meGUI DVD Ripping Guide

[check]

Hi all, I've been doing a bit of work on a meGUI tutorial for users which is located here: http://mewiki.project357.com. It's still very much in development, but all feedback and suggestions are welcome (even those that involve me rewriting everything :p).

Especially I'm interested in feedback about the direction people would like to see this go in. Would a huge detailed guide be good, or something simple which resizes to 640x___ and includes stereo mp3 just to serve as a primer be a better starting point?
:thanks:

[buzzqw]

not bad... not bad !

for newby i think is preferable a guide for the "1 Click Encoding" and not how to write an AVS :p

but a good compendium of all possibility can help always

BHH

[berrinam]

Great work so far!

DGIndex can be done by MeGUI, I don't see why not
As buzzqw said, why not use the One Click Encoder?
Failing that, at least use AutoEncode -- it'll join the last three steps into one.
There's no need to manually input the info from the d2v into the AviSynth script creator -- MeGUI does that for you
You say follow the instructions in blue for x264, but they're in green
There's not really a need to put useless track names like you did in the Adaptive mux window -- you might as well leave it blank.

[check]

Thanks for the feedback.

For the one click encoder, I had considered using it, but decided against it, as it gives the user no knowledge to expand, everything is effectively 'hidden'. Also, I would have to make up my own 1-clicks, which would have taken real work :p. It's probably a good idea to do a quick writeup of how to use 1-click / autoencode though, I'll try to add it soon
The only real problem I had with not using the meGUI d2v creator was that there is no progress bar and it didn't tell you the info I thought you needed. Will rewrite this too now - progress bar is reasonably unneccesary.


I'll implement the other changes too.

[brumfondl]

Thanks for the guide, Check. I found it very useful. I was trying to encode 'The Jacket' but found that using the One click encoder I was getting a file that was the right size but had a black bar at the top and the equivalent sized chunk missing off the bottom but your full instructions helped me get around the problem.

Having done a rip out in full I now know a little bit more about what I am doing so again thanks, and thanks to the crew who have gone to all the effort of making MeGui a great program :)

brumfondl

[jellysandwich]

Questions:
ND AAC: Nero AAC encoder. AAC is probably the highest quality format available for stereo files. Use adaptive bitrate.

-Adaptive = ABR? If so, why do you prefer it over VBR?
-Why do you recommend using q=3.0 for Vorbis but don't recommend any particular bitrate settings for AAC/MP3?
-Why do you use directshowsource("*.ac3",video=false) instead of just loading the ac3 directly into MeGUI's input?

Comments:
mkvtoolnix: Install this into "C:\Program Files\megui\tools\mkvmerge" and create a shortcut to mmg.exe
-No need to mention this on the first page; adaptive muxer and autoupdate features take care of it.
-You describe Xvid encoding but don't include it in your setup page.
-Anamorphic encoding -> Briefly compare overcrop and non-mod16.

js

[check]

brumfondl, thanks for the feedback :)

jellysandwich, I ended up writing in recommendations to use ABR for all formats (bar vorbis of course) because it will hopefully be easier to understand this way. I'll write a rationale for this... sometime in the future.
I implemented the rest of your suggestions, apart from the xvid setup thing. xvidencraw is part of the meGUI autoupdate package, so I don't need to include it there, or am I missing something?

PS, i'm thinking of migrating to a wiki, can people think of any problems from the end-user's perspective?

[berrinam]

A wiki would be great..... I asked Richard Berg to set up one on http://megui.org , but it seems that he didn't finish. I think, if possible, it would be better to use an "official" wiki set up at megui.org, because people would trust it better, and it would also help to group the efforts. I'll talk to Richard Berg about setting it up again if there is some interest in it.

[check]

Well, I decided to take the plunge, and will try to migrate what I have into http://www.project357.com/meGUIwiki tonight. Importing and exporting wiki pages is dead simple, so if that wiki is ever set up, I'll see if he'll take the walkthrough. At least I can dump frontpage now :D


Edit: Wiki finished! Old site dead and buried

[danpos]

@check

What did happen with new tutorial on Wiki? I went there and didn't see nothing !!!

[check]

Sorry, I had been messing around with the mediawiki configuration and accidentally left it in a broken state - it should be fixed now.

[berrinam]

As far as I know, the name is MeGUI, not meGUI. I am aware that meGUI is on the sf project, but MeGUI is everywhere else? What shall we stick with, because once it starts getting in the documentation, it'll probably become semi-permanent.

I think MeGUI.

[berrinam]

I've made a few changes around the guide (just minor wording changes), and I've added a new 'reference' section, which is aimed to explain every option in MeGUI. Basically, I hope that someone else can do the majority of it, but I can fill in the missing bits, etc.

I think that partially answers this question: Especially I'm interested in feedback about the direction people would like to see this go in. Would a huge detailed guide be good, or something simple which resizes to 640x___ and includes stereo mp3 just to serve as a primer be a better starting point?
My answer is that both are necessary, so we can introduce people to MeGUI and then tell them all the details.

[check]

Yep, I've started work on this section now. A lot of red links are appearing, so anyone willing to help (and to fill in what I don't know) would be much appreciated :).
It's getting bigger!

[berrinam]

Wow, great work -- you've certainly done a lot of work.

Just don't forget that it's impossible to do everything ourselves -- there are many other valuable sites we should link to often -- Wikipedia, and avisynth.org (especially the new wiki there -- www.avisynth.org/mediawiki/wiki )

[check]

Never fear, I have no intention of writing up overly extraneous information, and core information will come first.

I pilfered the computer file page from another wiki (which you can see in the page history) which meant I didn't need to do too much work (although I did do a fair bit of work on it there too :p). I'm trying to get the basics up during my time off before I go on a weeks holiday this saturday.

[berrinam]

Is there any way to add InterWiki support so that we can use [[wikipedia:AviSynth]]-type links?

[check]

Should be easy enough to import wikipedia's interwiki linkset looking at this page: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Interwiki_links . Just poking around my webpanel now to see how to do this.

[jellysandwich]

What about a short subtitle guide?

js

[berrinam]

What's happened to the wiki? I can't access it -- server timeouts :(

[check]

http://mewiki.project357.com works for me.

[berrinam]

Hmpf..... it does for me too:o .... maybe you could update your link in the first post?

[check]

You mean the link that also works? :D I'll rewrite the first post / create a new thread soon, it's already obsolete.

[TwoToad]

Check, I just wanted to say thanks for that guide... It has helped me tremendously!!!

(and thanks megui team for the auto update =)

[Adub]

In the settings reference window in the wiki, there is an option described as safe profile alteration. It says that there are bugs still.

0.2.3.2176
Commit by berrinam:
- Add '-threads' option to xvid config
- Fix 'safe profile alteration' feature. Does anyone actually need this?


Can this be updated? I think I know what it does judging by the name, but I am not positive or I would change it myself.

[berrinam]

I believe I 'fixed' it. But it is a clumsy system and I still don't recommend it. A better approach would be to put a readonly checkbox on the profiles, but again, that's only necessary if people are clumsy enough to alter the wrong profile. Feel free to update that, since it is indeed now fixed.

If you're interested in doing some other stuff on the site, then go ahead. I've done most of the details already (as in the details which may not be completely obvious). I'm happy to read what you write and fix any mistakes/add other info. One thing I started, but don't really have a firm plan with is rewriting my MeGUI Guide sticky on the Wiki. I made an image which could be useful, but it isn't particularly high-quality. If you're any good with images, then feel free to put a better version on the wiki in a new page.
http://img521.imageshack.us/img521/37/creation6zn.th.gif (http://img521.imageshack.us/my.php?image=creation6zn.gif)

[check]

The guide is pretty goood, but it's convoluted and the topics are all over the shop. The headings I think we can save and move to guides/ FAQ are Using AutoEncode /1Click & AVC Hardware (iPod, etc) and AVC Levels .
I'll get back to writing some stuff on the wiki tomorrow - I have a few ideas to put up on there.

Finally, a request: can people start just sticking questions onto the FAQ page? I've not been reading the general questions thread long enough to know some of the common questions - anyone who wants to add some feel free too. I'll work on the organisation of it once I have an idea of the sort of question that will go there.

[berrinam]

(I would have posted this in the MeGUI Guide discussion thread, but I can't find it.)

Does anyone see the point in keeping the MeGUI Guide as a sticky in this forum any more? The MeGUI wiki now has definitely superseded the guide, and all the relevant stuff in the guide has been put on the wiki already. I've made a backup of the Guide already, and also dumped it on the wiki, so the good bits can be saved, but what do people think? Get rid of the sticky?

[foxyshadis]

Only if a link is added to MeGUI (Help->Online Help?). Otherwise no one will ever find the wiki, without stumbling onto it or posting and being told "check the wiki".

[check]

yep, the next step for the MeGUI wiki is to get it into the public eye a little better. A nicer domain name would be useful (would MeGUIwiki (or something).project357.com be better? MeGUI.com of course would be even nicer).
Once the wiki is being used as the prime source of information hopefully we'll have more people checking it (and probably spam will start appearing soon too :p).

[berrinam]

yep, the next step for the MeGUI wiki is to get it into the public eye a little better. A nicer domain name would be useful (would MeGUIwiki (or something).project357.com be better? MeGUI.com of course would be even nicer).
Once the wiki is being used as the prime source of information hopefully we'll have more people checking it (and probably spam will start appearing soon too :p).
Richard Berg has already registered and set up hosting on MeGUI.org, which is in fact what is used for AutoUpdate. He even started setting up MediaWiki on it, but it is incomplete and doesn't work. I tried to contact him about it when you started the wiki, but he seems to be away at the moment. When he replies, though, megui.org would certainly be ideal, I think.

[berrinam]

What is the aim of the Basic Guide on the wiki? I know it came first, but it seems that a lot of it would do better/is already in the options reference. In particular, the section on AviSynth creation.

Also, in my opinion, the guide takes the long way around, when encoding videos. AutoEncoding should suit almost everyone's needs, and sometimes One Click encoding is also possible. While it is good to explain how the manual features work, it should not be recommended by the guide IMHO, but instead explained in some kind of reference, like the options reference.

I certainly agree that a guide of some sort is very important, though. Any thoughts?

[check]

Don't worry, I won't take offense if you think something should be remade or scrapped (the video file primer was originally a massive document I and some others wrote, but I gave it a little 'corrective surgery' and cut out huge swathes of it when we realised it was getting overly large. It still is a bit pudgy imo) :p.

The basic guide was originally written as a standalone guide, so parts of it are definately useless/redudant/in the wrong location/etc now. For instance, the entire page on installing and configuring the required programs should be part of the main namespace (ie, not part of the guide but the main wiki). I'll try to do this rearranging today, but if it's not done within 24hrs, it's fair game for others to have a go at :D. If we cut out the generic instructions, I think it stands reasonably well by itself, especially if we can complement the manual encoding instructions with Autoencode and the whole thing with a 1click guide too.

The problem with autoencode and 1click is that there are no profiles for anything bar video at the moment, and the people that these two modes are aimed at don't want to have to work out their own. Once the profiles start appearing these two modes will become especially useful, but until then they are largely interesting trinkets for the technologically minded.

In short:
o if time is spent on the guide making it more of a part of the wiki and not as standalone as it is, it should be fine with that. the basic guide does not need to be the only guide, the more guides for different ways to do things the better (think Perl ;))
o the video encoding section can be complemented with a version for autoencode
o oneclick needs 'official' profiles before any sort of guide will be worth writing, but a guide for that too will be nice and easy.

[Taxidermista]

About the iPod convertion guide/Video encoding, included in the wiki, I think the resolution issue is not clear.

The iPod resolution constraint is total pixels, not max. resolutions:

h.264 -> 320x240 = 76800 pixels

So these resolutions are valid for h.264 encoding:

320x240 -> 1.33:1 video (4:3)
368x208 -> 1.85:1 video (16:9)
416x176 -> 2.35:1 video

With mpeg4 ASP:

mpeg4 ASP -> 480x480 = 230400 pixels

So these resolutions are valid for mpeg4 ASP encoding:

544x416 -> 1.33:1 video (4:3)
624x352 -> 1.85:1 video (16:9)
720x304 -> 2.35:1 video

Of course those "high resolutions" encodings are interesting for the iPod TV-OUT.

So you can go above the 320x240 and 480x480 resolutions.

[check]

Thanks for the tips. Out of interest, do you know the native resolution of the ipod screen? Also, any additional feedback on the encoding options in use, in particular the xvid settings?

[~bT~]

Thanks for the tips. Out of interest, do you know the native resolution of the ipod screen?I believe it is 320x192. Well thats what most of the vids I have are.

[Taxidermista]

Thanks for the tips. Out of interest, do you know the native resolution of the ipod screen? Also, any additional feedback on the encoding options in use, in particular the xvid settings?
The native resolution is 320x240. About the options, nothing in particular.

[Adub]

Oh okay. I think I will steal this from you.

[Adub]

Neeeeeveeerrr mind. I see that it has already been done. Thanks.

Edit:Actually it looks like somethings were missed. I will clean them up.

[check]

uh oh - you edited the old wiki :(
I changed the site address and still haven't killed off the old one yet :P New address is http://mewiki.project357.com

[AjnabiZ]

Hi

Can anyone explain to me this part from the Guide

To encode in x264:
On the third page (RC & ME):
Set keyframe interval to ten times your framerate (which you got from DGIndex).

I still did not understand as how to get the framerate from DGIndex. and how to multipy etc.

[Sharktooth]

x264 Config -> RC & ME -> Keyframe Interval: 250 for PAL 300 for NTSC (the rule of thumb is source framerate * 10).

[AjnabiZ]

x264 Config -> RC & ME -> Keyframe Interval: 250 for PAL 300 for NTSC (the rule of thumb is source framerate * 10).

Thank you very much for the explanation, i did not change the default setting, it was at 250 since it is Pal.

I think this should be explained a bit in the Guide.

[Sharktooth]

well it has not so much importance.
even if you set it at 300 the rate control will almost always place a keyframe before hitting the max interval.

[~bT~]

Can someone provide more info on the 2 setting marked in the image below please?
Thanx.

http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/7179/bilderman20060907125946pa1.png

[check]

http://mewiki.project357.com/Glossary#Analysis_Pass
For a pre-render job - I'm not sure sorry. I think I used to know, but I've forgotten :P

[~bT~]

http://mewiki.project357.com/Glossary#Analysis_Pass
For a pre-render job - I'm not sure sorry. I think I used to know, but I've forgotten :PWhat i want to know is when would I use this analysis pass? I normally do 2 pass automated rip. If I did an analysis pass would that make my 1st pass quicker?
At the moment, my 1st pass is taking the same time as my 2nd pass. :confused:

[Sharktooth]

The pre-rendering job does a lossless compression with huffyuv.
It's usefull when you have heavy avisynth scripts and you plan to use multiple passes for encoding, so the filtering is done only once.

[~bT~]

The pre-rendering job does a lossless compression with huffyuv.
It's usefull when you have heavy avisynth scripts and you plan to use multiple passes for encoding, so the filtering is done only once.This sounds good. So is this the right way to do it?
Keep the pre-rendering job ticked. Have automated 2 pass selected and the just press enqueue? Or am I wrong? Ive noticed it adds 3 jobs to the queue that way.

[Sharktooth]

Yes, but as i said it's usefull only if the avisynth script is "heavy" enough to slow down the encoding process.

[berrinam]

What i want to know is when would I use this analysis pass? I normally do 2 pass automated rip. If I did an analysis pass would that make my 1st pass quicker?
At the moment, my 1st pass is taking the same time as my 2nd pass. :confused:
check linked to the definition in the glossary. It clearly says, 'If you don't understand what this means, it isn't useful for you.' I think that is simple enough, don't you?

[~bT~]

check linked to the definition in the glossary. It clearly says, 'If you don't understand what this means, it isn't useful for you.' I think that is simple enough, don't you?
Well, now that I understand what it is, I think its pretty useful to me. Thanks for info. :)
If someone doesnt know what something is then obviously it wont be useful to them. Best thing they can do is try & find out more about it.

[berrinam]

Well, now that I understand what it is, I think its pretty useful to me. Thanks for info. :)
If someone doesnt know what something is then obviously it wont be useful to them. Best thing they can do is try & find out more about it.Well, if you are referring to what sharktooth explained, then you indeed discover what it is. However, he explained 'prerender pass'es, whereas I was referring to 'analysis passes'. These are quite different things.

I've explained what an analysis pass is in the link I gave: it is a single pass which runs through the video in order and eats the frames. This is useful for doing a first pass in video filters which need to preview the source before doing modifications. Such filters are some settings in TIVTC and DeDup. I can't think of any others OTTOMH. If you had used those filters, you would have read their manuals and understood the need for such a first pass. If not, then you wouldn't need to know what the analysis pass is for.

So... I'm right :p

[~bT~]

Well, if you are referring to what sharktooth explained, then you indeed discover what it is. However, he explained 'prerender pass'es, whereas I was referring to 'analysis passes'. These are quite different things.

I've explained what an analysis pass is in the link I gave: it is a single pass which runs through the video in order and eats the frames. This is useful for doing a first pass in video filters which need to preview the source before doing modifications. Such filters are some settings in TIVTC and DeDup. I can't think of any others OTTOMH. If you had used those filters, you would have read their manuals and understood the need for such a first pass. If not, then you wouldn't need to know what the analysis pass is for.

So... I'm right :pThis reply was more helpful than the last one. Thanks again for the info. :)

[ukb008]

Hi

All the guides are good. meGUI is installed, and it gets the tools and updates from the net.

Q-1. Does it get ALL? I don't know. I couldn't find any checklist anywhere to compare with. Where is such a list, containing ALL programs evoked/called in by meGUI? Particularly it is not clear to anyone immediately what gets installed with meGUI installation, what new item comes with the first net-update and what one has to instal on his own.

Q-2. What to do for a machine with no internet connection? Then such a checklist is invaluable, because one has to go get the items from a machine which is connected but where meGUI may not necessarily be installed, and update his copy manually!

Perhaps all these have already been spelt out somewhere. In that case, I apologize for not finding them, and would appreciate some links.

Regards.

[check]

1. it gets everything apart from the nero AAC encoder. You need to download that seperately

2. for machines without internet access, there is no easy solution. The best I can recommend is to download from autoupdate on a computer that does have net access and then copy the directory across.

[ukb008]

Would it be all right to say that with meGUI one needs to install these separately:

1. MS .NET Framework v2
2. AviSynth 2.5.7
3. RipIt4Me
4. DVDDecrypter 3.5.4.0
5. FixVTS 1.603
6. Nero AAC Encoder

The first Install of meGUI archive (1.2 MB) puts these in the installation folder, whose size becomes 4.11 MB:

Data/ContextHelp.xml
AvusynthWrapper.dll
Changelog.txt
gpl.txt
ICSharpCode.SharpZipLib.dll
MediaInfo.dll
MediaInfo.dll
MediaInfoWrapper.dll
megui.exe
megui-uninstall.exe
MessageBoxExLib.dll
updatecopier.exe
x264.ico

On first run, AutoUpdater adds the following folders and files:

Data

jobs

profiles
/audio
/AviSynth
/avs/Default Profile.xml
/oneclick
/video

tools
/avc2avi
/dgindex
/divxmux
/encaacplus
/encaudxcli
/faac
/ffmpeg
/lame
/mencoder
/mkvmerge
/mp4box
/oggenc2
/x264
/xvid_encrow

Autoupdate.xml
settings

the size now becomes 33.2 MB, an increase of 29 MB due to updates downloaded on first run.

Would it be fair to assume that the above includes a complete list of stuff that meGUI uses (minus the obvious exclusions like gpl.txt etc) - mostly the contents of the 'tools' folder?

And for the user with no internet access, can the whole meGUI directory be copied in a flash drive, taken to a computer with net access and MS .NET Framework v2 installed, megui.exe run from that folder, and let AutoUpdate do the job of updating the directory-contents? It can then be brought back and put in place of the parent directory. Is that possible?

Regards.

[check]

You don't need fixvts or ripit4me for normal megui use :) otherwise everything sounds in order.

As for copying form a computer with net access, make sure the paths are correct. The best way would be to leave an install on the net access computer and simply take a copy of the directory to the other computer whenever it needs an update.

[quake74]

Wiki is not working. What's up?

[mcka]

There seems to be a problem with the MeGUI wiki. I noticed, that the URL has changed from

http://mewiki.project357.com/wiki/Main_Page

to

http://mewiki.project357.com/index.php/Main_Page

so all the links to the wiki are broken -> 404 Not Found

Furthermore all the images are gone. Does anybody know what's the problem?

[check]

See my signature. I have delayed fixing it for this long so far because I'm lazy, and would quite like to move servers to something a little more permanent before I do anything more. I've been hopping around shared hosting for a few years now... it's probably getting to the point where I will be better served with a more stable setup. Once I've worked out this, I will repair the mewiki. Database dumps are, as always, available on request.

[molitar]

Ok I have followed these instructions.. I finally hit enqueue.. go into the next tab and hit start.. the window shows than closes and reports error. Any idea why?

[Information] Log
-[Information] Versions
--[NoImage] MeGUI Version : 0.3.1.1051
--[NoImage] OS : Windows XP Professional x86 SP3 (5.1.196608.2600)
--[NoImage] Framework used : 2.0 SP1 (2.0.50727.3053)
-[Information] Hardware
--[NoImage] CPU : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4600+
-[Information] Log for job2 (video, VTS_01_1.avs -> )
--[Information] [7/27/2009 4:41:13 AM] Started handling job
--[Information] [7/27/2009 4:41:13 AM] Preprocessing
--[NoImage] Job commandline: "C:\Program Files\megui\tools\x264\x264.exe" --profile high --pass 1 --bitrate 1000 --stats "C:\Downloads\VTS_01_1.stats" --level 4.1 --ref 1 --no-mixed-refs --b-adapt 2 --no-weightb --direct auto --deblock 1:1 --subme 2 --trellis 0 --partitions none --vbv-bufsize 50000 --vbv-maxrate 50000 --me dia --thread-input --aq-mode 0 --sar 1:1 --output NUL "C:\Downloads\VTS_01_1.avs"
--[Information] [7/27/2009 4:41:14 AM] Encoding started
--[NoImage] Standard output stream
--[NoImage] Standard error stream
--[Information] [7/27/2009 4:41:14 AM] Job completed

[Adub]

We need more information. Post your script and the exact error you get. Make sure to expand the red flagged areas in megui to see the error.

[molitar]

We need more information. Post your script and the exact error you get. Make sure to expand the red flagged areas in megui to see the error.

That is the problem.. that is all the log shows.. I will show you my avs and dv2 script but the error log is nil.

VTS_01_1.avs
DGDecode_mpeg2source("C:\Downloads\VTS_01_1.d2v", info=3)
ColorMatrix(hints=true, interlaced=true, threads=0)
tfm(order=1).tdecimate(hybrid=1)
#crop
#resize
#denoise


VTS_01_1.d2v
DGIndexProjectFile16
1
C:\Downloads\VTS_01_1.VOB

Stream_Type=1
MPEG_Type=2
iDCT_Algorithm=6
YUVRGB_Scale=1
Luminance_Filter=0,0
Clipping=0,0,0,0
Aspect_Ratio=4:3
Picture_Size=720x480
Field_Operation=0
Frame_Rate=29970 (30000/1001)
Location=0,0,0,2ab12