32\rundll32.exe" vobsub.dll,Configure D:\Hellboy\VTS_08_0.vobsub
--[Information] [6/25/2009 5:51:34 PM] Encoding started
--[NoImage] Standard output stream
--[NoImage] Standard error stream
--[Information] [6/25/2009 5:53:02 PM] Postprocessing
---[Information] Deleting intermediate files
----[Information] [6/25/2009 5:53:02 PM] Successfully deleted D:\Hellboy\VTS_08_0.vobsub
--[Information] [6/25/2009 5:53:02 PM] Job completed

[rapscallion]

i know... everything from quant 18 and below is generally transparent... and your encode is well below q18... that's why im saying you're wasting space.
you could store your movie in single layer DVD or fit 2 similar (in compressibility) movies in a dual layer disc.
Sharktooth...please forgive my ignorance, but what does "transparent" mean in this context ?

[Sharktooth]

@rack04: reinstall the latest version of vobsub...

@rapscallion: it means there is no visible difference between the source and the encode. transparent doesnt mean lossless though, since there is still mathematical difference but it's so subtle it isnt perceived.

[rapscallion]

Outstanding, thank you ! I now have a better understanding of the qp numbers and realize that trying to obtain the highest bitrate isn't necessarily the ultimate goal.

[rapscallion]

I've run an automated 2 pass with job1 processed to "done" status and job2 "postponed".

I screwed up and clicked on job1, which changed it's status to "waiting". Click again and it changes to "postponed".

There is no option to change the status to "done", so do I really have to reprocess the whole first 3hr job1? (BTW, the job dir XML file still shows "done"). This job1 creates the stats file.

Is there any way that I can get the job2 to process ?

Edit: I've looked everywhere and don't see where that gui job status is stored. There's no ini file, it's not in the registry or the windows temp dir.

[Sharktooth]

just set the first pass to postponed (so it wont run again). click on start and the second pass will start as usual.

[rapscallion]

Yep, tried that and nothing happens. Also, when I changed it to "waiting" it starts creating the stats file all over again. (didn't delete the first one though)

[Sharktooth]

if the jobs were generated by an automated 2-pass preset then i think you can do nothing in megui.
but you can run the 2nd pass manually from the windows command prompt. after it's done, proceed with other encodings (audio or whatever) and muxing.

[rapscallion]

Uh,Oh....I hate to ask but how do I do that ? I know how to run command prompts but not as it applies to x264.

[Sharktooth]

first open the configuration window for the x264 preset you used. copy the parameters show at bottom (do not copy "program"... start from "-i ...." and ensure everything is set correctly). replace apices in the the input, stats, output etc paramaters with the correct paths (relative or absolute) and filenames.
find the megui installation directory then open a command prompt and type DriveLetter:\PathToMeguiInstallDir\tools\x264\x264.exe paste_the_corrected_commandline_here (words in italic must be replaced with what they describe).
if you're not familiar with the old dos, dont do it and restart from the 1st pass in megui.

[rapscallion]

Actually, in the interim, I used the pass2 parameters from a previous log and substituted all the current info. I then created a batch file in the root dir and ran it. I got an error that a filename or ext was too long, but it looks like I was essentialy doing what you described , but a little differently (Ahhh , those good ole DOS days, I remember them well :))

Thanks for taking the time to describe this ST, and I'll figure out the error.

[Atak_Snajpera]

BUG: Bitrate Calculator does not allow .flac extension. When I used *.* hack then i got this
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8343/new1y.png

[simonhowson]

MeGui Crashes when loading VC1 MKV file in the AviSynth script creator.

I've been using MeGUI to make AVIsynth scripts to convert Blu-ray VC1 files to DVD and x264. Unfortunately MeGUI is now crashing whenever I open the MKV file.

I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling Haali Media Splitter and FFDshow Tryout, but it still happens. I do notice that about four Haali Media Splitter icons open in the system tray before MeGUi crashes.

Can anyone help explain what I need to do it get MeGUI to open these files again? I have also tried opening MP4 AVC files but it seems to crash with those as well.

Yesterday I installed a trial version of TotalMedia Theatre 3, but I converted a Blu-ray to DVD and it worked after I installed that application. I installed Super, an application to convert files to PS3 format, but uninstalled it soon after, and rebooted my computer. Is it possible that application has stuffed up my codec configuration?

Here is what the crash error message says:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
Application Name: MeGUI.exe
Application Version: 0.3.1.1046
Application Timestamp: 4a4111e1
Fault Module Name: StackHash_c199
Fault Module Version: 6.0.6001.18000
Fault Module Timestamp: 4791a7a6
Exception Code: c0000374
Exception Offset: 000b015d
OS Version: 6.0.6001.2.1.0.768.3
Locale ID: 3081
Additional Information 1: c199
Additional Information 2: 18dced5b0c1398acd50909387f2a03ba
Additional Information 3: 8faa
Additional Information 4: e5fa89f768ad33515ffb309a2204f53e

[tebasuna51]

... I installed Super, an application to convert files to PS3 format, but uninstalled it soon after, and rebooted my computer.

Warning with Super, it install a new AviSynth changing your settings.

[simonhowson]

Warning with Super, it install a new AviSynth changing your settings.
Thanks very much! I reinstalled AviSynth, and now everything is back to normal.

[Sharktooth]

BUG: Bitrate Calculator does not allow .flac extension. When I used *.* hack then i got this
http://img4.imageshack.us/img4/8343/new1y.png
well, it's not a bug but a missing feature.
btw, ill take care of it as soon as i can.

[rapscallion]

if the jobs were generated by an automated 2-pass preset then i think you can do nothing in megui.
but you can run the 2nd pass manually from the windows command prompt. after it's done, proceed with other encodings (audio or whatever) and muxing.
The "bold" above got me thinking (dangerous). I looked at the config tab again and changed "automated-2pass" to "2pass-2nd pass". Deleted the first 2 jobs and enqueued the new job (ie the old job2) and Voila, it runs the encode! Turned out to be a simple solution, after all. Again, thank you for taking the time to address the issue and have a great weekend.