FAVC - v1.07 (Auto Menu Generation) (19/06/08)

[Sir Didymus]

@OnmyojiOmn:

from the MuxMan log everything seems OK.

If you can send to me [sir_didimus (at) libero (dot) it] one of your sup assets, for instance TitleSub0.sup, I can look further into the issue.

Most probably, restarting your project by using sst assets instead of sup would be benefical (but this is just a conjecture)...

Cheers,
SD

[MilesAhead]

Seems FAVC 1.07 is still getting problems with bitrate spikes. Esp. when trying to encode a DVD from 2 .avi files seems like the chances of success are much higher if I encode one file at 1/2 DVD5 size and do the same with the second. Then author the 2 titles to one DVD manually. Usually the .avi has a subtitle which makes it more problematic to try appending the .avi files together first. That's why I've done it the "hard way" by hard subbing each title.

I wish there was some diagnostic that tells you the max safe bitrate to use instead of trial and error. I'm using HC with best profile. When I used QuEnc the crashes came after video processing completed(muxman I expect) but these are causing HC to crap out during video processing. I notice the framerate seems to drop way down to 17 or 12 fps instead of 40+ on the 2nd pass during problematic encoding.

[gus8511q]

why i cant get ac3 5.1 audio ? i have video files with ac3 5.1 sound, but the favc gives me dvd with ac3 2.0 sound. Why?

[DoctorM]

Probably the same bug everyone else has encountered. The most recent version re-encodes all audio tracks even if you tell it not to.
Grab v1.06 until it's fixed. ( http://download.videohelp.com/favc/Old_Version/ )

[gus8511q]

the version 1.06 doesnt have this bug? will get 5.1 sound?

[MysticE]

Anybody know where I can find 1.06?

Edit: I found 1.06 at MajorGeeks.com. It seems to leave the AC3 in-tact without transcoding. Oddly enough, the resulting video files still play at 25.0 fps in my video players on my computer, but they also play just fine in my NTSC DVD players. Maybe there's nothing wrong with FAVC and something wrong with my interpretation of its output. Or maybe my DVD players handle PAL. I'll look into this.
Drop one of the VOB's into GSpot and see what it says. In Nero Showtime for me I also get 25fps with NTSC encodes. I believe it's just the pulldown. In GSpot it says 3:2, NTSC, 720 X 480.

[IVaN_000]

How does FAVC remember settings, like Destination DVD Folder, or Working Files: Keep/Delete ?

I searched trough Windows Registry with no results. And I couldn't find any .INI in my drives.

[IVaN_000]

Please ignore my previous post, already found a Config.ini in FAVC\Documents.

[DoctorM]

How much donations do you need to start adding CCE functionality? Maybe we can pass the hat around here.

[gizzin]

Just use HC its better quality anyways.

[DoctorM]

Interesting comment. What's your source for that, gizzin?

Btw, I did test HC bit more. It's not as slow as I initially thought. The problem is that it launches with a process priority of 'low'.

Is there any way to change that setting to normal (or higher)?
Yes, I know I can do it manually, but every pass (or test for quantization) resets the priority to low.

[Xproject187]

After much searching I still can't find a post that I recall reading quite awhile back! That post Sugjested a particular location for Optimal-Placement of the files generated by Favc.Now I know alot of You are probably saying just place them in C:\ but I recall the post stating something to the effect of :

By placing the (Temporary File Folder onto C:\ ) & the (Destination DVD Folder onto D:\) it removes any I/O Bottleneck that might occur.

Now these are My words & then only to the best of My recolection so please clear up this issue for Me and any other Noobs.
Thanx for any Help & or Direction
~X~

[DoctorM]

@Xproject187: Stands to reason. Set up like that, data is being read from one drive and written to a different one.
However ymmv depending on your drive interface type, drive types/speed, drive configuration, and if your have actual separate physical drives (NOT partitions on the same drive.)

If you have one drive partitioned into C: and D:, forget it, it won't make a difference.

[Deusxmachina]

I just use two different folders, same drive. Main thing is probably just not having everything go into the same folder.

[Xproject187]

The Master on My Primary IDE is a 80GB 7200 RPM Seagate Barracuda in UDMA Mode 5 @ 53% free!.
And the Slave is a 80GB 5400 RPM WD Protégé WD800AB also in UDMA Mode 5.
On My Secondary IDE I have a 80GB 7200 RPM WD Caviar Blue WD800JB in UDMA Mode 5 set as Master & a LITE-ON LH-20A1H DVD±RW/RAM in UDMA Mode 5 set as Slave, Each Hard drive has 1 NTFS Partition & seated on 80-Wire Ribbons.

In reference to the Bottleneck it is My understanding that data can only flow up or down a ribbon in one direction at a time !
So if the Working Folder & the Output Folder are both on C:\ Then the Bottleneck would occur because the process(Favc) would be trying to write Data to the Output Folder & read instructions from the Working Folder all on the same ribbon!!:eek:

While Favc is writing data to the Output Folder it is getting it's instructions from the Working Folder & because the Dataflow can only travel in one direction at a time it would cause the write data to delay or wait as the instructions were being sent from the Working Folder

So even though Favc's programs may be ready to write to the Output Folder on C:\ it would need to wait untill it was done reading the data(instructions) in the Working Folder first so it would be a sort of wait game,as instructions would have to wait to be sent untill data being written was completed from the last set of instructions & back & forth this would go on & on untill it was done.

But if the read data was comming in on one ribbon(IDE 0) & the write data was going out on another ribbon (IDE 1)then its supposed to result in no wait states(Bottleneck)


Please know that this is all just My understanding of somthing I read a while back so I cant point to any links & also remember that I was asking for clarification on the subject
~X~

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

Greetings to you Mr_Odwin ... long time no see. BTW, THANKS for your FAVC 1.07 (64-bit).

Here is my problem ... I am running Vista Home Premium 64-bit. And I am using FAVC 1.07 Zipped format (Portabelish).
I just installed AviSynth 2.5.8RC4a ... and I know my laptop already has the .NET Framework on it ... since it alerted me when I tried installing the "NetFx64" which is 64-bit .NET Framework.

But I keep getting an Error Code as follow "An attempt was made to load a program with an incorrect format. (Exception from HRESULT: 0x8007000B)."

Now my laptop is a Virgin laptop ... meaning I have no Codecs loaded on it yet ... but I thought FAVC has all needed Codecs and Programs conatained within itself.

Any Help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

G!:)

[Mr_Odwin]

You need to install codecs.

[gonwk]

Hi Mr_Odwin,

THANKS!

Can anyone recommend a SAFE package to install that will not cause me any problems.

As I have been reading too many Codec packs installation will lead to more of a problem ...

I already have installed FFDSHOW ... what do you guys recommend ...

- K-Lite Full Package
- CCCP package

Or something else!

Thanks,

G!:)

[gonwk]

Hi Mr_Odwin,:)

Can you on the first page where you post your NEW FAVC versions ... also add a LINK for the BEST CODECS that you recommend which works with FAVC ... that might solve lot of the folks (including me ) problems.

May be Recommend a Codec that you know works BEST with VISTA x64.

Thanks,

G!:thanks:

[toology]

A big hello to the author and congratulations on an extremely useful program!

I have a small question: how do i change the subtitle codepage? I tried to change the option in Subtitle Editor but it doesn't seem to remember settings. Then I tried to manually edit it's settings file but that didn't work either.

I need to use the CP 1250 because the subtitles contain Serbian Latin character. I would also like to point out that this is not the default codepage of my Windows XP, so I guess that is why it's not chosen by default.

[Amart]

I've been going through the thread, and have found a few people who have had a problem similar to mine but they were either old or not quite the same.

Normally I dont have any problems with the program, but every once and a while where I will convert say 5 files and the dvd size that is left comes out to 0k. After this happens, I go back and convert every file until I find the file causing the problem.

Currently my preferred method HC video, QuEnc MP2. I try changing the audio and video settings around but the result is still the same.

I went in and removed most of the code from the title.bat, leaving the ISO Creation bit. and I get this error:

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\shows\test\Working Folder 8>"C:\Documents and Settings\Adminis
trator\Desktop\cdutil\favc-1.07\FAVC\mkisofs\mkisofs.exe" -dvd-video -V "DVD_8" -udf -o "C:\Documents and Sett
ings\Administrator\Desktop\shows\test\dvd 8.iso" "C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\shows\test\d
vd 8"
mkisofs: No error. Faild to read VIDEO_TS.IFO
mkisofs: Can't open VMG info for 'C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\shows\test\dvd 8/'.
mkisofs: Unable to parse DVD-Video structures.
mkisofs: Unable to make a DVD-Video image.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\shows\test\Working Folder 8>

I've tried running through vdub, uncompressing the audio/video, thinking it might be a codec problem but even the 40gig file did not help. I tried lowering bit rate from 8000 all the way down to 4000. The file size is 350 megs. I've used 1.06 and 1.07, my pref is to lean to 1.06 as I havent had little hiccups with it yet.

I know I am probably missing some key info on this to help troubleshoot, but does anyone know what is going on where this only happens once and a while?

Thanks much in advance!

[gonwk]

Hi Amart,

Just out of curiosity ... what OS are you running?
Also I assume you are running FAVC 32-bit ... right!?!

G!:)

[Amart]

Hi Amart,

Just out of curiosity ... what OS are you running?
Also I assume you are running FAVC 32-bit ... right!?!

G!:)

I'm running XP64, with FAVC x64 :)
Intel Kentsfield (quad core) with 4 gigs of ram.

[staul62]

Hi Amart,

I'm running exactly the same (OS/FAVC) configuration and had the same problem in the past. I will wrack my brains to try to remember my solution but I suspect it involved a software upgrade. Are you definitely using the newest HCEnc in your FAVC setup?

Good luck!

[Amart]

I will check that now.

I tried a new encode with a known working file and the non working file. From what it looks like, the non working file is missing files out of the VIDEO_TS folder.

Non Working:
10/12/2008 20:01 0 VIDEO_TS.IFO
10/12/2008 20:03 4,112 VTS_01_0.BUP
10/12/2008 20:03 4,112 VTS_01_0.IFO
10/12/2008 20:03 1,073,739,776 VTS_01_1.VOB
10/12/2008 20:02 1,073,739,776 VTS_01_2.VOB
10/12/2008 20:02 133,507,072 VTS_01_3.VOB
6 File(s) 2,280,994,848 bytes
Working:
10/12/2008 19:22 12,288 VIDEO_TS.BUP
10/12/2008 19:22 12,288 VIDEO_TS.IFO
10/12/2008 19:22 22,528 VIDEO_TS.VOB
10/12/2008 19:22 32,768 VTS_01_0.BUP
10/12/2008 19:22 32,768 VTS_01_0.IFO
10/12/2008 19:22 1,073,739,776 VTS_01_1.VOB
10/12/2008 19:21 1,073,739,776 VTS_01_2.VOB
10/12/2008 19:21 61,614,080 VTS_01_3.VOB
8 File(s) 2,209,206,272 bytes

Is this some error with the mux?

[staul62]

I think it's a problem in HCEnc, which then causes the mux not to complete properly. Again, this is relying on memory at this point. The empty VIDEO_TS.IFO file is exactly what I was getting.

[Amart]

I just tried QuEnc with Quality Presets.
It seems to have done less then HC :(

10/12/2008 21:55 0 VIDEO_TS.IFO
10/12/2008 21:55 1,073,739,776 VTS_01_1.VOB
10/12/2008 21:55 215,840,768 VTS_01_2.VOB
3 File(s) 1,289,580,544 bytes

I'm thinking its not a codec issue because I would vdub the file into an uncompressed file, and even without audio to see if that was an issue. I've done this before and it seems to have worked but now I'm just stumpped. I dont know enough about muxing to get any productive testing done.

What I have done is used the program SUPER, and re-encoded from xvid to divx, I dont know if that really matters but I was able to make a single episode dvd iso and it does play.

I would rather not do this because I'm sure the quality is going to suffer in the long run. So I will keep fiddling around with this, would love some input if anyone happens to have some!

/mini touchdown dance

[gonwk]

Any reason why the "non-working" VTS_01_3.VOB file is twice as large as the working one!?!?

G!:)

[Amart]

VIDEO_TS.BUP - Missing
VIDEO_TS.IFO - 0k

The size of the vobs are related to the size of the avi I would assume. They are two different files :)

So it looks like, what ever is creating these, authoring them, is failing somewhere.
From the title.bat, it looks like batchmux.exe is the program used to author the dvd.
I dont know how to rewrite the ini file to make it work.
Is Batchmux.exe a freeware program or was it written for FAVC?

[Sir Didymus]

BatchMux is a small program used to create a MuxMan .mxp script. (Hem... I am the author of this program...).

Actual authoring is performed by MuxMan, feeding it with the script created by BatchMux.

You can freely play by changing the .mxp script and launching manually the MuxMan authoring.

You may find details on how BatchMux work here:
http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=116297

MuxMan is described in the mpucoder site:
http://www.mpucoder.com/Muxman/versions.shtml

Please consider that the newer version of BatchMux (1.3) is not backward compatible with the one adopted within FAVC. In any case, in my experience, the reasons for failures of the authoring stage should be looked up elsewhere. For instance, inconsistent subpicture files, asset of video with bitrate spykes, inconsistent audio assets.

In my experience, when the source assets (audio, video, subpictures) have no issues, then the authoring stage will not fail.

This type of problems has been discussed many other times, also in this same discussion thread.

Cheers,
SD

[toology]

I'll just mention my problem again since it looks like it got buried.:) Anyone have an idea how to change subtitle codepage in FAVC? I tried changing it in Subtitle Creator included with FAVC but it didn't work. Thanks in advance!

[staul62]

Sir Didymus, my thanks to you for your part in FAVC - an oft-used favourite.

Amart, I do now recall that bit-rate spikes were the central issue when this happened to me. I got over it by upgrading FAVC (and the offending HCEnc) but you might also try reducing your maximum bit-rate.

[gonwk]

Hi folks,

I am still having problem with FAVC .. I am running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 ... and none of the FAVC 1.06 and 1.07 64-bit are working for me ...

I wonder if Mr_Odwin has built a "Trouble.log" into FAVC ... which I can post back here for you guys to look at!

Thanks,

G!:)

[Helper]

Hi,

I thank you for your great product. I was looking at the HCEnc that comes with the system and noticed in the misc folder it has some matrix#.dll where # is 1 thru 4 and these dll files raise bitrate at dark scenes. I do a lot of night races and want to try these because of some noise I am seeing on the dark skies, but do not see an option to include this anywhere in FAVC. How can I use this if it is possible?

Thanks for any help..

[Taurus]

Hi,

I thank you for your great product. I was looking at the HCEnc that comes with the system and noticed in the misc folder it has some matrix#.dll where # is 1 thru 4 and these dll files raise bitrate at dark scenes. I do a lot of night races and want to try these because of some noise I am seeing on the dark skies, but do not see an option to include this anywhere in FAVC. How can I use this if it is possible?

Thanks for any help..
The ReadMe included in misc folder explains everything very well.
If the checkbox is greyed out you have to delete HC.ini or edit HC.ini as described in the readme and restart HCGui
1.Caution, deleting the ini file will reset your settings to zero.
So dont blame me :)
Better to experiment with the Adaptive Quantization and the Luminance Gain in settings 1 and 2.
2.Caution, the choosen matrix.dll is rearranging any matrix you choose, so be aware of negative influences.

[Helper]

The ReadMe included in misc folder explains everything very well.
If the checkbox is greyed out you have to delete HC.ini or edit HC.ini as described in the readme and restart HCGui
1.Caution, deleting the ini file will reset your settings to zero.
So dont blame me :)
Better to experiment with the Adaptive Quantization and the Luminance Gain in settings 1 and 2.
2.Caution, the choosen matrix.dll is rearranging any matrix you choose, so be aware of negative influences.

I thank you for the information. I know this can be done in hcenc gui, but I was wondering can I access any of these things from in FAVC? I do not see an Luminance Gain or matrix add on. Do any of the other matrix have this built in? Would I just add the things I want to the hc.ini and then FAVC will find it and incorporate it? I dont know the individual program real well so I do not know all the steps the FAVC is doing, thus the reason I use it to create an image to be burned.

THanks again..

[Taurus]

I thank you for the information. I know this can be done in hcenc gui, but I was wondering can I access any of these things from in FAVC? I do not see an Luminance Gain or matrix add on. Do any of the other matrix have this built in? Would I just add the things I want to the hc.ini and then FAVC will find it and incorporate it? I dont know the individual program real well so I do not know all the steps the FAVC is doing, thus the reason I use it to create an image to be burned.

THanks again..
In "Advanced Settings" place the checkmark @ "Don't start batch file".
FAVC will do all the configuring and halt on after creating the batch.
Now, if my memory serves me well, you can edit the batch and/or HC.ini.
When your done, just start the batch manually and off you go...
I'm too lazy to try by myself, so good luck.

[Helper]

In "Advanced Settings" place the checkmark @ "Don't start batch file".
FAVC will do all the configuring and halt on after creating the batch.
Now, if my memory serves me well, you can edit the batch and/or HC.ini.
When your done, just start the batch manually and off you go...
I'm too lazy to try by myself, so good luck.

Thank you very much for the information. I will give it a try using the luminance option you mentioned.

Have a great day..

[Xproject187]

every once and a while where I will convert say 5 files and the dvd size that is left comes out to 0k.
this only happens once and a while?

Thanks much in advance!




In my experience, when the source assets (audio, video, subpictures) have no issues, then the authoring stage will not fail.

This type of problems has been discussed many other times, also in this same discussion thread.

Cheers,
SD
I'm a novice but I can hardly sit back & not add to this topic when I too went thru this same issue & after alot of reading & redo's I noticed every time My output resulted in a 0kb file or incomplete folder it was due to a damaged asset. People might quickly point to Vista as the probable culprit or maybe even Favc & many times Vista is a problem but try this!
Load the problematic asset into "Avidemux" if You see a prompt saying something about mapping the audio then select Yes & proceed. You'll most likely see a prompt to Re-index the asset select Yes!! If for some reason You don't get the prompt to re-index then You should select it from the drop down menu & proceed to set the Video to copy & set the Audio to MP3Lame then save!! Thats what works for Me :) If all else fails try getting ahold of different copy of the Problematic Asset.
PS: I use Avidemux 2.4 GTK+ but there are other version located at the link below & below that is a Avidemux thread here at Doom9 that might help.
http://fixounet.free.fr/avidemux/download.html

http://forum.doom9.org/showthread.php?t=126164
!!!Good Luck!!!
~x~

[Xproject187]

On a few occasions a question has arose that no doubt would of been nice to know the answer to.
Allow Me to set the senario;
I pick 3 avi files to place on a DVD-5, I run the 3 avi's thru Favc,but because I walked away from My PC My lil girl(6yrs) shuts the PC off !!
So of course the process didn't complete!!
However because I opted to keep Favc's working files I can see that a majority of the script was indeed completed, "I'd say approximately 90%".
So My question is as follows:
Can I some how edit the Script/Batch file so that Favc can pick up where it was cut off at ?
If so which file is it? (MuxScript.mxp) ?
Because that's alot of work to throw out & redo.

[toology]

I'll answer my own questions for the sake of other people with similar problems.

In order to change subtitle codepage for non english letter one has to edit the settings.xml file in the FAVC/SubtitleCreator/Data folder. The correct setting for Serbian and similar languages is to change CodePage from 0 to 1250.

[18fps]

Hello Mr Odwin, thank you for a great program!

I had a few questions / askings(?) about it:
1) Could it be made to accept files or paths with accented characters?
2) Does it handle / recognizes audio delays within avi files? With an old version I had an audio delay problem on the resulting DVD, and after controlling the avi file on AVI-MUX-GUI I found there was this delay, that I had to apply manually.
3) There is some way to add more than one str subtitle to the same movie?

Thank you for your patience...

[Deusxmachina]

I don't care about retaining DTS audio or converting it to 6-channel AC3, (actually, I do), but does anyone else have problems converting DTS audio? My video comes out fine, but the audio sounds like it's in slow-motion. If I'm missing a codec or something, I don't know which one.

[MysticE]

Hello Mr Odwin, thank you for a great program!

I had a few questions / askings(?) about it:
1) Could it be made to accept files or paths with accented characters?
2) Does it handle / recognizes audio delays within avi files? With an old version I had an audio delay problem on the resulting DVD, and after controlling the avi file on AVI-MUX-GUI I found there was this delay, that I had to apply manually.
3) There is some way to add more than one str subtitle to the same movie?

Thank you for your patience...
With AVI-Mux GUI you simply 'Start' (save) a new avi. The delay will now be gone. No need to make manual adjustments.

[Deusxmachina]

I don't care about retaining DTS audio or converting it to 6-channel AC3, (actually, I do), but does anyone else have problems converting DTS audio? My video comes out fine, but the audio sounds like it's in slow-motion. If I'm missing a codec or something, I don't know which one.

My bad on the above. I was thinking of a different scenario that does that, making slow-motion audio. What FAVC does with my DTS files is the audio is fine, but the video looks like it's 15fps.

[davsim]

Thank you for this very useful tool.

I wanted to keep using FAVC 1.07, but retain the original ac3 audio, so I use the following method:

1. In the Advanced Scripting tab, check "Don't start batch file".

2. In Working Folder 0, edit Title.bat to delete the entire "Encoding Audio 0" section (wavi.exe/aften.exe command).

3. Copy the "Title0 T80 3_2ch 384Kbps DELAY 0ms.ac3" audio file and rename it Title0.ac3.

4. Run Title.bat.

In all my testing so far, it seems to work correctly with no sync issues.

Before I arrived at that simple solution, I tried choosing the "Encode as usual" option with Aften once with a 5.1 track and the resulting audio moved the center channel to the right speaker and there was no sound from the center channel. I'm not sure if that channel shift was due to an Aften bug or an error in the FAVC encoding flags/settings sent to Aften.

---

As well as SD sources, I also tried converting a 720P MPEG2 HDTV recording to DVD. From the resulting output, FAVC seemed to do the downconversion and framerate conversion automatically and correctly, but I'm wondering if the FAVC built-in settings will always work for downcoverting all standard HD sources or do I need some additional Avisynth scripting?

In this case, in the Advanced Scripting area, I added ColorMatrix(mode="Rec.709->Rec.601"). Is that necessary or redundant? Does FAVC already do that?

I also used LimitedSharpenFaster resizing as a "User Defined Resize" to get the closest match for the grain in the source, since the default resized output from HC Enc was a little too smooth and muddy with this particular source.

Are there any additional lines I would need for downconverting 720P or 1080i that are not automatically determined by FAVC?

Thanks for your advice.

[MR Nice]

Mr odwin, are you still updating Favc? or is it on the back burner for now?

[sadsack]

I tried converting a sample of PAL to NTSC - worked great. However, I'm bedeviled trying to independently change the SUP subtitles to SRT for FAVC to accept. Any chance of getting the subtitle option to accept .SUP ?

[DoctorM]

SUP is a useless format with few conversion options available.
Rip with Vobsub. IDX/SUB is common, convenient, and it is easier to convert.

[sadsack]

I was only asking if FAVC will ever accept .SUP subtitles, rather than only .SRT files. FAVC uses Subtitle Creator and Muxman which both use .SUP files, so I wonder why FAVC won't. Or perhaps FAVC could be made to accept .SUB files? Those are easy for we layman to convert to from .SUP format (rather than to SRT which requires manual checking).

The other option is to demux the FAVC generated VOB, and remux with the subtitles. I tried that with Muxman but at least the first couple subtitles are missing (possibly more, I didn't cross check the entire VOB). Any reason why this is happening?