MeGUI: General Questions and Troubleshooting Thread [Archive]

Dayvon

18th January 2006, 23:29

As more and more people (such as myself) are venturing into the wonderful world of MeGUI and AVC codecs, I find myself running into little problems here and there. Being that it is best not to hijack the MeGUI Bug-Report Thread (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=105160), it might be time to start up a general questions/troubleshooting/help thread where those with MeGUI experience can lend a hand and noobs can help each other struggle through the learning process. This way us noobs can keep out of the developers hair, and let them develop, not field each persons 20 questions and simple-settings-screw-ups.

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So, to kick it all off, I just ran an encode of "The Island" through MeGUI. I used the audio, video, and muxing tool to get a MP4 file. Sounds great except the audio was out of sync :( So I'm not sure what happened. I think it might be a problem with my d2v rip or something, because I ran the movie a few days ago (video only) and tried to mux using YAMB with a AC3->AAC BeLight converted file, and have the same problems. I've never heard of DGIndex screw ups though. So is that the problem, or is it in the AC3->AAC conversion, or the MP4 muxing? Either way has anyone heard of audio sync problems with MeGUI using the auto-encode mode?

And more to the point, does anyone know how best to figure out how much I need to delay the audio? At this point, it might be best to demux the tracks and try to remux them with delay. I don't know, anyone got any ideas?

Doom9

18th January 2006, 23:31

But either way has anyone heard of audio sync problems with MeGUI?
Many times.. one would be AVC in AVC and the delay you get from b-frames, other would be an incorrect fps set during muxing (that's why we have a logfile so that you can see it and reproduce the results even after exiting the software.. if there's no fps set.. mp4box assumes 25 fps). These are the two most common reasons.

Dayvon

18th January 2006, 23:36

So how is it in MeGUI that you set the frame rate for the video before the muxing (using auto-encode mode)? or compensate for the b-frame delays? Or is that stuff yet to be done?

EDIT: I think you meant AVC in AVI.... And I totally understand that.

lexor

18th January 2006, 23:53

when you say you ran an encode, what was the source? if you have DGIndex in your chain and you created a .d2v project file for use with mpeg2source, you'd have audio demuxed for you, and the file name should contain the delay.

having said all that I never re-encode audio, and I use mkvmerge to mux AC3 into mkv and I set delay in mkvmere's main window, but if when you re-encode delay changes, than this is of no help I suppose.

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 00:03

Well I'm trying to use the MP4 container (which is giving no end of troubles...), but to answer your question, yes, I did have audio demux with 0ms in the file name using DGIndex. I tried converting this via BeLight and then muxing to video, and have tried it now using MeGUI's audio tool, and both have the audio and video out of sync upon muxing.

Using YAMB I can see that the video is 02:16:02.662 and the audio is 02:16:01.045__ Does this look like a fps issue or b-frame issue, or something else?

lexor

19th January 2006, 00:20

well remuxing is fast, so just try what doom said about setting fps manually, that should give you a quick answer if it's an fps issue :)

bond

19th January 2006, 00:28

maybe megui's muxer should force the user to set a fps when converting raw .264 to .mp4 so thats finally solved...

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 00:38

Ok. So here's what I did.

I extracted the raw streams from my file (using YAMB) and set them to mux with the video frame rate forced to 23.976. This is the log that I got from Mp4box....

_________________________________________________
AVC-H264 import - frame size 872 x 360 at 23.976 FPS
Adjusting AVC SizeLength to 16 bits

Stream uses B-slice references - max frame delay 2
AAC import - sample rate 48000 - MPEG-4 audio - 6 channels

Saving E:\Temp Video\The Island - RAW Mux.mp4: 0.500 secs Interleaving
______________________________________________________________

But the file still is off sync. I'm gonna try and manually fix the delay, to see if its a progressive delay or an initial delay.

BTW: does everyone have this much trouble with MeGUI, MP4 stuff or am I just cursed, or just stupid?

Richard Berg

19th January 2006, 00:44

What are you using to test? I've sometimes had sync issues using VLC that didn't repro with Haali + ffdshow.

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 00:46

Media Player Classic -> Haali Splitter -> Core AVC -> FFdShow
Media Player Classic -> Haali Splitter -> FFdShow Audio

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 01:22

Ok this is cool... or not.

So I use YAMB to remux the raw h264 and aac streams, and I set the delay for the difference in the file length. Well, needless to say, it seems the delay setting in YAMB is not working. I ran the remux with 1617ms in the delay spot as well as 0ms, and both files are identical. So I don't know what the heck to do anymore.

I'll post again if I come up with something.

JarrettH

19th January 2006, 01:37

There's too many MeGUI threads!!:D

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 03:48

The point of this thread is to cut down on those threads by keeping the general troubleshooting under one thread instead of a new one for every person who doesn't know what to do.

Doom9

19th January 2006, 06:42

maybe megui's muxer should force the user to set a fps when converting raw .264 to .mp4 so thats finally solved...It does just that.. always has.

Morte66

19th January 2006, 17:41

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 18:27

When I set the program location for BeSweet, MeGUI says "Make sure bse_FAAC.dll and faac.exe are in your BeSweet directory (etc)".

I found faac.exe, but does anyone know what the correct version of bse_FAAC.dll is and where to download it?

If you have the Nero AAC codec (NAAC), then you shouldn't need to worry about it because you can use that. Sorry I don't know where to find the .dll youre looking for.

BTW - I finally figured out how to solve the a/v sync problems. YAMB wouldn't delay the audio when muxing even though it has the option listed, so I checked in BeLight to see if I could set the delay there where the aac file is made. Thankfully, BeLight did make an aac file with the delay and then when I muxed using YAMB it worked great. So temp solution to my problem is fixed.

I'm running another encode right now. Same process, DGIndex -> AVS file -> MeGUI (auto-encode mode) to see if the same problem crops up again, or see if it was just a weird one-time issue.

Morte66

19th January 2006, 21:10

If you have the Nero AAC codec (NAAC), then you shouldn't need to worry about it because you can use that.

I wanted to compare sound quality -- I may not be much of a video encoder, but I'm a hi-fi nut like you wouldn't believe. ;)

Sorry I don't know where to find the .dll youre looking for.

Got the bugger, it's included in the BeLight (http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=85566) install. Now I can compare Nero to FAAC to iTunes to AutoUV's Ogg encoder.

lexor

19th January 2006, 21:14

Morte66

19th January 2006, 21:21

Anothe question:

When I load AC3 int meGUI full, is there a way to just make it mux into mkv, it always seem to require bitrate setting and I'm thinking that's for re-encoding. But I never need to mess with audio, so how would I just go about setting it to mux without re-encode?

becouse right now I use mkvmergeGUI to mux ac3 after meGUI completes the video job.

On the "Tools" menu in MeGUI there is a submenu called "Muxer", which does MeGUI's mux control without the encoding part. That will let you set up a job to mux the AC3 audio and MPEG4 video, and put it in MeGUI's job queue. You need to finish the video encode first -- it won't mux files that don't exist yet.

Which brings to mind a feature request...

Doom9

19th January 2006, 21:21

But I never need to mess with audio, so how would I just go about setting it to mux without re-encode?

becouse right now I use mkvmergeGUI to mux ac3 after meGUI completes the video job.Go to the tools menu - muxer - mkv muxer. This is your access ot the mkv muxer. And the next time you're encoding, make use of the autoencoding mode.. then when you're in the window where you define the name of your final file, you can check a checkbox at the bottom.. then when you press queue, the muxer window comes up again, with certain things already filled in.. then you can select your AC3 file.. that way it will only be muxed.

lexor

19th January 2006, 21:24

Go to the tools menu - muxer - mkv muxer. This is your access ot the mkv muxer. And the next time you're encoding, make use of the autoencoding mode.. then when you're in the window where you define the name of your final file, you can check a checkbox at the bottom.. then when you press queue, the muxer window comes up again, with certain things already filled in.. then you can select your AC3 file.. that way it will only be muxed.
soooo... what you think you just explained to me, is that I can't just select ac3 file in main window and check a magical checkbox right next to it that would just make it not re-encode? or better yet ask me for delay and be done with it. (i.e. I hit Queue now)

buggers :(

Morte66

19th January 2006, 21:40

soooo... what you think you just explained to me, is that I can't just select ac3 file in main window and check a magical checkbox right next to it that would just make it not re-encode? or better yet ask me for delay and be done with it. (i.e. I hit Queue now)

On the bright side, this also lets you select subtitles and chapter lists to be muxed in when you kick off the job.

Dayvon

19th January 2006, 22:13

I just finished another auto-encode job and this one is terribly of sync. Something like 5 sec.

I'm not sure what the deal is cause it shouldn't be having this much issue I don't think. Would I be better off trying to do mkv files? I'd really like to do mp4, but if my h264 files keep being made soooo out of sync with the audio, I just don't know. Can anyone think what I'm doing wrong?

Doom9

20th January 2006, 10:15

soooo... what you think you just explained to me, is that I can't just select ac3 file in main window and check a magical checkbox right next to it that would just make it not re-encode?that's right.. it would add a great deal of redundancy since this feature (plus subs / chapters / splitting) since this is what auoto mode is all about. manual mode is just encoding one file.

Can anyone think what I'm doing wrong?not compensating for delay? playback problems? mux the encoded content to another container.. if it's still asynch it's your sources.. if not, it's the way you mux or your playback mechanism

Morte66

20th January 2006, 14:16

Now I can compare Nero to FAAC to iTunes to AutoUV's Ogg encoder.

Some completely unscientific, subjective and personal feelings on the results of re-encoding AC3 192...

- HE-AAC 96 sucks, but it's half the size. You pays your bitrate and you takes your choice. I think this encoder has no place in backup to DVD-R if you care enough about sound to read this post. But it might be a godsend at 64-96kbps if you want to encode a movie to CD size.

- FAAC VBR 100% dropped the size by about a third and sounded pretty close to the original. Workflow was painless. If you want to drop six channels of AC3/DTS to two, or to encode LPCM, this is straightforward with good results. It's better value in "quality per kbps" terms than stereo AC3, but I think I'd just remux the source -- it's a luxury, but no biggie on DVD-R.

- iTunes AAC is better than FAAC, but only a little. If you care about a difference this small, you probably ought to keep the original audio. Workflow is inevitably clunkier with MeGUI since you have to go outside.

- Current Ogg builds (not the obsolete official Vorbis encoder) are about level with AAC for quality@bitrate, but give you the organic tone of Ogg instead of the "gleaming" AAC sound. Each to his own. Again, a bit clunky with MeGUI.

SBaT

20th January 2006, 15:44

Is it normal to have 222 596k memory usage for megui and 110 904k for x264.
x264 memory usage can I understand but megui memory usage sounds quite large :confused: Second pass is going at 9,5%.

Dayvon

20th January 2006, 15:58

not compensating for delay? playback problems? mux the encoded content to another container.. if it's still asynch it's your sources.. if not, it's the way you mux or your playback mechanism

1. The delay compensation needed is detected and set by DGIndex. So I would think that the delay would be listed. The file I rendered had -16ms delay according to the ac3 file name, which was compensated for.

2. I'm sure its not a playback async. I've got other files that are similarly encoded that aren't having this problem and I have been able to use MPC to set the delay factor and find how "off" the audio is.

3. It could be the source DVD... Proof Of Life had a interesting intro piece that I think could have fouled up the encode. Some of the intro (namely the rated R screen) I think was in VOB1_8 and then inserted at the beginning which might have thrown DGIndex, But I know that that was not the case with 'The Island' rip which also had this same problem.

4. The way I muxed was auto-encode on MeGUI :) .

Well, I'm gonna do another rip, not auto-encode mode but manual, and see if that comes out any better.

@Morte -
I'm pretty anal about audio too (i.e. I HATE 128kbps MP3's). I can hear the artifacing really well. So far, I've been very happy using NAAC 5.1 LC AAC at the streaming setting. It doesn't ruin the vocal quality, yet is a bit smaller than the AC3 file itself. If your are using mkv, you might as well just keep the AC3, but if you are going MP4 and want surround, this is the setting I recommend.

Morte66

20th January 2006, 16:10

Is it normal to have 222 596k memory usage for megui and 110 904k for x264.
x264 memory usage can I understand but megui memory usage sounds quite large :confused: Second pass is going at 9,5%.

I've got megui using 23072k doing nothing. Your x264 sounds about right.

SBaT

20th January 2006, 16:37

Second pass status shows now 21% and megui.exe shows now 3156k ??
Taskmanagers PF Usage shows steady 1,03GB usage. Well I guess its just XP loosing memory to something that dosent show up in processes.

Doom9

20th January 2006, 17:01

Well, .NET manages memory an its own, but eating up 200MB.. that's 60MB more than my whole Visual Studio 2005 needs when I'm debugging the application I'm currently working on.

digidragon

20th January 2006, 18:13

When downloading a new build of MeGUI, should we be getting the latest version of x264.exe too? Or is backwards-compatibilty maintained..?

Richard Berg

20th January 2006, 19:03

There's no guarantee that all checkboxes in the MeGUI x264 config page will be supported by old versions of x264. If you're using the same profile as before the upgrade, you should be fine.

digidragon

20th January 2006, 19:59

So to be sure, should we get the latest bulid of x264? Or how do we know which version the MeGUI developers are developing with?

Doom9

20th January 2006, 20:04

Or how do we know which version the MeGUI developers are developing with?Well.. x264 is a small part of MeGUI.. Sharktooth mentions when he bundles a new MeGUI build and what new features it supports. If the x264 changelog of version X mentions a new commandline switch, it simply won't be accessible until a new megui build that includes that switch in the changelog is being made. You can be sure that the megui version that comes bundled with the popular x264 distributions will work together just fine. Personally, I often use older x264 builds (I don't encode except for development purposes and codec comparison).

Unless you're using a build supporting Sharktooth's patches with a CVS build (b0bor), you'll never run into problems. Not sure if that answers your question though. We can't say verision X of megui is compatible with version Y of x264.. megui is compatible with every x264 build.. it's the number of supported options that varies.

DigitalDivide

21st January 2006, 06:48

I see that the latest versions of MeGUI require .net2. Unfortunately I am running Meedio and .net 2 has some issues with Meedio so I have to stick with .net 1.1. Just wondering what is the last version of MeGUI that works under 1.1 and where can I get it? I am currently using version 2.3.1024.

Doom9

21st January 2006, 12:36

I am running Meedio and .net 2 has some issues with Meedio so I have to stick with .net 1.1.And meedio would be what? a .net 1.1 app? Just install the 2.0 framework and leave the 1.1 on your machine. Applications will pick the proper framework all by themselves.. you will have zero problems (trust me.. I do it at work and I have written and have to maintain 1.1 apps along with 2.0 apps).

The Link

21st January 2006, 14:40

Is it intentional that when selecting MP3 as audio codec you can only configure one audio stream? (With Nero AAC you can configure 2)

Doom9

21st January 2006, 14:57

Is it intentional that when selecting MP3 as audio codec you can only configure one audio stream?Yup.. comes from AVI not supporting more than one audio stream (well.. it does, but my muxer can't handle it).

The Link

21st January 2006, 15:13

OK, I understand this problem for the main GUI. But in the AutoEncode dialog this limitation doesn't exist imho because you select the container in which all the encoding results will be muxed into. It's just sad that it doesn't accept virtual inputs, i.e. if there are mp3 encoding jobs already in the queue you can select the outputs to be expected. But I also see users b0rk things because of changing the order of the jobs etc... Seems I have to live with that limitation.

There also seems to be a bug: When MP3 is selected there is only one stream configurable (which is intended), then change to FAAC and there is still only one stream configurable. If you first choose nero aac and then faac you can configure 2 streams for faac.

Poutnik

21st January 2006, 15:25

Is MeGUI_X264 intended for Win98SE user too?
I can use vfw interface and encode by VirtualDub.
When I was curious I downloaded .NET 2.0 ( had previous 1.1 )
and launched MeGUI x264 ( latest Sharktooth rev 406, MeGUI 0.2.3.2033 ),
It worked well ( choosing avs files, config setting, video preview..).
But always crashed when pressing queue button in input tab.
On Sourceforge page for full MeGUI is not win98 mentioned as supported OS.
So I am unsure, if I had something on my PC, or just bad OS...

Crash screen snaphot is uploaded to http://rapidshare.de/files/11495986/MeGUI_crash.jpg.html

Doom9

21st January 2006, 16:18

argh.. the new board upgrade has one major drawback.. move away from a page, come back and you lose what you've typed in quickreply.

Anyway, go to a commandprompt, type set, and look if you have an environment variable called
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=2

(well, the part after the = can vary of course.. this is my X2)

Let me know if you have it, what it says if you have it, or if you don't have it. If you don't have it (I suspect that), go to the settings, and try unchecking "Automatically set number of threads".

And as far as W98 support goes.. if it works, good for you, if it doesn't, tough luck. But other than this thingie here, I suspect it'll work.. how well of course depends on how well the .NET framework works on W98 and what options it supports. It could be that things using multiple threads might not work so well on a system that still halfway bases on a 16 bit core never meant for real multitasking.

DigitalDivide

21st January 2006, 17:13

And meedio would be what? a .net 1.1 app? Just install the 2.0 framework and leave the 1.1 on your machine. Applications will pick the proper framework all by themselves.. you will have zero problems (trust me.. I do it at work and I have written and have to maintain 1.1 apps along with 2.0 apps).

Meedio is a frontend htpc app much like MCE. Unfortunately a number of users there have reported a number of problems with plugins to the main app, they have both on their system or simply net 2. We are waiting for Meedio Dev to give up an update on the issue. Hence why I have to stick with net 1.1 for now until it's addressed. Being my htpc where I play my movies and music etc I don't want to kill anything. I wish I had two pc's.

Is there a place I can find the latest version of MeGUI that works with 1.1?

Doom9

21st January 2006, 17:20

Is there a place I can find the latest version of MeGUI that works with 1.1?No, we don't keep them. I have a hard time believing that having both frameworks installed would cause any problems... an extremely hard time even.

Richard Berg

21st January 2006, 17:26

As I've mentioned before, I have over 15 versions of the framework installed on one of my work machines...it's nothing to worry about.

DigitalDivide

21st January 2006, 17:28

No, we don't keep them. I have a hard time believing that having both frameworks installed would cause any problems... an extremely hard time even.

Well since a number of users have complained about problems right after installing net2 I think I'll stay away from it until everything is worked out. I learnt early on it's better to be safe than sorry when it comes to my htpc. I'll stick with my old version of MeGUI. Thanks anyhow.

Doom9

21st January 2006, 17:31

I'm quite sure those people did what you normally do when installing new software... uninstall the old first.

Poutnik

21st January 2006, 19:06

Anyway, go to a commandprompt, type set, and look if you have an environment variable called
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS=2

(well, the part after the = can vary of course.. this is my X2)

Let me know if you have it, what it says if you have it, or if you don't have it. If you don't have it (I suspect that), go to the settings, and try unchecking "Automatically set number of threads".

Well,there was not such enviroment variable.
After unchecking "Automatically set number of threads" I have SUCCESSFULLY added job to queue and than
started to encode.
AVI by VfW plays fine, now to find what plays MP4 ( Neither my favourite MV2Player nor WMP 9 can do it )
Now I wil try MKV ( have Matroska pack been installed )

Thank, oh big lord Doom9 :-)

Doom9

21st January 2006, 19:30

now to find what plays MP4 You need to install the proper filters. For starters.. ffdshow or coreavc for x264 decoding, and the haali splitter.

Morte66

22nd January 2006, 14:11

Can anybody outline the impact of the "Automatic Deinterlace" checkbox in the One Click Encoder dialogues?

If I check it, will I get the sort of deinterlacing I would expect in a Robot4Rip job using DGIndex?

If I don't check it, what happens? Interlaced video gets fed to x264, or...?

Doom9

22nd January 2006, 14:30

Ever used autogk? Automatic Deinterlace does just that.. analyze the source, if it's found to be interlaced, the proper deinterlace filter will be applied. This is not the same as force film (as in robot4rip).. that functionality is provided by the d2v project creator (and the configuration in the settings). The two are mutually exclusive.. if automatic force film finds that force film can be applied, the output is progressive.. so automatic deinterlace won't do anything.. if force film cannot be applied, then automatic deinterlace could deinterlace or ivtc depending on the source properties.

If you use neither functionality and your source is interlaced.. then yes, the encoder will be fed with an interlaced signal.